How popular is the baby name Blue 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 Blue.

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Popularity of the baby name Blue


Posts that mention the name Blue

Pop culture baby name game, 2012

Britney Spears album

Happy birthday, Britney Spears!

And you guys know what happens every year on Brit’s birthday…we kick off the annual Pop Culture Baby Name Game!

Which baby names have become more popular in 2012, thanks to popular culture?

We won’t have definitive answers until the SSA releases its next batch of data (in mid-2013). But 2012 is almost over, so we have all the information we need to start making guesses.

Some possibilities I’ve already blogged about:

  • Anastasia, GreyFifty Shades of Grey
  • ArriettyThe Secret World of Arrietty
  • Avila, Hildegard – St. John of Avila and St. Hildegard of Bingen
  • Azealia – Azealia Banks
  • Carly, or Carly Rae – Carly Rae Jepsen
  • Dev, Lovely – “Dev”
  • DjangoDjango Unchained
  • Essined, Lidislay – “Nuestra Belleza Latina”
  • Felix – daredevil Felix Baumgartner
  • Kateri – St. Kateri Tekakwitha
  • KatnissHunger Games
  • Lorenzo, Dominic – Snooki’s son Lorenzo Dominic
  • MeridaBrave
  • Olive – Drew Barrymore’s daughter Olive
  • Penelope – Kourtney Kardashian’s daughter Penelope
  • RenesmeeTwilight
  • Sparkle, TikaSparkle
  • Tennessee – Reese Witherspoon’s son Tennessee
  • Toby – “Good Luck Charlie”
  • Trayvon – Trayvon Martin

Plus a few I forgot to blog about:

  • Blue, Ivy – Beyonce and Jay-Z’s daughter Blue Ivy, born way back in January. (Only 7 girls and 11 boys were named Blue in 2011. I have a feeling both of these numbers will be going up.)
  • Maxwell (for a girl) – Jessica Simpson’s daughter Maxwell, born in May.
  • Mitt, Romney – Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney

Want to play? Leave a comment with your name predictions and the pop culture event(s) you think gave those names a boost this year.

UPDATE, May 2013: Here are the results!

How were the Philadelphia Eagles named?

When I wrote about the name Nira yesterday, I was sure to include an NRA poster featuring the Blue Eagle emblem.

Why?

So I could post this follow-up, of course. :)

I’ve discovered two names that were inspired by that Blue Eagle, if you can believe it.

The first is a personal name. Mr. and Mrs. Frank Knapinski of Milwaukee had a baby boy on September 20, 1933. They named him Franklin Delano Blue Eagle Knapinski after both the president and the Blue Eagle.

The second is a (very familiar!) sports name. A National Football League team was formed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1933 out of the ashes of the Frankford Yellow Jackets (1899-1931). The new team was named the Eagles after the NRA emblem.

Sources:

  • Bowen, Les. Philadelphia Eagles: The Complete Illustrated History. Minneapolis: MVP Books, 2011.
  • “Franklin Blue Eagle, Proud Infant’s Name.” Milwaukee Journal 21 Sep. 1933: 11.

What turned Blue into a baby name in 1968?

Movie poster for "Blue" (1968)
“Blue”

Decades before Beyoncé had daughter Blue Ivy (2012), and years before Cher had son Elijah Blue (1976), the color-name Blue debuted in the U.S. baby name data:

  • 1970: 10 baby boys named Blue
  • 1969: 13 baby boys named Blue
  • 1968: 11 baby boys named Blue [debut]
  • 1967: unlisted
  • 1966: unlisted

What put it there initially?

I have two theories.

The first is Billy Blue “Blue Boy” Cannon, a character from the TV western The High Chaparral, which started airing in September of 1967. Blue Boy, played by actor Mark Slade, was a young man who was the son of main character, “Big John” Cannon. (The show also launched the name Manolito.)

The second is the movie Blue, which was released April of 1968. It was a western in which the main character, played by Terence Stamp, was called Azul on account of his blue-colored eyes. The movie was panned — critic Roger Ebert said Blue was “not just a bad movie, but a painfully inept one” — and it didn’t do well at the box office, but the advertising campaign may have been enough.

(Incidentally, the name Blue was used again in the title of a western just a few years later with the release of Kid Blue (1973) starring Dennis Hopper.)

What are your thoughts on Blue as a baby name? Do you like it better as a male name or as a female name? How about as a first vs. as a middle?

Sources: Review of Blue (1968) by Roger Ebert, SSA

Popular and unique baby names in Brussels (Belgium), 2008

Flag of Belgium
Flag of Belgium

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:

Unique boy namesUnique girl names
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, Belgian Baby Names 2007

Image: Adapted from Flag of Belgium (public domain)