How popular is the baby name April 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 April.

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 April


Posts that mention the name April

Girl names that end with an L-sound

Girl names that end with an L-sound

In the U.S., most of the names given to baby girls end with a vowel sound. And many of the remaining names end with an N-sound.

So, what about girl names that end with other sounds?

Below is a selection of girl names that end with an L-sound, regardless of last letter. The names are ordered by current popularity.

Abigail
From the Hebrew name Avigayil, which is made up of elements meaning “father” and “joy.” Here’s the popularity graph for Abigail.

Hazel
From the type of tree, or from the color (which is the hue of a ripe hazelnut). Here’s the popularity graph for Hazel.

Brielle
A short form of the French name Gabrielle. Here’s the popularity graph for Brielle.

Isabelle
Based on Elizabeth, which is derived from a Hebrew name made up of elements meaning “god” and “oath.” Here’s the popularity graph for Isabelle.

Noelle
A feminine form of the French name Noel, meaning “Christmas.” Here’s the popularity graph for Noelle.

Camille
A French feminine form of the Roman name Camillus, which is of unknown meaning. Here’s the popularity graph for Camille.

Ariel
A Hebrew name meaning “lion of god.” Here’s the popularity graph for Ariel.

Rachel
A Hebrew name meaning “ewe.” Here’s the popularity graph for Rachel.

Lucille
A French feminine form of the Roman name Lucius, meaning “light.” Here’s the popularity graph for Lucille.

Kendall
From the English surname, which is derived from the place name Kendal, meaning “Kent valley” (i.e., valley by the River Kent). Here’s the popularity graph for Kendall.

Mabel
A Medieval feminine form of the late Roman name Amabilis, meaning “lovable.” Here’s the popularity graph for Mabel.

Nicole
A French feminine form of Nicholas, which is derived from an Ancient Greek name made up of elements meaning “victory” and “people.” Here’s the popularity graph for Nicole.

Annabelle
A form of the Medieval feminine name Amabel (derived from the late Roman name Amabilis, meaning “lovable”), influenced by the name Anna and French word belle (meaning “beautiful”). Here’s the popularity graph for Annabelle.

Giselle
From a Germanic word meaning “hostage.” Here’s the popularity graph for Giselle.

Michelle
A French feminine form of Michael, which is derived from a Hebrew name meaning “who is like god?” Here’s the popularity graph for Michelle.

Elle
A diminutive of names that start with El-, or a short form of names that end with -elle. Here’s the popularity graph for Elle.

Miracle
From the English vocabulary word. Here’s the popularity graph for Miracle.

Danielle
A French feminine form of Daniel, which is derived from a Hebrew name meaning “god is my judge.” Here’s the popularity graph for Danielle.

Itzel
Might be based on the Mayan name Ixchel, which may mean “rainbow lady.” Here’s the popularity graph for Itzel.

Gabrielle
A French feminine form of Gabriel, which is derived from a Hebrew name meaning “man of god.” Here’s the popularity graph for Gabrielle.

Bristol
From the English place name, which means “bridge place.” Here’s the popularity graph for Bristol.

Angel
From an Ancient Greek word meaning “messenger.” Here’s the popularity graph for Angel.

Opal
From the type of gemstone. Here’s the popularity graph for Opal.

April
From the name of the month. Here’s the popularity graph for April.

Janelle
A diminutive of Jane. Here’s the popularity graph for Janelle.

Laurel
From the type of tree. Here’s the popularity graph for Laurel.

Estelle
An Old French name meaning “star.” Here’s the popularity graph for Estelle.

Pearl
From the type of gemstone (which is actually a nacreous concretion produced by mollusks). Here’s the popularity graph for Pearl.

Joelle
A feminine form of Joel, which is derived from a Hebrew name meaning “Yahweh is god.” Here’s the popularity graph for Joelle.

Adele
From a Germanic word meaning “noble.” Here’s the popularity graph for Adele.

Marisol
A short form of the Spanish name María Soledad (from the Marian title María de la Soledad). Here’s the popularity graph for Marisol.

Sol
A Spanish and Portuguese word meaning “sun.” Here’s the popularity graph for Sol.

Royal
From the English vocabulary word. Here’s the popularity graph for Royal.

Aubrielle
An elaboration of Aubrey. Here’s the popularity graph for Aubrielle.

Chanel
From the French fashion house Chanel, named for founder Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel. Here’s the popularity graph for Chanel.

Belle
A short form of names that end with -belle. Here’s the popularity graph for Belle.

Raquel
The Spanish and Portuguese form of Rachel. Here’s the popularity graph for Raquel.

