How popular is the baby name Katina 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 Katina.

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Popularity of the baby name Katina


Posts that mention the name Katina

What gave the baby name Kalene a boost in 1993?

A couple of months ago, I got an email from someone who wanted to know why the baby name Kalene saw so much usage all of a sudden in 1993:

  • 1995: 41 baby girls named Kia
  • 1994: 85 baby girls named Kia
  • 1993: 204 baby girls named Kia [rank: 929th] – peak usage
  • 1992: 24 baby girls named Kia
  • 1991: 7 baby girls named Kia

Here’s a visual:

Graph of the usage of the baby name Kalene in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Kalene

In 1993, the name reached the top 1,000 for the first and only time. So did Kaylene.

Other Kalene-like names also saw higher usage in 1993, and at least one of them (Kaylean) was a newbie in the data.

KaleneKayleneKayleen
199541110147
199485144157
1993204*197*163
19922491119
1991777139
*Peak usage

I’d figured out the causes of similar spikes for similar names (Kaleena, Kaelin, Katina), but hadn’t gotten around to Kalene yet.

So I did some research. And I didn’t come up with anything useful until I found myself on the Kalene page of a random baby name site where several people happened to mention the same Hooked on Phonics commercial:

  • “…I seen a Hooked on Phonics Commercial…”
  • “…my mom got it off of the hooked on phonics commercial…”
  • “…I too saw the name on the Hooked On Phonics commercial…”
  • “…My mom got it off the commercial in the 1990’s…”
  • …”My mom named me Kalene because she saw it on tv…”
  • “…my name was originally Christie but my mom saw a ‘hooked on phonics’ commercial about a month after i was born and she changed my name…”

One of my favorite things ever is discovering cheesy pop culture enshrined in the baby name data (excellent example: Kebrina), so finding out that a Hooked on Phonics commercial influenced U.S. baby names was pretty epic for me.

Since that point, I’ve been searching for that specific Hooked on Phonics commercial featuring Kalene.

On YouTube I found a segment of a Hooked on Phonics commercial with a Cindy Brady-esque little girl. She seemed promising…but the segment didn’t include her name on-screen.

Little girl in a Hooked on Phonics commercial
Could this be Kalene?

That said, I did find a discussion thread from the 1990s — a cool piece of internet history in and of itself — that independently verified the existence of a Hooked on Phonics commercial featuring a girl named Kalene. So that was helpful.

(The search for a decades-old commercial is reminding me of our adventures with Deneen.)

So I’m not sure whether or not we’ve found Kalene yet, but one of the other Hooked on Phonics commercials I saw spotlighted a girl named Kia:

Little girl named Kia in a Hooked on Phonics commercial
Kia, age 9, in a Hooked on Phonics commercial

And, just like Kalene, the name Kia saw its highest-ever usage in 1993:

  • 1995: 211 baby girls named Kia [rank: 899th]
  • 1994: 229 baby girls named Kia [rank: 859th]
  • 1993: 344 baby girls named Kia [rank: 649th] – peak usage
  • 1992: 247 baby girls named Kia [rank: 813th]
  • 1991: 253 baby girls named Kia [rank: 809th]

(South Korean company Kia Motors began selling cars in the U.S. during the final months of 1993, but I doubt this had much impact on the name.)

…So now we have two Hooked on Phonics-influenced baby names. Amazing.

Question of the Day: Do you remember any other names from old Hooked on Phonics commercials? The company was advertising heavily on TV back in the 1990s — that much I remember — but I can’t recall any specific names from the commercials. Please leave a comment if you can think of any!


UPDATE, Nov. 2022: Kalene has been identified! (Thank you to reader Ellyn for the help!)

We’ve unearthed a Hooked on Phonics commercial featuring several different children, including the little blonde girl with pigtails. Turns out that her name is indeed Kalene!

Little girl named Kalene in a Hooked on Phonics commercial
Kalene, age 5, in a Hooked on Phonics commercial

Kia was also in the commercial:

Little girl named Kia in a Hooked on Phonics commercial
Kia again!

