How popular is the baby name Gaston 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 Gaston.
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Paris, the capital of France, has an area of 41 square miles and a population of about 2.1 million — making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world.
Last year, Paris’ most popular baby names were Alma and Gabriel.
Here are the city’s top 50+ girl names and top 50 boy names of 2022:
Girl Names
Alma, 211 baby girls
Louise, 210
Emma, 152
Jeanne, 150
Anna, 144
Adèle, 138
Rose, 136
Gabrielle, 133
Chloé, 131
Jade, 128 (tie)
Léa, 128 (tie)
Victoria, 126
Alice, 120 (tie)
Lina, 120 (tie)
Sofia, 117
Iris, 115 (tie)
Olivia, 115 (tie)
Juliette, 114 (tie)
Victoire, 114 (tie)
Romy, 113
Eva, 111
Joséphine, 106
Ava, 104
Fatoumata, 103
Alba, 98
Diane, 96
Ambre, 94 (3-way tie)
Nina, 94 (3-way tie)
Zoé, 94 (3-way tie)
Charlotte, 92
Mia, 90
Alix, 89 (tie)
Julia, 89 (tie)
Léonie, 88
Sarah, 87
Ella, 86
Lou, 83
Suzanne, 82
Charlie, 81
Nour, 78
Héloïse, 75
Mariam, 74
Romane, 72
Inaya, 68
Agathe, 64
Inès, 63 (tie)
Maya, 63 (tie)
Madeleine, 62
Céleste, 59
Aminata, 57 (tie)
Fatima, 57 (tie)
Boy Names
Gabriel, 332 baby boys
Adam, 254
Raphaël, 250
Louis, 223
Mohamed, 209
Arthur, 199
Isaac, 190
Noah, 180
Gaspard, 175
Léon, 173
Léo, 158
Joseph, 154
Paul, 150
Lucas, 145
Victor, 139
Hugo, 119
Alexandre, 118
Jules, 116
Sacha, 115
Ibrahim, 109
Noé, 103
Augustin, 101
Liam, 95
Oscar, 94
Samuel, 92
Maël, 91
Marceau, 89 (3-way tie)
Simon, 89 (3-way tie)
Timothée, 89 (3-way tie)
Nathan, 88
Basile, 81
Côme, 80
Aaron, 79
Ethan, 78
Auguste, 77 (4-way tie)
Eliott, 77 (4-way tie)
Moussa, 77 (4-way tie)
Naël, 77 (4-way tie)
Marius, 75
Eden, 74
Mathis, 72 (tie)
Rayan, 72 (tie)
Achille, 71 (3-way tie)
Andrea, 71 (3-way tie)
Valentin, 71 (3-way tie)
Antoine, 70
Charles, 69
Ismaël, 68
Léonard, 66 (tie)
Martin, 66 (tie)
And here’s a selection of names from lower down in the rankings, which includes all names given to at least five Parisian babies (of one gender or the other) per year.
According to data from Statistics Belgium, the country’s most popular baby names last year were Olivia and Noah.
Here are Belgium’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2021:
Girl Names
Olivia, 580 baby girls
Emma, 500
Louise, 455
Mila, 435
Alice, 416
Camille, 403
Lina, 394
Sofia, 359
Ella, 352
Juliette, 346
Nora, 342
Mia, 325
Marie, 317
Lucie, 314
Anna, 303
Jade, 296
Elena, 281
Eva, 280
Julia, 279
Noor, 263
Nina, 256
Léa, 252
Victoria, 249
Chloé, 244
Alix, 235
Lou, 232
Elise, 220
Zoé, 215
Giulia, 212
Ellie, 210 (tie)
Luna, 210 (tie)
Liv, 209
Renée, 207
Amélie, 204
Inaya, 202
Rose, 194
Charlotte, 191
Jeanne, 188 (tie)
Lily, 188 (tie)
Lena, 187
Sara, 176
Manon, 171
Julie, 170
Mona, 160
Alba, 159
Livia, 155
Billie, 154 (tie)
Sophia, 154 (tie)
Amira, 146
Clara, 144 (tie)
Stella, 144 (tie)
Boy Names
Noah, 627 baby boys
Arthur, 584
Louis, 558
Liam, 537
Jules, 526
Adam, 474
Lucas, 426
Gabriel, 422
Victor, 416
Oscar, 336
Leon, 310
Mathis, 294 (tie)
Mohamed, 294 (tie)
Finn, 289
Léon, 275
Matteo, 264
Lewis, 251
Hugo, 245
Nathan, 238
Luca, 234
Elias, 225
Raphaël, 223
Théo, 221
Amir, 217 (tie)
Eden, 217 (tie)
Rayan, 209
Lou, 208
Milo, 205
Yanis, 204
Achille, 201
Otis, 194
Sacha, 191 (tie)
Vic, 191 (tie)
Felix, 190
Marcel, 187
Basile, 185
Aaron, 179
Léo, 178
Maurice, 174
Alexander, 173
Maël, 171
Emiel, 168 (tie)
Georges, 168 (tie)
Jack, 167 (tie)
William, 167 (tie)
Emile, 163 (tie)
Vince, 163 (tie)
Samuel, 161
Gaston, 159
Oliver, 158
If Leon and Léon had been counted as a single name, their combined total (585) would have been enough to edge Arthur (584) out of second place on the boys’ list.