Crystal
From the English vocabulary word. Here’s the popularity graph for Crystal.

Jewel
From the English vocabulary word. Here’s the popularity graph for Jewel.

Abril
The Spanish form of the name April. Here’s the popularity graph for Abril.

Amal
An Arabic word meaning “hope.” Here’s the popularity graph for Amal.

Campbell
From the Scottish surname, which is derived from a nickname made up of elements meaning “crooked” and “mouth.” Here’s the popularity graph for Campbell.

Azul
The Spanish word for “blue.” Here’s the popularity graph for Azul.

Maple
From the type of tree. Here’s the popularity graph for Maple.

Xochitl
The Nahuatl word for “flower.” Here’s the popularity graph for Xochitl.

Maribel
A short form of the Spanish name María Isabel. Here’s the popularity graph for Maribel.

Yael
From a Hebrew name meaning “ibex” (a type of wild goat). Here’s the popularity graph for Yael.

Mirabel
From the Old French word mirable, meaning “admirable.” Here’s the popularity graph for Mirabel.

Sybil
From the Ancient Greek word sibylla, which referred to a type of prophetess. Here’s the popularity graph for Sybil.

Nell
A Medieval diminutive of names that start with El- or a similar sound. Here’s the popularity graph for Nell.

Less-common girl names that end with an L-sound include Coral, Liesl, Jill, Eshaal, Marvel, Ciel, Layal, and Kestrel.

Which of the above do you like most? What others can you think of?

P.S. Here are lists of girl names that end with D-, K-, M-, R-, S-, T-, V-, and Z-sounds.

Sources:

  • SSA
  • Wikipedia
  • Wiktionary
  • Behind the Name
  • Hanks, Patrick, Kate Hardcastle and Flavia Hodges. (Eds.) A Dictionary of First Names. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Popular baby names in Gibraltar, 2022

Flag of Gibraltar
Flag of Gibraltar

The British overseas territory of Gibraltar is a narrow peninsula jutting out from the southern coast of Spain.

Though the official language of Gibraltar is English, most Gibraltarians also speak Spanish. (In fact, the mix of Andalusian Spanish and British English spoken by locals has its own name: Llanito.)

Last year, Gibraltar welcomed 364 babies — “almost a baby for every day of 2022.” There were 179 baby girls and 185 baby boys.

And what were the most popular names among these babies? Sienna and Elijah/Leo (tie).

Here are Gibraltar’s top girl names and top boy names of 2022:

Girl names

  1. Sienna, 6 baby girls
  2. Ava and Lucia, 5 each (tie)
  3. Emily, Isabella, and Valentina, 4 each (3-way tie)
  4. Amelia, Chloe, Isla, Lauren, and Lily, 3 each (5-way tie)
  5. Charlotte, Eliza, Elsie, Gabriella, India, Luna, Mia, Robyn, Sophie, Thalia, and Tiana, 2 each (11-way tie)

Boy names

  1. Elijah and Leo, 5 baby boys each (tie)
  2. Noah, Oliver, Theo, and Thomas, 4 each (4-way tie)
  3. Jamie, Lewis, Lucas, and Thiago, 3 each (4-way tie)
  4. Amir, Arthur, Erik, Freddie, Gabriel, Hugo, Isaac, Jack, Jacob, James, Jason, Joseph, Kai, Liam, Logan, Louie, Luca, Mason, Matthew, Niall, Nico, Ryan, Theodore, and Zayn, 2 each (24-way tie)

The rest of the names were each bestowed once. (Except for Riley, which was bestowed twice overall — once for each gender.)

