How popular is the baby name Bradley 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 Bradley.

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Popularity of the baby name Bradley


Posts that mention the name Bradley

Popular and unique baby names in Quebec (Canada), 2015

Flag of Quebec
Flag of Quebec

According to data from Retraite Québec, the most popular baby names in Quebec in 2015 were Emma and Thomas/William (tied).

Here are the province’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2015:

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Emma, 615 baby girls
2. Léa, 535
3. Olivia, 475
4. Alice, 471
5. Florence, 460
6. Zoe, 429
7. Chloe, 398
8. Beatrice, 390
9. Charlotte, 381
10. Rosalie, 350		1. Thomas, 754 baby boys
2. William, 754 baby boys
3. Jacob, 663
4. Liam, 661
5. Félix, 638
6. Nathan, 630
7. Samuel, 583
8. Logan, 576
9. Alexis, 554
10. Noah, 537

In 2015, Emma replaced Lea as the top girl name, William joined Thomas as the top boy name, Beatrice replaced Charlie in the girls’ top 10, and Noah replaced Olivier in the boy’s top 10. (Here are the 2014 rankings.)

[UPDATE, May 2017 – The Quebec rankings for 2015 have since been updated and it looks like William has pulled ahead of Thomas to become the sole #1 name.]

Of all 9,096 girl names on Quebec’s list in 2015, 74.5% of them were used a single time. Here are some of the unique girl names:

  • Allegresse – the French word allégresse means “joy, elation.”
  • Angelhephzibah
  • Brightness
  • Cathalaya-Skuessi
  • Clerilda
  • Confiance – the French word confiance means “confidence, trust.”
  • Doxalyah
  • Etky
  • Eubenice
  • Evlly
  • Exaucee – the French verb exaucer means “to grant a wish.”
  • Flory Comfort
  • Garance – the French word garance refers to a shade of red created from the root of the madder plant.
  • Glad Marie
  • Glody
  • Graytchelle Mayssa – a Gretchen + Rachel smoosh?
  • Greasy-Elizabeth
  • Happy Moussoni
  • Janiphee
  • Kalliah
  • Kzy
  • Luneve – reminds me of Leneve.
  • M Mah Bourgeois
  • Mingolou Oracle-Kidj
  • Nebraska
  • Nina-Symone
  • Nomad
  • Paphaelle
  • Poema
  • Praise Peter
  • Protegee
  • Relilah
  • Shamash-Cleodaine
  • Skodrina
  • Symphony Melody
  • Uqittuk
  • Uri Wonder
  • Winola – this one reminds me of early 20th-century America.
  • Zoalie
  • Zhya

Of all 7,920 boy names on Quebec’s list in 2015, 76.5% of them were bestowed just once. Here are some of the unique boy names:

  • Anakyn
  • Appamatta – the Pali word appamatta means “diligent, careful.”
  • Aunix
  • Axeliam
  • Bleart
  • Bradley Prague
  • Brady Bullet – this one reminds me of modern America (e.g. Shooter, Trigger).
  • Cedrick Wolynsky
  • Chrysolithe – a type of gem (a.k.a. peridot).
  • Cirrus
  • Dejgaard
  • Diamond-Heliodor – two more gems.
  • Drake Luke
  • Dublin
  • Dugaillekens
  • Elliottt – the only triple T’s in the U.S. data so far are Mattthew and Britttany. Probably typos, but you never know.
  • Eviee
  • Exauce – the masculine form of Exaucee.
  • Ezzeldeen
  • Garnet – another gem.
  • Glovacky
  • Gningnery Yoshua
  • Hervenslaire
  • Icky Neymar
  • Iola Stevie
  • Jimmy Johnny
  • Jyceton
  • Jyfr
  • Kbees
  • Keylord
  • Ludo-Vyck
  • Mathis-Adorable
  • Messy
  • Michael Antares – reminds me of an earlier Antares.
  • Napesis – the Cree word napesis means “boy” or “little boy.”
  • Nyquist
  • Perlcy
  • Rowdy Chance
  • Skogen
  • Sosereyvatanack
  • Tysaiah Jay
  • Whidjley Densly
  • Woobs Therly
  • Zogan

Source: List of Baby Names – Retraite Québec

Image: Adapted from Flag of Quebec (public domain)

The woman who buys this shirt: How old is she?

