How popular is the baby name Sugar 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 Sugar.

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Popularity of the baby name Sugar


Posts that mention the name Sugar

Name quotes #91: Wendy, Elliot, Thorlogh

Bruce Springsteen's album "Born to Run" (1975)
Springsteen album

From the 2010 book Runaway Dream: Born to Run and Bruce Springsteen’s American Vision by Louis P. Masur:

Peter Knobler, a writer for Crawdaddy, got an early listen [to “Born to Run”] in Springsteen’s Long Branch house. The place was cluttered with motorcycle magazines and old 45s. Over Bruce’s bed, according to Knobler, was a poster of Peter Pan leading Wendy out the window. The detail is suggestive: “Wendy let me in, I wanna be your friend/I want to guard your dreams and visions.”

From a Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources blog post entitled “The Tiffany Problem“:

Wait, what? No way there’s a Tiffany in this book! Not when there are other women running around with convincing names like Blanchefleur, Isolde, and Ermentrude.

[…]

[T]he Tiffany Problem describes the tension between historical fact and the average, everyday person’s idea of history. So even though authors may research carefully and want to include historically accurate information in their book—like a medieval character named Tiffany—a popular audience likely won’t buy it.

And from another DMNES post, about Protestant and Puritan names in Ireland vs. England:

Tait says one might expect the saint names, pushed by the Catholic church during the Reformation, and English names, handed down to descendants of settlers, to overtake and eradicate the use of Gaelic names as it did in England (315). She found this was not the case. Irish natives and settlers each retained their own naming systems, preserving them both. In the 1660s, she finds the top 6 names used by native Irish families remained largely Gaelic– Patrick, Bryan, Hugh, Owen, Thorlogh, and Shane, while the top names used by the descendants of settlers remained largely English– John, Thomas, William, Robert, James, and Richard (316).

From a New York Times article about the marriage of Sugar Good, a Dunkin’ Donuts manager, to one of her drive-through customers:

A year would go by before she gathered the courage to pass him her sprinkle-bedecked business card with his breakfast in September 2018. But when she did, it came as a relief to both. The man, John Thompson, a recently retired Marine working as a car salesman in Oklahoma City, had been wondering how he was going to figure out what her real name was.

“When I started going through the drive-through, I noticed she would smile with her eyes, and I thought, maybe if I read the receipt I can see what her name is,” he said. “But it said ‘Sugar No. 7.'” He figured Sugar must have been a reference to how he likes his coffee. With the card, which listed her cellphone number at the bottom, she cleared up the mystery — as well as her own case of the blues.

From the 2015 essay “The Name on My Coffee Cup” by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh:

As a frequent consumer of Starbucks…the most contentious aspect for me when ordering coffee—until now, anyway—has been the perpetual misspelling of my name on the side of the cup. The mutations have been many, and they have often been egregious—“Zal,” “Sowl,” “Sagi,” “Shi”—and then once, incredibly, three years ago, at a branch in the financial district, “Saïd,” diaeresis added, prompting me to seek out the barista, whose hand I grasped with deep feeling but who, frankly, seemed perplexed that anyone would have difficulty spelling my name. He was Latino, I think, and he told me that he had a best friend named Saïd, spelled identically, which would explain his astuteness. Never mind the backstory, I was delighted by the outcome. I photographed the cup for posterity, and then, for good measure, tweeted it for the world to see.

Other tweeted misspellings include Saíd, Syeed, Sai, Saii, Sahi, Sie, Säd, Sia, and Sam.

What turned Sugar into a baby name?

The character Sugar Kane from the movie "Beach Blanket Bingo" (1965).
Sugar Kane from “Beach Blanket Bingo

The rare baby name Sugar has an interesting pattern of usage in the U.S. data. It appeared as a boy name during the ’50s, then switched to a girl name in the ’60s—except for an interesting one-year return to the boys’ list in the ’80s.

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

The initial appearance in 1951 was no doubt influenced by boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, who fought professionally from the ’40s to the ’60s. A number of the 1950s Sugars had “Ray” and “R.” in the middle spot, according to records.

  • 1955: 5 baby boys named Sugar
  • 1954: unlisted
  • 1953: 6 baby boys named Sugar
  • 1952: 7 baby boys named Sugar
  • 1951: 5 baby boys named Sugar [debut]
  • 1950: unlisted
  • 1949: unlisted

Interestingly, he was retired throughout 1953 and most of 1954. (He tried to launch a career as a tap-dancing entertainer during that time.)

The switcheroo in the ’60s was influenced by something a little more obscure: a character in the 1965 movie Beach Blanket Bingo. The film starred Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, but also featured a singing character named Sugar Kane (played by Linda Evans).

  • 1967: unlisted
  • 1966: unlisted
  • 1965: 6 baby girls named Sugar
  • 1964: unlisted
  • 1963: unlisted

That was the only ’60s appearance, but the name came back for all of the ’70s. Two pop culture influences that probably helped usage roll along during that decade were the 1971 song “Brown Sugar” by the Rolling Stones and the 1974 movie Sugar Hill, starring Marki Bey (who had put the name Marki on the map several years earlier) as the title character.

Finally, there’s that anomalous, single-year return to the boys’ side of the list:

  • 1982: 5 baby girls named Sugar
  • 1981: 11 baby boys named Sugar
  • 1980: 5 baby girls named Sugar

My best guess here is boxer Sugar Ray Leonard, who fought from the ’70s to the ’90s. The specific reason might have been “The Showdown” — his highly publicized fight against Thomas Hearns in September of 1981.

What are your thoughts on “Sugar” as a name? Do you think of it more as a girl name or as a boy name?

P.S. Sugar Ray Robinson was born Walker Smith. Sugar Ray Leonard was born Ray Charles Leonard — named after the singer, then nicknamed after the original Sugar Ray.

Some thought he was arrogant when [Sugar Ray Leonard] usurped the nickname Sugar Ray, after the man many consider boxing’s best fighter, pound-for-pound. But not the one person who counted.

“I’m gratified he’s using my name,” Sugar Ray Robinson said. “It’s great when kids think enough of you to use your name.”

Sources: Sugar Ray Robinson, 67, Dies – LA Times, Sugar Ray Leonard – Wikipedia, Leonard as sweet as original Sugar Ray