How popular is the baby name Hitler 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 Hitler.

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Popularity of the baby name Hitler


Posts that mention the name Hitler

Where did the baby name Rommel come from in 1943?

Movie poster for "The Desert Fox" (1951)

We’ve talked about the baby name Hitler before, but that particular Nazi-inspired name was never common enough to be included in the U.S. baby name data.

Rommel, on the other hand — a reference to German field marshal Erwin Rommel (1891–1944) — debuted in 1943, right in the middle of WWII:

  • 1945: unlisted
  • 1944: unlisted
  • 1943: 5 baby boys named Rommel [debut]
  • 1942: unlisted
  • 1941: unlisted

Erwin Rommel was put in charge of the German Africa Corps in February of 1941, during the North African Campaign (which included the Tunisian Campaign). Rommel achieved “stunning early victories there,” and the British press dubbed him the Desert Fox. But the Allies were eventually victorious in North Africa, and the Germans surrendered in May of 1943.

The baby name Rommel might have been a one-hit wonder in the data had the movie The Desert Fox (1951), a biographical film about Rommel that portrayed the German officer very sympathetically, not come out nearly a decade later.

  • 1953: 7 baby boys named Rommel
  • 1952: 8 baby boys named Rommel
  • 1951: 6 baby boys named Rommel
  • 1950: unlisted
  • 1949: unlisted

The movie was based on the Desmond Young book Rommel: The Desert Fox (1950), the first Rommel biography. It was particularly popular in Britain.

What does the German surname Rommel mean? It may have originally been a nickname for a noisy person, as it derives from the German verb rummeln, meaning “to make noise” or “to create a create a disturbance.”

What are your thoughts on the baby name Rommel?

Sources:

NYC baby named “Adolf Hitler” promptly renamed

Adolf Hitler Mittel, born in 1943 in Queens

Remember when 3-year-old birthday boy Adolf Hitler Campbell caught everyone’s attention back in 2008 for being named after the most infamous dictator of all time?

Believe it or not, a similar thing happened way back in 1943 — right in the middle of World War II.

Joseph and Bertha Mittel of Astoria, Queens, welcomed their seventh child in January of 1943 and decided to name him Adolf Hitler Mittel.

Joseph said that “the whole thing started as a joke. Before the baby was born, I bet my wife that she would have triplets and that if she didn’t I’d name the baby Adolf Hitler. And I did.”

Bertha didn’t care for the name, “but [she] named the other kids and [she] thought he ought to have his say this once.”

Adolf Hitler Mittel became front-page news across the country. Here’s some of what Joseph told the press:

“Yes, sir, the baby’s name is Adolf Hitler and it’s not a joke.” declared the father, an unemployed woodworker.

“The real Adolf Hitler doesn’t mean anything to me, but I’m of German-Austrian descent and that’s one reason why I picked the name. I don’t think the name will be a handicap, because after all there are lots of people named after persons in the same class as Hitler, such as Napoleon, Caesar and others.

“He’ll grow up and be a good man despite the name.”

Needless to say, the public was not supportive.

And, almost immediately, Joseph announced that he was willing to change it. “I certainly don’t want to hurt the little guy’s future. Judging from the riding the papers and the public are giving us, the only thing to do is to find him another name.”

That new name? The very patriotic Theodore Roosevelt Mittel.

Mother Mittel said she always liked the name Theodore; Father Mittel said she always admired Theodore Roosevelt–and they filed the name forthwith with the Jamaica office of the board of health.

Dr. Ernest L. Stebbins, New York City’s Commissioner of Health at the time, called the name change a “humanitarian move.”

Sources:

  • “Dad Willing to Change Name of Son, ‘Adolf Hitler’ Mittel.” Evening News [Tonawanda, NY] 10 Feb. 1943: 6.
  • “Now It’s Theodore Roosevelt, Not Adolf H.” Deseret News 10 Feb. 1943: 3.
  • “This World We Live In.” Prescott Evening Courier 10 Feb. 1943: 1.

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: