How popular is the baby name David 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 David.

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Popularity of the baby name David


Posts that mention the name David

Popular baby names in Switzerland, 2024

Flag of Switzerland
Flag of Switzerland

Last year, the European country of Switzerland welcomed 78,256 babies.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Emma and Noah.

Here are Switzerland’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2024:

Girl names

  1. Emma, 377 baby girls
  2. Mia, 367
  3. Sofia, 321
  4. Emilia, 271
  5. Lina, 255
  6. Elena, 253
  7. Mila, 252
  8. Olivia, 245
  9. Nora, 241
  10. Lia, 223
  11. Luna, 207
  12. Lea, 203
  13. Elina, 199
  14. Alina, 197
  15. Malea, 194
  16. Amelia, 189
  17. Nina, 186
  18. Sophia, 185
  19. Anna, 183
  20. Aurora, 181
  21. Chiara, 179 (tie)
  22. Leonie, 179 (tie)
  23. Ella, 178
  24. Yara, 170
  25. Lena, 167
  26. Lara, 165
  27. Eva, 162
  28. Alice, 160
  29. Giulia, 155
  30. Laura, 149
  31. Luana, 147
  32. Valentina, 146
  33. Maria, 144
  34. Elin, 142
  35. Julia, 141
  36. Malia, 137
  37. Alea, 136
  38. Juna, 135
  39. Aria, 133
  40. Ava, 132
  41. Livia, 130
  42. Dua, 129 (tie)
  43. Inaya, 129 (tie)
  44. Sara, 127
  45. Ayla, 119 (tie)
  46. Liana, 119 (tie)
  47. Alma, 118 (tie)
  48. Emily, 118 (tie)
  49. Sophie, 117 (tie)
  50. Victoria, 117 (tie)

Boy names

  1. Noah, 511 baby boys
  2. Liam, 395
  3. Matteo, 326
  4. Gabriel, 285
  5. Luca, 280
  6. Leo, 243
  7. Louis, 239
  8. Elio, 237
  9. Leon, 234
  10. Leano, 233
  11. Elias, 227
  12. Levi, 208
  13. Lio, 194
  14. Aaron, 191 (tie)
  15. Elia, 191 (tie)
  16. Theo, 187
  17. Leonardo, 185 (tie)
  18. Luan, 185 (tie)
  19. Nino, 181
  20. Noé, 180
  21. Malik, 176
  22. Enea, 174
  23. David, 168
  24. Livio, 167 (tie)
  25. Nico, 167 (tie)
  26. Finn, 163
  27. Samuel, 162
  28. Mateo, 161
  29. Adam, 158
  30. Lian, 157
  31. Arthur, 155
  32. Leandro, 147 (tie)
  33. Mattia, 147 (tie)
  34. Emilio, 145 (tie)
  35. Nael, 145 (tie)
  36. Mael, 144
  37. Henry, 142
  38. Emil, 141 (tie)
  39. Julian, 141 (tie)
  40. Diego, 140
  41. Kian, 139
  42. Ben, 137
  43. Laurin, 136
  44. Oliver, 132
  45. Levin, 129
  46. Lino, 128
  47. Dario, 124
  48. Robin, 120
  49. Jonas, 113 (tie)
  50. Nathan, 113 (tie)

Two of the fastest-rising names were Liora (for girls) and Clément (for boys).

Switzerland, which is home to over 9 million people, has four national languages: German, French, Italian, and Romansh. Here are the top names among the speakers of each of these languages:

Girl namesBoy names
German speakers
(62.3% of the population)		1. Mia, 275
2. Emilia, 241
3. Emma, 234		1. Noah, 365
2. Liam, 257
3. Matteo, 252
French speakers
(22.8% of pop.)		1. Emma, 124
2. Olivia, 103
3. Eva, 80		1. Gabriel, 130
2. Noah, 129
3. Liam, 117
Italian speakers
(8.0% of pop.)		1. Aurora, 27
2. Sofia, 22
3. Ginevra, 21		1. Leonardo, 31
2. Enea, 26 (tie)
3. Tommaso, 26 (tie)
Romansh speakers
(0.5% of pop.)		1. Alina, 41. David, 3 (tie)
2. Gino, 3 (tie)

And here’s a selection of the uncommon names that were given to just two babies each in Switzerland in 2024:

Rare girl names Rare boy names
Audélia, Berina, Cassia, Dasel, Etna, Fadrina, Galina, Hasti, Ioli, Joaquina, Kokob, Liridona, Maurane, Nilde, Ona, Pelda, Ruena, Sira, Thémis, Verica, Waimea, Xara, Yangtso, ZeenaAtari, Boaz, Célien, Deran, Enoa, Fanuel, Gaspar, Harald, Icaro, Jonte, Keylam, Lisi, Mayeul, Niculin, Onno, Pepe, Rodion, Shukri, Tsering, Urs, Vidar, Wilhelm, Yafiet, Zana

Possible explanations/associations for several of the above:

  • Etna is the name of Europe’s most active volcano, Mount Etna, which is located on the island of Sicily.
  • Fadrina is the feminine form of Fadri, a Romansh name related to Frederick.
  • Liridona is based on the Albanian word liri, meaning “freedom, liberty.”
  • Niculin is a Romansh name related to Nicholas.
  • Waimea is a Hawaiian place-name meaning “reddish water.” (I remember seeing a single baby named Waimea in the 2021 Sonoma rankings, but I didn’t expect to find two babies named Waimea in Switzerland!)