And the gender-neutral name Lou managed to pop up on both lists in nearly the same spot: 26th for girls, 27th for boys.
The top baby names within each of Belgium’s three regions were…
Girl Names
Boy Names
Flanders (57.6% of the population) Language: Dutch
(I’m a little surprised that as many as 5 baby girls in Belgium got the English word “believe” as their first name. I wonder if something specific was influencing that usage…?)
This time around, Belgium also highlighted the girl and boy names that saw the largest increases and decreases in usage over the last decade (2011-2021). The top 5 in each category were…
Girl names
Largest increases: Alba, Ellie, Ellis, Alya, Cilou
Largest decreases: Lisa, Laura, Julie, Lotte, Anaïs
Boy names
Largest increases: Georges, Lio, Gaston, Otis, Lyam
Largest decreases: Maxime, Thomas, Simon, Wout, Nathan
The gothic melodrama Trilby by British author George du Maurier was first published serially in Harper’s Monthly from January to August, 1894. It was released as a book in September.
The story was set in Paris in the early 1850s. The title character, Trilby O’Ferrall, was a naïve, tone-deaf artist’s model who went on to become a world-famous singer, thanks to the hypnotic powers of the sinister Svengali. But when Svengali suddenly died, Trilby lost her ability to sing and ended up wasting away.
Trilby wasn’t just a bestseller — the entire country was gripped by Trilby-mania for several years straight. (This isn’t unlike the Twilight-mania that emerged more than 100 years later.)
Many things, from fashion to food, were influenced/inspired by Trilby during this time. Here’s a partial list:
Language:
Trilbies became slang for “(women’s) feet,” as Trilby had particularly beautiful feet
Svengali became slang for “a person who exercises a controlling or mesmeric influence on another, especially for a sinister purpose”
Trilby ice cream (it was molded into the shape of a foot)
Trilby board game
Trilby high-heeled shoes
Trilby jewelry
Trilby belts
Trilby bathing suits
Trilby cigars/cigarettes
Trilby hearth brush
Trilby tea
Trilby cocktail
Trilby pie
Trilby sausage
Trilby ham
Non-human namesakes:
Trilby, Florida
USS Trilby
Adaptations:
Trilby, stage play
Trilby (1915), movie
Trilby (1923), movie
Svengali (1931), movie
Influence on other literary works:
Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker
Le Fantôme de l’Opéra (1909) by Gaston Leroux
Trilby and its glamorization of the bohemian lifestyle even “excited a vogue for nude modeling among the many young women who wished to follow the Trilby life.” (And this, of course, “alarmed the clergy and other guardians of morality.”)
So where does the name Trilby come from?
For a long time I’d assumed that George du Maurier had based it on the musical term trill, which refers to rapid alternation between two adjacent musical notes. Turns out this isn’t the case.
He borrowed the name from an earlier work of literature, the story “Trilby, ou le Lutin d’Argail” (“Trilby, or the Fairy of Argyle”) (1822) by French writer Charles Nodier. In Nodier’s story, which is set in Scotland, Trilby is a male sprite who seduces a mortal woman.
In 1895 a New York Times writer guessed that the name of Nodier’s Trilby might be “an endearing diminutive of “trall,” a member of the brownie clan,” but I can’t find any outside confirmation that the word “trall” even exists. (Perhaps it’s a Scottish variant of the word “troll”…?)
How many people in the U.S. have been named Trilby?
According to the SSA data, Trilby was the 978th most popular girl name in the U.S. in 1895, the year after the book was published. This was the only time Trilby managed to rank within the U.S. top 1,000.
1897: unlisted
1896: 6 baby girls named Trilby
1895: 12 baby girls named Trilby [debut] (rank: 978th)
1894: unlisted
1893: unlisted
But the SSA data from that period is incomplete, so here are the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) numbers for the same years:
1897: 10 people with the first name Trilby
1896: 22 people with the first name Trilby
1895: 34 people with the first name Trilby
1894: 5 people with the first name Trilby
1893: 2 people with the first name Trilby
These days, Trilby rarely appears on the SSA’s list:
2014: unlisted
2013: unlisted
2012: unlisted
2011: unlisted
2010: 6 baby girls named Trilby
2009: unlisted
2008: 7 baby girls named Trilby
2007: unlisted
2006: unlisted
2005: unlisted
2004: unlisted
2003: unlisted
2002: unlisted
2001: unlisted
2000: unlisted
Trilby may be an unfashionable name right now, but for the parents-to-be who want something a bit retro-sounding, this could be a good thing.
