How popular is the baby name Angela 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 Angela.

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.


Popularity of the baby name Angela


Posts that mention the name Angela

Popular baby names in smaller U.S. territories, 2016

According to the SSA, the most popular baby names in the permanently inhabited U.S. territories of Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa — all four regions combined — in 2016 were were Olivia and Daniel.

Here are the top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names for the four regions, which which have a combined population of roughly 380,000 people.

Girl Names
1. Olivia, 14 baby girls
2. Angela, 12 (2-way tie)
3. Sophia, 12 (2-way tie)
4. Amy, 11 (2-way tie)
5. Faith, 11 (2-way tie)
6. Aria, 10 (2-way tie)
7. Chloe, 10 (2-way tie)
8. Amelia, 9 (3-way tie)
9. Athena, 9 (3-way tie)
10. Grace, 9 (3-way tie)

Boy Names
1. Daniel, 22 baby boys
2. Jason, 19
3. Aiden, 17
4. Liam, 16
5. David, 15 (2-way tie)
6. Jayden, 15 (2-way tie)
7. Ethan, 14 (3-way tie)
8. James, 14 (3-way tie)
9. William, 14 (3-way tie)
10. Aaron, 13 (2-way tie with Lucas, #11)

In 2015, the top names were Ava and David. The year before they were Olivia and Daniel.

Three of the names in the girls’ combined top 10 were not in the U.S. top 100: Angela (214th), Amy (176th), and Athena (142nd).

One intriguing name on the boys’ list is Eason, which ranked 23rd-ish. (A 4-way tie between Alexander, Andy, Eason, and Logan spanned 21st to 24th place.) I wish I could tell which of the four territories is using it. In the U.S., Eason is rising quickly. In fact, it jumped into the top 1,000 for the first time last year (rank: 902nd).

Note: The SSA doesn’t include baby name data from the five permanently inhabited U.S. territories in its annual rankings (e.g., the top 1,000). But it does release two separate lists: one for Puerto Rico (the most populous territory at 3.5 million people), one for the four other territories combined. Click below to see the complete sets of rankings.

Source: Popular Baby Names by Territory (SSA)

Could we maximize hurricane relief donations by choosing better names?

hurricane

In 2008, psychologists Jesse Chandler, Tiffany M. Griffin, and Nicholas Sorensen published a study showing that people who shared an initial with a hurricane name were over-represented among hurricane relief donors. So, for instance, people with R-names donated significantly more than other people to Hurricane Rita relief efforts. (This is an offshoot of the name-letter effect.)

A few years later, marketing professor Adam Alter came up with an interesting idea: Why not use this knowledge to try to maximize donations to hurricane relief efforts? He explained:

In the United States, for example, more than 10% of all males have names that begin with the letter J-names like James and John (the two most common male names), Joseph and Jose, Jason, and Jeffrey. Instead of beginning just one hurricane name with the letter J each year (in 2013, that name will be Jerry), the World Meteorological Organization could introduce several J names each year. Similarly, more American female names begin with M than any other letter — most of them Marys, Marias, Margarets, Michelles, and Melissas — so the Organization could introduce several more M names to each list.

I think his idea is a good one overall. It wouldn’t cost much to implement, but could potentially benefit many hurricane victims.

I would go about choosing the names differently, though.

Repeating initials multiple times within a single hurricane season would be unwise, for instance. It would cause confusion, which would undermine the reason we started naming hurricanes in the first place (“for people easily to understand and remember” them, according to the WMO).

But optimizing the name lists using data on real-life usage? That would be smart.

I might even try optimizing based on demographics. Baby boomers are particularly generous donors, so maybe we should choose letters (or even names) with that generation in mind?

The baby boomers were born from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s, so here are the top initials for babies born in 1956 (60 years ago):

Top first letters of baby names, 1956, U.S.

Here are two possible lists of hurricane names using the above letters. I stuck with the WMO’s conventions: 21 names total, alternating genders, and no retired names.

Mid-century styleModern style
Janice
Danny
Rebecca
Martin
Cindy
Scott
Lori
Kenneth
Brenda
Patrick
Theresa
Gerald
Angela
Eugene
Wanda
Vincent
Nancy
Howard
Francine
Ira
Olga 		Jasmine
Dominic
Rylee
Matthew
Charlotte
Sebastian
Lucy
Kingston
Bella
Preston
Trinity
Grayson
Ava
Eli
Willow
Victor
Nora
Hunter
Fiona
Isaac
Olivia

And here’s another point: we wouldn’t want to assign these names in order. While the official hurricane season lasts a full six months — June to November — most hurricane activity happens in August, September and October:

Atlantic Hurricane and Tropical Storm Activity (NOAA)

To really optimize, we’d want to reserve the top initials/names for the stronger mid-season hurricanes, which tend to do the most damage. So we could start the season using mid-list names, then jump to the top of the list when August comes around and go in order from that point forward (skipping over any mid-list names that had already been used).

What are your thoughts on assigning hurricane names with disaster relief in mind? Do you think it could work? What strategy/formula would you use to select relief-optimized hurricane names?

P.S. While J, D and R were the top initials 60 years ago, today’s top initials are A, J and M.

Sources:

Images:

Over 100 baby names for 100 years of the U.S. National Park Service

Grand Canyon National Park poster (NPS)
Grand Canyon National Park poster

The U.S. National Park Service has a birthday coming up!

When the NPS was created on August 25, 1916, there were only 35 national parks and monuments. (The world’s first, Yellowstone, had been established in 1872.)

