How popular is the baby name Galaxy 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 Galaxy.

The graph will take a few moments to load. (Don't worry, it shouldn't take 9 months!) If it's taking too long, try reloading the page.


Popularity of the baby name Galaxy


Posts that mention the name Galaxy

Popular and unique baby names in Alberta (Canada), 2018

Flag of Alberta
Flag of Alberta

According to the government of Alberta, the most popular baby names in the Canadian province in 2018 were Olivia and Liam.

Here are Alberta’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2018:

Girl Names
1. Olivia, 235 baby girls
2. Emma, 230
3. Charlotte, 175
4. Emily, 164
5. Ava, 161
6. Abigail, 153
7. Harper, 150
8. Sophia, 146
9. Amelia, 145
10. Elizabeth, 130

Boy Names
1. Liam, 225 baby boys
2. Oliver, 212
3. Noah, 199
4. Ethan, 188
5. Logan & Lucas, 182 each (tie)
6. Jacob, 181
7. William, 178
8. Benjamin, 176
9. Jack, 167
10. Alexander & James, 158 each (tie)

In the girls’ top 10, Harper and Elizabeth replaced Isabella, Aria, Chloe and Lily.

New to the boys’ top 10 are Alexander and James. (No replacements due to ties.)

Rare baby names that were bestowed just once in Alberta last year include…

Unique Girl NamesUnique Boy Names
Aleftina, Assurance, Balsam, Clarenelle, Desneiges, Eulogia, Finja, Geo, Havolyn, Iffoxla, Iracebeth, Joxerlee, Kinnitty, Lemon-Marie, Mirdza, Nesslin, Ozzlynn, Progress, Quindalyn, Rizabell, Stiorra, Tavery, Trusarra, Urveen, Vemia, Wichahpi, Xianelle, Yubelissa, Zenley, ZhinetorArchange, Beauxbandy, Chapter, Dax-Goku, Durden, Einjehl, Fristan, George-lucas, Grey-Cloud, Homeostasie, Irwin, Jhelton, Krypton, Lonnie, Mycroft, Nitrix, Obasha, Pavanga, Quiel, Rhonj, Scythe, Supremo, Tadmor, Thorpal, Untred, Valour, Wilmarion, Xylas, Yuzhi, Zackon

And a few more single-use girl names, all space-themed: Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Galaxy, Universe.

Possible explanations for a few of the above:

  • Iracebeth (based on the word irascible) was the name given to the Red Queen in the 2010 Tim Burton movie Alice in Wonderland.
  • Durden was the surname of the main character in Fight Club. (I’m very surprised this one has never appeared in the U.S. data before, frankly.)
  • Mycroft Holmes was Sherlock’s older brother. Mycroft AI, “the world’s first open source assistant,” was named after Mycroft Holmes.
  • Nitrix is a brand-name bodybuilding supplement described as a “concentrated nitric oxide precursor.”
  • Rhonj happens to be the acronym for The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Could this be a Real Housewives acronym being used as a baby name?!

In 2017, the top two names in Alberta were Olivia and Noah.

Sources: Alberta’s Top Baby Names, Alberta’s top baby names for 2018

Image: Adapted from Flag of Alberta (public domain)

Popular and unique baby names in Iowa, 2016

Flag of Iowa
Flag of Iowa

I love that the Social Security Administration releases so much baby name data to the public. But I’ve always had mixed feelings about that 5-baby threshold for inclusion. (Due to privacy concerns, the government doesn’t release names given to fewer than 5 babies per gender, per year.)

Part of me appreciates the threshold. For instance, I like that it adds significance to the pop culture-inspired debut names I’m always posting about, as these names had to hit a certain minimum level of usage in order to register in the data.

But the other part of me? The other part just really, really wants to see those rare/crazy names at the bottom of the list.

So I get excited when I find U.S. data from an official source that does go down to single-instance usage. Up until recently, I only knew about Sonoma County and Los Angeles County, but recently I discovered that Iowa (an entire state!) also releases down-to-1 baby name data. Yay!

But before we get to the rare names, let’s look at the state of Iowa’s top baby names of 2016:

Girl Names
1. Olivia, 203 baby girls
2. Emma, 181
3. Charlotte, 158
4. Harper, 156
5. Ava & Evelyn, 148 each (2-way tie)
6. Amelia, 125
7. Nora, 123
8. Sophia, 112
9. Addison, 101
10. Grace, 96

Boy Names
1. Oliver, 197 baby boys
2. Owen, 178
3. William, 174
4. Wyatt, 170
5. Henry, 165
6. Liam, 159
7. Noah, 149
8. Benjamin, 148
9. Jackson, 144
10. Lincoln, 123

  • In the girls’ top 10, Addison and Grace replaced Avery.
  • In the boys’ top 10, Benjamin and Lincoln replaced Mason and Elijah.
  • In 2015, the top two names were Emma and Liam.

