Independent baby name blog & directory, est. 2006.
How popular is the baby name Arthur in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Find out using the graph below! Plus, see baby names similar to Arthur and check out all the blog posts that mention the name Arthur.
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Number of Babies Named Arthur Born in the U.S. Since 1880
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Avast! Did you know that today is Talk Like a Pirate Day?
“Arrr” itself doesn’t make a great name — even for pirates — but here’s the next best thing: over 120 names that feature the “ar”-sound.
Which of the “ar”-names above do you like best? Did I miss any good ones?
(Image from Pixabay)
Additions, 9/20:
Hubs and I went to a baseball game on Friday night, and one of the women sitting behind us spent time talking with her friends about the orchid in her office. And you know what? That orchid had a name: Octavia. The woman went on to say that she knew of another office orchid with a name (Desdemona) and that she thought all orchids deserved names because they’re so hard to take care of.
(I swear I’m not a creepy eavesdropper. I couldn’t help but overhear this stuff.)
Giving names to plants is nothing new, but her last point made me wonder if people are more likely to give names to finicky orchids than to plants that don’t take as much effort to grow.
Have you been introduced to any named orchids lately? More importantly, what name would you give an orchid?
P.S. In terms of baby names, both Orchid and the Spanish version Orquidea remain rare in the U.S. The fact that they stem from the Greek word for “testicle” (orkhis) could have something do with it.
P.P.S. The man-eating plant named Audrey in The Little Shop of Horrors may have been inspired by a man-eating orchid from a 1950s Arthur C. Clarke story, which in turn may have been inspired by an man-eating orchid from a 1890s H.G. Wells story. Disappointingly, neither of these two carnivorous orchids had names.
According to Open Data Paris, the most popular baby names in Paris, France, in 2015 were Louise and Adam/Gabriel (tie).
Here are the country’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2015:
| Girl Names | Boy Names |
|---|---|
|
1. Louise, 293 baby girls 2. Alice, 244 3. Chloé, 206 4. Emma, 178 5. Inès, 175 6. Sarah, 174 7. Jeanne, 173 8. Anna, 160 9. Adèle, 155 10. Juliette, 149 |
1. Adam, 355 baby boys (tie) 2. Gabriel, 355 (tie) 3. Raphaël, 320 4. Paul, 260 5. Louis, 256 6. Arthur, 245 7. Alexandre, 226 8. Victor, 208 9. Jules, 205 10. Mohamed, 185 |
In the girls’ top 10, Anna and Juliette replace Camille and Lina.
In the boys’ top 10, Jules replaces Maxime (now down in 15th).
The prénom mixte (unisex name) Charlie saw a dual-gender decline in 2015, “probably due to the association with the attacks in Charlie Hebdo in January.”
Like the SSA data, the Paris data includes names used as seldom as 5 times per year. Here are some of the names from the bottom of the Paris rankings:
| Uncommon Girl Names | Uncommon Boy Names |
|---|---|
| Cléa, Clothilde, Dyna, Isée, Jane, Mélisande, Ornella, Romaïssa, Tasnime, Wendy | Demba, Ezio, Foucauld, Harold, Idrissa, Massyl, Sixte, Tidiane, Vianney, Yaya |
Slightly higher up on the girls’ side I spotted Armance, used 6 times. It’s both a river in France and a romance novel by French writer Stendhal (born Marie-Henri Beyle).
Sources: Open Data Paris – Liste des prénoms 2004 à 2015, Les prénoms les plus donnés à Paris en 2015
In late 1899, multiple newspapers ran the story of Mary Swartwood of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Why? Because she had just welcomed her 25th child.
She was only in her early 40s, but had married her husband (Samuel) at the age of 14 and had welcomed her first baby at the age of 15.
Here are the names and birth years of all 25 Swartwood kids:
Out of the 25 names on the list, which girl name and which boy name do you like best?
Source: “25 Children in 27 Years.” Hartford Weekly Times 26 Oct. 1899: 6.
Last month we looked at the top Providence names of 1867, so today let’s check out the rankings from the year before — 1866.
