How popular is the baby name Baines 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 Baines.

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Popularity of the baby name Baines


Posts that mention the name Baines

Baby born during Cyclone Rene, named Rene

hurricane

In February of 2010, Tropical Cyclone Rene brushed past American Samoa in the South Pacific. The storm came closest to the U.S. territory on February 13.

The night before, a baby girl was born at American Samoa’s LBJ Tropical Medical Center.

The hospital’s emergency team had been camping at the hospital in preparation for the cyclone that night.

The head of the delivery department, Dr. John Ah Ching, says the mother came in with complications and having all the necessary staff present may have saved the baby’s life.

I don’t know the baby’s full name, but she was “named after Cyclone Rene,” according to my source.

P.S. The Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) Tropical Medical Center, which was named after the first and only U.S. president to visit American Samoa, opened in June of 1968. “The first admitted patient was a baby about to be delivered. He received the name Lyndon.”

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Hurricane Elena by NASA (public domain)

Where did the baby name Bedar come from in 1966?

Flower girl Bader Howar
Bader Howar (flower girl)

The unusual name Bedar has appeared just once in the U.S. baby name data:

  • 1968: unlisted
  • 1967: unlisted
  • 1966: 5 baby girls named Bedar [debut]
  • 1965: unlisted
  • 1964: unlisted

Where did it come from?

A flower girl. Specifically, six-year-old “Bedar Howar” — the flower girl at the August wedding of 19-year-old Luci Baines Johnson, daughter of U.S. president Lyndon Baines Johnson.

bedar, bader, baby name, 1966

But here’s the catch: Her name was actually Bader Howar. White House press releases had transposed the vowels in her name, resulting in Bader’s name being misspelled in every contemporary write-up about the wedding.

Her father Edmond was a real estate developer of Jordanian descent; her mother Barbara was a Washington, D.C., socialite and writer. In the mid-1970s, Barbara mentioned to People magazine that Bader was “named for a paternal grandmother.” (The name is derived from the Arabic word badr, meaning “full moon.”)

Bader now works as a portrait photographer in California, though she did have a brief acting career (including a small part in Pretty in Pink).

Sources:

Image: Clipping from Life magazine (19 Aug. 1966)