The Italian island of Capri has been inhabited for millennia, but very few Americans were naming their babies Capri before Ford introduced the Lincoln Capri in the early 1950s:
- 1955: 6 baby girls named Capri
- 1954: 5 baby girls named Capri
- 1953: 7 baby girls named Capri [debut]
- 1952: unlisted
- 1951: unlisted
The car was on the market from 1952 to 1959 and, as far as I can tell, it was the very first car-inspired baby name to appear in the data. Since then, many different cars have inspired baby names (e.g., Camry, DeLorean, Miata, Porsche).
These days the name Capri is given to close to 200 baby girls per year, which puts it pretty close to the top 1,000.
The origin of the island name “Capri” isn’t known for certain, but it could be derived from the ancient Greek word kapros, meaning “wild boar,” or from the Latin word capreae, meaning “goats.”
Do you like the name Capri? Would you use it for a baby girl?
Sources: Lincoln Capri – Wikipedia, SSA
Image: Adapted from a 1955 Lincoln Capri magazine ad