(The SSA rankings for Iowa are similar, but not exactly the same. One notable difference on is that the SSA ranks Grayson 10th on the boys list, and puts Lincoln down in 13th.)

And now for the rarities!

Iowa’s website offers interactive baby name usage graphs that include all names bestowed at least once from 2000 to 2016. Here’s a sampling of rare baby names in Iowa (2000-2016 usage):

Girl NamesBoy Names
Arabia (1)
Bishop (1)
Currency (1)
Dream (3)
Eros (1)
Fairy (1)
Gatsby (1)
Heritage (1)
Irish (5)
Jasper (1)
KeyEssence (1)
Lisbon (1)
Michigan (1)
Nirvana (3)
Orchid (1)
PairoDice (1)
Qy (1)
Reminisce (1)
Scully (1)
Tear (1)
Unity (4)
Veruca (1)
Windy (2)
Xanadu (1)
Yawh (1)
Zinnia (1)
Arcade (1)
Banksy (1)
Cactus (1)
Denali (2)
Elvis (18)
Fonzy (1)
Galaxy (1)
Helium (1)
Indigo (2)
Jeep (3)
Kal-El (3)
Lightning (1)
Mowgli (1)
Notorious (1)
Opttimus (1)
Player (1)
Quest (3)
Racer (3)
Sanctify (1)
Tavern (1)
Universe (1)
Vegas (1)
Winner (4)
Xyn (1)
Young-Sky (1)
Zealand (1)

If you decide to dig through the data, leave a comment and let me know what you spot!

And if you’re friends with any expectant parents in Iowa, tell those lucky ducks that they have access to full sets of baby name rankings for their state. Either send them a link to this post or to one of the pages below…

Sources: Top Baby Names – Iowa Department of Public Health, Baby Names Popularity Over Time – Iowa Department of Public Health

Image: Adapted from Flag of Iowa (public domain)

Baby name story: Tara Gabriel Galaxy Gramaphone

John Paul Getty II and Talitha Pol on their wedding day in Rome (Dec. 1966)
John Paul Getty II and Talitha Pol

Most of us have heard of J. Paul Getty, who was one of the wealthiest people in America during his lifetime. But most of us have probably not heard that one of his grandchildren was named “Gramaphone” (a misspelling of gramophone).

This particular grandchild was the son of Eugene Paul Getty, who later went by John Paul Getty II, and his second wife, Dutch fashion model and socialite Talitha Pol. (They married in late 1966; you can see a corresponding uptick in the usage of the name Talitha the following year.)

The couple were the toast of Europe’s glamour-hippie set, jetting to exotic spots with the likes of Mick Jagger. “J. P. II’s whole young-adult life,” says [family friend Stuart] Evey, “was Marrakech and the Rolling Stones.”

To French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, the pair epitomized “the youthfulness of the sixties”:

Talitha and Paul Getty lying on a starlit terrace in Marrakesh, beautiful and damned, and a whole generation assembled as if for eternity where the curtain of the past seemed to lift before an extraordinary future.

In 1968, Paul and Talitha couple welcomed their only child, a son.

They named him Tara Gabriel Gramaphone Galaxy Getty.

In 1971, Talitha died of a heroin overdose. Her death occurred “in the 12-month period that also saw the deaths of Edie Sedgwick, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and Janis Joplin.”

(Tragedy struck John Paul II’s family again in 1973 when his eldest son, John Paul III, was kidnapped by the Calabrian mafia.)

Tara Gabriel Galaxy Gramaphone Getty has long since dropped both “Gramaphone” and “Galaxy” from his full name.

Today, he and his wife Jessica live in South Africa on the Phinda Game Reserve. They have three kids named Orlando, Caspar, and Talitha.

Update, Aug. 16th: In 1976, Keith Richards (of The Rolling Stones) and model Anita Pallenberg welcomed a son they named Tara in honor of late friend (and Guinness heir) Tara Browne, who’d died in 1966. Paul and Talitha had been part of the same social set during the ’60s…was their son named with Tara Browne in mind as well?

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Wedding of John Paul Getty Jr. and Talitha Pol (Rome, 1966) (public domain)