First, some stats:
And here’s some extra information I forgot to mention in the last post: In 1860, the city of Providence was home to 29.0% of Rhode Island’s population. In 1870, it was home to 31.7% of the population. So each of these 3 sets of rankings (1866, 1867, 1868) ought to account for roughly 30% of the residents of the state.
Now, on to the names…
The top 5 girl names and boy names of 1866 were, unsurprisingly, very similar to the top names of 1867.
| Top Baby Girl Names | Top Baby Boy Names |
|---|---|
|
1. Mary 2. Catherine 3. Ellen 4. Margaret 5. Sarah |
1. John 2. William 3. James 4. George 5. Thomas |
The girls’ top 5 is identical, while the boys’ top 5 includes Thomas instead of George.
As expected, Mary was the front-runner by a huge margin. And, while there were dozens of Catherines, and a single Catharine, there weren’t any Katherines.
John had an even more commanding lead in 1866 than in 1867.
(I didn’t combine any variant spellings, but I did lump the abbreviated names Chas., Benj., and Fred’k in with Charles, Benjamin and Frederick.)
*Does Augustavus = Augustus + Gustav, I wonder?
I counted 19 pairs of twins born in Providence in 1866. I didn’t notice any triplets this year. (All of these names have already been accounted for above.)
| Twins (b/b) | Twins (b/g) | Twins (g/g) |
|---|---|---|
|
Edgar & Oscar Edward & James Francis & James James & John John & Thomas (blank) & (blank) |
Frederick & Alice John & Alice Samuel & Sarah Stephen & Annie (blank) & Catherine |
Agnes & Anna Eldora & Ellen Eliza & Mary Elizabeth & Julia Frances & Mary Josephine & Mary Mary & Sarah Theresa & (blank) |
I’ll try to finish/post the final set of rankings before the end of the year.
Source: Snow, Edwin M. Alphabetical Lists of Persons Deceased, Born and Married in the City of Providence During the Year 1866. Providence: Hammond, Angell & Co., 1867.
According to data from Statistics Belgium, the country’s most popular baby names in 2014 were Emma and Louis.
Here are Belgium’s top 10 baby names:
| Girl Names | Boy Names |
|---|---|
|
1. Emma, 653 baby girls 2. Louise, 584 3. Elise, 480 4. Olivia, 459 5. Lina, 383 6. Marie, 376 7. Lucie, 359 8. Ella, 348 9. Alice, 347 (tie) 10. Juliette, 347 (tie) |
1. Louis, 622 baby boys 2. Lucas, 619 3. Arthur, 610 4. Adam, 575 5. Noah, 562 6. Liam, 513 7. Mohamed, 468 8. Nathan, 455 9. Jules, 442 10. Mathis, 428 |
In the girls’ top 10, Ella and Alice replace Léa and Mila. The boys’ top 10 includes the same 10 names.
But there’s more! Like Switzerland, Belgium breaks name data down by region. So let’s also check out the top names within each region.
About 58% of Belgians live in the northern region, Flanders, where the official language is Dutch. Here are the top 10 baby names in Flanders:
| Girl Names | Boy Names |
|---|---|
|
1. Emma, 381 baby girls 2. Elise, 351 3. Louise, 344 4. Ella, 329 5. Marie, 309 6. Noor, 269 7. Lena, 251 8. Julie, 246 9. Lotte, 231 10. Mila, 227 |
1. Lucas, 329 baby boys 2. Liam, 316 3. Vince, 309 4. Arthur, 307 5. Noah, 300 6. Finn, 298 7. Mathis, 276 8. Louis, 274 9. Seppe, 248 10. Jules, 244 (tie) 10. Stan, 244 (tie) |
In the girls’ top 10, Lena replaces Fien (short for Jozefien, the Dutch form of Josephine). In the boys’ top 10, Seppe and Jules replace Lars and Alexander.
I would have guessed that Seppe was a diminutive of Joseph (akin to the German name Sepp). According to a Behind the Name contributor, though, Seppe is a West Frisian name that can be traced back to Sibe, a “Frisian short form of masculine names that have sigu or sigis for a first element” and a second element begins with the letter b (e.g., Sibald, Sibert).
