How popular is the baby name Elijah 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 Elijah.

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Popularity of the baby name Elijah


Posts that mention the name Elijah

Popular baby names in Michigan, 2015

Flag of Michigan
Flag of Michigan

According to data released earlier this month by the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services, the most popular baby names in the state in 2015 were Olivia and Noah.

Here are Michigan’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2015:

Girl names

  1. Olivia, 602 baby girls
  2. Ava, 578
  3. Emma, 509
  4. Sophia, 423
  5. Charlotte, 406
  6. Harper, 405
  7. Isabella, 396
  8. Amelia, 372
  9. Evelyn, 335
  10. Abigail, 326

Boy names

  1. Noah, 539 baby boys
  2. Liam, 527
  3. Mason, 507
  4. Carter, 505
  5. Lucas, 462
  6. Jacob, 458
  7. Benjamin, 434
  8. Jackson, 417
  9. Owen, 415
  10. Elijah, 411

Here’s equivalent 2015 state data for Arizona, Minnesota, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Wyoming. Plus even more 2015 data for Cincinnati (OH), San Diego County (CA) and Sonoma County (CA).

Source: Michigan Baby Names – MDHHS

Image: Adapted from Flag of Michigan (public domain)

The top baby names in Maryland in 2011?

Maryland’s Open Data website includes a small table of popular baby names. It’s based on data from 2011, so it’s a bit out of date, but it does include top-10 lists for several different racial/ethnic groups.

This is cool because New York City does the very same breakdown, and we happen to have the equivalent NYC baby name rankings (2011). So we ought to be able to compare and contrast the two sets of rankings, right?

Yeah, that’s what I thought…until I started looking more closely at Maryland’s data.

According to the SSA, these were the top 10 boy names in Maryland in 2011:

  1. Mason
  2. Jacob
  3. Michael
  4. Ethan
  5. Ryan
  6. William
  7. Alexander
  8. Noah
  9. Daniel
  10. Aiden (tied for 10th)
  11. Jayden (tied for 10th)

But according to the state of Maryland, the top 10 boy names were quite different:

RankOVERALLAsian &
Pacific Isl.		BlackHispanicWhite
1AidenAidenJaidenChristopherLucas
2ChristopherLucasAidenAnthonyMason
3JaydenAlexanderChristopherJohnJackson
4MasonMuhammedCameronAlexanderJacob
5LucasEthanElijahDanielJohn
6JacobNathanJeremyMatthewAiden
7AlexanderJohnMichaelBrianAlexander
8NathanAndrewIsaiahJustinLiam
9MichaelJustinMasonJaidenWilliam
10EthanJacobCalebKevinRyan

It isn’t totally implausible that Aiden and Jayden ranked 1st and 3rd in 2011, but Christopher in 2nd? Maybe if this were a dataset from thirty years ago, but not five years ago. The SSA indicates that Christopher ranked closer to 18th in the state that year.

And what’s with the two different spellings of Jayden/Jaiden?

Plus there are some sizable raw number discrepancies, such as:

  • Aiden: 588 babies (MD data) vs. 281 babies (SSA data for MD)
  • Christopher: 584 babies (MD data) vs. 256 babies (SSA data for MD)
  • Jayden: 498 babies (MD data) vs. 281 babies (SSA data for MD)
  • Mason: 463 babies (MD data) vs. 432 babies (SSA data for MD)

And now the girl names. According to the SSA, these were the top 10 girl names in Maryland in 2011:

  1. Sophia
  2. Olivia
  3. Isabella
  4. Madison
  5. Ava
  6. Emma
  7. Abigail
  8. Chloe
  9. Emily
  10. Elizabeth

According to the state of Maryland, though, the top 10 girl names in the state were these:

RankOVERALLAsian &
Pacific Isl.		BlackHispanicWhite
1SophiaSophiaChloeSophiaSophia
2IsabelChloeLondonEmilyIsabel
3ChloeIsabelLaylaAllisonAbigail
4AvaCaitlin/KateMadisonIsabelOlivia
5MadisonHannahKennedyAshleyAva
6OliviaOliviaAaliyahAngelinaRiley
7EmilySara(h)McKenzieNatalieMadison
8McKenzieAbigailZoe(y)GenesisEmily
9AbigailEmilyPaytonGabrielleMcKenzie
10RileyLillian/LilyTaylorKimberlyChloe

Not only does Isabel magically replace Isabella in the Maryland data, but McKenzie and Riley rank 8th and 10th — even though the SSA says they should be closer to 77th (!) and 28th.

