How popular is the baby name Clifford 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 Clifford.

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Popularity of the baby name Clifford


Posts that mention the name Clifford

Popular baby names in Los Angeles County (California), 2013

Flag of California
Flag of California

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health website doesn’t have baby name data for 2016, but it does have data covering 1995 to 2013, so let’s work with that.

The most popular baby names in Los Angeles County in 2013 were Sophia and Jacob. Here are L.A.’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2013:

Girl names

  1. Sophia, 984 baby girls
  2. Isabella, 777
  3. Mia, 762
  4. Emily, 688
  5. Emma, 609
  6. Sofia, 550
  7. Olivia, 473
  8. Samantha, 458
  9. Victoria, 410
  10. Camila, 405

Boy names

  1. Jacob, 948 baby boys
  2. Jayden, 926
  3. Matthew, 895
  4. Ethan, 829
  5. Daniel, 784
  6. Nathan, 761
  7. Noah, 657
  8. Anthony, 633
  9. Alexander, 617
  10. David, 600

And here are some of the baby names that were apparently used just once in L.A. from 1995 to 2013:

Unique girl namesUnique boy names
Aijia, Bobbierose, Coakley, Dashley, Ella-Lily, Fallen Star, Georgedith, Haydeline, Ilynne, Jatalia, Khando, Luna Sol, Mexeen, Nonoka, Ofri, Purple, Qiqi, Rhofanie, Sloka, Ting, Ulani, Vixi, Wonder, Xanterra, Yudibeth, ZayleenAbbos, Banksy, Clifford, Dro, Exsol, Foxton, Guster, Holtzen, Iniesta, Jayden-Dreden, Kayd, Leviathan, Mondrick, Noaz, Ordisi, Pocky, Querbin, Rundy, Snayther, Tarzis, Uyedon, Verwyn, Westgene, Xinran, Yitzchack, Zander Ray

Want to see more California baby names? Here are Sonoma’s rankings for 2015 and San Diego’s rankings for 2016.

Source: Find a Baby Name – L.A. County Public Health

Image: Adapted from Flag of California (public domain)

Where did the baby name Chaneta come from in 1950?

Baby Chaneta Holden with nurse and parents (Bronx, 1950).
Chaneta Holden (baby) with nurse and parents, 1950

In March of 1950, Clifford and Annie Holden welcomed their first child, a baby girl named Chaneta, at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx.

Chaneta was born premature — she weighed just 2 pounds, 9 ounces — so she would have to be kept in a hospital incubator in order to survive.

But that didn’t quite happen. Why not? Because the poor thing was kidnapped.

She was abducted from the hospital on March 30th, when she was just nine days old. Doctors at the time warned that, outside of the incubator, she would have little chance of survival.

Hundreds of New York City police officers searched for Chaneta, but the search was called off after several days. At that point she was presumed dead.

But weeks later, on April 24th, Chaneta was discovered — still alive, miraculously.

She was found in a small storeroom at the Coburg Hotel, inside a homemade incubator constructed by her kidnapper, 18-year-old hotel maid Evelyn Jordan. (Evelyn had lost her own premature twins a few months earlier, sadly.) Here’s how the scene was described:

Besides a piggy bank, a toy cat and a rosary on the carriage she stocked the room with correctly prepared baby formulas, rubber gloves, child care books, diapers, blankets, thermometers, an electric heater to help provide the prescribed incubator temperature of 96° and a pan of bubbling hot water to keep up the required humidity.

Chaneta had gained 6 ounces and was in “perfect health.”

Annie, who sympathized with Evelyn, had this to say: “I feel sorry for her. She took such good care of the baby.”

The discovery made national headlines on April 25th, and the story stayed in the news for months to come.

Baby Chaneta was immediately returned to Lincoln Hospital. In mid-May she was declared healthy enough to go home with her parents.

Evelyn Jordan was sent to a mental institution. She was released six years later.

