How popular is the baby name Agnes 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 Agnes.
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Back when sea voyages were the only way to reach distant lands, many babies ended up being born aboard ships. And many of these ship-born babies were given names that reflected the circumstances of their birth. A good portion of them, for instance, were named after the ships upon which they were born.
I’ve gathered hundreds of these ship-inspired baby names over the years, and I think it’s finally time to post what I’ve found…
A
Abergeldie:
Emma Abergeldie Walsh, born in 1884
Abernyte:
Eva Abernyte Congdon, born in 1875
Abington:
Herbert Bealie Abington Tait, born in 1884
Abyssinia:
Abyssinia Louise Juhansen, born in 1870
Abyssinia Elfkin, born in 1872
Louise Abyssinia Bellanger, born in 1874
Achilles:
John Achilles Denchey, born in 1871
Actoea:
U. Actoea Jones, born in 1868
Adriatic:
John Adriatic Gateley Collins, born in 1879
Adriatic O’Loghlin Gould, born in 1880
Agnes Adriatic Cook, born in 1880
Agamemnon:
Frederick Agamemnon Dingly, born in 1876
Alaska:
Mary Alaska Magee, born in 1884
Alcester:
Gertrude Alcester Dart, born in 1884
Alcinous:
Mary Duncan Alcinosa Greenwood, born in 1887
Aldergrove:
Aldergrove Andrew Fullarton Feathers, born in 1875
He in turn gave his name to Medford, Minnesota, in the 1850s. His father, Englishman William K. Colling, was an early Minnesota settler who “said that he had a son who was born on board the ship Medford, and was named Medford, in honor of the ship, and proposed that the town should be named Medford in honor of the boy.”
P.S. Hundreds of other babies have been named after ships that were making headlines (e.g., the Titanic, the Lusitania, the Andrea Doria) around the time they were born.
From the National Park Service’s biography of 6th U.S. president John Quincy Adams:
Born on July 11, 1767 in Braintree, Massachusetts, he was the son of two fervent revolutionary patriots, John and Abigail Adams, whose ancestors had lived in New England for five generations. Abigail gave birth to her son two days before her prominent grandfather, Colonel John Quincy, died so the boy was named John Quincy Adams in his honor.
(Quincy, Massachusetts, was also named after Colonel John Quincy.)
From the humorous remarks given by U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in October of 2008:
Many of you — many of you know that I got my name Barack from my father. What you may not know is Barack is actually Swahili for “that one.” And I got my middle name from somebody who obviously didn’t think I’d ever run for president.
(In truth, Obama’s first name a form of Barak, which means “blessing” in Arabic.)
From a 2010 article about Virginia political candidate Krystal Ball, who was asked about her name during her congressional campaign:
The answer: Her father has a doctorate in physics and did his dissertation on crystals.
So after her mother named older sisters Heidi and Holly, it was dad’s turn.
Ball said she doesn’t mind the questions, though, or the jokes.
And she’ll certainly be hoping a lot of people remember that name now that she’s running for Congress.
From Kenneth Whyte’s book Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times (2017), which describes the naming of Herbert Hoover (who was born in 1874 to Quaker parents Jesse and Hulda Hoover):
Hulda had shown [her sister] Agnes a bureau drawer full of handmade clothes prepared for the baby, all of them suited for a girl, to be named Laura. Several decades later Agnes recalled that the newborn, a boy, was “round and plump and looked about very cordial at every body.”
Naming the child was a problem as Laura, obviously, would not do, and the mother had no alternative in mind. Another sister reminded Hulda of a favorite book, Pierre and His Family, a Sunday school martyrology set among the Protestant Waldenses of Piedmont. The hero of the story is a spirited boy named Hubert who is dedicated to his Bible and longs to become a pastor. Hulda’s sister remembered Hubert as Herbert, and the baby was called Herbert Clark Hoover. He shared his father’s middle name.
From Nelson Mandela’s 1994 autobiography Long Walk to Freedom:
Apart from life, a strong constitution, and an abiding connection to the Thembu royal house, the only thing my father bestowed upon me at birth was a name, Rolihlahla. In Xhosa, Rolihlahla literally means “pulling the branch of a tree”, but its colloquial meaning more accurately would be “troublemaker.” I do not believe that names are destiny or that my father somehow divined my future, but in later years, friends and relatives would ascribe to my birth name the many storms I have both caused and weathered.
From a 2022 article about British politician Penelope “Penny” Mordaunt (b. 1973):
It was a position she was well cut out for, given her strong military background — her father was a parachuter and she was a member of the Royal Navy from 2010 to 2019, making her the only woman MP currently who is a navy reservist. … (Fun fact: Penny was named after the Royal Navy frigate HMS Penelope.)
On the origin of Harry S. Truman’s given names, from the book Truman (1992) by David McCullough:
In a quandary over a middle name, [parents] Mattie and John were undecided whether to honor her father or his. In the end they compromised with the letter S. It could be taken to stand for Solomon or Shipp, but actually stood for nothing, a practice not unknown among the Scotch-Irish, even for first names. The baby’s first name was Harry, after his Uncle Harrison.
From a 2020 CNN article about how to pronounce Sen. Kamala Harris’s name:
Harris wrote in the preface of her 2019 memoir, “The Truths We Hold,” “First, my name is pronounced ‘comma-la,’ like the punctuation mark. It means ‘lotus flower,’ which is a symbol of significance in Indian culture. A lotus grows underwater, its flower rising above the surface while its roots are planted firmly in the river bottom.”
From a 2019 article about how to pronounce the name of presidential candidate Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke:
He was named after his grandfathers. His mother Melissa O’Rourke said on the campaign trail during his U.S. Senate run that “Robert” — her father’s name — didn’t seem to fit when he was a baby.
The family has deep roots in El Paso, Texas, and “Beto” is a common shortening of the name “Roberto,” or “Robert.” If you’re wondering, it’s pronounced BEH-toe and O’Rourke is oh-RORK.
In the girls’ top 10, Agnes and Olivia replaced Josefine and Ida. Notably, Ida dropped from first place in 2018 all the way down to thirteenth place in 2019. The last time Ida was outside the top 10 was in 2001.
In the boys’ top 10, Karl, Arthur and August replaced Carl, Victor, and Valdemar. (Yes, I double checked: “Carl,” which appeared in the rankings from 1998 to 2018, was replaced by “Karl” in the 2019 rankings. I don’t know why.)
In the girls’ top 50, Molly, Leonora, Merle and Mynte replaced Caroline, Johanne, Naja and Vigga.
In the boys’ top 50, Matheo, Erik and Walter replaced Laurits, Sebastian and Philip.
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