Nowadays the agency oversees 411 units. These units are located in the 50 states and beyond, and include national monuments (82), national historic sites (78), national parks (59), national historical parks (50), national memorials (30), national battlefields (11), national seashores (10), national lakeshores (4), national scenic trails (3), and more.

Let’s celebrate the upcoming centennial with more than 100 baby names that pay tribute to the national parks specifically:

Lassen Volcanic National Park poster (NPS)
Lassen Volcanic National Park poster
  • Garland for Garland County, Arkansas, where Hot Springs National Park is located.
  • Gates for Gates of the Arctic National Park & Preserve.
  • Guadalupe for Guadalupe Mountains National Park.
  • Gunnison for Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
    • The park was established in 1999, and Gunnison debuted on the baby name charts the very same year. Did one event cause the other?
  • Jackson for Jackson Hole, where much of Grand Teton National Park is located.
  • Jarvis for Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve’s Mt. Jarvis.
  • Jefferson for Dry Tortugas National Park’s Fort Jefferson.
  • John for Virgin Islands National Park’s St. John Island.
  • Joshua for Joshua Tree National Park.
  • Kenai for Kenai Fjords National Park.
    • The derivation of Kenai is unknown, but it could come from either Dena’ina Athabascan (“big flat” or “two big flats and river cut-back” or “trees and brush in a swampy marsh”), Russian (“flat barren land”), or Iniut (“black bear”).
  • Kingston or Kingsley for Kings Canyon National Park.
  • Lake for any of the parks featuring lakes, such as Crater Lake National Park, Voyageurs National Park, Lake Clark National Park & Preserve, etc.
  • Lamar for Yellowstone National Park’s Lamar Buffalo Ranch.
  • Lassen for Lassen Volcanic National Park.
  • Lata for the National Park of American Samoa’s Lata Mountain.
  • Lehman for Great Basin National Park’s Lehman Caves.
  • Lewis for Glacier National Park’s Lewis Range.
  • Livingston for Glacier National Park’s Livingston Range.
  • Manning for Saguaro National Park’s Manning Cabin.
  • Mara for Joshua Tree National Park’s Oasis of Mara.
    • In the Serrano language, Mara means “the place of little springs and much grass.”
  • Martin for Katmai National Park & Preserve’s Mt. Martin.
  • Maui for the island of Maui, where Haleakala National Park is located.
  • Mauna for Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park’s Mauna Loa.
  • Miguel for Channel Islands National Park’s San Miguel Island.
  • Olympia for Olympic National Park.
Zion National Park poster (NPS)
Zion National Park poster
  • Parker, Parks, Park, or Parke as a tribute to all national parks.
  • Pele as a symbol of Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park.
  • Prairie for any of the parks featuring a prairie, such as Badlands National Park, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, etc.
  • Pratt for Guadalupe Mountains National Park’s Pratt Cabin.
  • Rainier for Mount Rainier National Park.
  • Ranger as a tribute to all national parks and park rangers.
  • Reef for Capitol Reef National Park.
  • Rhodes for Biscayne National Park’s Old Rhodes Key.
  • Rocky for Rocky Mountain National Park.
  • Roosevelt for Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
  • Rosa for Channel Islands National Park’s Santa Rosa Island.
  • Royale or Royal for Isle Royale National Park.
  • Valley for any of the parks featuring a valley, such as Cuyahoga Valley, Death Valley, Kobuk Valley, etc.
  • Verda or Verdell for Mesa Verde National Park.
  • Virginia for Virgin Islands National Park.
  • Zion for Zion National Park.

For all you national park lovers out there: What other park-inspired names can you come up with?

P.S. I just learned (Nov. 2024) that the Utah Hockey Club has adopted a Labrador retriever puppy named Archie after Arches National Park, located near Moab. :)

Sources:

Images (all from the LOC): Grand Canyon National Park poster, Lassen Volcanic National Park poster, Zion National Park poster

[Latest update: Nov. 2024]

Popular baby names in New York City, 2014

Flag of New York
Flag of New York

According to data from the New York City Department of Health, the most popular baby names in the city last year were Sophia and Ethan.

Here are New York City’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2014:

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Sophia
2. Isabella
3. Olivia
4. Mia
5. Emma
6. Emily
7. Leah
8. Ava
9. Sofia
10. Chloe		1. Ethan
2. Jacob
3. Liam
4. Jayden
5. Noah
6. Daniel
7. Michael
8. Alexander
9. David
10. Matthew

On the girls’ list, Ava replaced Madison.

The boys’ list contains the same 10 names. Notably, Liam jumped from 10th in 2013 to 3rd in 2014.

Despite the Venmo “Lucas” ads, the name Lucas did not appear in the overall top 10 in NYC in 2014.

Here are the top names broken down by ethnic/racial group:

Hispanic

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Isabella
2. Sophia
3. Mia
4. Sofia
5. Camila		1. Liam
2. Dylan/Jacob
3. Noah
4. Jayden
5. Ethan

Black

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Madison
2. Ava
3. Chloe
4. Aaliyah
5. Skylar		1. Ethan
2. Noah
3. Aiden/Jayden
4. Elijah
5. Jeremiah

White

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Olivia
2. Esther
3. Rachel
4. Leah
5. Emma		1. Joseph
2. David
3. Michael
4. Moshe
5. Jacob

Asian & Pacific Islander

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Olivia
2. Chloe/Sophia
3. Emma
4. Emily
5. Angela		1. Jayden
2. Ethan
3. Ryan
4. Lucas
5. Aiden

(Lucas was also 4th on the Asian & Pacific Islander list in 2013.)

Source: Health Department Announces Sophia and Ethan are 2014’s Most Popular Baby Names

Image: Adapted from Flag of New York (public domain)