How popular is the baby name Gwendolen 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 Gwendolen.

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Popularity of the baby name Gwendolen


Posts that mention the name Gwendolen

Quotes about names from books

Cover of the book "Anne of Green Gables" (1908)

A selection of quotes about names from various books…

From the book How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie:

Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.

From the book Anne of Green Gables (1908) by Lucy Maud Montgomery, a conversation about names between characters Anne Shirley and Marilla Cuthbert:

“Well, don’t cry any more. We’re not going to turn you out-of-doors to-night. You’ll have to stay here until we investigate this affair. What’s your name?”

The child hesitated for a moment.

“Will you please call me Cordelia?” she said eagerly.

“Call you Cordelia? Is that your name?”

“No-o-o, it’s not exactly my name, but I would love to be called Cordelia. It’s such a perfectly elegant name.”

“I don’t know what on earth you mean. If Cordelia isn’t your name, what is?”

“Anne Shirley,” reluctantly faltered forth the owner of that name, “but, oh, please do call me Cordelia. It can’t matter much to you what you call me if I’m only going to be here a little while, can it? And Anne is such an unromantic name.”

“Unromantic fiddlesticks!” said the unsympathetic Marilla. “Anne is a real good plain sensible name. You’ve no need to be ashamed of it.”

“Oh, I’m not ashamed of it,” explained Anne, “only I like Cordelia better. I’ve always imagined that my name was Cordelia–at least, I always have of late years. When I was young I used to imagine it was Geraldine, but I like Cordelia better now. But if you call me Anne please call me Anne spelled with an E.”

“What difference does it make how it’s spelled?” asked Marilla with another rusty smile as she picked up the teapot.

“Oh, it makes such a difference. It looks so much nicer. When you hear a name pronounced can’t you always see it in your mind, just as if it was printed out? I can; and A-n-n looks dreadful, but A-n-n-e looks so much more distinguished. If you’ll only call me Anne spelled with an E I shall try to reconcile myself to not being called Cordelia.”

From Anthony S. Kline’s translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book 9:

When the pains grew, and her burden pushed its own way into the world, and a girl was born, the mother ordered it to be reared, deceitfully, as a boy, without the father realising. She had all that she needed, and no one but the nurse knew of the fraud. The father made good his vows, and gave it the name of the grandfather: he was Iphis. The mother was delighted with the name, since it was appropriate for either gender, and no one was cheated by it.

From the 2008 novel The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (which is narrated by character Katniss Everdeen):

The girl with the arrows, Glimmer I hear someone call her — ugh, the names the people in District 1 give their children are so ridiculous — anyway, Glimmer scales the tree until the branches begin to crack under her feet and then has the good sense to stop.

From the book The Vicar of Wakefield (1766) by Oliver Goldsmith:

Our second child, a girl, I intended to call after her aunt Grissel; but my wife, who during her pregnancy had been reading romances, insisted upon her being called Olivia. In less than another year we had another daughter, and now I was determined that Grissel should be her name; but a rich relation taking a fancy to stand godmother, the girl was, by her directions, called Sophia; so that we had two romantic names in the family; but I solemnly protest I had no hand in it.

From the novel I Shall Wear Midnight (2010) by Terry Pratchett:

[T]he coach door opened again and one dainty good touched the flint. It was her: Angelica or Letitia or something else out of the garden; in fact Tiffany knew full well it was Letitia, but surely she could be excused just a tiny touch of nasty in the privacy of her own head? Letitia! What a name. Halfway between a salad and a sneeze.

From the novel The Notorious Miss Lisle (1911) by Mrs. Baillie Reynolds:

“The notorious Miss Lisle had the most weird Christian name you ever heard of — let’s see now, what was it? Not Guinevere, nor Gwendolen — Oh, yes, I have it. Gaenor! G, a, e, n, o, r! Did you ever hear such a name as that?”

[Latest update: Sept. 2023]

Where did the baby name Guendalina come from in 1964?

The character Guendalina from the Italian film "Guendalina" (1957)
Guendalina from “Guendalina

The pretty name Guendalina appeared for the first and only time in the U.S. baby name data in the mid-1960s:

  • 1966: unlisted
  • 1965: unlisted
  • 1964: 5 baby girls named Guendalina [debut]
  • 1963: unlisted
  • 1962: unlisted

It ultimately comes from a 1957 Italian movie called Guendalina, a romantic comedy about an Italian teenager named Guendalina (played by actress Jacqueline Sassard). The movie apparently never saw wide release in the United States.

So…how did a late ’50s foreign film come to affect mid-’60s American baby names?

The answer is television. Various television stations played the film during the first half of the ’60s, according to the TV schedules published in the newspapers. As a result, not only did the name Guendalina rise above that 5-baby threshold to debut in the U.S. data, but the modified version Gwendalina became a one-hit wonder during that period as well (in 1961).

Do you like the name Guendalina, or do you prefer the original Welsh form Gwendolen?

Source: Guendalina (1957) – TCM.com

Baby names for the end of the world?

Mayan god Bolon Yokte' (middle)

You guys know the world is ending in two weeks, right?

At least, that’s how popular culture has misinterpreted the ending of the 13th b’ak’tun of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar on December 21, 2012.

If your due date is December 21, why not commemorate the date with an “end of the world”-inspired baby name?

No, I’m not suggesting you go with something ridiculous like Armageddon or Apocalypse. (Though I have seen both used as names. Examples: Armageddon James Margerum, born in England in 1833, and Ulysses Apocalypse Johnson, born in California in 1992.)

Instead, try a name with a less obvious “end of the world” connection. Perhaps one of these:

  • Maya – the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar is most commonly associated with the Maya
  • Jeremiah – inspired by Maya
  • Nehemiah – inspired by Maya
  • Deedee – short for doomsday
  • Ann – short for annihilation
  • Catherine – inspired by cataclysm
  • Calypso – inspired by apocalypse
  • Arma – short for armageddon
  • Armand – inspired by armageddon
  • Armando – inspired by armageddon
  • Gideon – inspired by armageddon
  • Don – short for armageddon

Or try one of the dozens of names that happen to contain the word “end” (short for “end of the world,” of course).

  • Aviendha
  • Brenda
  • Brendan
  • Enda
  • Ender
  • Endia
  • Erendira
  • Glenda
  • Glendon
  • Glendora
  • Gwendolen/Gwendolyn
  • Henderson
  • Hendrik/Hendrick
  • Hendrika
  • Hendrix
  • Kendall
  • Kendra
  • Kendrick
  • Lavender
  • Legend
  • Mendel
  • Nagendra
  • Penda
  • Pendleton
  • Rajendra
  • Rosenda
  • Rosendo
  • Surendra
  • Townsend
  • Vendela
  • Wendell
  • Wendy
  • Zenda
  • Zendaya

What other “end of the world” baby names can you think of?

[Latest update: 2/2023]