How popular is the baby name Cressida 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 Cressida.

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Popularity of the baby name Cressida


Posts that mention the name Cressida

Kids named for cars: Porsche, Mercedes, Alfa

Porsche coupe
Porsche

Last month, Joy Lowther of Norfolk, England, went into labor while shopping in a local supermarket. Ten minutes later, she gave birth to a baby girl.

She and her boyfriend decided to name the baby Porsche, as one of their older children is called Mercedes. The other two are Frank* and Alfie — who’s now called Alfa, says Joy, “because the girls are named after cars.”

Joy plans to have one more baby. If it’s a boy, he’ll be called Bentley (a name that’s very trendy in the U.S. right now thanks to reality TV).

Joy didn’t mention what she’d name another baby girl, but I know of a Porsche in Texas who has sisters named Audi and Lexus, so there are two ideas. Another possibility is Cressida, which might be picking up steam soon. Other car names that have been used as girl names include Camry, Jetta, Miata and Kia.

*Poor Frank. He’s the only sibling without a car name.

On that note, here’s a question for you: If you had a bunch of siblings (4+) and all but one of you had a name that fit a pattern, would you want one of the “in” names, or would you rather be the odd one out?

Source: Alfa, Mercedes and now Porsche! (via Abby)

Image: Adapted from 1964 Porsche coupe by Edgy01 under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Is the name Cressida about to get a boost?

The royal family has given me a lot to blog about in the last few years — Pippa in 2011, Jubilee in 2012, George in 2013…

So will the royal-inspired baby name of 2014 be Cressida?

The gossip sites are telling me that Prince Harry and his girlfriend, socialite Cressida Bonas, may marry next year. Apparently Harry met Cressie (as friends call her) via cousin Eugenie.

Where does the name Cressida come from?

We know it from Shakespeare’s play Troilus and Cressida (1602). Cressida is a medieval form of the Greek name Chryseis, which Shakespeare would have known from Homers’ Iliad. In the Iliad, Chryseis (as her name indicates) was the daughter of Chryses, whose name was derived from the ancient Greek word chrysos, meaning “gold” or “golden.”

How are Cressida and Cressie doing on the charts right now?

  • The baby name Cressida has appeared on the SSA’s list a handful of times, mostly in the 1970s and 1980s, but no more than 8 Cressidas have ever been born in a single year. It was last listed in 1990.
  • The baby name Cressie has had better luck, though it was more popular during the 1910s and 1920s than it is today. It was last listed in 1987.

If Harry and Cressie marry next year, do you think the royal wedding will popularize the name Cressida in the U.S.?

(And if they don’t, do you think there’s a chance the name could become trendy anyway thanks to the third Hunger Games film, due out in late 2014?)

Source: Prince Harry planning to marry Cressida Bonas, friends say

Other predictions so far for 2013: D’Ussé, Lincoln, Cypher, Elon, Macklemore, Elon, Malala, Gatsby, and more.

Popular baby names in England and Wales (UK), 2012

Flag of the United Kingdom
Flag of the United Kingdom

The most popular baby names in England and Wales were announced last week.

According to the Office for National Statistics, the region’s top names were Harry for boys and Amelia for girls.

Here are the top 20 girl names and top 20 boy names of 2012:

Top Girl NamesTop Boy Names
1. Amelia
2. Olivia
3. Jessica
4. Emily
5. Lily
6. Ava
7. Mia
8. Isla
9. Sophie
10. Isabella
11. Evie
12. Ruby
13. Poppy
14. Grace
15. Sophia
16. Chloe
17. Isabelle
18. Ella
19. Freya
20. Charlotte
1. Harry
2. Oliver
3. Jack
4. Charlie
5. Jacob
6. Thomas
7. Alfie
8. Riley
9. William
10. James
11. Joshua
12. George
13. Ethan
14. Noah
15. Samuel
16. Daniel
17. Oscar
18. Max
19. Muhammad
20. Leo

The England-only top 20 included all of the above except for Archie (not Leo) on the boys’ side.

The Wales-only top 20 included Dylan, Mason, Logan, Tyler and Isaac (not Samuel, Daniel, Oscar, Max or Muhammad) for boys and Seren, Megan, Ffion and Layla (not Isla, Chloe, Freya or Charlotte) for girls.

Newbies to the England and Wales top 100 are…

  • Hugo, Sonny, Seth, Elliott, Theodore, Rory and Ellis for boys. (Out are Joel, Hayden, John, Ashton, Jackson, Ben and Reece.)
  • Mollie, Ivy, Darcey, Tilly, Sara and Violet for girls. (Out are Lexie, Lauren, Rebecca, Tia, Nicola and Kayla.)

Here’s a selection of names from the other end of the list (each given to 10 babies or fewer):

Rare Girl NamesRare Boy Names
Ambreen, Anest, Arrietty, Arzoo, Bowie, Charvi, Cressida, Csenge, Delyth, Devoiry, Eveie, Flourish, Gwenno, Liepa, Llio, Lliwen, Loveday, Mayameen, Mazvita, Migle, Makanaka, Ocean-Blu, Pip, Senuli, Strawberry, Testimony, Tiggy, TulsiAlieu, Atreyu, Bede, Betzalel, Boston, Cavalli, Celt, Cem, Connah, Croyde, Dacre, Exodus, His, Huckleberry, James-Dean, Jools, Jovi, Louix, MD., Messiah, Motty, Neyo, Nuh, Nuno, Papa, Peregrine, Platon, Reco, Rhome, Soul, Ting, Tirth, Ugnius, Wing, Winner

Finally, here are some older posts with the 2011, 2010, 2009, and 2008 lists of most popular names in England & Wales.

Source: Baby Names, England and Wales, 2012 (ONS)

Image: Adapted from Flag of the United Kingdom (public domain)

Babies named after Katniss from “Hunger Games”?

"The Hunger Games" (2008)
The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games is a young adult science-fiction trilogy by Suzanne Collins. The last of the three books, Mockingjay, was released a few weeks ago.

At the moment, Mockingjay is #5 on the Amazon.com Bestseller List. Catching Fire, the second book, is #13. Hunger Games, the first, is #16.

Movies based on the books are in the works.

What interests me about the series is that most of the Hunger Games characters have odd names. The young female protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, was named after an edible plant called katniss. She has a younger sister named Primrose, a male friend named Peeta, and lives in a world where people are named anything from Glimmer to Plutarch.

We all know that popular books and movies have the potential to affect baby name trends–even create brand new baby names. Babies have been named Renesmee thanks to Twilight, Neytiri thanks to Avatar, Galadriel thanks to The Lord of the Rings…the list goes on.

Could you see Katniss crossing over into the real world as a baby name? How about any of the other Hunger Games names?

(I first learned about these books in a video by Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn, which is a great blog/site/podcast for writers.)

Update, March 26, 2012: As you know, the trilogy is now a movie. And, last weekend, Hunger Games (the film) had the 3rd-best opening weekend of all time (after The Dark Knight and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2). So…Katniss is pretty much a sure thing at this point. If it doesn’t debut in 2011 for the books, it’s bound to debut in 2012 for the movie.

Update, July 21, 2020: The name Katniss did indeed debut in 2012, as did Finnick. Primrose made a return that year as well, as did Gale for baby boys. Two more Hunger Games names affected by subsequent movies include Everdeen (debuted in 2014) and Cressida (re-emerged in 2014). And, going back to the books, the name Rue returned in 2010.