How popular is the baby name Briar 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 Briar.

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Popularity of the baby name Briar


Posts that mention the name Briar

Top 50 nature names for baby girls

Nature is waking up again! Let’s celebrate by checking out which nature names are the most popular for baby girls right now. Ironically the top 50 list below includes all the seasons except for “Spring,” but it does feature lots of springtime things: flowers, birds, trees…

nature names, girl names, top 50, baby names,

For this list I stuck to names that are also correctly spelled English words. This means that I skipped names that are non-English words (like Stella and Luna) and alternative spellings of words (like Brooke and Briar). I should also mention that several of the above (including Rowan, Robin, and Clementine) do have more than one etymology to choose from.

Here are links to the popularity graphs:

  1. Lily
  2. Violet
  3. Hazel
  4. Autumn
  5. Ruby
  6. Willow
  7. Jasmine
  8. Jade
  9. Ivy
  10. Rose
  11. Daisy
  12. Summer
  13. Iris
  14. Olive
  15. Rowan
  16. Amber
  17. River
  18. Ember
  19. Aspen
  20. Sage
  21. Magnolia
  22. Meadow
  23. Wren
  24. Ivory
  25. Laurel
  26. Sky
  27. Clementine
  28. Dahlia
  29. Juniper
  30. Raven
  31. Holly
  32. Savanna
  33. Rosemary
  34. Winter
  35. Crystal
  36. Azalea
  37. Pearl
  38. Jewel
  39. Heather
  40. Robin
  41. Diamond
  42. Poppy
  43. Opal
  44. Sunny
  45. Coral
  46. Emerald
  47. Clover
  48. Pepper
  49. Sapphire
  50. Amethyst

Which nature name(s) do you like best?

P.S. Nature names that didn’t quite make the top 50 included Stormy, Zinnia, Sandy, and Acacia.

Baby name story: Briar

Fort McMurray wildfire, 2016
Fort McMurray wildfire

In May of 2016, a wildfire near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, forced tens of thousands of area residents to flee their homes.

Among the evacuees were Ninna Forte — who was pregnant, and due to give birth within a few weeks — and her partner Bill Briscoe.

The couple was stuck in traffic on Highway 63 for a number of hours. During that time, they listened to wildfire updates from reporter Briar Stewart on CBC radio.

“We had a boy’s name picked out, but still hadn’t settled on a girl’s name,” said Forte. “And we kept hearing Briar on the news. Briar Stewart.”

Fifteen days later, Ninna gave birth to a baby girl. Her name? Briar Adele Briscoe.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Wildfire near Highway 63 by DarrenRD under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Uncommon baby names in Oregon, 2012

Oregon’s Open Data website includes several tables of baby name data from 2012.

The most interesting thing about this data? It goes all the way down to names given to just three babies per year. (All the SSA baby name lists, on the other hand, have a five-baby cut-off.)

So here are some of the baby names that were bestowed in Oregon just three or four times in 2012:

Girl NamesBoy Names
Amberly
Andromeda
Arianny
Damaris
Diem
Ellingon
Fern
Gaia
Io
Isela
Jubilee
Kahlan
Linnea
Lois
Lumen
Magali
Rue
Sahasra
Sanvi
Sayuri
Seven
Sinai
Siri
Sonora
Sparrow
Timber
Twyla
Van
Yara		Achilles
Alvin
Atlas
Atreyu
Bear
Briar
Calder
Carver
Clive
Dutch
Forest
Huck
Hyrum
Isley
Kainoa
Kincaid
Koa
Larry
Loki
Montgomery
Riot
Rogue
Summit
Tavish
Tiberius
Tor
Trapper
Van
Zephyr

The name Diem caught my eye. Diem has been in the SSA data since the ’80s, but a lot of the recent usage was probably inspired by Danielle Michelle “Diem” Brown, who appeared on various MTV reality TV shows from 2006 to 2015. (She passed away in 2014 from ovarian cancer.) In her case, “Diem” was a nickname based on the initials “D.M.,” making this yet another name that can be spelled with the names of letters.

Update, 8/2023: Unfortunately, the state’s Open Data site no longer includes information on baby names, and I couldn’t find copies of the state’s 2012 baby name data anywhere else online (like at the Internet Archive).

While I was searching, though, I did find a couple of baby name-related quiz questions in a mid-2008 issue of CD Summary [pdf], which is a newsletter put out by Oregon Health Authority.

