How popular is the baby name Star 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 Star.
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In the girls’ top 10, Ella and Isabella replaced Mila (now 13th) and Sophie (now 17th).
In the boys’ top 10, Leo replaced Arlo (now 18th).
Baby names that were rejected last year include Heaven-Princezz-Star, Majestee-Honours, and Royale-Bubz.
New Zealand also released a set of Maori baby name rankings (topped by Mia and Nikau), but this kicked off a debate about the classification of Maori names, as many of the names listed (e.g., Mia, Nina, Aria, Ari) have other potential derivations.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health website doesn’t have baby name data for 2016, but it does have data covering 1995 to 2013, so let’s work with that.
The most popular baby names in Los Angeles County in 2013 were Sophia and Jacob. Here are L.A.’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2013:
On August 21, the United States will see its first coast-to-coast solar eclipse since 1918. If you’re planning to have (or conceive!) a baby around the time of the eclipse, you might be interested in a name that marks the event (but that perhaps isn’t as obvious as Eclipse itself).
So what are your options?
Names with “celestial” associations
A solar eclipse involves the alignment of three celestial bodies — the sun (a star), the moon, and the Earth — in the sky. You could use a name that is associated in some way with one of these elements, such as…
“Sun” names
Haru (Japanese)
Helios (ancient Greek)
Hina (Japanese)
Inti (Quechua)
Nou (Hmong)
Ra (ancient Egyptian)
Ravi (Sanskrit)
Shams (Arabic)
Sol (Spanish & Portuguese, ultimately from Latin)
Solaris (Latin)
Soleil (French)
Sunniva (Old English)
Sunny (English)
Surya (Sanskrit)
“Star” names
Aster (ancient Greek)
Astra (based on the ancient Greek word)
Citlalli (Nahuatl)
Estelle (French)
Estrella (Spanish)
Hoshi (Japanese)
Najm & Najma (Arabic)
Seren (Welsh)
Star (English)
Starla (based on the English word)
Stjarna (Icelandic)
Stella (Latin)
Tähti (Finnish)
Tara (Sanskrit)
“Moon” names
Aylin (Turkish)
Badr (Arabic)
Chandra (Sanskrit)
Dal (Korean)
Dawa (Tibetan)
Ilargi (Basque)
Luna (Latin)
Lusine (Armenian)
Mahina (Hawaiian & Tongan)
Máni (Icelandic)
Metztli (Nahuatl)
Moon (English)
Qamar (Arabic)
Selene (ancient Greek)
“Earth” names
Avani (Sanskrit)
Bhumi (Sanskrit)
Eartha (based on the English word)
Gaia (ancient Greek)
Ki (Sumerian)
Tierra (Spanish)
Tlalli (Nahuatl)
“Sky” names
Akash (Sanskrit)
Alya (Arabic)
Anu (Sumerian)
Caelus (Latin)
Céleste (French)
Ciel (French)
Cielo (Spanish)
Lani (Hawaiian)
Ortzi (Basque)
Sky (English)
Skyla (based on the English word)
Sora (Japanese)
You could even look for a name that contains more than one of these elements. I’ve come across a handful of names that happen to contain both an element meaning “sun” and an element meaning “moon,” for instance. Examples include Ravichandra (Sanskrit), Künnei (Yakut), Aygün (Turkish), and Günay (also Turkish).
Names with “dark” associations
The main event, from an Earthling’s perspective, is the darkening of the sun thanks to the moon getting in the way and casting its shadow over us. So you could use a name associated in some way with darkness, such as…
“Shadow” names
Chhaya (Sanskrit)
Shade (English)
Shadow (English)
Umbra (Latin)
Zalaph (Hebrew)
Zillah (Hebrew)
“Dark” or “Black” names
Adham (Arabic)
Blake (English surname)
Charna (Yiddish)
Ciar & Ciara (Irish)
Ciarán (Irish)
Dubhán (Irish)
Duff (Irish surname)
Jett (English)
Kara (Turkish)
Krishna (Sanskrit)
Melaina (ancient Greek)
Melania (Latin, based on melaina)
Mélanie (French form of Melania)
Raven (English)
Sullivan (Irish surname)
“Night” names
Layla (Arabic)
Nisha (Sanskrit)
Njóla (Icelandic)
Noctis (Latin)
Nox (Latin)
Nyx (ancient Greek)
Rajani (Sanskrit)
Rajnish (Sanskrit)
Tuta (Quechua)
Yoalli (Nahuatl)
I think Blake and Sullivan are particularly intriguing choices.
