How popular is the baby name Chicago 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 Chicago.

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Popularity of the baby name Chicago


Posts that mention the name Chicago

Pop culture baby name game results, 2018

Here are the results of Pop Culture Baby Name Game 2018! For the pop culture context of any of these names, just click back over to the original game post.

Rises

Names that saw higher usage in 2018:

No Change

Names that saw no change in usage in 2018.

Drops

Names that saw lower usage in 2018:

Absent

Names that were absent from the SSA data in 2018:

  • Did not debut: Avicii, Carvena, Chevel, Coco (as a boy name), Cullinan, Ella Mai, Kaavia, Kulture, Mahomes, Majeste, Maquia, Marsai, Nafessa, Osaka, Pineapple, Qira, Ramirez (as a girl name), Reileen, Sanni, Velar, Venom, Villanelle, Xolo, Yanny, Zaxai
  • Did not re-emerge: Cress, Gio, Joji, Jumanji, T’challa

Late Bloomers

Names that were “absent” from 2017’s results, now in 2018:

Plus: Rumi finally rose, and Sircarter unexpectedly surfaced.

What are your thoughts on the results this year? Did anything surprise you?

[Disclaimer: Some of the names above were already moving in the direction indicated, and some were no doubt influenced by more than a single pop culture person/event. I leave it up to you to judge the degree/nature of pop culture influence in each case.]

The top girl-name debuts of 2018

lotus bud

The top girl-name debuts in the U.S. baby name data last year were:

Some of the other debuts include: Annifer, Dava, Enzleigh, Katyayani, Lunamae, Mazuri, Attley, Coralena, Loujain, Townes, Gurmehar, Orabella, Vaia, Aerolyn, Elegance, Nyayla, Tillian, Universe, Yosra, Zhaviah, Zyna, Alouette, Anyfer, Bilge, Cardi, Chicago, Elite, Geles, Gentree, Ikora, Lunagrace, Menorah, Modesire, Pyrrha, Riverrose, Siloam, Versace, Willianny, Zelilah, Annajames, Arrowyn, Bellanova, Chancellor, Cloud, Ellanese, Enzo, Erabelle, Ffion, Fiammetta, Foreign, Ixora, Krew, Lunamaria, Mattel, Miqueen, Noir, Novamae, Peru, Sumnima, Tomiris, Uinise, Videlle, York

Zhavia (and Jhavia, and Zaviah) were influenced by singer Zhavia Ward, who was on the TV show The Four in 2018. Do you have explanations for any of the other debuts?

P.S. Wondering what a “debut” name is? Debut names were too rare to appear in the SSA data in any previous year (1880-2017). In order to debut, they need to be given to at least 5 babies of one gender or the other within a single year.

Source: SSA

Image: Adapted from LotusBud0048a (public domain) by Frank “Fg2” Gualtieri

Will “North West” make pun names trendy?

Last week, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian welcomed their first child, a baby girl.

Most people thought the couple would opt for a K-name, in keeping with family tradition (Kris, Kim, Kourtney, Khloe, Kendall, Kylie). Did they?

Nope! Instead they went for North, with no middle name. So the baby girl’s full name is North West.

Ironically, Kim laughed at the suggestion of “North West” on Jay Leno just a few weeks ago.

Here’s what Grandma Kris had to say about the name:

Kim sort of explained it to me. She said North is the highest power. And their baby North, their little girl, is the highest point and power between the two of them. So I thought that was really cool.

Personal significance aside, the internet has been abuzz with reactions — mostly negative:

The name quickly spawned plenty of punchlines, with many Twitter users joking that “Key” and “Wild” must already have been taken.

Perhaps in anticipation of this type of response, Kim and Kanye were sure to leak the fact that they’d be calling North by the noncontroversial pet name “Nori.”

At the end of the day, though, a pet name isn’t going to offset a pun name.

So now, here’s the question:

  • Do you think “North West” will inspire/embolden more parents to bestow pun names this year?

Update, 7/29/21: Wondering whether baby North West had an influence on U.S. baby names?

She had a slight influence on North, which saw an uptick in usage as a boy name in 2013, and finally debuted as a girl name in 2015:

  • 2015: 6 baby girls and 10 baby boys named North [debut for girls]
  • 2014: 13 baby boys named North
  • 2013: 21 baby boys named North [peak]
  • 2012: 13 baby boys named North
  • 2011: 20 baby boys named North

She had a much stronger influence on the name Nori, which, in recent years, has come close to breaking into the top 1,000.