Which was the most frequently used baby name for boys in 2007?
(a) Anthony; (b) Pirate; (c) Jacob; (d) Elvis

The answer: (c) Jacob. “In 2007, 257 babies were named Jacob. Anthony was the tenth most frequently used boy’s name (184 babies). Four babies were named Elvis and only one, Pirate.”

The following were all baby names for girls in 2007 except?
(a) Chevy; (b) ESPN; (c) Logger; (d) God

The answer: (c) Logger. “No baby in Oregon has ever been named Logger. The name Chevy has been chosen for females seven times during the past 46 years, ESPN and God only once.”

Biggest changes in girl name popularity, 2015

Which girl names increased and decreased the most in popularity from 2014 to 2015?

Here are two ways to look at it. The SSA’s way looks at ranking differences and covers the top 1,000 girl names (roughly). My way looks at raw number differences and takes all girl names on the SSA’s list into account.

Biggest Increases

Raw number increases (all girl names)Ranking increases (top 1,000 girl names)
1. Alexa, +1,786 babies (4,243 to 6,029)
2. Hazel, +1,373 babies (2,897 to 4,270)
3. Mia, +1,336 babies (13,484 to 14,820)
4. Charlotte, +1,238 babies (10,094 to 11,332)
5. Scarlett, +1,106 babies (5,994 to 7,100)
6. Amelia, +1,025 babies (8,770 to 9,795)
7. Riley, +925 babies (4,782 to 5,707)
8. Aurora, +882 babies (2,731 to 3,613)
9. Adeline, +862 babies (1,529 to 2,391)
10. Penelope, +843 babies (5,078 to 5,921)		1. Alaia, +2,012 spots (2,676th to 664th)
2. Meilani, +1,836 spots (2,786th to 950th)
3. Aitana, +1,721 spots (2,638th to 917th)
4. Aislinn, +1,385 spots (2,345th to 960th)
5. Taya, +1,107 spots (2,089th to 982nd)
6. Adaline, +1,029 spots (1,393rd to 364th)
7. Briar, +597 spots (1,441st to 844th)
8. Zelda, +512 spots (1,159th to 647th)
9. Adley, +495 spots (1,322nd to 827th)
10. Lennox, +416 spots (1,156th to 740th)

Hazel, Taya and Adeline were influenced by films: Hazel by The Fault in Our Stars (2014), Taya by American Sniper (2014), and Adaline by The Age of Adaline (2015).

Meilani and Aitana were boosted by celebrity babies. Meilani is the daughter of Jenni “JWoww” Farley, originally of “Jersey Shore” fame, and Aitana is the daughter of Mexican actors Alessandra Rosaldo and Eugenio Derbez. (Both babies were born in 2014.)

Adley was popularized by county singer Adley Stump.

Biggest Decreases

Raw number decreases (all girl names)Ranking decreases (top 1,000 girl names)
1. Isabella, -1,523 babies (17,027 to 15,504)
2. Sophia, -1,236 babies (18,563 to 17,327)
3. Annabelle, -1,093 babies (4,343 to 3,250)
4. Emily, -895 babies (12,622 to 11,727)
5. Alexis, -813 babies (4,208 to 3,395)
6. Arianna, -757 babies (5,255 to 4,498)
7. Ella, -673 babies (8,525 to 7,852)
8. Aubree, -649 babies (4,266 to 3,617)
9. Chloe, -623 babies (8,507 to 7,884)
10. Natalie, -623 babies (7,089 to 6,466)		1. Isis, -1,065 spots (705th to 1,770th)
2. Annabell, -500 spots (935th to 1,435th)
3. Anabel, -500 spots (908th to 1,408th)
4. Cindy, -343 spots (712th to 1,055th)
5. Anabella, -333 spots (531st to 864th)
6. Aranza, -324 spots (607th to 931st)
7. Anabelle, -272 spots (464th to 736th)
8. Sherlyn, -250 spots (891st to 1,141st)
9. Kiley, -235 spots (661st to 896th)
10. Danika, -225 spots (785th to 1,010th)

Isis was brought down by the association with the Jihadist militant group, and nearly every single variant of Annabelle was negatively affected by the horror film Annabelle, released in late 2014.

In 2014, the big winners were Olivia and Aranza, and the big losers were Sophia and Miley.

Sources: Change in Popularity from 2014 to 2015 – SSA, Emma and Noah Once Again Social Security’s Most Popular Baby Names for 2015 – SSA