How popular is the baby name Mercury 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 Mercury.

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Popularity of the baby name Mercury


Posts that mention the name Mercury

Popular baby names in Sonoma County (California), 2015

Flag of California
Flag of California

According to Sonoma County’s data site SoCo Data, the most popular baby names in 2015 were Ava and Olivia (tie) and Mateo and Daniel (tie).

Here are the county’s top 5 girl names and top 5 boy names of 2015:

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Ava and Olivia (tie), 28 baby girls
2. Camila, 25
3. Isabella, Mia and Emma (3-way tie), 23
4. Charlotte and Sophia (tie), 21
5. Alexa, 20
1. Mateo and Daniel (tie), 28 baby boys
2. Jackson, 27
3. Sebastian, 25
4. Benjamin, 24
5. Julian, Jayden and Noah (3-way tie), 22

In 2014, the top names in the county were Emma and Logan.

Of the 1,204 girl names bestowed last year, 811 (67%) were used just once. A smaller proportion of the 919 boy names — 549 (60%) — were bestowed once. Here are a few of those single-use names:

Unique Girl NamesUnique Boy Names
Amarilla, Antimony, Edelweiss, Ember, Fanny, Lluvia, Lovely Estrella, Mae Pearl, Magnolia, Nkirote, Reminisce, Rosalene, Rurapenthe*, SummitAttimus, Banyan, Cypress, Cyprus, Destry, Ernestor, Fogatia, Iknav, Montgomery, Mercury, Orion, Quintil, Thornhill, Zinley

*Looks like Rurapenthe is based on “Rura Penthe,” the name of a planetoid used as a Klingon penal colony (!) in the Star Trek universe. Its name is a nod to Rorapandi, a penal colony island in the Disney movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954). Rorapandi was invented by Disney; it did not appear in the Jules Verne novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870).

Source: SoCo Data

Image: Adapted from Flag of California (public domain)

Where did the baby name Astrea come from in 1978?

The character Astrea from the animated TV series "The Space Sentinels" (1977).
Astrea from “The Space Sentinels

In 1978, the names Astria, Astrea and Astreia all debuted in the U.S. baby name data, and the name Astra saw its then-highest-ever usage (unsurpassed until 2020):

AstraAstriaAstreaAstreia
198055..
19791714..
197825†24*9*6*
197719...
19769...
*Debut, †Peak usage (up to that point)

What caused this sudden interest in the name Astrea?

A Saturday morning cartoon called The Space Sentinels (originally titled The Young Sentinels). It premiered in September of 1977, and the main characters were a trio of teenage superheroes that represented three different racial groups:

  • Mercury (Asian), “the amazing athlete who can match the speed of light”
  • Astrea (African-American), “able to assume any living form”
  • Hercules (white), “empowered with the strength of a hundred men”
The characters Hercules, Mercury and Astrea from the animated TV series "Space Sentinels" (1977).
Main characters of “The Space Sentinels

Astrea (pronounced ASS-tree-uh) was one of the few African-American superheroes on television around this time. (The Super Friends character Black Vulcan was another.)

Like Hercules and Mercury, Astrea’s name was taken from a figure in ancient mythology: the Greek goddess of justice, Astraea.

Though I’ve chosen the spelling Astrea for this post — because “Astrea” is the most common alternative spelling of “Astraea” — I have to admit that I don’t know which spelling was used in the cartoon. None of the episodes I watched on YouTube displayed the character’s name on-screen.

Speaking of episodes, not very many exist: only 13 aired before The Space Sentinels was cancelled. Was the mixed-race cartoon too ahead of its time to survive?

So which of those three debut spellings do you like best: Astria, Astrea or (one-hit wonder) Astreia?

Sources: