How popular is the baby name Beatrice 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 Beatrice.

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Popularity of the baby name Beatrice


Posts that mention the name Beatrice

The 11 siblings of Audie Murphy

Audie Murphy and sister Nadine
Audie Murphy and sister Nadine

Did you know that Audie Murphy — the soldier-turned-actor mentioned in yesterday’s post on Destry — was one of a dozen siblings? All 12 of the Murphy children were born in Texas. Here are their first and middle names:

  1. Elizabeth Corine, b. 1910
  2. Charles Emmett, b. 1912
  3. Vernon C., b. 1916
  4. Ariel June, b. 1919
  5. Virginia Oneta, b. 1918
  6. J.W. (stillborn), b. 1920
  7. Audie Leon, b. 1925
  8. Richard Houston, b. 1926
  9. Eugene Porter, b. 1928
  10. Reta Fay, b. 1931 – later known as Verda Nadine (see pic)
  11. Willa Beatrice, b. 1933
  12. Joe Preston, b. 1935

Which of these combinations do you like best?

Sources:

Image: Clipping from Life magazine (16 Jul. 1945)

Popular baby names in Italy, 2017

Flag of Italy
Flag of Italy

According to Italy’s Istituto Nazionale di Statistica, the most popular baby names in the country in 2017 were Sofia and Francesco.

Here are Italy’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2017:

Girl Names
1. Sofia, 7,173 baby girls
2. Giulia, 6,143
3. Aurora, 5,808
4. Alice, 3,691
5. Ginevra, 3,564
6. Emma, 3,525
7. Giorgia, 3,474
8. Greta, 3,270
9. Martina, 3,129
10. Beatrice, 2,970

Boy Names
1. Francesco, 7,209 baby boys
2. Leonardo, 6,622
3. Alessandro, 5,987
4. Lorenzo, 5,789
5. Mattia, 5,715
6. Andrea, 5,322
7. Gabriele, 5,129
8. Riccardo, 4,336
9. Matteo, 4,072
10. Tommaso, 4,020

In the girls’ top 10, Beatrice replaced Chiara (now 12th). Also notable is the fact that the top 10 again includes a total of four g-names. (In the U.S., on the other hand, there are only four g-names — Grace, Genesis, Gabriella, and Gianna — in the entire top 100.)

On the boys’ side, farther down, Kevin is hanging on at #50.

Source: How many babies are named…? (Istat)

Image: Adapted from Flag of Italy (public domain)

Why did Christopher debut as a girl name in 1938?

Actor Orson Welles, his first wife Virginia, and their baby girl Christopher (in 1938)
Orson Welles, Virginia, and baby girl Christopher

Legendary actor Orson Welles was married three times and had one daughter per marriage. The last two daughters had conventional names (Rebecca and Beatrice), but the first had an unexpected name: Christopher.

On the day Christopher Welles arrived in March of 1938, her father sent out a short telegram that read: “CHRISTOPHER SHE IS HERE.”

(When Christopher questioned her father about the name as a child, he replied: “Your name has a marvelous ring to it, don’t you think?” He added that she was “the only girl in the world” called Christopher, which made her unique.)

The year Christopher Welles was born, the name Christopher appeared as a girl name for the first time in the U.S. baby name data:

Boys named ChristopherGirls named Christopher
19405007
19393595
19383088*
1937294.
1936277.
*Debut (gender-specific)

My hunch is that Orson Welles’s daughter was the main influence behind the debut. That said, the name Christopher was on the rise (as a boy name) in the late ’30s, so it’s possible that some of these female Christophers were simply mis-coded male Christophers.

As it turns out, Christopher Welles disliked her name: “I was teased mercilessly in school and was quite miserable as a result. I wanted to change it to Linda.” As an adult, she went by the shortened form Chris.

The name Christopher was in the top 10 for boys from 1967 to 2009, ranking #2 for many years from the ’70s to the ’90s. But it also ended up in the girls’ top 1,000 for 24 years, from 1967 to 1990.

What are your thoughts on Christopher as a girl name?

Sources:

Image: Orson, Virginia, and Christopher Welles (1938)

[Latest update: Aug. 2023]

Popular and unique baby names in Quebec (Canada), 2017

Flag of Quebec
Flag of Quebec

According to Retraite Québec, the most popular baby names in Quebec in 2017 were (again) Emma and William.

Here are the province’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2017:

Girl Names
1. Emma, 614 baby girls
2. Lea, 554
3. Alice, 512
4. Olivia, 483
5. Florence, 482
6. Charlotte, 425
7. Charlie, 420
8. Rosalie, 384
9. Beatrice, 369
10. Zoe, 349

Boy Names
1. William, 710 baby boys
2. Logan, 671
3. Liam, 629
4. Noah, 573
5. Jacob, 571
6. Thomas, 561
7. Raphael, 498
8. Nathan, 496
9. Leo, 494
10. Alexis, 461

The girls’ top 10 contains the same names as in 2016, but in a different order.

In the boys’ top 10, Raphael and Leo replaced Felix (now 13th) and Gabriel (now 16th).

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

  • Girls: Amberina, Benitha, Cassily, Delya, Elpis, Felia, Gwenia, Hajrah, Isalia, Jecolia, Kindia, Lagertha, Mimsy, Nolka, Odaluna, Posie, Rinnah, Sharbella, Tesseract, Ujarak, Vitalina, Wathahontha, Ysoo, Zanaelle
  • Boys: Arjo, Braveman, Clermont, Daxon, Ebbo, Floyd, Gideon, Holyver, Izai, Joah, Kephry, Lelio, Majorik, Nelligan, Orelsan, Plume, Ricardy, Syphax, Tayze, Uapeshkuss, Valerian, Witghy, Yanrick, Zarrar

This is the first time I’ve seen the geometry term “tesseract” used as a baby name. As Wikipedia puts it, “the tesseract is to the cube as the cube is to the square.” It’s a hypercube, basically. The word was coined in the 1880s from the Greek words tessera, “four,” and aktis, “ray.” Definitely an unusual name…though it does conveniently shorten to Tess.

Sources: List of Baby Names – Retraite Québec, Tesseract – Wikipedia

Image: Adapted from Flag of Quebec (public domain)