About 32% of Belgians live in the southern region, Wallonia, where the official language is French (and, in some areas, German). Here are the top 10 baby names for Wallonia:
| Girl Names | Boy Names |
|---|---|
|
1. Léa, 263 baby girls 2. Lucie, 244 3. Chloé, 218 4. Zoé, 216 5. Emma, 208 6. Louise, 200 7. Alice, 200 8. Camille, 198 9. Olivia, 191 10. Jade, 154 |
1. Hugo, 314 baby boys 2. Louis, 308 3. Gabriel, 255 4. Arthur, 245 5. Nathan, 242 6. Théo, 235 7. Lucas, 225 8. Ethan, 213 9. Noah, 208 10. Tom, 195 |
In the girls’ top 10, Jade replaces Manon. The boys’ top 10 includes the same 10 names.
About 10% of Belgians live in the Brussels Capital Region, where the official languages are Dutch and French. Here are the top top 10 baby names for Brussels:
| Girl Names | Boy Names |
|---|---|
|
1. Lina, 119 baby girls 2. Aya, 84 3. Sarah, 78 4. Sofia, 77 5. Nour, 70 6. Yasmine, 67 7. Malak, 66 8. Emma, 64 9. Sara, 62 10. Anna, 56 |
1. Adam, 233 baby boys 2. Mohamed, 195 3. Rayan, 94 4. Gabriel, 82 5. David, 81 6. Imran, 69 7. Amir, 66 8. Lucas, 65 (tie) 9. Youssef, 65 (tie) 10. Yanis, 59 |
In the girls’ top 10, Malak and Anna replace Ines and Louise. In the boy’s top 10, Amir, Lucas and Yanis replace Ayoub, Nathan and Anas.
Morocco World News notes that “heavy immigration from Morocco and other Muslim countries has left its traces, as Mohamed has been the most common male name in the Brussels Region recently.” Mohamed was the #1 boy name in Brussels from the late 1990s until 2011, in fact. And the same wave of immigration has given a big boost to many other Arabic names (Amir, Bilal, Hamza, Imran, Malak, Nour, Rayan, Yousra, etc.) within the last few decades.
Sources: Steeds meer verschillende voornamen, maar Emma en Louis houden stand, Lina, Aya, and Mohamed Among Most Popular Baby Names in Brussels
The registrar of Providence, Rhode Island, published a series of documents listing all “of the names of persons deceased, born and married in the city of Providence” during years 1866, 1867 and 1868. The series may have been longer, but these are the only documents I could find online.
I’ve finally finished creating a set of rankings using one of the documents — 1867. But before we get to the rankings, here are some stats:
And now, on to the names…
A quick look at the top 5 girl names and boy names in Providence in 1867:
| Top Baby Girl Names | Top Baby Boy Names |
|---|---|
|
1. Mary 2. Catherine 3. Ellen 4. Margaret 5. Sarah |
1. John 2. William 3. James 4. Charles 5. George |
Notice how the #1 name, Mary, was bestowed three times as often as the #2 name, Catherine.
*Elmer, who had the middle initial “E.,” was likely named after Civil War casualty Elmer E. Ellsworth.
Twenty-one sets of twins and two sets of triplets were born in Providence in 1867. (All of these names were accounted for above — I just thought it’d be fun to check out the sibsets.)
| Twins (b/b) | Twins (b/g) | Twins (g/g) | Triplets |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Abraham & George Charles & George Charles & John Daniel & David Dunlap & Frank Eugene & Timothy George & John George & William James & John John & Martin |
Albert & Harriet Ashel & Ida George & Grace James & Mary Maurice & Ann |
Annie & Fannie Annie & Mary Ann & Ellen Jennie & Minnie Margaret & Martha (blank) & (blank) |
Carl, (blank) & (blank) James, Alexander & Sarah |
I’ll post Providence’s 1866 and 1868 rankings as soon I get them done. Until then, here are two older posts featuring uniquely named Rhode Islanders: Aldaberontophoscophornia (b. 1812) and Idawalley (b. 1842).
Sources: