Baby names in France, then and now

Lavender field in France

France’s taste in baby names has definitely changed over the last hundred years.

Polly of Polly-Vous Francais recently picked up a copy of French newspaper Le Figaro and compared the names in the birth announcement section with those in the obituary section.

The obituaries included female names like Denise, Gilberte and Jacqueline and male names such as Emile, Pierre and Yves. Based on the ages listed, it seems that many of the deceased were born around the year 1915.

The birth announcements, on the other hand, included female names like Béatrix, Noémie, Quitterie and Tatiana and male names such as Amaury, Foucauld, Hipployte and Mathis. Interestingly, Polly notes that “In some cases it wasn’t clear whether the name was male or female.”

It’s anecdotal, of course…but the difference between the two groups is notable, and is likely indicative of a nationwide shift in baby name preferences.

I haven’t been able to track down a list of the top French baby names of 2006, but the most popular for 2004 were:

  • Male Names (top 5): Enzo, Lucas, Théo, Thomas, Hugo
  • Female Names (top 5): Léa, Emma, Manon, Clara, Chloé

Image: Adapted from Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque, 2022 by Chris Down under CC BY 4.0.

Baby girl named after 25 heavyweight boxers

Boxers Primo Carnera and Max Baer with actress Myrna Loy (circa 1932)
Boxers Primo Carnera and Max Baer

To the kids at school, she’ll be Autumn Brown.

But her full name is Autumn Sullivan Corbett Fitzsimmons Jeffries Hart Burns Johnson Willard Dempsey Tunney Schmeling Sharkey Carnera Baer Braddock Louis Charles Walcott Marciano Patterson Johansson Liston Clay Frazier Foreman Brown.

Autumn’s middle names are the surnames of 25 world heavyweight boxing champions, beginning with John L. Sullivan and ending with George Foreman.

Why does Autumn — who was born about 6 weeks ago in Wolverhampton, England — have these 25 middle names?

All 25 were passed down from her mother, Maria.

So how did Maria come to have these names?

Maria was born in 1974 to boxing-obsessed parents who decided to name her after “every gloved heavyweight boxing champion” up to that point.

“When I was young I couldn’t ever remember my name. It took me to the age of 10 to memorize it all,” Maria said.

Maria’s two siblings have similarly unwieldy names. Her sister Becky (whose middles were inspired by British heavyweight boxers) has 34 given names, and her brother Brian (whose middles were inspired by bare-knuckle boxers) has 42 given names.

Update, Mar. 2025: I just learned that Autumn has a younger sister named Willow (born in October of 2008) who has the same 25 middle names!

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Max Baer, Myrna Loy, Primo Carnera 1932 (public domain)

[Latest update: Mar. 2025]

Celebrity baby name: Sam Alexis

Golfer Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods

Yesterday, professional golfer Eldrick “Tiger” Woods and his Swedish wife Elin welcomed their first baby — a little girl they named Sam Alexis. Here’s part of the announcement Tiger wrote on his website:

Elin and I are delighted to announce the birth of our daughter, Sam Alexis Woods. Sam was born early Monday morning, June 18th. Both Elin and Sam are doing well and resting peacefully.

The name Sam is a nod to Tiger’s late father, Earl.

My father had always called me Sam since the day I was born. He rarely ever called me Tiger. I would ask him, “Why don’t you ever call me Tiger?” He says, “Well, you look more like a Sam.”

I find it interesting that they selected two fairly gender-neutral names for their daughter.

Sam originated as a nickname for longer monikers such as Samuel and Samantha. Sam by itself has never ranked among the top 1,000 baby girl names in the United States, but it has been among the top names for boys for well over a century.

Alexis can be traced back to a Greek word meaning “helper, defender.” Unlike Sam, this name has been extremely popular for baby girls the past few decades. Alexis is also quite common among baby boys.

Neither Sam nor Alexis ranked among top 100 Swedish baby names in 2006.

What do you think about the name Sam Alexis: Love it? Hate it? So-so?

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Tiger Woods – AT&T National tournament 2009 by Tim Hipps (U.S. Army) under CC BY 2.0.

[Latest update: Nov. 2024]

How did 9/11 affect the baby name Mohammed?

Qur'an

The September 11 terrorist attacks, which took place in the northeastern United States in 2001, qualify as the deadliest terrorist attack in world history. They were orchestrated by the militant Islamist group al-Qaeda, led by Osama Bin Laden.

One “consequence of the fear and suspicion that followed” the attacks was a spike in the number of hate crimes against Muslim Americans.

Did the event, and the ensuing Islamophobia, have any influence on the usage of the baby name Mohammed — the name of the Islamic prophet — among American Muslims?

Let’s check the data. Here are all of the variants of Mohammed I could find, and the total number of U.S. baby boys given each variant per year from 2000 to 2004:

20002001200220032004
Mohamed498541453480484
Mohammed430491386349349
Mohammad508470422395340
Muhammad303339284306296
Mohamad99125888794
Muhammed8357514868
Mouhamed1525221918
Muhamed2412271518
Muhamad13713.8
Mouhamad6.685
Mohamud5.896
TOTAL1,9842,0671,7601,7161,686

So it seems that the attacks did indeed have a negative effect on the usage of the name among American Muslims, though only for a few years.

Other Muslim names were also used less often after 9/11, including the names of some of the hijackers — names like Abdulaziz, Khalid, and Ahmed. Speaking of Islamist jihadists…the baby names Islam and Jihad likewise saw drops in usage.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Qur’an 6643102 (public domain) by Alexander Cook (U.S. DoD)