Popular baby names in Paris, 2021

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Flag of France

According to Paris Data, the most popular baby names in the capital of France last year were Louise and Gabriel.

Here are the city’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2021:

Girl Names

  1. Louise, 217 baby girls
  2. Alma, 207
  3. Emma, 178
  4. Adèle, 151 (tie)
  5. Chloé, 151 (tie)
  6. Anna, 150
  7. Olivia, 142
  8. Eva, 138 (tie)
  9. Jeanne, 138 (tie)
  10. Rose, 133
  11. Gabrielle, 131
  12. Alice, 129
  13. Romy, 125
  14. Ava, 124
  15. Léa, 121 (tie)
  16. Victoria, 121 (tie)
  17. Joséphine, 119 (tie)
  18. Zoé, 119 (tie)
  19. Iris, 118
  20. Nina, 117
  21. Charlotte, 115 (tie)
  22. Lina, 115 (tie)
  23. Lou, 113
  24. Ella, 104 (tie)
  25. Sofia, 104 (tie)
  26. Victoire, 102
  27. Sarah, 101
  28. Agathe, 98 (tie)
  29. Charlie, 98 (tie)
  30. Alix, 96
  31. Juliette, 95
  32. Jade, 93
  33. Inès, 89
  34. Suzanne, 88
  35. Julia, 86
  36. Léonie, 83
  37. Margaux, 82
  38. Mila, 79
  39. Diane, 78
  40. Ambre, 77 (tie)
  41. Fatoumata, 77 (tie)
  42. Alba, 75
  43. Héloïse, 73
  44. Mia, 72 (tie)
  45. Romane, 72 (tie)
  46. Giulia, 69
  47. Margot, 68
  48. Nour, 67
  49. Apolline, 66
  50. Maya, 64 (tie)
  51. Noa, 64 (tie)

Boy Names

  1. Gabriel, 357 baby boys
  2. Adam, 250
  3. Louis, 245
  4. Raphaël, 233
  5. Arthur, 227
  6. Noah, 191
  7. Isaac, 187
  8. Joseph, 178 (tie)
  9. Mohamed, 178 (tie)
  10. Léon, 171
  11. Léo, 166
  12. Paul, 156
  13. Victor, 155
  14. Lucas, 152
  15. Gaspard, 149
  16. Alexandre, 134 (tie)
  17. Hugo, 134 (tie)
  18. Augustin, 131
  19. Sacha, 124
  20. Aaron, 122
  21. Oscar, 121
  22. Jules, 120
  23. Liam, 119
  24. Ibrahim, 117
  25. Noé, 114
  26. Samuel, 113
  27. Naël, 108
  28. Ismaël, 104
  29. Côme, 101
  30. Auguste, 100
  31. Basile, 98 (tie)
  32. Maël, 98 (tie)
  33. Antoine, 94
  34. Maxime, 92
  35. Eliott, 91 (tie)
  36. Marceau, 91 (tie)
  37. Martin, 90 (tie)
  38. Marius, 90 (tie)
  39. Camille, 89 (3-way tie)
  40. Nathan, 89 (3-way tie)
  41. Timothée, 89 (3-way tie)
  42. Simon, 86
  43. Charles, 84 (tie)
  44. Axel, 84 (tie)
  45. Andrea, 82 (tie)
  46. Octave, 82 (tie)
  47. Léonard, 80 (tie)
  48. Eden, 80 (tie)
  49. Félix, 78 (tie)
  50. Ulysse, 78 (tie)

And here’s a selection of names from lower down in the rankings (which includes all names given to at least five babies per gender, per year).

Parisian Girl NamesParisian Boy Names
Garance (53 girls), Nelya (30), Ysée (23), Jennah (23), Nava (15), Athénaïs (12), Calypso (8), Alizée (5), Mazarine (5)Henri (42 boys), Kylian (25), Dario (14), Archibald (11), Zéphyr (11), Pacôme (8), Tancrède (8), Enguerrand (7), Orphée (6)

In 2020, the top two names in Paris were also Louise and Gabriel.

Sources: Liste des prénoms – Paris Data, Découvrez le top 10 des prénoms donnés en 2021 à Paris

Image: Adapted from Flag of France (public domain)

Where did the baby name Jimalee come from in 1956?

Photo of Adlai Stevenson and Jimalee Burton in 1956.
Adlai Stevenson with Jimalee Burton (r)

The name Jimalee has appeared just once in the U.S. baby name data, in 1956:

  • 1958: unlisted
  • 1957: unlisted
  • 1956: 5 baby girls named Jimalee [debut]
  • 1955: unlisted
  • 1954: unlisted

What put it there?

The answer seems to be an image that ran in newspapers nationwide in September of 1956. The image featured politician Adlai Stevenson — who’d just landed in Tulsa, Oklahoma — receiving “an Indian peace pipe” from a woman named Jimalee Burton.

Jimalee Burton, née Chitwood, was born in Oklahoma in 1891. She was an artist, poet, and musician who claimed to be of Cherokee descent. (I say “claimed” because, in various early records, she and her family members — parents James and Mary, and sister Maude — are all repeatedly classified as “white,” never as “Indian.”)

What are your thoughts on the name Jimalee? Would you use it?

Sources:

  • U.S. Census (1900 & 1910)
  • “Stevenson Presented Peace Pipe.” Daily News-Record [Harrisonburg, VA] 25 Sept. 1956: 1.
  • SSA

Baby name stories: Adlai

Baby Adlai Stevenson Isenhower with his mother (Aug. 1952)

Several of the 1952 babies named after Adlai Stevenson were featured in the newspapers.

One, born in mid-August to Mr. and Mrs. Ben R. Isenhower of Chatsworth, Georgia, was named Adlai Stevenson Isenhower. His older brother, Dwight David Isenhower, had been born eight years earlier and was (of course) named after Dwight D. Eisenhower, “whose forces were then spearheading the European coastal invasion.”

Another, born during the wee hours of the morning on election day (Nov. 4) to Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Smith of Richlands, North Carolina, was named Adlai Stevenson Smith.

Sources:

  • “He’s Named, Win or Lose.” Evening Star [Washington, D.C.] 4 Nov. 1952: A-2.
  • “Political Influence.” Kokomo Tribune 28 Aug. 1952: 23.

Top baby names in China, 2020

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Flag of China

The most popular baby names in China in 2020 were Yinuo and Yichen, according to an annual report on household registration information.

More than 24,000 baby girls were named Yinuo, defined by my source as “one promise.” (This may be an allusion to the Chinese idiom “a promise [is worth] a thousand pieces of gold.”)

More than 14,000 baby boys were named Yichen, defined as “great times” or “stars.”

The report also found that a growing number of Chinese parents “are giving their babies longer names to make their names stand out.”

Currently, about 3.3 percent of the population has names with four or more characters, while more than 90 percent of the names only have three characters, with their surnames included.

Sources: Report reveals most popular names of Chinese newborns in 2020, Ji Bu – Wikipedia

Image: Adapted from Flag of the People’s Republic of China (public domain)