How popular is the baby name Bambi 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 Bambi.

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Popularity of the baby name Bambi


Posts that mention the name Bambi

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.

Popular baby names in Brussels (Belgium), 2008

In 2007, the most popular names in Brussels (the capital of both Belgium and the European Union) were Lina/Sara (tied) and Mohamed.

These were the city’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names:

Girl Names

  1. Lina, 94 baby girls (tie)
  2. Sarah, 94 (tie)
  3. Aya, 86
  4. Yasmine, 71
  5. Rania, 70 (tie)
  6. Sara, 70 (tie)
  7. Salma, 69
  8. Imane, 63
  9. Ines, 56
  10. Clara, 49

Boy Names

  1. Mohamed, 235 baby boys
  2. Adam, 169
  3. Rayan, 84
  4. Nathan, 81
  5. Gabriel, 66
  6. Amine, 62
  7. Ayoub, 58 (tie)
  8. Mehdi, 58 (tie)
  9. Lucas, 56
  10. Anas, 54

According to Brussel Nieuws.be, the number of births between 2002 and 2007 rose by 8.4% for boys and 9.2% for girls, but the total number of different names increased by 17.0% and 20.7%, respectively. Very interesting…

And what about the unique names? They included:

BoysGirls
Adonis, Arafat, Aristote, Aristoteles, Babaloluwa, Beau-Luccio, Blade, Blij, Bonheur, Boy, Broes, C-jay, Christ-Yehochua, Devo, Diesel, Dieumerci, Dike, Doedoe, Elegast, Ensor, Euro, Exaucé, Faithwins, Fox-Anthony, Goodwill, Grimm, Harley-Davidson, Jazz, Jean-Public, Jefken, Joyeux, Kennedy, Kyuss, Lancelot, Lion, Lowie-Viktoor, Maddox, Mekongo-Willy, Mel-Gibson, Merlijn, Moon, Mouhamadousaikou, Mozes, Muhammed-Ali, Odd, Okay, Precieux, Prodige, Quossay, Ridder, Rocco, Serafin, Sky, Spencer-Cash, Stier, Strong, Sufjan, Sunday, Sunny, Synphorien, Thoth, Thörgal, Trésor, Vangelis, Volkan, Vos, Welcome, Wens, WolfAlaska, Allégresse, Babbe, Babel, Babsi, Bambi, Beertje, Believe, Berin, Beste, Bilitis, Blue, Camus-Salomé, Charisma, Choupette, Condoleezza, Cozmo, Creator, December, Destinée, Destiny, Diva, Echo, Elf, Elie-Blue, Ella-Blue, Enola-Jane, Exaucée, Exocée, Ezel, Fidelité, Glorieuse, Glory, Godwill, Hallelujah, Honesty, Harmonie, Ijoux, India-Summer, Joyful, Kadiatoudiallo, Kikie, Lorelei, Lucrecia-Shanice, Luu-Ly, Lux, Mackenzie, Magnificat, Magnolia, Mammelow, Man, Marvelous, Meadow, Melody, Merel, Missie, Missy, Muze, Nanouk, Netje, Pixie, Salvatrice, Santana, Sherilyn-Morissette, Summer, Sun, Sway, Trinity, Venus, Victory, Vlinder, Winter, Zonne

(I believe the above were culled from records covering the entire country, not just Brussels.)

Sources: Algemene Directie Statistiek, Mohamed tops baby name list in Brussels, and Belgian Baby Names 2007 (Thank you, Luke!)