Plenty of Disney Princesses (Ariel, Mulan, Tiana, Elsa, etc.) have made an impact on U.S. baby names. But two of the earliest Disney characters to affect the charts weren’t princesses. In fact, they weren’t even human. They were white-tailed deer.
The classic animated film Bambi came out in August of 1942. The next year, the baby names Bambi and Faline both debuted as girl names in the U.S. baby name data:
| Girls named Bambi | Girls named Faline | |
| 1945 | 9 | . |
| 1944 | 7 | . |
| 1943 | 8* | 5* |
| 1942 | . | . |
| 1941 | . | . |
The name Faline remains rare to this day, but the name Bambi went on to be given to hundreds of baby girls per year from the mid-’50s to the mid-’60s, then again from the mid-’70s to the mid-’80s.
A New York Times writer recently stated that “Bambi reached peak popularity in 1979 after the release of the song ‘Who Killed Bambi?’ in a movie about the Sex Pistols, an influential punk rock band.” It’s an interesting coincidence, but I doubt the song had any influence on usage.
The Disney movie was based on the 1923 novel Bambi, Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde (transl. Bambi, a Life in the Woods) by Austrian author Felix Salten. In German, Faline’s name is pronounced fah-LEE-neh (as opposed to fah-LEEN in English).
What are your thoughts on the baby names Bambi and Faline?
P.S. StoryCorps recently ran a story on 80-year-old Donnie Dunagan, one of the voices of Bambi.
P.P.S. In the book’s sequel, Bambi’s Children (1939), Bambi and Faline’s sons are named Geno and Gurri.
Sources:
- Wolfers, Justin. “After ‘Frozen,’ a Baby Boomlet of Elsas.” New York Times 2 Jul. 2015.
- Bambi – Wikipedia
- SSA
Image: Screenshot of Bambi
[Latest update: Nov. 2025]