How popular is the baby name Larisa 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 Larisa.

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Popularity of the baby name Larisa


Posts that mention the name Larisa

Where did the baby name Laryssa come from?

The character Dr. Karen Werner (played by Laryssa Lauret) on the TV series "The Doctors" (1963-1982).
Laryssa Lauret on “The Doctors

The name Laryssa debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1968, when it was suddenly given to nearly 70 baby girls:

  • 1970: 7 baby girls named Laryssa
  • 1969: 22 baby girls named Laryssa
  • 1968: 67 baby girls named Laryssa [debut]
  • 1967: unlisted
  • 1966: unlisted

It was the name that debuted most impressively that year, and it went on to rank as one of the biggest girl-name debuts of all time.

The less-common variant Lyrissa debuted the same year, and the more-common variants Larissa and Larisa both saw higher around the same time. (Larissa jumped into the top 1,000 for the first time in 1967, in fact.)

What’s the reason?

An actress featured on the popular TV soap opera The Doctors (1963-1982). Laryssa Lauret played character Dr. Karen Werner, who was introduced in 1967 and had a heavy German accent. One writer later described the character as “the resident Teutonic trouble-maker.”

Laryssa Lauret, an American actress of Ukrainian descent, was born Larysa Kukrycka in Warsaw in 1939. She was raised in Austria for a time, then finished her schooling in New York. She shares her name with a martyr, a nymph and various ancient Greek cities. According to this Greek-English Lexicon, the meaning of the name is “citadel.”

The Doctors also influenced the usage of at least two other baby names:

  • Carolee saw a jump in usage in 1968, the year after actress Carolee Campbell originated the role of like-named character Carolee Simpson, R.N.
  • Sindee re-entered the data in 1963, the year actress Sindee Ann Richards appeared on the show for 5 sequential episodes as “Jennie.”

But getting back to Laryssa…do you like the name? How do you prefer to spell it?

Source: “Ukrainian Actress to Appear in TV Show.” Ukrainian Weekly 15 Jan. 1978: 4.

P.S. Sindee was put on the onomastic map in the 1950s by a baby-related news story.

What popularized the baby name Lara in the 1960s?

Yesterday we looked at the baby name Laura, which saw a curious dip in usage from 1965 to 1967:

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

You know what was happening at the very same time? A drastic increase in the usage of the very similar name Lara, which suddenly jumped into the top 1,000 in 1966:

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

Here’s the data, side-by-side:

Girls named LauraGirls named Lara
196818,743 (rank: 11th)1,295 (rank: 227th)
196715,817 (rank: 15th)945 (rank: 277th)
196615,549 (rank: 19th)236 (rank: 618th)
196516,213 (rank: 18th)65 (rank: 1,376th)
196418,974 (rank: 14th)57 (rank: 1,512th)

So…what caused Lara to suddenly skyrocket (and thereby steal some of Laura’s thunder)?

Movie poster for Doctor Zhivago (1965)

The film Doctor Zhivago, which was released at the very end of 1965 and which, accounting for inflation, currently ranks as the eighth highest-grossing film of all time in the U.S.

Doctor Zhivago, based on the 1957 Boris Pasternak novel of the same name, was a drama set in Russia during the early 1900s — primarily around the time of WWI and the Russian Revolution. The main character was married physician/poet Yuri Zhivago (played by Omar Sharif), who was having an affair with Larisa “Lara” Antipova (played by Julie Christie), the wife of a political activist.

But it was more than just the character — we can’t ignore the influence of the film’s leitmotif “Lara’s Theme.” After Doctor Zhivago came out, it was turned into a Grammy-winning pop song, “Somewhere, My Love,” that name-checked the character in the lyrics:

Lara, my own, think of me now and then
Godspeed, my love, till you are mine again

Renditions of both versions of the song ended up peaking on Billboard‘s “Hot 100” list during the summer of 1966: Ray Conniff’s “Somewhere, My Love” at #9, and Roger Williams’ “Lara’s Theme” at #65.

Ironically, the names Lara and Laura are not related. Laura comes from the Latin name Laurus, meaning “laurel,” whereas the Russian name Lara is a short form of the Greek myth name Larisa, which may have been inspired by the ancient city of Larisa.

The movie also seems to have given a boost to the name Yuri (which had debuted a few years earlier thanks to cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin). And it must be connected somehow to the 1980 debut of the one-hit wonder name Zhivago. (Perhaps it was airing on TV around that time?) “Zhivago” isn’t a Russian surname, incidentally — it’s a Church Slavonic word meaning “the living.”

Getting back to Lara…the name’s popularity declined after the 1960’s, but, so far, it has never dropped out of the top 1,000. (The uptick in usage in 2001-2002 corresponds to the release of the movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, which starred Angelina Jolie.)

Which name do you prefer, Lara or Laura? Why?