The name is also an intriguing option for lovers of trivia and/or quirky history, as it’s tied to a fascinating pop culture craze from over a century ago. (We might be saying the same thing about Renesmee 100 years from now!)
Plus, Trilby is one of a small number of names with that distinctive “-by” ending, such as Ruby, Shelby, Darby, Colby, Kirby and Rigby.
One possible drawback to the name is the not-so-subtle anti-Semitism in the book itself. Svengali is not merely the “greasily, mattedly unkempt” antagonist of the story, but he’s also Jewish — with “bold, black, beady Jew’s eyes” no less. Then again…similar things could be said about other historical pieces of literature that have inspired baby names.
If you’re considering the naming your baby girl Trilby, I highly encourage you to head over to Project Gutenberg and read (or at least skim) the text of Trilby.
The image above, of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris, was captured in early 1838 by Louis Daguerre, inventor of the daguerreotype.
It may be the earliest surviving photograph of a person. Two people, actually. Both are in the lower left.
Here’s a close-up:
The standing man is getting his shoe shined, and the other man (partially obscured) is doing the shoe-shining.
Of all the people on the sidewalk that day, these were the only two to stay still long enough (about 10 minutes) to be captured in the image.
Now for the fun part!
What would you name these two Frenchmen?
Let’s pretend you’re writing a book set in Paris in the 1830s, and these are two of your characters. What names would you give them?
Here’s a long list of traditional French male names, to get you started:
Abel Absolon Achille Adam Adolphe Adrien Aimé Alain Alban Albert Alexandre Alfred Alphonse Amaury Amroise Amédée Anatole André Anselme Antoine Antonin Apollinaire Ariel Aristide Armand Arnaud Arsène Arthur Aubert Aubin Auguste Augustin Aurèle Aurélien Baptiste Barnabé Barthélémy Basile Bastien Benjamin Benoit Bernard Bertrand Blaise Boniface Bruno Calixte Camille Céleste Célestin Césaire César Charles Christian Christophe
Clair Claude Clément Clovis Constant Constantin Corentin Corin Corneille Cosme Cyril Damien Daniel David Denis Déodat Désiré Didier Dieudonné Dimitri Diodore Dominique Donat Donatien Edgar Edgard Edmé Edmond Édouard Élie Eloi Émeric Émile Émilien Emmanuel Enzo Éric Ermenegilde Ernest Ethan Étienne Eugène Eustache Évariste Évrard Fabien Fabrice Félicien Félix Ferdinand Fernand Fiacre Firmin Florence Florent
Florentin Florian Francis François Frédéric Gabriel Gaël Gaëtan Gaspard Gaston Gaubert Geoffroy Georges Gérard Géraud Germain Gervais Ghislain Gilbert Gilles Gratien Grégoire Guatier Guillaume Gustave Guy Hector Henri Herbert Hercule Hervé Hilaire Hippolyte Honoré Horace Hubert Hugues Humbert Hyacinthe Ignace Irénée Isidore Jacques Jason Jean Jérémie Jérôme Joachim Jocelyn Joël Jonathan Joseph Josse Josué Jourdain
Jules Julien Juste Justin Laurent Laurentin Lazare Léandre Léo Léon Léonard Léonce Léonide Léopold Lionel Loïc Lothaire Louis Loup Luc Lucas Lucien Lucrèce Ludovic Maël Marc Marcel Marcellin Marin Marius Martin Mathieu Mathis Matthias Maurice Maxence Maxime Maximilien Michaël Michel Modeste Narcisse Nathan Nathanaël Nazaire Nicéphore Nicodème Nicolas Noé Noël Norbert Odilon Olivier Onésime Pascal
Patrice Paul Philippe Pierre Placide Pons Prosper Quentin Rainier Raoul Raphaël Raymond Régis Rémy René Reynaud Richard Robert Roch Rodolphe Rodrigue Roger Roland Romain Rosaire Ruben Salomon Samuel Sébastien Séraphin Serge Sévère Séverin Simon Sylvain Sylvestre Télesphore Théodore Théophile Thibault Thierry Thomas Timothée Toussaint Urbain Valentin Valère Valéry Vespasien Victor Vincent Vivien Xavier Yves Zacharie
For some real-life inspiration, here are lists of famous 19th century and 20th century French people, courtesy of Wikipedia. Notice that many of the Frenchman have double-barreled, triple-barreled, even quadruple-barreled given names. (Daguerre himself was named Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre.)
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