How popular is the baby name Martika 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 Martika.

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Popularity of the baby name Martika


Posts that mention the name Martika

What gave the baby name Clarissa a boost in the early 1990s?

The character Clarissa Darling from the TV series "Clarissa Explains It All" (1991-1994)
Clarissa Darling from “Clarissa Explains It All

The baby name Clarissa had already been on the rise for several decades when, in 1992, usage increased more sharply than usual. Several years later, the name reached peak popularity:

  • 1997: 1,091 baby girls named Clarissa [rank: 266th]
  • 1996: 1,157 baby girls named Clarissa [rank: 241st]
  • 1995: 1,201 baby girls named Clarissa [rank: 239th] – peak usage
  • 1994: 1,185 baby girls named Clarissa [rank: 237th] – peak ranking
  • 1993: 1,074 baby girls named Clarissa [rank: 258th]
  • 1992: 1,141 baby girls named Clarissa [rank: 244th]
  • 1991: 909 baby girls named Clarissa [rank: 305th]
  • 1990: 853 baby girls named Clarissa [rank: 322nd]
  • 1989: 759 baby girls named Clarissa [rank: 335th]

Here’s a visual:

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

What accounts for this?

My guess is the TV series Clarissa Explains it All, which aired on Nickelodeon from early 1991 to late 1994.

The show’s main character was witty teenager Clarissa Darling (played by Melissa Joan Hart), who frequently broke the fourth wall — speaking directly to viewers about the things that were going on in her life and how she felt about them.

Two other memorable characters were Clarissa’s obnoxious younger brother Ferguson (who was a Republican, just like Alex P. Keaton of Family Ties) and her best friend Sam (who always climbed a ladder up to Clarissa’s second-story bedroom window).

Interestingly, Clarissa introduces herself in the very first episode of the series with some commentary about her name:

Hi, I’m Clarissa. Clarissa Darling. Ok, I didn’t choose the name. I wanted Jade. But by that time, it was too late already.

Anything without a last name would be better, like, Martika. Or Madonna would have been great. But no one asked me.

The name Clarissa is based on the name Clara, which is derived from the Latin word clarus, meaning “bright, clear.”

What are your thoughts on Clarissa?

(And, if we pretend for a second that the sitcom never happened, do you think the usage of Clarissa would have kept rising past the mid-1990s? If so, how high do you think the name could have climbed in the rankings?)

Sources: Clarissa Explains It All – Wikipedia, Clara – Wiktionary, SSA

P.S. Another early ’90s prime-time TV show that featured a quirky teenage girl (with an equally quirky sense of fashion) was Blossom.

Where did the baby name Axl come from in 1988?

The Guns N' Roses album "Appetite for Destruction" (1987).
Guns N’ Roses album

We’re well into November, and while I don’t typically experience “November Rain” — usually just November snow — now’s a good time to talk about Axl, the name of the guy who sang “November Rain.”

Axl debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1988:

  • 1990: 25 baby boys named Axl
  • 1989: 21 baby boys named Axl
  • 1988: 9 baby boys named Axl [debut]
  • 1987: unlisted
  • 1986: unlisted

The next year, the names Axle and Aksel both debuted, while the already-in-use name Axel (which can be traced back to the biblical name Absalom) more than doubled in usage.

The influence? Axl Rose, lead singer of the rock band Guns N’ Roses.

The band’s debut album Appetite for Destruction was released in July of 1987. It became a commercial success the next year, after the band started touring and releasing singles such as “Sweet Child o’ Mine” (peaked at #1 in Sept. 1988), “Welcome to the Jungle” (#7 in Dec. ’88), and “Paradise City” (#5 in Mar. ’89).

Axl Rose grew up in Lafayette, Indiana, with the name William “Bill” Bailey. As a teen, he discovered that his surname at birth had been Rose, so he started using it. Not long after that, he adopted the first name Axl:

One of the short-lived local bands he’d sung with was called AXL, which then became his moniker. When the band broke up, he kept using the name, and styled himself “W. Axl Rose.”