  • 2015: 134 baby girls and 9 baby boys named Nori
  • 2014: 102 baby girls and 13 baby boys named Nori
  • 2013: 29 baby girls named Nori
  • 2012: 11 baby girls named Nori
  • 2011: 18 baby girls named Nori

(Nori is reminding me of Naleigh, which also saw higher usage thanks to a celebrity baby nickname.)

And, while I’m in here updating this post, I’ll throw in the names of the three babies Kim and Kanye have welcomed since the arrival of Nori…

Saint (boy, born in December 2015) was named after the fact that his parents considered him a “blessing” after Kim’s difficult pregnancy. In 2018, the name Saint entered the top 1,000 for the first time ever.

  • 2018: 256 baby boys named Saint [rank: 858th]
  • 2017: 141 baby boys named Saint
  • 2016: 115 baby boys named Saint
  • 2015: 39 baby boys named Saint
  • 2014: 33 baby boys named Saint
  • 2013: 22 baby boys named Saint

Chicago, “Chi” (girl, born in January 2018) was named after the city where Kanye was raised. The same year, the name Chicago, which had only ever popped up as a boy name in the data, debuted as a girl name:

  • 2020: 8 baby boys named Chicago
  • 2019: 5 baby boys named Chicago
  • 2018: 6 baby girls and 5 baby boys named Chicago [debut for girls]
  • 2017: unlisted
  • 2016: unlisted

But, like her sister, she seems to have had more of an influence on the name Chi (pronounced shy):

  • 2020: 17 baby girls and 14 baby boys named Chi
  • 2019: 18 baby girls and 11 baby boys named Chi
  • 2018: 7 baby girls and 6 baby boys named Chi
  • 2017: 12 baby girls and 10 baby boys named Chi

(Another influence in this case, though, may have been a second baby named Chí — this one born in mid-2019 to former Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood cast members Marcus Black and Brooke Valentine.)

Psalm (boy, born May 2019) got his name from the biblical Book of Psalms. We don’t have the 2020 data yet, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens with the name Psalm, but in 2019 it more than doubled in usage for baby boys:

  • 2020: 17 baby girls and 19 baby boys named Psalm
  • 2019: 7 baby girls and 16 baby boys named Psalm
  • 2018: 8 baby girls and 7 baby boys named Psalm
  • 2017: 11 baby girls and 5 baby boys named Psalm

Which of these four noun-names names — North, Saint, Chicago, or Psalm — do you like best?

Sources: Others named North praise Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s baby name choice, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West Name Baby Daughter North West, Nicknamed “Nori”, Kris Jenner: Kim Kardashian, Kanye West Made a “Joint Decision” in Naming Baby North, From Chicago and Psalm to Reign and Stormi: The Meanings Behind the Kardashian Kids’ Names

Unique baby names in Oklahoma

Oklahoma’s most popular baby names of 2008, 2007, 2006 and 2004 can be found at the state’s Department of Health website.

The top names seem to be on par with what the SSA reports, so I won’t list them here. But I did want to share a few of the state’s unique names. Starting with 12-Gage.

Yup, 12-Gage. Just one letter off from 12-gauge, typically used to describe shotguns. It was bestowed in 2008.

Some of the unusual names bestowed a year earlier were:

  • 7
  • Bluestar
  • Catcher-Dan
  • Ceyahdrieah
  • Ceyaydrieah
  • Chicago-All
  • Iamunique
  • Prettyrock
  • Pyro
  • Swostika
  • Tugger
  • Zaxs Christ
  • Zombrie

Ceyahdrieah and Ceyaydrieah looked suspiciously alike, so on a whim I tried a search. I found the following explanation at a baby name message board:

Going through applications for our PreK and came across these twins:

Ceyahdrieah and Ceyaydrieh pronounced “Adreah”(andrea without the N) and Adriea (Adrien without the N). The “Cey” is silent. Mom wanted their names to look pretty.

Hopefully Oklahoma will post the names from 2009 and 2010 at some point, so I’ll keep an eye out for updates…

Sources: Baby Names – Oklahoma State Department of Health, SSA