Not to mention the raw number discrepancies, such as:

  • Sophia: 503 babies (MD data) vs. 367 babies (SSA data for MD)
  • McKenzie: 325 babies (MD data) vs. 71 babies (SSA data for MD)
  • Riley: 298 babies (MD data) vs. 118 babies (SSA data for MD)

Intriguing parallels between the MD data and the NYC data do exist. In both locations, Elijah and Isaiah were in the top 10 for African-American boys only, and London, Aaliyah, and Taylor were in the top 10 for African-American girls only.

But if we can’t trust the data, we can’t draw any meaningful conclusions.

Labels like “Caitlin/Kate,” “Sara(h),” “Zoe(y)” and “Lillian/Lily” suggest that variant names were combined here and there. I suspect this is also what happened with Isabel/Isabella, Sophia/Sofia, Aiden, Jayden, MacKenzie, Riley, and maybe even Christopher (perhaps Maryland merged all the “Chris-” names?). What are your thoughts on this?

Source: Maryland’s Top Ten Most Popular Baby Names in 2011 by Race, Ethnicity, and Sex – Open Data Portal – Maryland.gov

Where did the baby names Gemini and Agena come from in the mid-1960s?

American astronaut Ed White performing a spacewalk (June 1965)
Ed White’s spacewalk

The name Yuri first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in the early ’60s, and the name Aldrin showed up in the late ’60s. But these aren’t the only two Space Race baby names that popped up on the charts during that decade.

The name Gemini, for instance, first appeared in the U.S. baby name data 1965. The name Agena followed a year later.

Girls named GeminiGirls named Agena
1968..
1967..
1966.15*
196513*.
1964..
1963..
*Debut

(Gemini would go on to reappear in the data, but Agena, the top one-hit wonder of 1966, remains a one-hit wonder to this day.)

Where did these two names come from?

They were inspired by NASA’s Project Gemini, which featured ten crewed spaceflights that took place from March of 1965 to November of 1966. Here are several highlights of the program:

  • On June 3, 1965, Ed White of became the first American to perform a spacewalk. He spent more than twenty minutes outside of the Gemini 4 capsule.
  • On December 16, 1965, U.S. television audiences witnessed the first live coverage of a spaceflight recovery following the splashdown of Gemini 6 in the western Atlantic Ocean.
  • On March 16, 1966, the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit was achieved when Gemini 8 docked with the Agena Target Vehicle — an unmanned spacecraft built specifically for this purpose.
The Agena Target Vehicle as seen from Gemini 8 (Mar. 1966)
Agena Target Vehicle

So how did Project Gemini and the Agena Target Vehicle get their names?

Gemini, which means “twins” in Latin, was chosen a nod to several things: the two-man crews of the Project Gemini missions, the fact that Gemini was NASA’s second human spaceflight program (after Mercury), and because one of the objectives of the program was to achieve a space rendezvous that involved two spacecraft.

Agena was named after the bright star Agena (a.k.a. Beta Centauri) in the constellation Centaurus. The name “Agena” is thought to have been coined by Connecticut astronomer Elijah H. Burritt (1794-1838) from the Greek words alpha, “first,” and gena, “knee,” as the star marks the knee of one of the centaur’s front legs.

Which do you like better as a baby name, Gemini or Agena?

Sources:

Images: Ed White First American Spacewalker (NASA), The First Docking in Space (NASA)

Popular baby names in the United States, 2015

Flag of the United States
Flag of the United States

According to the Social Security Administration, Emma and Noah were the most popular baby names in the United States in 2015.

Here’s the top 10:

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Emma, 20355 baby girls
2. Olivia, 19553
3. Sophia, 17327
4. Ava, 16286
5. Isabella, 15504
6. Mia, 14820
7. Abigail, 12311
8. Emily, 11727
9. Charlotte, 11332
10. Harper, 10241		1. Noah, 19511 baby boys
2. Liam, 18281
3. Mason, 16535
4. Jacob, 15816
5. William, 15809
6. Ethan, 14991
7. James, 14705
8. Alexander, 14460
9. Michael, 14321
10. Benjamin, 13608

Emma and Noah were also the #1 names in 2014.

Harper replaced Madison in the girls’ top 10; Benjamin replaced Daniel in the boys’ top 10.