And in early 1986, right before signing with Geffen Records, he legally changed his name to “W. Axl Rose.”

axl, name, music video, GNR
W. Axl Rose grave from the “Don’t Cry” music video (1991)

Unexpectedly, the name is more popular today than ever before:

  • 2017: 335 baby boys named Axl [rank: 716th]
  • 2016: 305 baby boys named Axl [rank: 778th]
  • 2015: 313 baby boys named Axl [rank: 760th]
  • 2014: 266 baby boys named Axl [rank: 842nd]
  • 2013: 111 baby boys named Axl
  • 2012: 102 baby boys named Axl

This is probably thanks to another singer, Fergie, who welcomed a baby boy in August of 2013 and named him Axl after Axl Rose. (Some ’80s trivia for you: Stacy “Fergie” Ferguson was on Kids Incorporated with Marta “Martika” Marrero.)

What are your thoughts on the baby name Axl? Would you use it?

Sources:

P.S. How did the band name “Guns N’ Roses” come to be? It was created from the surnames of two of the founding members, Axl Rose and Tracii Guns (born Tracy Richard Irving Ulrich), essentially. More precisely, it came from the merger of the bands they were in at the time: Hollywood Rose and L.A. Guns.

Celebrity baby name (from a dream): Axl Jack

twilight

Singer Fergie and her husband, actor Josh Duhamel, recently welcomed a baby boy. They named him Axl Jack.

How did Fergie come up with the name Axl? Here’s what she told Ellen DeGeneres:

“I had this dream, and I was in the audience at the festival. It was outdoors and it was all grimy and nobody knew who I was,” the 38-year-old Black-Eyed Pea said. “On stage singing was Jim Morrison and then came Bob Marley and then Axl Rose. I was in heaven in this dream, and I’m dancing and just getting into the music.”

It was then that Fergie awoke, roused from her dream by the kick of her unborn son. (She and Duhamel welcomed Axl Jack into the world on Aug. 29.)

This immediately made me think of Easton August, daughter of actress Elisabeth Rohm. Easton’s name also came from a dream.

Here are the popularity graphs for Axl and Jack, if you want to see how these names are doing on the charts right now.

And, while we’re checking out graphs, here’s how Fergie — a Kids Incorporated alum, just like Martika — has influenced the name Fergie over the last few years.

Source: Fergie reveals son’s name Axl Jack came to her in a dream: ‘It just had this ring to it’

Image: Adapted from Twilight crescent Moon by ESO/G. Brammer under CC BY 4.0.

Where did the baby name Martika come from in 1986?

Martika's self-titled debut album (1988).
Martika album

The name Martika began popping up in the U.S. baby name data in the mid-1980s:

  • 1988: 8 baby girls named Martika
  • 1987: 12 baby girls named Martika
  • 1986: 13 baby girls named Martika [debut]
  • 1985: unlisted
  • 1984: unlisted

Why?

Because that’s when American singer/actress Martika (pronounced mar-TEE-kuh) began making a name for herself as the character Gloria on the children’s musical variety series Kids Incorporated (1984-1994).

“Martika” was both the nickname and stage name of Marta Marrero, born in California in 1969 to Cuban parents who’d fled the island “shortly after the revolution.”

In 1988, her debut album Martika was released. It featured the popular single “Toy Soldiers.” (This song was sampled recently by Eminem.)

Her second album, Martika’s Kitchen, came out in 1991.

As you might expect, the name Martika became much more popular in the late ’80s and early ’90s:

  • 1994: 47 baby girls named Martika
  • 1993: 69 baby girls named Martika
  • 1992: 179 baby girls named Martika
  • 1991: 146 baby girls named Martika
  • 1990: 273 baby girls named Martika [rank: 756th]
  • 1989: 207 baby girls named Martika [rank: 892nd]
  • 1988: 8 baby girls named Martika

It even gave rise to two variants, Marteka and Martica, both of which debuted in 1989.

But as the ’90s rolled along and the singer’s fame began to fade, the baby name Martika became less popular. It ended up dropping out of the SSA data entirely in 2002.

What are your thoughts on the baby name Martika?

Sources:

  • Biography – Martika
  • Larkin, Colin. The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music. 2nd ed. London: Guinness Publishing, 1995.
  • SSA