How popular is the baby name Jordan 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 Jordan.

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Popularity of the baby name Jordan


Posts that mention the name Jordan

Popular baby names in Jamaica, 2017

Flag of Jamaica
Flag of Jamaica

According to preliminary data from the Registrar General’s Department of Jamaica, the most popular baby names in the country in 2017 were Amelia and Jayden.

Here are the island’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2017:

Girl names

  1. Amelia, 207 baby girls
  2. Arianna, 181
  3. Ariana, 95
  4. Kaira
  5. Gabrielle
  6. Gabriella
  7. Brianna
  8. Mia
  9. Adrianna
  10. Savannah

Boy names

  1. Jayden, 230 baby boys
  2. Aiden, 188
  3. Joshua, 162
  4. Daniel
  5. Nathaniel
  6. Nathan
  7. Malachi
  8. Liam
  9. Kyle
  10. Jordan

Arianna has been the top girl name since 2013, and Jayden has been the top boy name since 2010 (including 2011).

And here’s an interesting fact: “The name Neymar appeared as the sixth most popular name in the World Cup year of 2014, but failed to make the top 10 the following year.”

(Incidentally, the baby name Jamaica saw peak usage in the U.S. in the late ’70s and early ’80s.)

Source: What are Jamaican parents naming their babies?

Image: Adapted from Flag of Jamaica (public domain)

Real-life “Snow-” names: Snowman, Snowball, Snowflake…

snow

How about something whimsical for Christmas day?

I searched historical records for personal names including the word “snow,” and here’s some of what I spotted…

Snowball

I found dozens of people named Snowball, including Snowball Craddock (female), born in 1915 in North Carolina. Here she is on the 1930 U.S. Census:

snowball, 1930 census

Snowdrift

I found several people named Snowdrift, including Arthur Snowdrift Thornton (male), born in 1883 in Virginia.

Snowflake

I found dozens people named Snowflake, including Snowflake Reinke (female), born in 1907 in North Dakota. Here she is on the 1910 U.S. Census:

snowflake, 1910 census

Notice how her older siblings have traditional names like Maria and Ludwig (their parents were immigrants from Germany) whereas she and her younger brother, “Theo. Roosevelt,” have much more creative/American names.

(By the way, did you that there’s a town in Arizona with the unlikely name Snowflake? The founders were a pair of Mormon pioneers named Erastus Snow and William Jordan Flake.)

Snowman

I found dozens people named Snowman, including Snowman W. Doe (male), born in 1924 in Massachusetts. Here he is on the 1930 U.S. Census:

snowman, 1930 census

Snowstorm

I found several people named Snowstorm, including Snow Storm Stokes (male), born in 1906 in Arkansas.

Happy holidays, everyone!

Image: Adapted from Untouched (5359819114) by Randi Hausken under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Where did the baby name Sierra come from in 1940?

Gene Autry singing "Sierra Sue"
Singing “Sierra Sue”

Back in 1940, the baby name Sierra debuted in the U.S. baby name data rather impressively. It was the top newbie name of the year, in fact.

  • 1942: 13 baby girls named Sierra
  • 1941: 24 baby girls named Sierra
  • 1940: 32 baby girls named Sierra [debut]
  • 1939: unlisted
  • 1938: unlisted

What was behind the debut?

“Sierra Sue,” a song that was a #1 hit in 1940 for Bing Crosby. A version by The Glenn Miller Orchestra also charted the same year.

The song was actually an updated version of an older song written by Joseph B. Carey (a “blind San Francisco organist”) in 1916. Carey died in 1930, and in 1939 the Shapiro, Bernstein & Co. sheet music company secured the rights to the song from Carey’s widow. The song “was probably revived because of the popularity of other western-style songs in the late ’30s.”

And, yes, a large number of the babies named Sierra in 1940 also had the middle name “Sue.” :) Here’s a Sierra Sue who was born in Kansas in 1940.

The Spanish word sierra, which refers to a mountain range, can be traced back to the Latin word serra, meaning “saw.”

In November of the next year, a movie called Sierra Sue starring Gene Autry was released. Here’s the scene in which Gene sings the title song:

Decades later, in 1985, usage of the name began to rise rapidly thanks to soap opera character Sierra Estaban from As the World Turns. Sierra was a top-100 name from 1993 to 2004, peaking in 1999 at 49th (just below Jordan, just above Sara).

Do you like the name Sierra?

Sources:

Baby name story: Olivia

Olive Garden sign

Olive Garden-loving couple Justin and Jordan Garton of Fort Smith, Arkansas, welcomed their first child, a baby girl, in December of 2017.

Her name? Olivia Garton.

They had considered naming her Olive, but ultimately decided that “Olive” was too on-the-nose. In choosing Olivia instead, they “were able to make the joke, but a little more subtle, and it’s still a pretty name,” said Jordan.

In mid-November, Justin announced the baby’s name via tweet: “We spent the first part of our lives loving @olivegarden, now we get to spend the rest of our lives loving Olivia Garton.” Olive Garden responded by sending the growing family a few gifts.

P.S. The baby’s middle name is Michelle, giving her the fun initials O.M.G.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Olive Garden (13954273905) by Mike Mozart under CC BY 2.0.

[Latest update: Jun. 2025]