How popular is the baby name Astor 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 Astor.

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Popularity of the baby name Astor


Posts that mention the name Astor

Patience and Fortitude: The New York Public Library lions

New York Public Library on opening day (1911)
New York Public Library

Two marble lions have been guarding the entrance of the New York Public Library since it opened in May of 1911. These days, the lions are usually called Patience and Fortitude. But over the years they’ve had various nicknames, including a number of male/female nicknames (despite the fact that both lions are clearly male). Some examples:

  • Ainsley and Rollo
  • Leo Astor and Leo Lenox
    • The NYPL was created by combining the Astor and Lenox libraries.
  • Lord Lenox and Lady Astor
  • Leo and Leonora
  • Peter Cooper and Horace Greeley (famous for their whiskers, among other things)
  • Plato and Lily
  • Pyramus and Thisbe
  • Uptown and Downtown

The NYPL attributes the “Patience” and “Fortitude” to former NYC mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, who was in office from 1934 to 1945.

Mayor LaGuardia…nicknamed The New York Public Library’s lions Patience and Fortitude for the qualities he felt New Yorkers needed to survive the Great Depression.

While it’s a nice story, I can’t find any record of LaGuardia suggesting that the library lions be called by those particular nicknames. He did, however, use the phrase “Patience and Fortitude” repeatedly in his weekly WWII-era radio talks (1942-1945) on WNYC. So LaGuardia may be the ultimate source of the names, but it’s more likely that his radio audience began associating the two words with the two cats during the 1940s — after the Depression was over.

Speaking of Fiorello…the lions were carved by the Piccirilli Brothers, immigrants from Italy. The six brothers were named Ferrucio, Attilio, Furio, Masaniello, Orazio, and Getulio, plus they had a kid sister named Iola (according to the census).

Do you like the nicknames Patience and Fortitude for the lions? If not, what names would you prefer?

Sources:

Image: N.Y. Library on Opening Day (LOC)

80+ Hidden gems: Rare baby boy names

gemstone

Want a boy name that’s not popular, but also not unheard of?

I looked through all the names at the bottom of SSA’s 2011 mega-list and found a bunch of hidden gems:

  1. Alaric (48 baby boys)
  2. Alban (12)
  3. Aldous (11)
  4. Aldric (7)
  5. Alphonse (20)
  6. Archibald (14)
  7. Astor (5)
  8. Augustin (50)
  9. Balthazar (13)
  10. Barclay (6)
  11. Barnabas (8)
  12. Bartholomew (19)
  13. Booker (22)
  14. Chadwick (34)
  15. Cyril (41)
  16. Clancy (14)
  17. Claude (44)
  18. Clement (34)
  19. Crispin (21)
  20. Darcy (15)
  21. Dirk (40)
  22. Doyle (10)
  23. Ernst (6)
  24. Ferdinand (20)
  25. Garrick (42)
  26. Giles (20)
  27. Gregor (14)
  28. Griffith (18)
  29. Grover (9)
  30. Gustaf (7); Gustav (29)
  31. Horatio (10)
  32. Hubert (46)
  33. Ignatius (49)
  34. Isidore (7)
  35. Kermit (6)
  36. Lambert (6)
  37. Laird (17)
  38. Laurence (48)
  39. Laurent (9)
  40. Leander (48)
  41. Leith (7)
  42. Lemuel (50)
  43. Lowell (29)
  44. Maxfield (22)
  45. Newton (14)
  46. Nicanor (8)
  47. Norbert (9)
  48. Norris (21)
  49. Ogden (13)
  50. Orson (33)
  51. Osborn (5); Osborne (7)
  52. Oswald (18)
  53. Pascal (25)
  54. Percival (13)
  55. Peregrine (9)
  56. Piers (16)
  57. Regis (10)
  58. Remis (11)
  59. Roscoe (47)
  60. Rudolph (44)
  61. Rufus (39)
  62. Rupert (8)
  63. Sanford (6)
  64. Seymour (6)
  65. Sherman (40)
  66. Sinclair (8)
  67. Tavish (16)
  68. Thane (48)
  69. Tobiah (14)
  70. Walton (14)
  71. Warner (48)
  72. Watson (42)
  73. Webster (8)
  74. Weldon (27)
  75. Werner (11)
  76. Wilbert (42)
  77. Wilbur (20)
  78. Winfield (7)
  79. Winfred (7)
  80. Winslow (10)
  81. York (5)
  82. Zebulon (25)
  83. Zeno (13)

(In some cases, a different spelling of the name is more popular than what’s shown here. For instance, Laurence is rare, but Lawrence is moderately popular.)

Like any of these?

Spot any other good names at the end of the list?

P.S. Here’s the girls’ list.

Image by Tahlia Doyle from Unsplash

More Titanic-inspired baby names

RMS Titanic
RMS Titanic

This Sunday, April 15, is the 100-year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.

We’ve already talked about two Titanic-inspired baby names, Archibald Astor and Edwin Titanic, but there are others.

Here’s what I’ve found so far:

  • Dolly Titanic Ranshaw was born in Iowa on Jun. 27, 1912, to Tom and Karla Ranshaw.
  • Mary Catherine Titanic Marcotte was born in Ontario on Apr. 30, 1912, to Albert and Delvina Marcotte.
  • Paul Titanic Maloney was born in Massachusetts on Apr. 8, 1912, to Mark and Catharine Maloney. (Like Edwin, he was born a few days before the disaster, so clearly his parents didn’t choose his name right away — a common practice during that era.)
  • Sara Carpathia Aks was born in Virginia on March 12, 1913, to Titanic survivor Leah Aks and her husband Samuel (who was not aboard). She was named after the rescue ship RMS Carpathia.
  • Titanic Grissom was born in Arkansas c.1912 to Edward and Teary Grissom.

Know of any others?

Image: RMS Titanic by F. G. O. Stuart

Baby named after Titanic victims

RMS Titanic
RMS Titanic

In April of 1912, Mr. and Mrs. Cecil A. Ferguson of Washington, D.C., welcomed a baby boy.

They named him Archibald Astor after Major Archibald Butt and millionaire John Jacob Astor, both of whom had perished in the sinking of the Titanic on April 15.

The parents said they hoped their baby would “emulate the heroism of these men.”

(Though the newspaper article I saw claimed the baby “was born on the day the Titanic went down,” the Social Security Death Index lists Archibald A. Ferguson’s birth date as April 11.)

Source: “Baby Is Named Archibald Astor.” Detroit Free Press 29 Apr. 1912: 4.
Image: RMS Titanic by F. G. O. Stuart