How popular is the baby name Robin in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Robin.

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Popularity of the baby name Robin


Posts that mention the name Robin

Popular baby names in Gibraltar, 2023

Flag of Gibraltar
Flag of Gibraltar

The British overseas territory of Gibraltar — located at the southern tip of Europe’s Iberian Peninsula, just a few miles away from Northern Africa — is home to roughly 32,700 people

Last year, Gibraltar welcomed 319 babies — 149 baby girls, and 170 baby boys. (My source article said the final tally was 318, but the full list [PDF] included an extra name.)

What were the most popular names among these babies? Ava/Lucia (tie) and Luca.

Here are Gibraltar’s top girl names and top boy names of 2023:

Girl names

  1. Ava and Lucia, 4 baby girls each (tie)
  2. Evie, Lily, Olivia, and Sienna, 3 each (4-way tie)
  3. Alba, Arabella, Brielle, Emma, Esme, Indie, Lena, Luna, Madison, Mia, Noa, Sofia, Sophia, Sophie, Talia, and Valentina, 2 each (16-way tie)

Boy names

  1. Luca, 5 baby boys
  2. Jack, Leon, and Liam, 4 each (3-way tie)
  3. James, Noah, Theo, and William, 3 each (4-way tie)
  4. Aiden, Alexander, Axel, Daniel, Dylan, Evan, Hugo, Jackson, Jake, Joey, Julian, Karim, Leo, Leonardo, Lucas, Matthew, Michael, Mohamed, Rafael, Robin, and Ryan, 2 each (21-way tie)

The rest of the names were each bestowed once. (Except for Reign, which was bestowed twice overall — once for each gender.)

Unique girl names (97)Unique boy names (99)
Aasiyah, Abigail, Adrianna, Alexandra, Alma, Amelia, Amiah, Anastasia, Anoushka, Anya, Aria, Arianna, Arianne, Arna, Avery, Bassma, Blossom, Carla, Charlotte, Chloe, Cole, Cora, Daisy, Daniella, Deborah, Devorah, Eadie, Eleanor, Elena, Eliana, Elie, Ella, Elodie, Elouisa, Elsie, Emilia, Emilie, Emily, Faith, Farah, Gia, Giselle, Grace, Gracie-Rae, Hallie, Hannah, Holly, Irene, Isabella, Isadora, Jawhara, Joudia, Julietta, Kaila, Kylie, Layan, Lia, Lilijana, Lilya, Lorena, Lucie, Lucy, Luella, Maram, Matilda, Maya, Mila, Miral, Molly, Niah, Niv, Nora, Nylah, Ottilie, Paige, Penelope, Reign, Rhea, Ria, Riley-Mae, Rina, Rivka, Ruth, Sabrina, Sage, Sara, Scarlett, Sia, Skye, Souhaila, Sydney, Tania, Teresa, Tillia, Vivienne, Yashu, ZainabAaron, Adonis, Alejandro, Alfei, Anthon, Aries, Ashton, August, Ayaan, Ayman, Brooke, Caleb, Charles, Christian, Cody, Colby, Cory, Elai, Eliyahu, Elliott, Eneko, Eoin, Etienne, Evren, Ezio, Finley, Frederick, Gino, Godred, Grayson, Harvey, Hayden, Hiyaan, Ilan, Indra, Jai, Jamie, Jayce, Jayme, Jesse, Johar, Joseph, Joshua, Jovan, Justin, Kai, Keenan, Kobe, Koen, Laurence, Lawson, Lee, Logan, Louay, Louie, Luke, Mael, Mason, Matteo, Max, Milan, Musa, Nasir, Nate, Nathan, Nathaniel, Nial, Nicholas, Nicolas, Nikolai, Nolan, Nyle, Oliver, Ori, Owen, Ramy, Raphael, Ray, Refael, Reign, Rex, Rian, Ricardo, River, Romeo, Roux, Ruben, Rylee, Salman, Sam, Samuel, Scott, Stefan, Theodore, Thiago, Yaakov, Yisroel, Zachary, Ziggy

Finally, here are Gibraltar’s 2022 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Flag of Gibraltar (public domain)

How did “Poldark” influence U.S. baby names in the late 1970s?