The other children were three boys named Blake, Billy, and Adam.

The trendiest baby names of all time?

I’m no stats whiz, but Nathan Yau of FlowingData and David Taylor of Prooffreader are, and each has taken a stab at determining/ranking the trendiest baby names of all time in the U.S.

The FlowingData list of trendiest baby names was published last year. Nathan analyzed girl names and boy names separately. Here are his top 5 for each gender:

Trendiest Girl NamesTrendiest Boy Names
1. Catina
2. Deneen
3. Aaliyah
4. Allisson
5. Katina
1. Jalen
2. Tevin
3. Elian
4. Demond
5. Mcarthur

The Prooffreader list of trendiest baby names was published earlier this month. David analyzed all the names together (his overall top 100 was 80% girl names, 20% boy names). Here are his top 5 for each gender (with placement on the original list in parentheses):

Trendiest Girl NamesTrendiest Boy Names
1. Linda (#1)
2. Brittany (#3)
3. Debra (#4)
4. Shirley (#5)
5. Ashley (#6)
1. Dewey (#2)
2. Jason (#11)
3. Grover (#15)
4. Mark (#20)
5. Woodrow (#30)

Click through and check out their full lists. Then come back and tell me which list/methodology you prefer, and why.

Top girl-name debuts of all time in the U.S. baby name data (21-30)

lotus bud

And now for the third installment of the top baby name debuts for girls.

From 30 to 21:

Greydis & Sharday, 2-way tie for #30

  • Greydis debuted with 100 baby girls in 2009.
    Inspired by Greidys Gil, winner of the TV beauty pageant Nuestra Belleza Latina 2009.
  • Sharday debuted with 100 baby girls in 1985.
    Inspired by singer Sade [shah-DAY].

Torey, #29

Tennille, #28

Izamar, #27

  • Izamar debuted with 107 baby girls in 1990.
    Inspired by Isamar Medina, a character on the telenovela La Revancha.

Kelis, #26

  • Kelis debuted with 108 baby girls in 2000.
    Inspired by singer Kelis.

Cotina, #25

Jaleesa, #24

  • Jaleesa debuted with 116 baby girls in 1987.
    Inspired by Jaleesa Vinson, a character on the TV sitcom A Different World.

Turkessa, #23

  • Turkessa debuted with 119 baby girls in 1975.
    Inspired by Turkessa (b. 1975), baby of Supremes singer Mary Wilson.

Azure, #22

  • Azure debuted with 121 baby girls in 1975.
    Inspired by Azure Dee, a character on the TV detective series Kojak. (Or by the song “Azure Dee,” inspired by the character and sung by Telly Savalas for that particular episode.)

Sharde, #21

  • Sharde debuted with 124 baby girls in 1985.
    Inspired by singer Sade [shah-DAY].

The final two groups of ten are coming up tomorrow and Friday. Stay tuned!

More of the top 50 baby name debuts for girls: 50-41, 40-31, 30-21, 20-11, 10-1

Image: Adapted from LotusBud0048a (public domain) by Frank “Fg2” Gualtieri

[Latest update: 7/2021]

The demise of the baby name Hillary

Hillary Clinton (in 1992)
Hillary Clinton

A cool post on the 14 most “poisoned” baby names by data scientist Hilary Parker reminded me that I haven’t yet written about the demise of the baby name Hillary. (Or Hilary. Or Chelsea.)

So let’s travel back to 1992 for a minute.

In mid-July, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton was selected as the Democratic candidate for the presidency. His wife Hillary and daughter Chelsea were now in the national spotlight.

In early November, Bill managed to beat Republican incumbent George H. W. Bush to become the 42nd president of the United States. Hillary and Chelsea would now stay in the national spotlight.

And in late November, a few weeks after the election, the Miami Herald printed this:

Now that the Clinton women are set to move into the White House, both names are becoming more popular among new parents.