Unique girl names (120)Unique boy names (93)
Ada, Adeline, Adelyn, Ahriella, Alba, Alessandra, Alis, Alisha, Aliyanna, Alona, Amaya, Amelie-Rae, Amira, Ana, Andie, Anna, Aoife, April, Arabella, Ari, Aria, Ariana, Arianna, Arieya, Aris, Aubrey, Avery, Cali, Callie, Celeste, Cipbelynn, Cora, Daisy, Daisy-Ray, Dayana, Elise, Ellen, Emma, Esme, Estella, Evelyn, Fae, Farah, Faye, Fern, Florence, Haley, Harlequin, Hayley, Ines, Jessie, Josephine, Josie, Julia, Kairo, Kennan, Kian, Killian, Kyel, Kylo, Kate, Katie, Kyla, Kythea, Layan, Layla, Leah, Leticia, Lina, Lottie, Maeva, Maia, Manuela, Margaret, Margot, Mariam, Matilde, Maya, Mayra, Melianne, Mila, Millie, Molly, Neriah, Nora, Nylah-Mae, Poppy, Presley, Quinn, Radhika, Raya, Renaelia, Rhianne, Riley, Roeeya, Rose, Ruby, Rumi, Sara, Savannah, Selina, Shannah, Siera, Snow, Sophia, Stella, Summer, Talia, Tasnim, Thea, Tillie, Willow, Winter, Yael, Yara, Yasmin, Yui, Zahra, Zaphyr, ZoeAbdurhman, Abel, Airam, Alaa, Alfie, Alfred, Andrei, Anthony, Archie, Ariel, Asher, Ashton, Austin, Axton, Bear, Benas, Bowie, Bradley, Cairo, Carlos, Charlie, Cody, Crislee, Dante, Domenico, Dominic, Dylan, Elias, Elis, Emilian, Emilio, Ethan, Evan, Finley, Frankie, Gary, Gian, Graham, Haroun, Henry, Hudson, Imram, Iyad, Jake, Jax, Jay, Jayce, Jayden, Jesse, Jonah, Joud, Leigh, Louis, Luis, Luke, Manuel, Marco, Mattia, Maxwell, Michael, Millel, Nassim, Nathan, Neo, Nicholas, Nicolas, Nilan, Noa, Nuveshshing, Nyan, Nyle, Oscar, Otis, Otto, Ray, Rayan, Remy, Riley, Rocco, Romeo, Samy, Scott, Sebastian, Shane, Stephen, Teo, Tommy, Tyler, Wael, Yaqub, Zachary, Zack, Zuhayr

Finally, here are Gibraltar’s 2021 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.

P.S. Did you know that John Lennon and Yoko Ono got married in Gibraltar in March of 1969?

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Flag of Gibraltar (public domain)

Why didn’t Cloris Leachman change her name?

Actress Cloris Leachman (1926-2021)
Cloris Leachman

While other mid-20th-century actors and actresses were swapping out their birth names for catchy stage names (like Rory Calhoun, Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Piper Laurie, Tab Hunter, and Rock Hudson), Cloris Leachman decided to go against the grain and stick with her legal name (which she’d inherited from her mother).

But she did consider changing her name for a time…thanks largely to Tallulah Bankhead.

In 1949, Cloris was in her early 20s and appearing on stage in Come Back, Little Sheba. Bankhead came to see the production, and, afterwards, when the two women met for the first time, Tallulah implored Cloris to change her name.

On a different occasion, Bankhead brought the topic up again:

“Cloris Leachman,” she crowed, “too long. Too many syllables. Too unknown. Clorox Bleachman would be better. You can’t even fit it on the marquee in front of a theater.”

During that second interaction, Cloris came up with the potential stage name “April Claiborne” by combining her birth month with her youngest sister’s first name. (“Claiborne” was their paternal grandmother’s maiden name.)

She still wasn’t sure about making the change, though.

When I went to the Actors Studio the next day, I talked about Madame Bankhead’s rant. They all agreed with her. “You have to change your name! You have to!,” they cried. It was a unanimous opinion. So right there we got out the New York phone book. It opened it up to the Ls, closed my eyes, and the name under my finger was Leavitt. It was miraculous. That translated to “Leave it!” This is no accident, I thought. The god of monikers is talking, and he says leave it. Okay, I’ll leave it.

When I got to Hollywood, the subject came up again. People said I should not only change my name, I should have my nose shortened. I emphatically didn’t want to do either, and that’s why I’m still Cloris Leachman with a big nose.

Cloris Leachman’s name may not have been as trendy-sounding as “Lana Turner” or “Piper Laurie,” but it certainly wasn’t an impediment to her career, which lasted more than seven decades. She appeared in nearly 100 films (like The Last Picture Show), dozens of TV movies (such as A Girl Named Sooner), and well over 100 TV shows (including Johnny Staccato, Rawhide, Outlaws, Shirley Temple’s Storybook, The Loretta Young Show, Gunsmoke, The Twilight Zone, Route 66, Wagon Train, Stoney Burke, 77 Sunset Strip, A Man Called Shenandoah, The Big Valley, Mannix, The Virginian, and Lancer).

Her first name, a variant spelling of the ancient Greek name Chloris (meaning “greenish-yellow, pale green”), is closely related to the name Chloe (meaning “green shoot”).

What are your thoughts on the name Cloris?

Sources:

Name quotes #110: Marné, Wulfstan, Swift

double quotation mark

Time for another batch of name quotes!

From a recent Deseret News article about Utah’s unusual baby names by Meg Walter:

Heather Marné Williams-Young is named after Marné Whitaker Tuttle. According to legend, Marné Whitaker Tuttle’s mother named her Marne (with no accent) after the French town on the frontlines of World War I, thinking Marne, which rhymes with barn, was a beautiful name.

