What gave baby name Ophelia a boost in the mid-2010s?

The Lumineers album "Cleopatra" (2016)
Lumineers album

The baby name Ophelia was already on the rise when, in 2016, it nearly doubled in usage:

  • 2018: 839 baby girls named Ophelia [rank: 373rd]
  • 2017: 764 baby girls named Ophelia [rank: 416th]
  • 2016: 532 baby girls named Ophelia [rank: 583rd]
  • 2015: 276 baby girls named Ophelia [rank: 979th]
  • 2014: 226 baby girls named Ophelia

What caused the acceleration?

My guess is the song “Ophelia” by folk-rock band The Lumineers. It was released in early 2016 and peaked at #66 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in April.

Oh, Ophelia
You’ve been on my mind, girl, since the flood

Here’s the music video:

The earliest versions of the song were inspired by the character Ophelia from Shakespeare’s Hamlet; the final version was more like “a vague reference to people falling in love with fame,” according to Lumineers songwriter Wesley Schultz.

For a time, Schultz tried to find a different name to feature in the song, because The Band already had a song called “Ophelia” (1975). He explained:

I felt like it was a parking spot that was already taken, you know? I didn’t want to encroach on this sacred space, that is their song called “Ophelia.”

But the more I started using other names, it just didn’t work. It wasn’t the right musicality to the word. I was trying to think of like a “Jo Jo” or something with the “O” and the “A” at the end, but it wasn’t working. Finally had no choice, but go with it.

What are your thoughts on the name Ophelia?

Sources:

[Latest update: April 2023]

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