How popular is the baby name Ariel 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 Ariel.

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Popularity of the baby name Ariel


Posts that mention the name Ariel

Popular and unique baby names in Quebec (Canada), 2016

Flag of Quebec
Flag of Quebec

According to data released recently by Retraite Québec, the most popular baby names in Quebec in 2016 were Emma and William.

Here are the province’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2016:

Girl Names
1. Emma, 632 baby girls
2. Lea, 514
3. Olivia, 507
4. Alice, 489
5. Florence, 470
6. Zoe, 416
7. Rosalie, 406
8. Charlotte, 400
9. Charlie, 387
10. Beatrice, 378

Boy Names
1. William, 791 baby boys
2. Thomas, 697
3. Liam, 654
4. Nathan, 614
5. Felix, 603
6. Jacob, 597
7. Noah, 590
8. Logan, 580
9. Alexis, 532
10. Gabriel, 530

In the girls’ top 10, Charlie returned and ousted Chloe.

In the boys’ top 10, Gabriel replaced Samuel.

Some of the baby names used just once last year include:

  • Girls: Aucelia, Augia, Denasada, Eulogia, Flechere, Haydence, Juridielle, Luotta, Mavericka, Nermine, Omica, Saranella, Sydra, Tuleen, Waapikun, Zealy, Zoralie
  • Boys: Bienvenu, Brinx, Clouthier, Danevick, Dyberry, Endrick, Holiday, Knochlan, Luzolo, Naulaq, Ozroy, Rockwell, Syphax, Tchaz, Tunu, Vinicius, Zabian

A CBC News article about how Quebec’s baby names are evolving to reflect the province’s changing values mentioned several name trends observed from the 1980s to today:

  • Compound names (Anne-Marie, Jean-François) are falling out of style.
  • Once-taboo English names (Elliot, Mia) are seeing new acceptance.
  • Similarly, French names are flipping languages (Anne to Anna, Guillaume to William).
  • Names are also flipping gender (Ariel, Noa).
  • Pop culture is influencing names (Shania, Logan).
  • Unique names are on the rise.

Speaking of unique names, sociologist Laurence Charton of the INRS (Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique) suggested that the rise of unique names starting in the early 1980s was fueled in part by a 1981 change in Quebec’s Civil Code that loosened restrictions on babies’ surnames.

rare baby names, quebec baby names, baby name graph

This claim makes me wish the article had included data from the ’60s and ’70s. I don’t doubt that parents felt liberated by the law change, but I do suspect that unique names were already on the rise by 1981.

Here are Quebec’s 2015 rankings.

Source: List of Baby Names – Retraite Québec

Image: Adapted from Flag of Quebec (public domain)

Popular baby names in Israel, 2015

Flag of Israel
Flag of Israel

According to data released earlier this week by Israel’s Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS), the top three most popular baby names in the country overall in 2015 were:

  1. Mohammed
  2. Yosef (used for male babies — both Muslim and Jewish)
  3. Ariel (used for Jewish babies — both male and female)

The top baby names for Jewish babies specifically were Noa and Noam:

Girl Names (Jewish)
1. Noa
2. Tamar
3. Maya
4. Avigayil/Avigail/Abigail
5. Talya/Talia
6. Adele
7. Shira
8. Ayala/Ayela
9. Yael
10. Sarah/Sara

Boy Names (Jewish)
1. Noam
2. David
3. Ori/Uri
4. Ariel
5. Eitan
6. Yosef
7. Itai/Itay
8. Yonatan
9. Daniel
10. Moshe

The CBS also reported that the boy names Dror, Yagel/Yigal, and Alroi/Elroi/Elroy each saw a sharp rise in usage in 2015.

The top baby names for Muslim babies specifically were Maryam and Mohammad:

Girl Names (Muslim)
1. Maryam/Miryam/Mariam
2. Sha’im
3. Jana/Janah
4. Lin
5. Lian/Layan
6. Alin/Aline
7. Sa’ara

Boy Names (Muslim)
1. Mohammad
2. Ahmed
3. Yosef
4. Omar
5. Adam
6. Jud/Jod
7. Abed
8. Ali
9. Amir
10. Ibrahim

The 2012 rankings for Israel are pretty similar.

Update, Oct. 2017: Here’s an interesting fact about Israel’s 2014 rankings (which I never wrote a post about): “Eitan soared in popularity to No. 5 from 10th place in 2014, a surge attributed to that year’s war in Gaza dubbed Operation Protective Edge, or Mivtza Tzuk Eitan in Hebrew.” (Source: Times of Israel)

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Flag of Israel (public domain)

Top Hebrew baby names in Israel, 5775

Flag of Israel
Flag of Israel

According to data from Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority, the most popular Jewish baby names in Israel for the Hebrew calendar year 5775 (September 25, 2014, to September 13, 2015) were Tamar and Ori.

The other top names were…

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Tamar
2. Noa
3. Talia
4. Shira
5. Yael
6. Avigayil		1. Ori
2. Eitan
3. Ariel
4. Noam
5. David
6. Yoseph

The top Jewish names for the previous year, 5774, were Tamar and Yosef.

(This list doesn’t include the names of Muslim babies and Christian babies born in Israel.)

Source: 5775: How Many Were Born and What Are the Most Common Names?

Image: Adapted from Flag of Israel (public domain)

How did “Bambi” influence baby names in the early 1940s?

The characters Bambi and Faline from the movie "Bambi" (1942)
Bambi and Faline from “Bambi”

Plenty of Disney Princesses (Ariel, Mulan, Tiana, Elsa, etc.) have had an impact on the U.S. baby name charts. But two of the earliest Disney characters to affect the charts weren’t princesses. In fact, they weren’t even human. They were white-tailed deer.

The classic animated film Bambi came out in August of 1942. The next year, the baby names Bambi and Faline both debuted as girl names in the U.S. baby name data.

Bambi:

  • 1945: 9 baby girls named Bambi
  • 1944: 7 baby girls named Bambi
  • 1943: 8 baby girls named Bambi [debut]
  • 1942: unlisted
  • 1941: unlisted

Faline:

  • 1945: unlisted
  • 1944: unlisted
  • 1943: 5 baby girls named Faline [debut]
  • 1942: unlisted
  • 1941: unlisted

The name Faline remains rare to this day, but the name Bambi went on to be given to hundreds of baby girls per year from the mid-’50s to the mid-’60s, then again from the mid-’70s to the mid-’80s.

The New York Times states that “Bambi reached peak popularity in 1979 after the release of the song “Who Killed Bambi?” in a movie about the Sex Pistols, an influential punk rock band.” It’s an interesting coincidence, but I doubt the song had any influence on usage.

The Disney movie was based on the 1923 novel Bambi, Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde (Bambi, a Life in the Woods) by Austrian author Felix Salten. In German, Faline’s name is pronounced fah-LEE-neh (as opposed to fah-LEEN in English).

Source: After ‘Frozen,’ a Baby Boomlet of Elsas

P.S. StoryCorps recently ran a story on 80-year-old Donnie Dunagan, one of the voices of Bambi.

P.P.S. In the book’s sequel, Bambi’s Children (1939), Bambi and Faline’s sons are named Geno and Gurri.