How popular is the baby name Tommie in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Find out using the graph below! Plus, see baby names similar to Tommie and check out all the blog posts that mention the name Tommie.

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Popularity of the Baby Name Tommie

Number of Babies Named Tommie

Born in the U.S. Since 1880

Posts that Mention the Name Tommie

Don Ameche’s Rhyming Children

In yesterday’s post about the name Drene, I mentioned actor/entertainer Don Ameche.

Don, born Dominic Felix Amici in 1908, married his wife Honoré in 1932. They had six children:

  • Dominic
  • Ronald
  • Thomas
  • Lawrence
  • Barbara (adopted)
  • Cornelia (adopted)

The kids were known by nicknames, though, and most of those nicknames were perfect rhymes:

  • Donnie
  • Ronnie
  • Tommie
  • Lonnie
  • Bonnie
  • Connie

What do you think about a sibset with rhyming nicknames: yea or nay? (Does it depend upon the size of the sibset?)

Source: Houseman, Victoria. Made in Heaven: The Marriages and Children of Hollywood Stars. Chicago: Bonus Books, 1991.


35 Most Unisex Baby Names in the U.S.

Last month, FlowingData crunched some numbers to come up with the 35 most unisex baby names in the U.S. since 1930. Here’s their list:

  1. Jessie
  2. Marion
  3. Jackie
  4. Alva
  5. Ollie
  6. Jody
  7. Cleo
  8. Kerry
  9. Frankie
  10. Guadalupe
  11. Carey
  12. Tommie
  13. Angel
  14. Hollis
  15. Sammie
  16. Jamie
  17. Kris
  18. Robbie
  19. Tracy
  20. Merrill
  21. Noel
  22. Rene
  23. Johnnie
  24. Ariel
  25. Jan
  26. Devon
  27. Cruz
  28. Michel
  29. Gale
  30. Robin
  31. Dorian
  32. Casey
  33. Dana
  34. Kim**
  35. Shannon

I’m not sure exactly what criteria were used to create the rankings, but it looks like the top unisex names on this list were the top-1,000 names that “stuck around that 50-50 split” the longest from 1930 to 2012.

(In contrast, my unisex baby names page lists any name on the full list to fall within the 25-75 to 75-25 range, but only in the most recent year on record.)

The FlowingData post also mentions that, though the data is pretty noisy, there might be “a mild upward trend” over the years in the number of babies with a unisex name.

**In 1957, Johnny Carson’s 5-year-old son Kim had his name changed to Richard because he’d been having “a little trouble over his name being mistaken for a girl’s.”

Source: The most unisex names in US history

[Update: Changed Michael to Michel, 11/7]

More Babies Named Halloween

pumpkinsDozens of U.S. babies have been named Halloween over the years. We’ve already talked about Halloween Putman. Who are some of the others?

The earliest example I know of is Halloween Hovey. She was 8 months old and living in Michigan at the time of the 1870 census. (North America has only been celebrating Halloween since the mid-1800s, btw.)

The latest example I know of is Halloween Starks. She was born in Florida on Oct. 3, 1952.

Probably my favorite example is Halloween Baggs, whose name reminds me of bags of candy. :) He was 9 and living in Indiana at the time of the 1920 census.

Also memorable is Marigold Halloween Pearlie Cummings. She was born in Hawaii on Oct. 31, 1922.

I even found two people who spelled Halloween with the apostrophe: Henry Hallowe’en Varner (boy, born in Massachusetts on Oct. 31, 1904) and Tommie Hallowe’en Farmer (girl, born in Texas on Oct. 31, 1921)

Have you ever met anyone named Halloween? (If so, did they like their name?)

An Opinion on Unique Names, from Arvid

Arvid Huisman, columnist for Webster City’s Daily Freeman-Journal, recently wrote a piece called What’s in a name? Here’s an excerpt:

As a first grader I wanted to be named Johnnie or Bobbie or Billie or Tommie — just about anything except Arvid.

By the time I was a young adult I realized that a unique name can be an asset and I continue to believe that. Once people commit an uncommon name to memory they don’t soon forget and that’s a good thing in business.

He (now) appreciates his own name, but he isn’t a big fan of names that are “exceptionally strange.” As an example, he offers the name La-a:

Care to take a guess on how to pronounce that? I needed help with it. It is pronounced La-dash-ah. Get it? La(dash)a. Now that’s just plain stupid.

Do you agree with Arvid?