How popular is the baby name Capitola 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 Capitola.

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Popularity of the baby name Capitola


Posts that mention the name Capitola

Over 100 baby names for 100 years of the U.S. National Park Service

Grand Canyon National Park poster (NPS)

The U.S. National Park Service has a birthday coming up!

When the NPS was created on August 25, 1916, there were only 35 national parks and monuments. (The world’s first, Yellowstone, had been established in 1872.)

Nowadays the agency oversees 411 units. These units are located in the 50 states and beyond, and include national monuments (82), national historic sites (78), national parks (59), national historical parks (50), national memorials (30), national battlefields (11), national seashores (10), national lakeshores (4), national scenic trails (3), and more.

Let’s celebrate the upcoming centennial with more than 100 baby names that pay tribute to the national parks specifically:

Lassen Volcanic National Park poster (NPS)
  • Garland for Garland County, Arkansas, where Hot Springs National Park is located.
  • Gates for Gates of the Arctic National Park & Preserve.
  • Guadalupe for Guadalupe Mountains National Park.
  • Gunnison for Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
    • The park was established in 1999, and Gunnison debuted on the baby name charts the very same year. Did one event cause the other?
  • Jackson for Jackson Hole, where much of Grand Teton National Park is located.
  • Jarvis for Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve’s Mt. Jarvis.
  • Jefferson for Dry Tortugas National Park’s Fort Jefferson.
  • John for Virgin Islands National Park’s St. John Island.
  • Joshua for Joshua Tree National Park.
  • Kenai for Kenai Fjords National Park.
    • The derivation of Kenai is unknown, but it could come from either Dena’ina Athabascan (“big flat” or “two big flats and river cut-back” or “trees and brush in a swampy marsh”), Russian (“flat barren land”), or Iniut (“black bear”).
  • Kingston or Kingsley for Kings Canyon National Park.
  • Lake for any of the parks featuring lakes, such as Crater Lake National Park, Voyageurs National Park, Lake Clark National Park & Preserve, etc.
  • Lamar for Yellowstone National Park’s Lamar Buffalo Ranch.
  • Lassen for Lassen Volcanic National Park.
  • Lata for the National Park of American Samoa’s Lata Mountain.
  • Lehman for Great Basin National Park’s Lehman Caves.
  • Lewis for Glacier National Park’s Lewis Range.
  • Livingston for Glacier National Park’s Livingston Range.
  • Manning for Saguaro National Park’s Manning Cabin.
  • Mara for Joshua Tree National Park’s Oasis of Mara.
    • In the Serrano language, Mara means “the place of little springs and much grass.”
  • Martin for Katmai National Park & Preserve’s Mt. Martin.
  • Maui for the island of Maui, where Haleakala National Park is located.
  • Mauna for Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park’s Mauna Loa.
  • Miguel for Channel Islands National Park’s San Miguel Island.
  • Olympia for Olympic National Park.
Zion National Park poster (NPS)
  • Parker, Parks, Park, or Parke as a tribute to all national parks.
  • Pele as a symbol of Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park.
  • Prairie for any of the parks featuring a prairie, such as Badlands National Park, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, etc.
  • Pratt for Guadalupe Mountains National Park’s Pratt Cabin.
  • Rainier for Mount Rainier National Park.
  • Ranger as a tribute to all national parks and park rangers.
  • Reef for Capitol Reef National Park.
  • Rhodes for Biscayne National Park’s Old Rhodes Key.
  • Rocky for Rocky Mountain National Park.
  • Roosevelt for Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
  • Rosa for Channel Islands National Park’s Santa Rosa Island.
  • Royale or Royal for Isle Royale National Park.
  • Valley for any of the parks featuring a valley, such as Cuyahoga Valley, Death Valley, Kobuk Valley, etc.
  • Verda or Verdell for Mesa Verde National Park.
  • Virginia for Virgin Islands National Park.
  • Zion for Zion National Park.

For all you national park lovers out there: What other park-inspired names can you come up with?

Sources: List of national parks of the United States – Wikipedia, Quick History of the National Park Service, National Park System (U.S. National Park Service), Kenai Fjords National Park Profile 2015 (PDF)
Images (all from the LOC): Grand Canyon National Park poster, Lassen Volcanic National Park poster, Zion National Park poster

[Latest update: July 2023]

Where did the name Capitola come from?

The book "Capitola's Peril" by E. D. E. N. Southworth

A reader named Paula sent me an interesting question not too long ago:

My sister-in-law found ‘Capitola’ as a first name in her family’s history. We know it comes from E.D.E.N. Southworth’s “The Hidden Hand” but we cannot discover its meaning or derivation. Can you help us?

I tried, but I wasn’t able to find out exactly what inspired Southworth to choose the name “Capitola” for her tomboyish character Capitola Le Noir (a.k.a. Cap Black).

The book "Hidden Hand" by E. D. E. N. Southworth

She did have a lot of fun with the gender-neutral nickname “Cap,” though. Different parts of the story have titles like “Cap in Captivity,” “Capitola Caps the Climax,” “Capitola a Capitalist,” and “Capitola the Madcap.” I think it’s entirely possible that Southworth chose the nickname first, then lengthened it to something more fanciful/formal.

Regardless of how/why she chose the name, it does bear a strong resemblance to the word “capitol,” which comes from the Latin word capitolium, which referred to the Temple of Jupiter in ancient Rome.

The Hidden Hand was first published in 1859 in the newspapers. It was serialized twice more before being published as a book in 1888. The book ended up selling millions of copies. It went on to be adapted for the stage dozens of times.

Capitola encounters many adventures and withstands much danger, starring in sensational plots that some critics worried were too stimulating for delicate female readers. The mass public loved Capitola, however, and one California town still bears her name.

The book and its sequel, Capitola’s Peril, inspired expectant parents across the U.S. to name their baby girls Capitola. From the mid-1800s until the mid-1900s, hundreds of babies got the name. A handful even got the first-middle combination “Capitola Lenoir.”

Graph of the usage of the baby name Capitola in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Capitola

P.S. Wondering what “E.D.E.N.” stands for? The author’s full name was Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth.

Source: Beyond Domesticity: U.S. Women Writers, 1770-1915

[Latest update: July 2021]