For the first time, Chelsea has cracked the top 10 list of the most popular girl names in Florida. Name expert Leonard R. N. Ashley, a Brooklyn College professor, said he expects Hillary to also catch on.

[…]

The popularity of Chelsea, on the rise long before the presidential pre-teen made her Democratic convention appearance, is likely to get a boost from the first family pedigree, Ashley said.

The “name expert” got it wrong, of course.

Hillary did not catch on. Nor did Chelsea. Both names had been on the rise, but usage dropped significantly after 1992. Here’s the data:

Hillary

graph of usage of baby name hillary
  • 1995: 310 baby girls named Hillary [rank: 686th]
  • 1994: 408 baby girls named Hillary [rank: 566th]
  • 1993: 1,064 baby girls named Hillary [rank: 261st]
  • 1992: 2,521 baby girls named Hillary [rank: 132nd]
  • 1991: 1,789 baby girls named Hillary [rank: 166th]
  • 1990: 1,524 baby girls named Hillary [rank: 192nd]

That’s a 58% drop from 1992 to 1993. Hillary fell so low that it got pushed out of the top 1,000 entirely for two years (2002 and 2003).

Hilary

graph of usage of baby name hilary
  • 1995: 125 baby girls named Hilary [rank: 1,326th]
  • 1994: 145 baby girls named Hilary [rank: 1,210th]
  • 1993: 343 baby girls named Hilary [rank: 651st]
  • 1992: 1,170 baby girls named Hilary [rank: 234th]
  • 1991: 1,149 baby girls named Hilary [rank: 242nd]
  • 1990: 1,216 baby girls named Hilary [rank: 232nd]

A 71% drop from 1992 to 1993. Hilary was out of the top 1,000 by 1994 and hasn’t been back since. (Hilary Parker says the name Hilary is “clearly the most poisoned.”)

Chelsea

graph of usage of baby name chelsea
  • 1995: 6,760 baby girls named Chelsea [rank: 47th]
  • 1994: 7,717 baby girls named Chelsea [rank: 38th]
  • 1993: 11,288 baby girls named Chelsea [rank: 25th]
  • 1992: 16,174 baby girls named Chelsea [rank: 15th]
  • 1991: 13,511 baby girls named Chelsea [rank: 18th]
  • 1990: 12,782 baby girls named Chelsea [rank: 24th]

The drop here isn’t as dramatic — just 30% — but Chelsea was out of the top 100 by 1999. It currently ranks 222nd.

Why?

Why did the name Hillary slip after Hillary Clinton became a fixture in the White House?

Because she violated gender norms — that’s my guess.

Hillary Clinton was a new kind of First Lady. She was a lawyer, a businesswoman, a scholar and an activist. She was the first First Lady with an earned (vs. honorary) post-graduate degree, and the first to have her own professional career.

But, instead of being praised for her intelligence and ambition, she was criticized for it.

Just two months after the inauguration, Anna Quindlen of the New York Times made note of the double standard:

Maybe some of our daughters took notice of how Hillary Clinton was seen as abrasive, power-hungry and unfeminine when to some of us she seemed merely smart, outspoken and hard-working. Maybe they saw the masquerade and recognized intuitively the age-old message about how much more attractive women are when they are domestic, soft, contented, the message aimed over the years at Susan B. Anthony, Margaret Sanger, Eleanor Roosevelt and many, many others.

To expectant parents, it didn’t matter that Hillary Clinton was smart and successful. They began avoiding the name Hillary in 1993 because the First Lady — the most high-profile Hillary in the nation — was making her name seem “unfeminine.”

Do you agree? Disagree?

P.S. What are the 13 other “poisoned” names? The 9 to drop since the 1960s are Ashanti, Catina, Deneen, Farrah, Iesha, Infant, Katina, Khadijah and Renata. The other four — Celestine, Clementine, Dewey and Minna — are from the 1800s, a time when SSA data wasn’t too reliable.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Hillary Clinton in 1992 (public domain)