How popular is the baby name Christopher 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 Christopher.

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Popularity of the baby name Christopher


Posts that mention the name Christopher

Acts of the Apostles…as a baby name

Here’s a story I’ve spotted a couple of times:

A couple of centuries ago, Thomas and Elizabeth Pegden of Kent, England, had four sons named Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Then they had a fifth son. They were out of evangelists, so what did they name baby #5? Acts of the Apostles, after the next book in the New Testament.

Is it a true story?

Sort of.

A man named Actsapostles Pegden was indeed born in Kent back in 1795. (He went by the nickname “Actsy.” He married in 1826, and passed away in 1865.)

And his parents were named Thomas and Elizabeth Pegden.

And he did have at least four older brothers.

But the brothers I’ve found were named Thomas (b. 1787), Philip (b. 1789), Isaac (b. 1791) and Christopher (b. 1793) — not Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

So how did he get his name?

I’m not sure.

The only two other people I’ve come across with this name — Acts of the Apostles Kennett (b. 1833), son of Richard and Phoebe Kennett, and Acts of the Apostles Tong (b. 1850), son of Henry and Mary Tong — were both born in Kent, just like Actsy. This makes me think the name has more to do with regional religious fervor than anything else.

Sources:

  • “A Curious Christian Name.” New York Times 16 Apr. 1899: 24.
  • Bardsley, Charles Wareing Endell. Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature. London: Chatto & Windus, 1897.
  • “‘Acts-Apostles’ as a Name.” Notes and Queries 3 Mar. 1866: 175.

Popular baby names in the United States, 2010

Flag of the United States
Flag of the United States

The most popular baby names in the U.S. in 2010, according to the SSA, were Isabella and Jacob.

Here are the top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names:

Girl names

  1. Isabella (same as in 2009)
  2. Sophia (up 2 spots)
  3. Emma (down 1 spot)
  4. Olivia (down 1 spot)
  5. Ava (same)
  6. Emily (same)
  7. Abigail (up 1 spot)
  8. Madison (down 1 spot)
  9. Chloe (same)
  10. Mia (same)

Boy names

  1. Jacob (same as in 2009)
  2. Ethan (same)
  3. Michael (same)
  4. Jayden (up 4 spots)
  5. William (same)
  6. Alexander (down 2 spots)
  7. Noah (up 2 spots)
  8. Daniel (down 1 spot)
  9. Aiden (up 3 spots)
  10. Anthony (up 1 spot)

Jayden won’t stop ’til it reaches the top, apparently!

The top ten girl names haven’t changed overall, while the top ten boy names now include Aiden and Anthony (as opposed to Joshua and Christopher).

More analysis to come. In the meanwhile, leave a comment with your thoughts/observations. See anything interesting on the new list?

Update: Here’s more from the SSA’s news release:

This year’s winners for biggest jump in popularity in the Top 500 are related to each other. Maci and Bentley had the biggest jumps in popularity. Maci Bookout and her infant son, Bentley, were prominently featured on the show “Teen Mom” and its predecessor, “16 and Pregnant.”

If you remember last year’s baby name craze around the “Twilight” novels and movies, it should come as no surprise that “Twilight” scores again this year. The second fastest riser on the boys’ list is Kellan, the name of actor Kellan Lutz, best known for playing Emmett Cullen in the “Twilight” series. Coming in third is Knox, one of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s toddler twins.

On the girls’ side, Tiana, the name of the main character in the Disney movie, “The Princess and the Frog” and Disney’s first African-American princess, is one of the biggest chart hoppers.

Sources: SSA, Isabella and Jacob Again Reign Supreme on Social Security’s Most Popular Baby Names List – SSA

Image: Adapted from Flag of the United States (public domain)

Multiple middle names in the British upper class

Many babies born into the British upper class are bestowed with a string of given names.

But it wasn’t always this way.

Centuries ago, multiple middles were unheard of. They began creeping in only when “two names had ceased to be a distinction.” The trend started at the very top:

The court again set the example, and in 1738, George III was baptized by the names George William Frederic. But for many years this fashion was regarded as too absurd for Englishmen to follow.

This explains why, when John Dawnay, 4th Viscount Downe, gave his firstborn two middles in 1764 he was ridiculed by fellow society member George “Gilly” Williams:

Downe’s child is to be christened this evening. The sponsors I know not, but his three names made me laugh not a little, John Christopher Burton. I wish to God, when he arrives at the years of puberty, he may marry Mary Josephina Antonietta Bentley.

Oliver Goldsmith mocked the fad as well with the character Carolina Wilhelmina Amelia Skeggs in his novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766).

But, as we all know, the fad stuck. Despite the detractors.

A number of British WWI officers, for instance, had two middle names. Examples include Frederick Charles Doveton Sturdee (b. 1859) and Berkeley George Andrew Moynihan (b. 1865).

And Prince William, married just the other day, has three middle names: Arthur, Philip and Louis. So does his brother, Prince Harry: Charles, Albert and David.

Do you know anyone with more than one middle name? (No problem if the person isn’t British and/or a member of the upper class.)

Sources:

  • Bardsley, Charles Wareing Endell. Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature. London: Chatto & Windus, 1897.
  • Jesse, John Heneage. George Selwyn and His Contemporaries. Vol. 1. London: John C. Nimmo, 1901.

Have you ever wanted to change your child’s name?

A friend of mine almost changed the name of her second daughter. While she didn’t end up making the change, it’s not unheard of for parents to legally change the names of their children–even years after the fact.

That’s what Johnny Carson did. According to all the biographies, Johnny’s three sons are named Christopher (b. 1950), Richard (b. 1952) and Cory (b. 1953). But Richard and Cory weren’t born Richard and Cory. They were born Kim and Barry.

In 1957, Johnny and his wife changed the names of their two youngest sons. Kim Arthur, who was five at the time, became Richard (nickname Ricky). Barry William, who was three, became Cory. Kim had been having “a little trouble over his name being mistaken for a girl’s” (actress Kim Novak was hitting it big in the late 1950s) and Barry simply preferred the name Cory to his own.

Have you ever been tempted to change the names of your child(ren)?

If so, please tell us more. Why did you want to make the change? What names were involved? Did you end up going through with it?

Sources:

  • “Carson Boys Get ‘Real Guy’ Names.” Sun [Baltimore] 13 Sept. 1957: 3.
  • “Johnny Carson Changes Names of Two Sons.” Los Angeles Times 13 Sept 1957: B1.