Other Romansh names I noticed in the rankings were the girl name Bigna (given to 12 babies) and the boy names Corsin (10) and Curdin (5).

Finally, here are Switzerland’s 2023 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.

Sources: First names of newborns – Federal Statistical Office, Births and deaths – Federal Statistical Office, Languages of Switzerland – Wikipedia, Behind the Name, Wehewehe Wikiwiki Hawaiian Language Dictionaries

Image: Adapted from Flag of Switzerland (public domain)

Popular baby names in Estonia, 2024 & 2023

Flag of Estonia
Flag of Estonia

Last year, the Baltic state of Estonia (which shares land borders with Latvia and Russia) welcomed 9,690 babies — 4,757 girls and 4,933 boys.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Sofia and Mark.

Here are the county’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2024:

Girl names, 2024

  1. Sofia, 79 baby girls
  2. Mia, 62
  3. Emilia, 54 (tie)
  4. Olivia, 54 (tie)
  5. Saara, 49
  6. Emma, 46
  7. Eva, 45
  8. Arabella, 43 (tie)
  9. Nora, 43 (tie)
  10. Lenna, 37

Boy names, 2024

  1. Mark, 75 baby boys
  2. Hugo, 57 (tie)
  3. Oliver, 57 (tie)
  4. Sebastian, 51
  5. Robin, 46
  6. Aron, 44
  7. Leon, 42
  8. Oskar, 40
  9. David, 39
  10. Lukas, 35

The news release noted that Aaron is nearly as popular as Aron (#6), and that, if both spellings of the name had been counted together, Aron/Aaron “would have been the most popular boy’s name for the past seven years.”

It also mentioned that Nora’s “success story began with a sharp increase in popularity in 2017.” I wish it had revealed why Nora became trendy all of a sudden in 2017, though. (Does anyone out there have a theory?)

One year earlier, Estonia welcomed a total of 10,949 babies — 5,386 girls and 5,563 boys. Here are the country’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2023:

Girl names, 2023

  1. Sofia, 112 baby girls
  2. Mia, 58
  3. Olivia, 54
  4. Emily, 52
  5. Emma, 51 (3-way tie)
  6. Eva, 51 (3-way tie)
  7. Lenna, 51 (3-way tie)
  8. Emilia, 50
  9. Amelia, 49
  10. Saara, 43

Boy names, 2023

  1. Mark, 90 baby boys
  2. Hugo, 62
  3. Miron, 54 (tie)
  4. Robin, 54 (tie)
  5. Oliver, 53
  6. Rasmus, 50
  7. Sebastian, 49
  8. David, 45
  9. Jasper, 44
  10. Daniel, 43

In 2022, the top names in Estonia were also Sofia and Mark. It 2021, they were Mia and Robin.

Sources (all from Eesti Statistika):

Image: Adapted from Flag of Estonia (public domain)

Popular baby names in Liechtenstein, 2024

Flag of Liechtenstein
Flag of Liechtenstein

Last year, the tiny European country of Liechtenstein welcomed 341 babies — 166 girls and 175 boys.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Sophia for girls and Leon and Noah/Noa (tie) for boys.

Here are Liechtenstein’s top girl names and top boy names of 2024:

Girl names

  1. Sophia, 5 baby girls
  2. Leyla and Livia, 4 each (tie)
  3. Alina, Chiara, Leonie, Lia, and Paula, 3 each (5-way tie)
  4. Ajla/Ayla, Amelie, Elisa, Emilia, Fiona, Freya, Hanna/Hannah, Ida, Ilenia, Laura, Lina, Lou, Luisa, Maya, Melina, Nelia, Noelia, Nora, Olivia, Romina, Timea, and Valea, 2 each (22-way tie)

Boy names

  1. Leon and Noah/Noa, 5 baby boys each (tie)
  2. Elias, Julian, Laurin, Leano, Levi, Linus, Lio, Lionel, Luca, Matteo/Matheo, Theo, and Valentin, 3 each (12-way tie)
  3. Alexander, Ben, Elia, Emil, Gino, Jonas, Kian, Lenny, Leyan, Lorenzo, Marlo, Nelio, Noe, Noel, and Vincent, 2 each (15-way tie)