And in 1950, nearly two dozen baby girls suddenly got the rather unusual name Chaneta, according to the U.S. baby name data:

  • 1952: unlisted
  • 1951: unlisted
  • 1950: 23 baby girls named Chaneta [debut]
  • 1949: unlisted
  • 1948: unlisted

In a follow-up story from 1956, Annie Holden mentioned that Chaneta had been named after her favorite childhood schoolteacher.

Do you like the name Chaneta?

Sources:

  • “Baby Chaneta Coming Home.” New York Age 13 May 1950: 3.
  • The baby snatcher: a true crime tale of a child kidnapping
  • “Crude Incubator Keeps Baby Alive.” Life 8 May 1950: 50.
  • “Ex-Mental Patient Beats 1950 Kidnap Rap.” New York Age 8 Dec. 1956: 4.
  • “Kidnapped Incubator Infant Found Safe.” Los Angeles Times 26 Apr. 1950: 20.
  • “Kidnapped Negro Incubator Baby Is Found Alive.” Ogdensburg Journal 25 Apr. 1950: 1.

Over 100 baby names for 100 years of the U.S. National Park Service

Grand Canyon National Park poster (NPS)
Grand Canyon National Park poster

The U.S. National Park Service has a birthday coming up!

When the NPS was created on August 25, 1916, there were only 35 national parks and monuments. (The world’s first, Yellowstone, had been established in 1872.)

Nowadays the agency oversees 411 units. These units are located in the 50 states and beyond, and include national monuments (82), national historic sites (78), national parks (59), national historical parks (50), national memorials (30), national battlefields (11), national seashores (10), national lakeshores (4), national scenic trails (3), and more.

Let’s celebrate the upcoming centennial with more than 100 baby names that pay tribute to the national parks specifically:

Lassen Volcanic National Park poster (NPS)
Lassen Volcanic National Park poster
  • Garland for Garland County, Arkansas, where Hot Springs National Park is located.
  • Gates for Gates of the Arctic National Park & Preserve.
  • Guadalupe for Guadalupe Mountains National Park.
  • Gunnison for Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
    • The park was established in 1999, and Gunnison debuted on the baby name charts the very same year. Did one event cause the other?
  • Jackson for Jackson Hole, where much of Grand Teton National Park is located.
  • Jarvis for Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve’s Mt. Jarvis.
  • Jefferson for Dry Tortugas National Park’s Fort Jefferson.
  • John for Virgin Islands National Park’s St. John Island.
  • Joshua for Joshua Tree National Park.
  • Kenai for Kenai Fjords National Park.
    • The derivation of Kenai is unknown, but it could come from either Dena’ina Athabascan (“big flat” or “two big flats and river cut-back” or “trees and brush in a swampy marsh”), Russian (“flat barren land”), or Iniut (“black bear”).
  • Kingston or Kingsley for Kings Canyon National Park.
  • Lake for any of the parks featuring lakes, such as Crater Lake National Park, Voyageurs National Park, Lake Clark National Park & Preserve, etc.
  • Lamar for Yellowstone National Park’s Lamar Buffalo Ranch.
  • Lassen for Lassen Volcanic National Park.
  • Lata for the National Park of American Samoa’s Lata Mountain.
  • Lehman for Great Basin National Park’s Lehman Caves.
  • Lewis for Glacier National Park’s Lewis Range.
  • Livingston for Glacier National Park’s Livingston Range.
  • Manning for Saguaro National Park’s Manning Cabin.
  • Mara for Joshua Tree National Park’s Oasis of Mara.
    • In the Serrano language, Mara means “the place of little springs and much grass.”
  • Martin for Katmai National Park & Preserve’s Mt. Martin.
  • Maui for the island of Maui, where Haleakala National Park is located.
  • Mauna for Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park’s Mauna Loa.
  • Miguel for Channel Islands National Park’s San Miguel Island.
  • Olympia for Olympic National Park.
Zion National Park poster (NPS)
Zion National Park poster
  • Parker, Parks, Park, or Parke as a tribute to all national parks.
  • Pele as a symbol of Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park.
  • Prairie for any of the parks featuring a prairie, such as Badlands National Park, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, etc.
  • Pratt for Guadalupe Mountains National Park’s Pratt Cabin.
  • Rainier for Mount Rainier National Park.
  • Ranger as a tribute to all national parks and park rangers.
  • Reef for Capitol Reef National Park.
  • Rhodes for Biscayne National Park’s Old Rhodes Key.
  • Rocky for Rocky Mountain National Park.
  • Roosevelt for Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
  • Rosa for Channel Islands National Park’s Santa Rosa Island.
  • Royale or Royal for Isle Royale National Park.
  • Valley for any of the parks featuring a valley, such as Cuyahoga Valley, Death Valley, Kobuk Valley, etc.
  • Verda or Verdell for Mesa Verde National Park.
  • Virginia for Virgin Islands National Park.
  • Zion for Zion National Park.

