How popular is the baby name Chris 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 Chris.

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Popularity of the baby name Chris


Posts that mention the name Chris

Mystery baby name: Marquita (Solved!)

The characters Marquita and Chris from a TV commercial for Close-Up toothpaste (1983).
Marquita and Chris from Close-Up TV commercial

Adilene isn’t the only ’80s baby name I can’t figure out. I’m stumped on Marquita as well.

In 1983, thousands of baby girls were suddenly given the name Marquita:

  • 1985: 535 baby girls named Marquita [rank: 417th]
  • 1984: 1,374 baby girls named Marquita [rank: 195th]
  • 1983: 2,543 baby girls named Marquita [rank: 112th]
  • 1982: 128 baby girls named Marquita
  • 1981: 135 baby girls named Marquita

Hundreds more were given a variant spelling of the name:

1982198319841985
Marquita (f)1282,5431,374535
Marquita (m).20**..
Marquitta2713812875
Marquetta62809172
Marqueta7282612
Markeeta11282918
Markeita.201810
Marqutia.12*..
Markeda10101614
Marquieta.9*7.
Markitta.8116
Marquida–8*86
Markida–6*.6
Markeyta–597
*Debut (overall), **Gender-specific debut

Marquita was out of the top 1,000 again by the mid-1990s.

The spike seems to have been centered in the South. The states with the most babies named Marquita in 1983 were…

  1. Georgia – 218 babies named Marquita
  2. Texas – 195 babies named Marquita
  3. North Carolina – 176 babies named Marquita
  4. Mississippi – 170 babies named Marquita
  5. Louisiana – 168 babies named Marquita
  6. Florida – 162 babies named Marquita
  7. Illinois – 161 babies named Marquita
  8. Alabama – 145 babies named Marquita
  9. California – 123 babies named Marquita
  10. Virginia – 112 babies named Marquita

The spike wasn’t caused by Marquita Rivera. And I don’t think either Marquita Pool-Eckert (at that time Marquita Pool) or Marquita Lister were popular enough to have caused it.

Any ideas?

Screenshot of a TV commercial for Close-Up toothpaste (1983).
Close-Up TV commercial

Update, 7/25/2021: Commenter Marquitta I. has solved the mystery! (Thank you so much!)

The sudden interest in the baby name Marquita was sparked by a TV commercial for Close-Up toothpaste. The commercial features (actors playing) a young African-American couple named Marquita (pronounced mahr-KEE-tah) and Chris.

They spend the 30 seconds talking about one another (and the toothpaste, of course) so viewers hear Chris say Marquita’s name several times: “When I hold Marquita, it really warms me up.” “Marquita’s teeth are white, straight, and make her smile beautiful.” “When I kiss Marquita, it tastes fresh.”

Here’s the commercial:

P.S. I’ve since found similar Close-Up commercials featuring couples with the names Gail & Grant, Cliff & Tina, and Desiree & Rob.

California family with 20 children

kinderfest

In late 1966, Jim and Eldora Parnell of Bakersfield, California, welcomed their 20th child.

Here are the names of all twenty kids, plus their 1966-ages:

  • Robert, 26
  • James, 24
  • Edwina, 21
  • Marie (nn Baby Doll, “because we were sure she’d be our last one”), 19
  • Eddie, 18
  • Bill, 17
  • Charlotte, 16
  • Chris (female), 15
  • Elledie, 13
  • Patrick, 12
  • Wanetta, 11
  • Peggy, 9
  • Gail, 8
  • Donna, 7
  • Steve, 5
  • Logan, 4
  • Gil, 3
  • Daryl (twin), 18 months
  • Gerald (twin), 18 months
  • Teri Kay, newborn

Which girl name is your favorite? How about boy name?

Bonus: The article included name stories for Charlotte and Logan. Charlotte “was born in the family car during a visit to Los Angeles. The police officer delivering the baby was named Charley–so, Charlotte.” Logan “was named after Dr. Lloyd Q. Logan, who delivered eight of his older brothers and sisters. But when Logan was born, Dr. Logan was out of town and another doctor delivered him.”

Source: Hillinger, Charles. “Managing a Family of 20 Poses Big, Happy Problem.” Spokesman-Review 11 Dec. 1966: 7.

Image: Ein Kinderfest (1868) by Ludwig Knaus

Strawberry Saroyan writes to Apple Martin

In mid-2004, actress Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin welcomed a daughter they named Apple.

Soon after, a woman named Strawberry Saroyan (granddaughter of writer William Saroyan) wrote a long letter to the New York Times about her experiences with a fruit-name. Here are some highlights:

  • Strawberry found it helpful to be raised in a “tiny California beach community full of poets, peppered with lots of other kids with unconventional names.” Her younger sister was named Cream, and other kids were named Ivory, Shelter, Wonder, Ocean, Raspberry and Echo.

What were they going to do, make fun of me? They did, but I could bite back. I’ll never forget the terror as Cream and I awaited the arrival of Wonder’s mother to speak with ours because we had been calling her daughter Wonder Bread.

  • When Strawberry was 13, her family moved to a “super-preppy” town in Connecticut. “I had little choice but to change my name, a shift that stuck for three years (I chose Cara).”
  • One of the reasons Strawberry now likes her name is that it serves as an ice-breaker, “especially in the company of other people from well-known families.”

Once when I was in the offices of George magazine, John F. Kennedy Jr. shook my hand enthusiastically. “Strawberry? Tell me about your parents!” The irony seemed delightful: How often had he, perhaps the most famous progeny in the world, gotten to say those words? I wanted to throw the question back at him: what were J.F.K. and Jackie like? But I restrained myself.

Here’s the full letter: “Named for a Fruit? Make Juice” (New York Times, 30 May 2004).

Baby born in England, named after entire soccer team (2011)

soccer game

Amanda and Stephen Preston of Lancashire, England, welcomed a son in late January, 2011. He was named Jensen after Brian Jensen, goalkeeper of the Burnley Football Club.

But that’s not all! He was named after each of the other players on the team as well.

Stephen said, “We had already decided to call him Jensen as he is Amanda’s favourite player, but we couldn’t decide on a middle name so we thought why not go for the whole team.”

Here are all of the baby’s given names, and the corresponding Burnley players:

NamePlayer
Jensen
Jay
Alexander
Bikey
Carlisle
Duff
Elliot [sic]
Fox
Iwelumo
Marney
Mears
Paterson
Thompson
Wallace		Brian Jensen
Jay Rodriguez
Graham Alexander
Andre Bikey
Clarke Carlisle
Michael Duff
Wade Elliott
Danny Fox
Chris Iwelumo
Dean Marney
Tyrone Mears
Martin Paterson
Steven Thompson
Ross Wallace

If the baby had been a girl, the only difference would have been Briany instead of Jensen for the first name.

(My source article also mentioned a baby boy born in 2009 and named Robbie-Blake Moore, “after Robbie Blake’s winning goal against Manchester United in the Premier League.”)

Source: Preston: The baby named after all FOURTEEN members of football team

Image: Adapted from Portugal 2-3 Denmark, Football by José Goulão under CC BY-SA 2.0.