The rest of the names were bestowed just once:

Unique girl names (94)Unique boy names (99)
Adriana, Alba, Alessia, Amara, Amaya, Amberly, Amelia, Amina, Amra, Anna, Asel, Asena, Aurelia, Aylin, Belinda, Carla, Celia, Charlotte, Chloé, Delia, Eflin, Elena, Elenor, Elina, Elisabeth, Ella, Elsa, Emily, Emma, Flavia, Frieda, Gabriella, Giada, Hale, Ivie, Jana, Julia, Juna, Kalea, Kate, Katharina, Klara, Kori, Lania, Larissa, Lea, Letizia, Lillian, Linn, Liuna, Liv, Lola, Lorine, Lua, Luna, Malea, Malia, Mara, Maria, Marie, Martina, Mayla, Melissa, Mia, Michaela, Mila, Milena, Morena, Naira, Nayla, Neea, Nilya, Noemi, Nuray, Peyang, Rital, Rosa, Ruby, Run, Samara, Sienna, Sophie, Sumaya, Sunniva, Thalia, Valentina, Valeria, Valérie, Viktoria, Viola, Vivienne, Yara, Yasmin, YunaAdni, Afonso, Albert, Amelio, Andrin, Anis, Anton, Aran, Aras, Arel, Aren, Arian, Arno, Arthur, Aurelio, Benjamin, Bernardo, Bryan, Charles, Ciro, Colin, Constantin, Daadir, Dani, Danial, David, Demir, Dijar, Ege, Eli, Elouan, Enzo, Erik, Erin, Fabian, Finn, Florian, Gabriel, Hayden, Henrik, Ilario, Ilyas, Jack, Jakob, Jayden, Johann, Jonathan, Jordan, Kenny, Konstantin, Leo, Leonardo, Leonidas, Leron, Levin, Levio, Liam, Lineo, Lino, Lou, Luan, Luciano, Mads, Magnus, Mailo, Maksim, Marco, Matej, Mats, Mattia, Matvii, Max, Maximilian, Miko, Naél, Near, Nevio, Nico, Nicolas, Paolo, Paul, Poyraz, Qingyang, Quentin, Raphael, Rayan, Rodrigo, Rui, Salvador, Samuel, Simon, Tino, Tobias, Valerio, Yaro, Yaroslav, Yuri, Yusuf, Zeyd

I didn’t post about Liechtenstein’s top baby names of 2023 or 2022, but here are Liechtenstein’s 2021 rankings.

Source: Neugeborenennamen – Liechtensteinische Landesverwaltung Statistikportal

Image: Adapted from Flag of Liechtenstein (public domain)

What gave the baby name Davey a boost in 1929?

The character Sonny (played by Davey Lee) from the movie "The Singing Fool" (1928)
Davey Lee in “The Singing Fool“

According to the U.S. baby name data, both Davey and David saw sizeable increases in usage in 1929:

Boys named DaveyBoys named David
193145 [rank: 985th]11,783 [rank: 13th]
193054 [rank: 911th]12,275 [rank: 15th]
192989 [rank: 655th]11,301 [rank: 17th]
192899,992 [rank: 19th]
1927.9,426 [rank: 21st]

Davey was the fastest-rising boy name of the year in terms of relative increase, and David was the second-fastest-rising boy name of the year (after Donald) in terms of absolute increase.

The names Davy and Davie also saw upticks in usage in 1929.

What was influencing these names?

Child actor Davey Lee (born David Lea in Hollywood, California, in late 1924).

Davey Lee appeared in six feature films between 1928 and 1930. (He was credited as “David Lee” in two of the films.)

His first movie, The Singing Fool, was a partial-talkie released in September of 1928. He played the part of Sonny, the son of main character Al Stone (played by Al Jolson), an entertainer who’d been deserted by his wife. Here’s how one film critic summarized the young actor:

This little David Lee playing the Jolsons’ kid is a perfect wonder. He plays sick, dead, happy, asleep, affectionate and sad, and talks, in his wee voice that gets over without a blemish.

The Singing Fool was the highest-grossing film of 1928, and one of the film’s songs, “Sonny Boy,” was also a best seller.

The song’s title was used for one of Davey Lee’s subsequent movies, Sonny Boy, which was another partial-talkie released in April of the following year. Here’s how the film critic for the New York Times described the experience of seeing Lee on the big screen:

There was many a rousing outburst [of] laughter [from the audience] at a word or two from the diminutive Davey. His childish speech was not always distinct, but (…) whether or not one understood his lines, they nevertheless carried a strong appeal to one’s heart.

What are your thoughts on the name Davey? (Do like this spelling?)

P.S. The baby name Davey went on to reach peak usage in the mid-1950s, thanks to the Davy Crockett craze…

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of The Singing Fool