For all you national park lovers out there: What other park-inspired names can you come up with?

P.S. I just learned (Nov. 2024) that the Utah Hockey Club has adopted a Labrador retriever puppy named Archie after Arches National Park, located near Moab. :)

Sources:

Images (all from the LOC): Grand Canyon National Park poster, Lassen Volcanic National Park poster, Zion National Park poster

[Latest update: Nov. 2024]

Popular baby names in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1867

19th-century Providence, Rhode Island
19th-century Providence

The registrar of Providence, Rhode Island, published a series of documents listing all “of the names of persons deceased, born and married in the city of Providence” during years 1866, 1867 and 1868. The series may have been longer, but these are the only documents I could find online.

I’ve finally finished creating a set of rankings using one of the documents — 1867. But before we get to the rankings, here are some stats:

  • 1,547 babies were born in Providence in 1867, going by the number of babies listed in the document itself. According to the document’s introduction, though, the number is 1,625. Not sure what to make of this discrepancy.
  • 1,431 of these babies (713 girls and 718 boys) had names that were registered with the government at the time of publication. The other 116 babies got blank spaces. Either their names hadn’t been registered yet, or they hadn’t been named yet, or perhaps they died young and never received a name.
  • 254 unique names (141 girl names and 113 boy names) were shared among these 1,431 babies.

And now, on to the names…

Top 5

A quick look at the top 5 girl names and boy names in Providence in 1867:

Top baby girl namesTop baby boy names
1. Mary
2. Catherine
3. Ellen
4. Margaret
5. Sarah		1. John
2. William
3. James
4. Charles
5. George

All Girl Names

Notice how the #1 name, Mary, was bestowed three times as often as the #2 name, Catherine.

  1. Mary, 138 baby girls
  2. Catherine, 46
  3. Ellen, 37
  4. Margaret, 34
  5. Sarah, 31
  6. Annie, 19
  7. Elizabeth, 16
  8. Alice, 15
  9. Florence, 14
  10. Ann, Emma & Ida, 12 each (3-way tie)
  11. Minnie, 11
  12. Harriet & Julia, 9 each (2-way tie)
  13. Anna, Caroline, Carrie, Jennie, Joanna & Louisa, 8 each (6-way tie)
  14. Cora & Eliza, 7 each (2-way tie)
  15. Agnes, Clara, Edith, Rosanna & Theresa, 6 each (5-way tie)
  16. Bertha, Grace, Hannah, Hattie, Jane, Lillian, Maria, Martha, Nellie & Susan, 5 each (10-way tie)
  17. Eleanor, Fannie, Gertrude, Helen, Isabella, Lucy & Rosa, 4 each (7-way tie)
  18. Anne, Bridget, Ella, Emily, Esther, Eva, Lizzie, Mabel, Matilda & Ruth, 3 each (10-way tie)
  19. Ada, Amelia, Charlotte, Dora, Eleanora, Elvira, Henrietta, Jessie, Josephine, Kate, Louise, Lydia, Maggie & Rosella, 2 each (14-way tie)
  20. Abby, Addie, Adelaide, Adelia, Almina, Almira, Amanda, Amey, Amy, Anastasia, Angelie, Annis, Antoinette, Augusta, Aurelia, Bethiah, Cecelia, Celia, Clarissa, Clementina, Corielynn, Cornelia, Drusilla, Effie, Emeline, Estella, Ethelin, Fanny, Florentina, Frances, Gelie, Genevieve, Georgiana, Georgianna, Helena, Honora, Irene, Isabel, Issie, Juliann, Julietta, Katie, Laura, Leah, Leonora, Lillie, Lillis, Lily, Lottie, Luella, Margaretta, Margery, Margret, Marietta, Maude, May, Millie, Myra, Nelly, Phebe, Robie, Rosalthe, Rose, Selina, Sophia, Susanna, Susannah, Vienna, Viola, Vira, Virginia & Winifred, 1 each (72-way tie)