The English surname Blake can come from either of two similar Middle English words that happen to have opposite definitions: blac, meaning “black,” or blac, meaning “wan, pale, white, fair.” So it manages to encapsulate the concepts of both darkness and lightness — two key elements of an eclipse.
And the Irish surname Sullivan, “descendant of Súileabhán,” is based on the Gaelic personal name Súileabhán, meaning “little dark eye” — which sounds a lot like a poetic description of an eclipse.
Name pairings with both “celestial” and “dark” associations
You could combine some of the “celestial” and “dark” names above to get something more specific, like…
Layla Soleil: “night” and “sun”
Jett Helios: “black” and “sun”
Ciarán Sol: “black” and “sun”
Mélanie Stella: “dark” and “star” (“Dark Star” is also a Grateful Dead song)
Luna Zillah: “moon” and “shadow” (“Moon Shadow” is also a Cat Stevens song)
Names (or name pairings) featuring the letters “S” and “E”
This is as inconspicuous as it gets. Commemorate the solar eclipse simply by using the letters “S” and “E” in combination. You could choose a single name that starts with “Se-,” like…
Sela Selene (“moon” in Greek) Selma Seraphina Seren (“star” in Welsh) Serenity
Sean Sebastian Sefton Sergio Seth Severino
Or, you could use a pair of names that start with “S-” and “E-,” such as…
Sabrina Eden Sydney Elise Sarah Evangeline Susanna Elizabeth
Simon Elijah Spencer Ellis Shane Everett Samuel Edward
Which of the above names (or combos) do you like most? What other solar eclipse-themed ideas would you add to this list?
P.S. Did you know that Cleopatra gave her twins the middle names Selene and Helios?
Update, 5/15/2018: The baby name Eclipse debuted in the 2017 SSA data! The baby name Moon also more than tripled in usage last year.
Update, 12/31/2022: The rare Icelandic name Myrkvi can mean “eclipse” (also “darkness”).
Update, 2/28/2023: Actress Soleil Moon Frye‘s given names mean “sun” and (of course) “moon.”
Sources:
Hanks, Patrick. (Ed.) Dictionary of American Family Names. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
In 1973, from February 27 until May 8, American Indian Movement (AIM) activists and Oglala Lakota occupied the town of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
The standoff lasted 71 days, and both the activists and the federal government were armed. Gunfire wounded several people on each side and ultimately killed two of the occupiers.
The first victim was 48-year-old activist Frank Clearwater, who had hitchhiked to Wounded Knee with his pregnant wife Morning Star, 37. They arrived on April 16, Frank was shot in the head on April 17, and he died in the hospital on April 25. The news of his death was widely reported.
The same year, the baby name Morningstar appeared in the U.S. baby name data for the very first time:
1976: unlisted
1975: 9 baby girls named Morningstar
1974: unlisted
1973: 8 baby girls named Morningstar [debut]
1972: unlisted
1971: unlisted
(The SSA data omits spaces, so some these babies may have been named “Morning Star.”)
Supporters of the Indian movement extolled Frank. The 1973 folk song “The Ballad of Frank Clearwater,” for instance, refers to Frank as an “Apache who longed to be free.”
But Frank’s background remains unclear. Some sources said he was Apache, while others said he was Cherokee. Some sources said he was from North Carolina, while others said he was from from Oklahoma.
One thing that is clear about Frank is his legal name: “Frank J. Clear.”
Morning Star’s name may have similarly been invented. And it’s possible that neither she nor Frank was Native American — that they were simply people who (like Marlon Brando) supported the American Indian Movement, and who chose to go by Indian-sounding names as a sign of solidarity.
We may never know Morning Star’s true identity, or what became of her (or her baby) after 1973. But her name — be it real or assumed — lives on in the U.S. baby name data…
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