How popular is the baby name Zeppelina 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 Zeppelina.

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Popularity of the baby name Zeppelina


Posts that mention the name Zeppelina

Name quotes #76: Frieda, Ramona, Leon

Haribo Milchbaren (milk bears) candy

From a Fodor’s article about the German gummy factory Haribo Fabrikverkauf:

At first glance it may seem like the milchbären (milk bears) are simply traditional German gummy bears with a milky jacket slapped on the back. However, not only are the flavors slightly different — including lemon, orange, cherry, strawberry, apple, and raspberry — but these bears have actual names. This fruity, creamy crew includes Emma, Emil, Anton, Mia, Ben, and Frieda.

From a WWI-era New York Herald article (May 7, 1918) called “Six Get Permission to Change Names”:

Frederick Michael Knopp, an orchestra leader, disliked his Teutonic sounding name and permission was granted him to change it to Blondell.

Another German name was eliminated by the grave of Justice Guy, who permitted Leon Mendelson, a dental student, to call himself Leon Delson.

Believing that Malcolm Sumner sounded better than Malcolm Sundheimer, the latter applied for and received permission to assume the more euphonious name.

From the NOVA video Zeppelin Terror Attack:

On the day that came to be known as “Zep Sunday,” tens of thousands of relieved Londoners picked over the wreckage for souvenirs.

Overnight, pilot William Leefe Robinson became the most famous man in Britain. Babies, flowers and hats were named after him and he was mobbed wherever he went.

Within a month, the technique he perfected for taking out airships had brought down two more. It was the beginning of the end for the zeppelin.

[On September 2, 1916, 21-year-old William Leefe Robinson became the first pilot to shoot down a German Zeppelin over Britain. (Several weeks later, a shot-down Zeppelin inspired a British family to name their newborn Zeppelina.)]

From the book Christian Names in Local and Family History (2004) by George Redmonds:

Other regional concentrations worth noting are Edith in Dorset, Felice and Petronille in Staffordshire and Amice in Leicestershire, but a close examination of the evidence reveals significant small ‘clusters’ right down the list. Typical of these are Goda (East Anglia), Godelena (Kent) and Osanne, the last of these found only in Spalding in Lincolnshire. It derives from ‘Hosanna’, a Hebrew word used as an appeal to God for deliverance, which was adopted into Christian worship as a more general expression of praise. We are familiar with it through the Bible and it occurs as ‘osanne’ in Chaucer’s Tale of the Man of Lawe: ‘Mary I mene, doghter to Seint Anne, Bifore whos child aungeles singe oscanne’. Less well known is its use as a baptismal name from the twelfth century, possibly to commemorate a birth on Palm Sunday. The earliest examples have been noted in Dorset and Herefordshire and it occurred often enough to serve as a by-name. Typical of these are ‘Reginaldus filius Osanna’, in the pipe roll of 1180, and Richard Osan of Shelley in 1277.

From an article about popular baby names in Israel in The Jerusalem Post:

The report [from the Central Bureau of Statistics] also noted that in 2012 only 36 boys were given the name Ovadia. However, following the death of spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef in 2013, 117 babies were given this name and in 2014, 209 newborns were named after the rabbi.

For more quotes about names, check out the name quotes category.

Baby name story: Zeppelina

The wreck of Zeppelin L33
Wreck of Zeppelin L33

Germany sent Zeppelins to bomb Great Britain a total of 52 times during World War I.

One of these bombing raids occurred on the night of September 23, 1916. It involved 12 Zeppelins — eight aiming for the Midlands, four aiming specifically for London.

One of the London-bound Zeppelins, L33, was damaged by anti-aircraft fire while dropping bombs over the East End. It came down intact in Little Wigborough, about 60 miles east of London, in the wee hours of September 24.

The Germans on board were uninjured by the landing, so they set the airship on fire and tried to escape. (They were the only armed Germans to set foot in England during WWI, apparently.) They were soon caught and imprisoned.

News of the wreckage spread quickly. Right around the time the L33 was set alight, Mr. and Mrs. Clark of Great Wigborough (one village over from Little Wigborough) welcomed a baby girl. The doctor who delivered her suggested she be named Zeppelina to mark the occasion, and the Clarks agreed.

Zeppelina Clark went on to live a long life, marrying a man named Williams and passing away in the early 2000s. Today, in St. Nicholas’s Church in Little Wigborough, there’s a memorial plaque that reads:

In memory of
Zeppelina Williams
1916-2004
(L33 Little Wigborough 24 September 1916)

[Zeppelina isn’t the only Zeppelin-inspired baby name I’ve discovered. Check out Zeppelin Wong, born in 1929, or the dozens of U.S. babies named Zeppelin since the mid-1990s.]

Sources:

Image: Zeppelin brought down near a cottage – Nationaal Archief