How popular is the baby name Boudleaux 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 Boudleaux.

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Popularity of the baby name Boudleaux


Posts that mention the name Boudleaux

Where did the baby name Peerless come from in 1999?

Football player Peerless Price
Peerless Price

The curious name Peerless first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1999:

  • 2001: unlisted
  • 2000: unlisted
  • 1999: 6 baby boys named Peerless [debut]
  • 1998: unlisted
  • 1997: unlisted

And that’s the only time it’s ever popped up, making it a one-hit wonder.

Where did it come from?

Wide receiver Peerless Price, who played football in the NFL for nine seasons (1999-2007).

The thing that boosted his name into the SSA data, though, was his memorable senior year at the University of Tennessee.

In 1998, the Tennessee Volunteers football team wasn’t expected to do as well as it had in 1997, because several key players (including quarterback Peyton Manning and linebacker Leonard Little) had graduated.

Defying expectations, it did even better. The Vols went undefeated in 1998, thanks in large part to Peerless Price. They also won the national title by beating the Florida State Seminoles at the Fiesta Bowl on January 4, 1999. Peerless was named co-MVP of the game, and was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated a week later.

Peerless Price was born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1976. Here’s how his mother, Vinder Burress, chose his unusual first name:

It was the name of a moving company I’d seen ads for. I liked the name, so I looked it up in the dictionary. It means without equal.

And how did Peerless himself feel about the name? Toward the end of his final college football season, he said:

In sports I felt I had to prove myself because of my name. They say your name doesn’t make a difference, but it really does.

What are your thoughts on the name Peerless?

P.S. The Vols play in Neyland Stadium, which explains why the baby name Neyland is particularly popular in the state of Tennessee. And the Vols’ fight song, “Rocky Top” (1967), was composed by Nashville songwriters Felice and Boudleaux Bryant.

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Image: © 1999 Sports Illustrated

Baby name story: Boudleaux

Felice & Boudleaux Bryant album
Felice & Boudleaux Bryant album

Does the name “Boudleaux Bryant” ring a bell?

Boudleaux (pronounced bood-low) and his wife Felice were a very successful songwriting team active from the 1940s until the 1980s. Among their hits were several Everly Brothers songs, such as “Wake Up Little Susie.”

Where did Bouleaux’s unique name come from?

It was actually his middle name; he was born Diadorius Boudleaux Bryant in Georgia in 1920. His father fought in World War I, and at one point a French soldier named Boudleaux — or something similar — saved his life.

(I say “or something similar” because, doing records searches, I can only find a handful of people with the surname Boudleaux. Yet I see tens of thousands with the surname Boudreaux. So I wonder if the father either misheard the name or intentionally jazzed it up a bit.)

Boudleaux Bryant’s four siblings were sisters LaFontissee and Danise and brothers Neruda LeVigne and Jascha Mascagni.

Boudleaux’s wife/writing partner Felice was born with the name Matilda. She later adopted “Felice” because it was a pet name that Boudleaux had given to her.

(Playwright Ketti Frings also wrote under a husband-bestowed pet name.)

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