How popular is the baby name Facebook 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 Facebook.

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Popularity of the baby name Facebook


Posts that mention the name Facebook

Baby names “Maple” and “Eh” banned in Canada?

I’ve read hundreds of articles about banned baby names, but one I spotted over the summer called 9 Baby Names Banned by Governments really stood out because it claimed that the baby names Maple and Eh had been banned in Canada.

Huh?

Seemed like a silly thing to say, as Canadian provinces (e.g., Quebec, Alberta, Saskatchewan) regulate and track baby names independently. And the claim was an easy one to debunk, as multiple babies in both Quebec and Alberta have been named Maple recently.

But I was still curious. The article had mistakenly stated that Facebook and Hitler were “banned in Mexico” when they were really just banned in the Mexican state of Sonora, so maybe Maple and Eh had been banned somewhere in Canada…?

Nope — didn’t take much Googling to find Maple and Eh in an article called Illegal baby names: Canadian government bans 5 names, published back on April 1st. The 3 other not-banned names on this April Fools’ Day list were Hudson, Timmie and Mackenzie.

Looks like somebody fell for the joke, eh? :)

Mexican state bans baby names like Rambo, Robocop

banned baby names in sonora, mexico

On February 10, the Civil Registration Act went into effect in the Mexican state of Sonora (which is right across the border from Arizona).

Article 46 of the act allows local authorities to reject baby names they deem derogatory, discriminatory, defamatory, libelous and meaningless, among other things.

The state also banned 61 specific baby names, and will likely ban more names in the future. All of the banned names came directly from Sonora’s birth registries (meaning that each has been used at least once already).

After doing some digging, I finally found the full list of banned names on a Mexican news site. Here it is:

  1. Aceituno
  2. Aguinaldo
  3. All Power
  4. Aniv de la Rev (short for “anniversary of the revolution”)
  5. Batman
  6. Beneficia (meaning “benefits”)
  7. Burger King
  8. Cacerolo
  9. Calzón (meaning “panties”)
  10. Caraciola
  11. Caralampio
  12. Cesárea
  13. Cheyenne
  14. Christmas Day
  15. Circuncisión (meaning “circumcision”)
  16. Culebro
  17. Delgadina (meaning “the skinny girl.” It’s from the Mexican folk song “La Delgadina.”)
  18. Diódoro
  19. Email
  20. Escroto (meaning “scrotum”)
  21. Espinaca (meaning “spinach”)
  22. Facebook
  23. Fulanita (meaning “so-and-so” or “what’s-her-name”)
  24. Gordonia
  25. Gorgonio
  26. Harry Potter
  27. Hermione
  28. Hitler
  29. Hurraca
  30. Iluminada
  31. Indio
  32. James Bond
  33. Lady Di
  34. Marciana (meaning “martian”)
  35. Masiosare (meaning “if one should dare,” roughly. It’s from the phrase mas si osare, which is part of the Mexican National Anthem.)
  36. Micheline
  37. Panuncio
  38. Patrocinio (meaning “patronage” or “sponsorship”)
  39. Petronilo
  40. Piritipio
  41. Pocahontas
  42. Pomponio
  43. Privado (meaning “private”)
  44. Procopio
  45. Rambo
  46. Robocop
  47. Rocky
  48. Rolling Stone
  49. Sobeida
  50. Sol de Sonora
  51. Sonora Querida
  52. Telésforo
  53. Terminator
  54. Tránsito (meaning “transit”)
  55. Tremebundo (meaning “terrifying” or “terrible”)
  56. Twitter
  57. Usnavy
  58. Verulo
  59. Virgen (meaning “virgin”)
  60. Yahoo
  61. Zoila Rosa

Some thoughts:

  • Facebook is the legal first name of at least 2 human beings at this point. Amazing.
  • Robocop, I must admit, has been on my “baby names I am dying to find in the wild” list for many years. At last, proof that it exists! Exciting stuff. (Haven’t yet come across any babies named Chucknorris, however. Fingers still crossed on that one.)
  • Hermione? I can see why Sonora would object to “Harry Potter” and “James Bond,” but Hermione by itself (as opposed to “Hermione Granger”) makes no sense. Hermione is a legitimate (and lovely) name that existed long before the Potter books.

What are your thoughts? And, which name on the list above shocked you the most?

Sources:

10 Technology-inspired baby names like “Like”

Facebook "Like"

A few months ago, PCWorld published a list of 10 tech-inspired baby names better than Like.

I thought I’d compile a similar list, but go in the opposite direction. So below are ten real-life, headline-grabbing, tech-inspired names just like Like.

Starting, of course, with Like:

Like

An Israeli baby girl was named Like after the Facebook “Like Button” in 2011. (Go like baby Like, if you like!)

Facebook

A Egyptian baby girl was named Facebook after the social networking site Facebook in 2011.

Google

A Swedish baby boy was named Google after the search engine Google in 2005.

[I’ve never blogged about this one before, surprisingly. Oliver Google Kai was born on September 12, 2005, in Kalmar, Sweden, to Dr. Walid Elias Kai (who is Lebanese) and his wife Carol (who is Swedish). Google’s response: “We wish him long life and good health, and hope his schoolmates aren’t too hard on him.”]

@

A Chinese baby boy was possibly named @ after the “at” symbol found in e-mail addresses in 2007. (The name may or may not have been approved by the Chinese government.)

Vista

A Canadian baby girl was named Vista after the Windows Vista operating system in 2007.

2.0

An American baby boy was named Jon Blake Cusack 2.0 — 2.0 in place of a more traditional suffix, like II or Jr. — in 2004.

Annanova

A Dutch baby girl was named Annanova after virtual newscaster Ananova in 2000.

Iuma

A handful of babies from various countries were named Iuma as part of the Internet Underground Music Archive (IUMA) baby naming contest in 2000.

Linux

The name Linux debuted in the U.S. baby name data in the early 2010s.

Dovahkiin

An American baby boy was named Dovahkiin after a video game character just a few days ago. (Other video game baby names include Zelda and Rinoa)

For less-crazy tech-inspired names, try PCWorld’s list, or try my namestorms for internet lovers and/or computer lovers.

Update, 1/2014: Here’s another tech-related name — an American baby girl has been named Tali’Zorah after a video game character.

Baby name story: Facebook

A man in Egypt has named his newborn daughter Facebook to commemorate the social network’s role in bringing about the recent Egyptian Revolution — “the revolution that started on Facebook,” according to Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram.

The baby girl’s full name is Facebook Jamal Ibrahim.

Sources: Report: Egyptian dad names child ‘Facebook’, To Celebrate The #Jan25 Revolution, Egyptian Names His Firstborn “Facebook”