The characters Ross Poldark and Demelza Carne from the British TV series "Poldark" (1975-1977).
Ross and Demelza from “Poldark“

The curious name Demelza first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1978:

  • 1980: unlisted
  • 1979: 6 baby girls named Demelza
  • 1978: 6 baby girls named Demelza [debut]
  • 1977: unlisted
  • 1976: unlisted

Where did it come from?

The character Demelza Carne from the BBC television series Poldark, which aired in the U.S. — as part of Masterpiece Theater, on PBS — from 1977 to 1978. (It was originally broadcast in the UK from 1975 to 1977.)

The 29-episode series, based on the Poldark novels by author Winston Graham, was set in Cornwall during the last two decades of the 1700s.

The protagonist was Ross Poldark (played by Robin Ellis), who, at the start of the story, had just returned to Cornwall after fighting for the British in the American Revolutionary War.

The character Demelza Carne from the British TV series "Poldark" (1975-1977).
Demelza Carne from “Poldark“

In the second episode, Ross impulsively hired 13-year-old Demelza Carne (played by actress Angharad Rees) as a housemaid.

Over the next several episodes (which cover several years), Demelza grew to become a “smart and vivacious and charming” young woman. She and Ross eventually got married.

Demelza’s name is not a traditional Cornish personal name. Instead, it’s a Cornish place name. The meaning isn’t known for certain, but one theory holds that it refers to an “eel house” (which would be a fitting definition, given the history of the fishing industry in Cornwall).

Other Poldark characters also influenced U.S. baby names. Thanks to Ross Poldark, for instance, the baby name Ross started rising again in 1977. And Ross’s cousin, the good-natured Verity Poldark, boosted the virtue name Verity to then-peak usage the same year.

Boys named RossGirls named Verity
19791,002 [rank: 227th]17
1978919 [rank: 229th]13
1977823 [rank: 250th]20
1976680 [rank: 279th]7
1975678 [rank: 283rd].

During the second half of the 2010s, the BBC released a brand new, five-season adaptation of Poldark.

The name Demelza re-emerged in the U.S. data (after a absence of nearly four decades) in 2018. The same year, the name Verity, which was already on the rise, saw a higher-than-expected increase in usage.

And in 2020, the traditional Cornish name Morwenna, which is based on an Old Cornish word meaning “maiden,” made its first appearance in the U.S. data:

  • 2022: unlisted
  • 2021: 8 baby girls named Morwenna
  • 2020: 16 baby girls named Morwenna [debut]
  • 2019: unlisted
  • 2018: unlisted

Character Morwenna Chynoweth, introduced at the start of the third season, was the governess of one of Ross Poldark’s young relatives.

What are your thoughts on these Poldarkian names? Would you use any of them?

P.S. An earlier BBC show, The Forsyte Saga, also had an influence on U.S. baby names…

Sources:

Images: Screenshots of Poldark

Popular baby names on Nantucket, 2023

Flag of Massachusetts
Flag of Massachusetts

The Massachusetts island of Nantucket, which sits about 30 miles off the coast Cape Cod, is home to over 14,000 year-round residents (though the population “swells to around 80,000 or more” during July and August).

According to the Nantucket Town Clerk’s office, a total of 158 babies were born on the island in 2023. But we only have access to the names of 108 of these babies. Why?

[B]ecause of a Massachusetts law that separates birth certificates based on the parent’s marital status. If the parents were not married at the time of the birth or the father is not named on the record, the birth certificate is considered a restricted record and is not public.

So, out of the 108 known names, which were the most popular? For girls it was a tie between Leah and Sarah (given to two babies each), and for boys it was a tie between Grayson and Lucas (also given to two babies each).