Sources: Doctor Zhivago (film) – Wikipedia, Doctor Zhivago – Orthodox England, Lara’s Theme – Wikipedia, Top 10 Highest-Grossing Films of All Time in the US, Ray Conniff – Billboard, Roger Williams – Billboard, Ray Conniff – Grammy.com, Laura – Behind the Name, Lara – Behind the Name

P.S. A woman named Lara after the Zhivago character was mentioned in Name Quotes #78.

Popular and unusual baby names in Moscow, 2017

Flag of Russia
Flag of Russia

According to the Moscow Civil Registry Office, the most popular baby names in the city in 2017 were Sofiya and Aleksandr.

Here are Moscow’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2017:

Girl Names
1. Sofiya, 3,780 baby girls
2. Mariya, 2,709
3. Anna, 2,595
4. Alisa (Alice), 2,200
5. Viktoriya, 2,124
6. Anastasiya, 2,082
7. Polina, 1,962
8. Aleksandra, 1,817
9. Yelizaveta (Elizabeth), 1,806
10. Yekaterina (Catherine), 1,676

Boy Names
1. Aleksandr, 3,201 baby boys
2. Mikhail, 2,677
3. Artem, 2,621
4. Maksim, 2,568
5. Daniil, 2,405
6. Ivan, 2,289
7. Dmitriy, 1,968
8. Kirill, 1,478
9. Matvey, 1,459
10. Andrey (Andrew), 1,453

The top names, Sofiya and Aleksandr, were the same back in 2014.

Last year’s uncommon baby names included…

  • Girl names: Agrafena, Dorofeya, Galina, Inna, Isidora, Iskra, Ladislava, Larisa, Lyudmila, Vassa, Zinaida, Zlatozara
  • Boy names: Anatoliy, Forvard (Forward), Franklin, Gennadiy, Kharlampiy, Ladomir, Nord, Orpheus, Patrikey, Valentin, Valeriy, Velesvet, Vitaliy

And here’s something cool: If you want to see month-by-month baby name data for Moscow, it’s available at Moscow’s Open Data website.

Source: Moscow registry offices named the most unusual children’s names of 2017

Image: Adapted from Flag of Russia (public domain)

Arrr! Baby names for “Talk Like a Pirate Day”

Avast! Did you know that today, September 19th, is Talk Like a Pirate Day?

“Arrr” itself doesn’t make a great name — even for pirates — but here’s the next best thing: over 130 names that feature the “arrr” sound.

Girl Names with “Arrr”

  • Araminta
  • Arcadia
  • Arden
  • Aretha
  • Aria
  • Ariana, Arianna
  • Arlene
  • Arlette
  • Arlynne
  • Artemis
  • Barbara
  • Barbie
  • Carla
  • Carlene
  • Carley
  • Carmel
  • Carmella
  • Carmen
  • Charlene
  • Charlotte
  • Charmaine
  • Darcy
  • Daria
  • Darla
  • Darlene
  • Gardenia
  • Harbor
  • Harlow
  • Harmony
  • Hildegarde
  • Karla
  • Katarina
  • Larisa, Larissa
  • Mara
  • Marcella
  • Marcia
  • Margaret
  • Margot, Margaux
  • Maria
  • Mariah
  • Mariana
  • Marie
  • Marina
  • Mariska
  • Marissa
  • Marjorie
  • Marla
  • Marlena
  • Marlene
  • Marley
  • Marnie
  • Marta
  • Martha
  • Marva
  • Martina
  • Narcissa
  • Parthenia (…Parthenope?)
  • Pilar
  • Rosario
  • Scarlett
  • Skylar
  • Starla

Boy Names with “Arrr”

  • Arcadio
  • Archer
  • Archibald
  • Archie
  • Ari
  • Arlo
  • Arnold
  • Arsenio
  • Arthur
  • Balthazar
  • Barnaby
  • Barton
  • Bernard (…Bernarr?)
  • Carl
  • Carlisle
  • Carlton
  • Carson
  • Carter
  • Carver
  • Charles
  • Clark
  • Dario
  • Darius
  • Darwin
  • Edgar
  • Edward
  • Finbar
  • Garfield
  • Gerard
  • Gunnar
  • Hardy
  • Harley
  • Harper
  • Harvey
  • Howard
  • Karl
  • Lars
  • Larson
  • Lazarus
  • Leonard
  • Marcel
  • Marcellus
  • Mario
  • Marius
  • Marc, Mark
  • Marcus, Markus
  • Marlow
  • Marshall
  • Martin, Marty
  • Marvin
  • Nazario
  • Oscar
  • Parker
  • Richard
  • Stewart, Stuart
  • Ward
  • Warner
  • Warren
  • Warrick
  • Willard
  • Yardley

Which of the Arrr-names above do you like best? Did I miss any good ones?

Update, 9/20: A few additions…

Source: How To… – International Talk Like a Pirate Day
Image: Adapted from Flag of Edward England by WarX under CC BY-SA 3.0.

[Latest update: July 2023]