Here’s the rest of the top 50:

Girl NamesBoy Names
11. Madison, 10038
12. Amelia, 9795
13. Elizabeth, 9656
14. Sofia, 9650
15. Evelyn, 9313
16. Avery, 9298
17. Chloe, 7884
18. Ella, 7852
19. Grace, 7589
20. Victoria, 7575
21. Aubrey, 7357
22. Scarlett, 7100
23. Zoey, 6900
24. Addison, 6683
25. Lily, 6617
26. Lillian, 6571
27. Natalie, 6466
28. Hannah, 6372
29. Aria, 6371
30. Layla, 6289
31. Brooklyn, 6268
32. Alexa, 6029
33. Zoe, 5995
34. Penelope, 5921
35. Riley, 5707
36. Leah, 5585
37. Audrey, 5581
38. Savannah, 5413
39. Allison, 5329
40. Samantha, 5304
41. Nora, 5301
42. Skylar, 5258
43. Camila, 5257
44. Anna, 5094
45. Paisley, 5056
46. Ariana, 4933
47. Ellie, 4838
48. Aaliyah, 4836
49. Claire, 4805
50. Violet, 4779		11. Elijah, 13511
12. Daniel, 13408
13. Aiden, 13378
14. Logan, 12862
15. Matthew, 12648
16. Lucas, 12246
17. Jackson, 12182
18. David, 11691
19. Oliver, 11592
20. Jayden, 11475
21. Joseph, 11375
22. Gabriel, 10782
23. Samuel, 10733
24. Carter, 10727
25. Anthony, 10564
26. John, 10303
27. Dylan, 10232
28. Luke, 10219
29. Henry, 10112
30. Andrew, 10027
31. Isaac, 9878
32. Christopher, 9742
33. Joshua, 9720
34. Wyatt, 9597
35. Sebastian, 9569
36. Owen, 9549
37. Caleb, 8727
38. Nathan, 8530
39. Ryan, 8474
40. Jack, 8456
41. Hunter, 8284
42. Levi, 8236
43. Christian, 8127
44. Jaxon, 8015
45. Julian, 8003
46. Landon, 7896
47. Grayson, 7852
48. Jonathan, 7577
49. Isaiah, 7528
50. Charles, 7125

In the girls’ top 50, Alexa, Paisley, Ellie and Violet replaced Arianna, Gabriella, Sadie and Sarah.

In the boys’ top 50, Grayson and Charles replaced Eli and Aaron.

Impressive rises:

  • Alexa rose 31 places, from 63rd to 32nd
  • Violet rose 17 places, from 67th to 50th
  • Grayson rose 16 places, from 63rd to 47th
  • Oliver rose 13 places, from 32nd to 19th
  • Riley (girl name) rose 12 places, from 47th to 35th

Impressive drops:

  • Arianna dropped 16 places, from 40th to 56th
  • Gabriella dropped 11 places, from 43rd to 54th
  • Anna dropped 10 places, from 34th to 44th

There’s much more to come! Until then, I’ll quote liberally from the SSA’s news release:

Each year, the list reveals the effect of pop-culture on naming trends. This year’s winners for biggest jump in popularity in the Top 1,000 are Alaia and Riaan.

Alaia jumped 2,012 spots on the girls’ side to number 664, from number 2,676 in 2014. Perhaps this can be attributed to high fashion designer Azzedine Alaia, or maybe it is because of Alaia Baldwin, the model/daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin.

Riaan increased 1,360 spots for the boys, from number 2,286 in 2014 to number 926. Of Indian origin, it is also the name of the young son of a well-known Bollywood actor, Riteish Deshmukh.

The second fastest riser for girls was Meilani. If you have ever watched MTV’s “Jersey Shore,” and maybe even if you haven’t, you’ve heard of Jenni “JWoww” Farley. She gave birth to daughter Meilani in 2014. On a different American shore, out in Hawaii, is another well-known Meilani–Bethany Meilani Hamilton, the professional surfer whose story of surviving a shark attack was documented in the movie “Soul Surfer.”

For boys, it was Huxley (a brave new comeback for the late science fiction writer?).

Some other notable names in the top 10 biggest increase category, and some possible reasons for their newfound popularity:

– Omari and Jabari for boys. Omari Hardwick is an actor, known for his roles in “Sparkle,” “The A-Team,” and BET Network’s “Being Mary Jane.” He currently stars in “Power,” a popular cable TV series. Jabari Parker is a professional basketball player for the Milwaukee Bucks. He was the second overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft out of Duke.

– Adaline and Zelda for girls. “The Age of Adaline” is a 2015 fantasy film starring Blake Lively, Harrison Ford, Michiel Huisman, and Ellen Burstyn. As for Zelda, maybe the legend continues to grow?

I’ll also note that the name Isis dropped from 705th place (398 baby girls) in 2014 to 1770th place (117 baby girls) in 2015.

Source: Emma and Noah Once Again Social Security’s Most Popular Baby Names for 2015 – SSA

Image: Adapted from Flag of the United States (public domain)