Baby Name: Giovi

The story about the Canadian baby named Jovi made me wonder: How many U.S. babies have been named Jovi after Bon Jovi?

I mean, the band has been around for decades. And it’s an American band, after all. Surely a few American babies have been named Jovi over the years.

According to SSA data, there wasn’t much interest in the name Jovi in the early 1980s. Not too surprising, as Bon Jovi’s breakthrough album Slippery When Wet wasn’t released until August of 1986.

Right on cue, babies named Jovi began popping up in 1987:

Usage began to wane in the mid-1990s, but began picking up steam again in the mid-2000s (the decade).

Why is it more popular now than ever before? Here are some possible explanations.

First, Bon Jovi started releasing country-tinged material in 2006. They put out an entire country rock album, Lost Highway, in 2007. So perhaps country music fans had a lot to do with this increase.

Second, the teens who listened to Bon Jovi in the 1980s would have started having kids of their own in the 1990s and 2000s. Maybe these long-term fans are using the name now as a belated tribute.

Third, Jovi could be piggybacking on any of several baby-naming trends:

• The unique name trend
• The symbolic surname trend (Jagger, Emerson, Kennedy)
• The ethnic name trend (Giovanni, which is related to Jovi/Giovi, is currently at an all-time high)

These trends may make Jovi sound appealing even to those who aren’t big Bon Jovi fans. (If those people even exist! I doubt it.)

Would you ever consider using the name Jovi for a baby? If so, would you use it as a boy name, a girl name, or would gender not matter?

P.S. Bon Jovi takes its name from the lead singer’s real-life Italian surname, Bongiovi.