A few days before last week’s road trip, I went shopping. I didn’t find much, but I did spot this shirt while wandering aimlessly around Forever 21:

shirt from forever 21

The shirt says:

I (heart)
Brad
Dave
Sam
Ryan

What caught my eye specifically, beyond the fact that it’s a product with names on it, was the inclusion of the name Dave.

Names used in marketing (or on products themselves, as in this case) can give you a lot of information about the type of customer a company is targeting. A commercial featuring people named Madison and Tyler, for instance, is aimed at a different demographic than one featuring Debra and Gary, or Camila and Diego.

To me, Dave seems a bit old for the teens and 20-somethings shopping at Forever 21.

Here’s why:

forever-21-graph

The graph above indicates how many babies were named Bradley, David, Samuel, and Ryan from 1950 to 2000.

David was a top-10 boy name from the mid-1930s until the early 1990s, but it was really big pre-1970. It was the #1 boy name in the country in 1960, in fact.

Today’s oldest 20-somethings were born circa 1985. David was still more popular than Bradley, Samuel and Ryan in 1985, but it wasn’t as massively popular the 1980s as it had been in previous decades.

This might not seem like a big deal, but I find it really curious. Someone chose the name Dave for this shirt instead of Josh, or Matt, or Justin. Why?

There may not be an answer, but after doing some research, I’m wondering whether the choice of Dave wasn’t intentional. Here’s what I found in a Business Insider article about Forever 21 published a year ago:

Forever 21 is expanding its customer base — Forever 21 is becoming a fashion department store that caters to all members of the family — not just teens.

That means a broader set of customers are being gobbled up by the retailer as it releases new lines targeting men and older demographics. Yet, at its core, Forever 21 still has a similar target as the big teen retailers — 18- to 24-year-olds.

Maybe Dave was included to catch the attention of me and all the other 30-somethings and 40-somethings wandering aimlessly through the store?

And now the question of the day!

Let’s say you’re in Forever 21 and you see this shirt. And then you see someone — a female — walk up, take it off the rack, and buy it. In your visualization, what age is this person? And why do you think your brain automatically chose that age?

English family with 14 children

kinderfest

A few weeks ago I wrote about the Radford family, with 16 kids.

Here’s another brood from England that’s nearly as large — the Watson family of Guernsey, with 14 children:

  1. Natasha, 22
  2. Bradley, 21
  3. Shanice, 19
  4. Mariah, 16
  5. Georgia, 15
  6. Caitlin, 12
  7. Brittany, 11
  8. Febrianne, 10
  9. Charlie, 9
  10. Lilly-Arna, 8
  11. Nerilly-Jade, 7
  12. Armani, 5
  13. Tallulah, 4
  14. Indianna, 3

Which of the 14 names is your favorite?

Source: Single mother of 14 slams critics who brand her a scrounger

Image: Ein Kinderfest (1868) by Ludwig Knaus

Typeface baby names: Georgia, Calisto, Rockwell

movable type

I recently discovered that the name of my favorite font, Verdana, was created by combining the words verdant (in honor of the Pacific Northwest) and Ana (the name of the daughter of one of the developers).

Verdana may not be ready for broad use as a baby name, but this still made me wonder: which typeface names can be used as human names? Here’s what I came up with…

  • Albertus
  • Aldus (which was named after fifteenth-century Venetian printer Aldus Manutius)
  • Arial
  • Calisto
  • Cambria
  • Cooper, from Cooper Old Style (which was designed by Oswald Bruce Cooper in 1918)
  • Franklin, from Franklin Gothic (which was named after Benjamin Franklin)
  • Georgia (which, believe it or not, was named in honor of a quirky tabloid headline: “Alien heads found in Georgia”)
  • Gill, from Gill Sans (which was designed by Eric Gill in 1928)
  • Joanna (which was named after one of the daughters of its designer, Eric Gill)
  • Perpetua (which was named after Christian martyr Vibia Perpetua)
  • Rockwell
  • Roman, from Times New Roman (which was designed for the British newspaper The Times in 1931)
  • Trajan (which was named after Trajan’s Column in Rome).

Many script fonts (i.e., fonts that look like handwriting) also have traditional first names — examples include Andy, Ashley, Bradley, Gigi, Kristen, and Vladimir.

Sources: Wikipedia, Font Library – Microsoft

Image: Adapted from Pescia, stamperia benedetti, caratteri tipografici 02 by Sailko under CC BY-SA 4.0.

[Latest update: Jan. 2024]