All Boy Names

  1. John, 87 baby boys
  2. William, 75
  3. James, 64
  4. Charles, 50
  5. George, 45
  6. Thomas, 40
  7. Joseph, 30
  8. Walter, 21
  9. Edward, 16
  10. Francis & Michael, 14 each (2-way tie)
  11. Patrick, 13
  12. Arthur & Robert, 12 each (2-way tie)
  13. Frank, Frederick & Henry, 11 each (3-way tie)
  14. Albert, 9
  15. Daniel & Peter, 8 each (2-way tie)
  16. David, Eugene, Howard & Samuel, 6 each (4-way tie)
  17. Alexander, Louis & Stephen, 5 each (3-way tie)
  18. Harry, Herbert, Hugh & Martin, 4 each (4-way tie)
  19. Carl, Edgar, Everett, Jeremiah & Willie, 3 each (5-way tie)
  20. Abraham, Alfred, Clarence, Cornelius, Dennis, Ernest, Ezra, Franklin, Freddie, Jacob, Jesse, Lewis, Luke, Nicholas, Philip, Sylvester, Theodore, Timothy, 2 each (18-way tie)
  21. Abner, Adam, Adolph, Amos, Andrew, Appleton, Archibald, Ashel, August, Benjamin, Benno, Bernard, Bertram, Burt, Byron, Clifford, Davis, Dexter, Dunlap, Edmund, Edwin, Elmer,* Embert, Forrest, Freddy, Gustav, Herman, Isaac, Jeffrey, Jerome, Josiah, Lucian, Malcolm, Matthew, Maurice, Milton, Nathan, Nehemiah, Nelson, Oren, Oscar, Otto, Owen, Paul, Ralph, Reginald, Richard, Sanford, Seth, Shirley, Sullivan, Terence, Theobald, Victor, Wanton, Warren, Weston, Wheelan, Wilford, 1 each (59-way tie)

*Elmer, who had the middle initial “E.,” was likely named after early Civil War casualty Elmer E. Ellsworth.

Twins & Triplets

Twenty-one sets of twins and two sets of triplets were born in Providence in 1867. (All of these names were accounted for above — I just thought it’d be fun to check out the sibsets.)

Girl-girl twinsGirl-boy twinsBoy-boy twinsTriplets
Annie & Fannie
Annie & Mary
Ann & Ellen
Jennie & Minnie
Margaret & Martha
(blank) & (blank)		Ann & Maurice
Grace & George
Harriet & Albert
Ida & Ashel
Mary & James		Abraham & George
Charles & George
Charles & John
Daniel & David
Dunlap & Frank
Eugene & Timothy
George & John
George & William
James & John
John & Martin		Carl, (blank) & (blank)
James, Alexander & Sarah

I’ll post Providence’s 1866 and 1868 rankings as soon I get them done. Until then, here are two older posts featuring uniquely named Rhode Islanders: Aldaberontophoscophornia (b. 1812) and Idawalley (b. 1842).

Sources: