How popular is the baby name Albert 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 Albert.
The graph will take a few moments to load. (Don't worry, it shouldn't take 9 months!) If it's taking too long, try reloading the page.
Tuesday’s post about the Victorian-style Tylney Hall Hotel reminded me of a list of Victorian-era names that I’ve had bookmarked forever.
The list was created by amateur genealogist G. M. Atwater as a resource for writers. It contains names and name combinations that were commonly seen in the U.S. from the 1840s to the 1890s. Below is the full list (with a few minor changes).
| Victorian Era Female Names | Victorian Era Male Names |
|---|---|
|
|
Which female name and male name do you like best?
The image above, of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris, was captured in early 1838 by Louis Daguerre, inventor of the daguerreotype.
It may be the earliest surviving photograph of a person. Two people, actually. Both are in the lower left.
Here’s a close-up:
The standing man is getting his shoe shined, and the other man (partially obscured) is doing the shoe-shining.
Of all the people on the sidewalk that day, these were the only two to stay still long enough (about 10 minutes) to be captured in the image.
Now for the fun part!
What would you name these two Frenchmen?
Let’s pretend you’re writing a book set in Paris in the 1830s, and these are two of your characters. What names would you give them?
Here’s a long list of traditional French male names, to get you started:
| Abel Absolon Achille Adam Adolphe Adrien Aimé Alain Alban Albert Alexandre Alfred Alphonse Amaury Amroise Amédée Anatole André Anselme Antoine Antonin Apollinaire Ariel Aristide Armand Arnaud Arsène Arthur Aubert Aubin Auguste Augustin Aurèle Aurélien Baptiste Barnabé Barthélémy Basile Bastien Benjamin Benoit Bernard Bertrand Blaise Boniface Bruno Calixte Camille Céleste Célestin Césaire César Charles Christian Christophe | Clair Claude Clément Clovis Constant Constantin Corentin Corin Corneille Cosme Cyril Damien Daniel David Denis Déodat Désiré Didier Dieudonné Dimitri Diodore Dominique Donat Donatien Edgar Edgard Edmé Edmond Édouard Élie Eloi Émeric Émile Émilien Emmanuel Enzo Éric Ermenegilde Ernest Ethan Étienne Eugène Eustache Évariste Évrard Fabien Fabrice Félicien Félix Ferdinand Fernand Fiacre Firmin Florence Florent | Florentin Florian Francis François Frédéric Gabriel Gaël Gaëtan Gaspard Gaston Gaubert Geoffroy Georges Gérard Géraud Germain Gervais Ghislain Gilbert Gilles Gratien Grégoire Guatier Guillaume Gustave Guy Hector Henri Herbert Hercule Hervé Hilaire Hippolyte Honoré Horace Hubert Hugues Humbert Hyacinthe Ignace Irénée Isidore Jacques Jason Jean Jérémie Jérôme Joachim Jocelyn Joël Jonathan Joseph Josse Josué Jourdain | Jules Julien Juste Justin Laurent Laurentin Lazare Léandre Léo Léon Léonard Léonce Léonide Léopold Lionel Loïc Lothaire Louis Loup Luc Lucas Lucien Lucrèce Ludovic Maël Marc Marcel Marcellin Marin Marius Martin Mathieu Mathis Matthias Maurice Maxence Maxime Maximilien Michaël Michel Modeste Narcisse Nathan Nathanaël Nazaire Nicéphore Nicodème Nicolas Noé Noël Norbert Odilon Olivier Onésime Pascal | Patrice Paul Philippe Pierre Placide Pons Prosper Quentin Rainier Raoul Raphaël Raymond Régis Rémy René Reynaud Richard Robert Roch Rodolphe Rodrigue Roger Roland Romain Rosaire Ruben Salomon Samuel Sébastien Séraphin Serge Sévère Séverin Simon Sylvain Sylvestre Télesphore Théodore Théophile Thibault Thierry Thomas Timothée Toussaint Urbain Valentin Valère Valéry Vespasien Victor Vincent Vivien Xavier Yves Zacharie |
For some real-life inspiration, here are lists of famous 19th century and 20th century French people, courtesy of Wikipedia. Notice that many of the Frenchman have double-barreled, triple-barreled, even quadruple-barreled given names. (Daguerre himself was named Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre.)
Source: The First Photograph of a Human
The most popular baby names in Armenia were announced way back in February, then updated in May. (The numbers below are from the more recent news release.)
According to the National Statistical Service, the country’s top names were Davit for boys and Nare for girls.