The 100 other babies were given 100 single-use names:

Archibald, Abigail, Abraham, Alejandro, Alister, Alyssa, Alvaro, Amina, Andrew, Asher, Aurora, Bayard, Beckett, Benjaminas, Brenda, Callan, Carter, Catherine, Cameron, Charlotte, Christiaan, Colin, Cole, Cooper, Curren, Damien, Daniel, Debora, Eden, Edwin, Edward, Emilia, Emma, Enzo, Evelyn, Ezra, Fabian, Fae, Fiona, Gaby, Gabriella, Greydon, Griffyn, Harbor, Henry, Israel, Jacob, Jaden, James, Jantyah, Jefferson, Joshua, Julie, Justina, Kairi, Kiara, Lakelyn, La’Klia, Larkin, Latifa, Leon, Liv, Luna, Lydia, Mabel, Madison, Marianne, Marlow, Matheus, Maverick, Max, Mia, Mila, Milo, Miles, Mukhammadyusuf, Nia, Penelope, Quinn, River, Robin, Roman, Samir, Scarlett, Sergio, Shay, Shepard, Silverio, Skye, Stephanie, Sullivan, Theodore, Therdore, Tiller, Timothy, Wilder, William, Yasna, Yvonne, Zaniyah

Tiller caught my eye — it may have come from the English surname (which originally referred to someone who tilled the soil), but, given the location, I’m hoping it was inspired by the tiller of a boat. Maybe Tiller will become the boaters’ version of Taylor/Tyler? :)

Olivia and Liam — the top names in Boston last year — are nowhere to be found on Nantucket’s list, interestingly.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Flag of Massachusetts (public domain)

Boy names on the rise in Canada in 2022

hot air balloons

Which names were the trendiest among baby boys in Canada last year?

Below you’ll find Canada’s fastest-rising and highest-debuting boy names of 2022.

Just keep in mind that we can’t directly compare rises and debuts in the Canadian data to rises and debuts in the U.S. data, because Canada releases a lot less data than the U.S. does. (For more details, see the post on Canada’s rising girl names.)

Rises (absolute)

Here are the boy names that saw the biggest increases in usage in terms of absolute change (numbers of babies) from 2021 to 2022:

  1. Robin, rose from 129 to 220 baby boys (+91)
  2. Walker, 238 to 300 (+62)
  3. Muhammad, 535 to 595 (+60)
  4. Casey, 153 to 206 (+53)
  5. Leon, 294 to 347 (+53)

I’m so intrigued by Robin! Anyone know why it got such a boost last year?

Rises (relative)

Here are the boy names that saw the biggest increases in usage in terms of relative change (percentages of babies) from 2021 to 2022:

  1. Mattheo, rose from 5 to 18 baby boys (260%)
  2. Shepherd, 9 to 28 (211%)
  3. Affan, 7 to 21 (200%)
  4. Ghaith, 5 to 15 (200%)
  5. Abdallah, 7 to 20 (1.86%)

Debuts

Finally, here are the boy names that debuted most impressively in Canada’s baby name data in 2022:

  1. Rabaab, 14 baby boys
  2. Navaan, 13
  3. Zoraver, 11
  4. Bir, 10
  5. Kabiel, 10
    • Kabiel was tied with Kyland and Valor, both of which were also given to 10 babies.

Other boy-name debuts included Dutton (9), Halston (8), Astro (7), Rip (6), and Laker (5).

Dutton and Rip were no doubt influenced by the TV series Yellowstone, which follows the wealthy, ranch-owning Dutton family of Montana. The foreman of the Duttons’ ranch is named Rip Wheeler. Both Dutton and Rip have been on the rise in the U.S. recently as well.

And if you’re curious about the decreases, Canada’s fastest-falling boy names in terms of absolute change were Logan, Benjamin, and Noah, and in terms of relative change were Bauer, Larry, and Eamon.

Sources: First names at birth by sex at birth, selected indicators (Number) – Statistics Canada, Baby Names Observatory – Statistics Canada

Image: Adapted from Turkey-2036 by Dennis Jarvis under CC BY-SA 2.0.