But Marné disagreed, so she added the acute accent over the e, and pronounced it “Mar-nay.” “There is nothing more Utah to me than women of a certain generation trying make their names more French by putting accents places they shouldn’t be,” Williams-Young says.

[Marné Tuttle (1920-2014), the wife of LDS church leader A(lbert) Theodore Tuttle, served as “temple matron” in the Provo Utah Temple in the early 1980s. During that time, Heather’s mother worked as a Temple employee. Both Heather’s mother and Heather’s mother’s roommate ended up giving their future daughters the middle name Marné.]

“There are a handful of us around Utah County who were all named after the same woman with the made-up name,” Williams-Young says. “I feel such a kinship with them.”

[One of Marné Tuttle’s own daughters, Clarissa, was also given Marné as a middle.]

From a 2015 article in History Today about Anglo-Saxon personal names by James Chetwood:

While it is hard to tell exactly how important the meaning of name elements were, it seems likely that people were aware, to some extent, that names carried some kind of meaning. Indeed, one of the most famous, or infamous, Anglo-Saxons is most often known to us today as Ethelred the Unready, the king who lost his kingdom to Cnut. However, the name Ethelred signified ‘noble counsel’. So, when his contemporaries labelled him Æðelræd Unræd they were not calling him ‘unready’, but using the meaning of his name to mock his lack of good counsel. Similarly, when Archbishop Wulfstan entitled his homily to the English people ‘Sermon of the Wolf to the English’, he was clearly doing so in the knowledge that the first part of his name did not just sound like, but signified, ‘wolf’. Surely it cannot be coincidence that ‘rich’, ‘strong’ and ‘beautiful’ were used in names, where ‘poor’, ‘weak’ and ‘ugly’ were not.

A feature of this naming system was flexibility. There was a finite number of elements, but they could be combined in a multitude of ways. This meant that, in essence, a name was created for, rather than given to, each person. So, while elements could be repeated to emphasize parentage and family links, there was very little repetition of full names and it would be unlikely that any two people within a community or family would have the same name.

From an article about a Georgia man whose name, Neal, came from a POW bracelet:

His father, the late John Carpenter, was an aircraft mechanic in the Navy and was deployed overseas at the time. He arrived home in time for his son’s birth. When it became necessary to scramble and find a boy’s name, John Carpenter looked down at the POW/MIA bracelet he was wearing.

The engraved name was Neal Clinton Ward Jr. He had been listed as Missing in Action since June 13, 1969. An airman, his plane had been shot down over Laos in the jungles of Southeast Asia, nine days before his 24th birthday.

The Carpenters named their son Neal Ward Carpenter.

(Neal’s mom had been convinced the baby would be a girl. Neal said: “I was going to be April Michelle, and that’s all there was to it.”)

From a Cup of Jo post about offbeat middle names:

My friend gave her baby the middle name “Swift” because her labor was so quick.

Our friends chose the middle name “Buffalo” for their son because it was his dad’s nickname growing up. “It took my husband nine months to convince me,” my friend told me. “Then, in the middle of the night after signing the birth certificate, I had a mild panic attack at the hospital. Now I love it.”

From a collection of baby name stories contributed by Long Island moms:

My grandfather hated tattoos. He used to tell his standard stories and would say only people who had tattoos in ‘his day’ were sailors. He said their tattoos always said either ‘death before dishonor’ or ‘true love Mabel.’ He always used Mabel as the example name. I’m not sure why. He died in 2013. We named our daughter Mabel as a nod to him.

From the blog of UK historian Elizabeth Walne:

Some first names can be very helpful in providing an approximate birth date for an individual if you are unsure. I once researched a family with sons Foch, Petain and Joffre – all Marshals of France during WWI, effectively ‘dating’ them to around 1914-18.

Another example with less specific dates is the girl’s name ‘Adelaide’ which became popular with Adelaide, wife of William IV (born 1792, crowned Queen Consort 1831 and died 1849) and then fell in popularity – but importantly for red herring purposes didn’t disappear completely – after the turn of the century.

How columnist Richard Ord chose a middle name for his son:

His great grandad on his mother’s side was called Aston, so my wife told me, and so that became his middle name.

It wasn’t until a few months after his birth that my wife’s dad asked me about where the name came from.

Surprised, I told him that he took the family name of Aston. “You know, after his great grandad?!”

“Oh,” he replied. “But that wasn’t his name. That was his nickname. His mates called him Aston because he was the only Aston Villa supporter in the West End of Newcastle!”

In my book that makes his middle name even better.