Here are Armenia’s top 48 girl names and top 48 boy names of 2012:
| Baby Girl Names | Baby Boy Names |
|---|---|
| 1. Nare, 967 baby girls 2. Milena, 852 3. Mari, 772 4. Mane, 729 5. Annie, 591 6. Anahit, 575 7. Elen, 543 8. Anna, 474 9. Mariam, 442 10. Maria, 410 11. Merry, 391 12. Angelina, 377 13. Gayane, 345 14. Eva, 299 15. Lilit, 294 16. Susanna, 288 17. Sona, 275 18. Hasmik, 258 19. Viktoria, 249 20. Gohar, 237 21. Nataly, 197 22. Karine, 191 23. Yana, 181 24. Sofi, 175 25. Karina, 156 26. Ruzanna, 155 27. Lusine, 152 28. Arevik, 145 29. Liana, 140 30. Anush, 139 31. Marianna, 134 32. Syuzanna, 133 33. Tamara, 122 34. Diana, 121 35. Marina, 116 36. Syuzi, 116 37. Armine, 113 38. Elina, 112 39. Vika, 103 40. Astghik, 102 41. Nane, 100 42. Narine, 99 43. Svetlana, 98 44. Lily, 96 45. Seda, 96 46. Sofya, 95 47. Monika, 95 48. Sara, 94 | 1. Davit, 1,313 baby boys 2. Narek, 1,144 3. Gor, 808 4. Hayk, 673 5. Alex, 600 6. Erik, 599 7. Tigran, 541 8. Arman, 529 9. Samvel, 490 10. Arthur, 451 11. Alen, 440 12. Armen, 428 13. Aram, 414 14. Ashot, 401 15. Aren, 348 16. Gevorg, 343 17. Areg, 328 18. Sargise, 322 19. Vahe, 302 20. Gagik, 302 21. Arsen, 300 22. Hovhannes, 283 23. Levon, 282 24. Artyom, 270 25. Karen, 263 26. Miqayel, 231 27. Robert, 205 28. Vardan, 181 29. Mher, 177 30. Harutyun, 172 31. Suren, 171 32. Garik, 164 33. Grigor, 157 34. Mark, 153 35. Daniel, 146 36. Hakob, 145 37. Aleksandr, 142 38. Edgar, 140 39. Andranik, 135 40. Hamlet, 135 41. Raphael, 134 42. Manvel, 133 43. Ruben, 133 44. Sergey, 129 45. Vahan, 107 46. Artak, 106 47. Albert, 105 48. Eduard, 104 |
Why didn’t they just go to 50? We shall never know…
Sources: Nare, David most popular baby names in Armenia in 2012, The most frequently given names to the new-borns by sex [pdf]
Image: Adapted from Flag of Armenia (public domain)
Lord Francis Knollys was a close friend of the British royal family. So close that he served as as Private Secretary to the Sovereign under both Edward VII (from 1901 to 1910) and George V (from 1910 to 1913).
It’s not too surprising, then, that both of Knollys’ children were named in honor of the royals. His daughter was named Alexandra Louvima Elizabeth (b. 1888) and his son was named Edward George William (b. 1895).
Alexandra, Elizabeth, Edward, George, William — these are all names we know.
But “Louvima”? Where did that come from?
Turns out it’s an acronym. Edward VII (who was still “Albert Edward, Prince of Wales” back in 1888) and his wife Alexandra had six children: Albert Victor, George (later George V), Louise, Victoria, Maud, and Alexander John. “Louvima” was created from the first letters of the names of Edward’s three daughters:
Louvima = Louise + Victoria + Maud
The papers picked up on the interesting birth name right away. Here’s an article that appeared in a New Zealand newspaper in July of 1888:
Few people have noticed the second name bestowed on Sir Francis Knollys’ little daughter, who was baptised on May 5. Sir Francis, as every one knows, is the energetic and popular private secretary of the Prince of Wales, and in a torrent of grateful loyalty he has called his firstborn “Louvima,” a marvellous amalgam of the Christian names of the three young Princesses of Wales, “Louisa [sic], Victoria, Maud.” Since the expectant Mrs. Kenwigs invented the name of Morleena we have had nothing quite so good as this.
(Morleena Kenwig is a character in the Charles Dickens novel Nicholas Nickleby.)
Here’s a second-hand account printed in Notes & Queries that same month:
Louvima, a new Christian Name — It is stated in the newspapers — but it may not be correct; for, as Theodore Hook said to the credulous old lady, “Those rascally newspapers will say anything” — that Sir Francis Knollys, private secretary to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, has named his first-born Louvima, which is an ingenious amalgam of the names of the three daughters of the Prince — Louise, Victoria, and Maud.
After the news of Louvima Knollys got out, the rare name Louvima was given to baby girls in England (and other English-speaking regions) considerably more often. This lasted until the late 1910s.
Here are some of the Louvimas I found:
I also discovered more than a few horses and boats named Louvima during this period.
One of those horses, in fact, belonged to the royal family itself. Which makes me wonder: who came up with the name originally? Was it Francis Knollys’ invention, or did he get the idea from someone in the royal family? Maybe one of the sisters? (The Romanov sisters — Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia — referred to themselves by the acronym “OTMA.”)
Louvima Knollys grew up very close to the royal family. In this 1897 photo, for instance, she’s posing with Queen Alexandra. The Queen is dressed as Marguerite de Valois, wife of Henry IV of France, and Louvima is dressed as a pageboy.
Louvima married twice, and had a son with her first husband (who died during WWI). Through her son she had four grandchildren and at least six great-grandchildren. As far as I can tell, Louvima’s unique name has not (yet) been passed down to any of her descendants.
Sources:
Image: The three daughters of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra (1883) by Sydney Prior Hall
[Does Louvima remind anyone else of Luzviminda?]
