How popular is the baby name Dan 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 Dan.

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Popularity of the baby name Dan


Posts that mention the name Dan

How did Drungo Hazewood get his name?

Baseball player Drungo Hazewood (1959-2013)
Drungo Hazewood

Baseball player Drungo Hazewood — who spent most of his seven-season career in the minor leagues — was born in Mobile, Alabama, in 1959.

New York Times columnist Dan Barry told the story behind Drungo’s unusual first name in his 2011 book Bottom of the 33rd:

His mother, Catherine, was a housewife who gave her life to raising ten children and helping to rear who knows how many grandchildren. With her ninth about to be born, Catherine announced a dare: Whoever wins a foot race to the hospital gets to name the baby. Her son Aubrey won the challenge, and he had a good friend whose last name was Drungo. So Drungo Hazewood it was.

Makes me very curious to know how she named the tenth. :)

P.S. The book is about baseball’s longest game, which was played in Rhode Island in 1981. Drungo participated (as a member of the Rochester Red Wings) along with future Hall of Fame players Wade Boggs and Cal Ripken.

Sources:

Image: Drungo Hazewood trading card

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

Baby name story: Elora

Cliff at Elora Gorge
Cliff at Elora Gorge

While I was putting together yesterday’s list of girl names outside the top 1,000, I spotted the name Elora, and I was reminded of this story.

Several years ago, Toronto couple Elaine Yuen and Kevin Shimmin welcomed a baby girl. They named the baby Elora after the Elora Gorge in Ontario, Canada.

The name paid tribute to Elaine’s “fond memories of hiking at the gorge.” She also liked that Elora began with El- (like her own name), and that it was “a short form of Elnora, derived from Eleanor, which means light.”

(Actually, the name of gorge comes from the name of a town, which comes from the name of a ship, which comes from the name of the Ellora Caves in India. Also, incidentally, Eleanor is more likely to derive from the name Alienor, meaning “the other Aenor,” than the name Helen, meaning “torch.”)

In any case…Elora Gorge Conservation Area superintendent Dan Morden said that, as far as he knew, Elaine’s Elora was the first baby to be named after the gorge.

Sources:

  • Rushowy, Kristin. “Beautiful place, beautiful baby.” Toronto Star 26 Jul. 2008.
  • Connon, John. The Early History of Elora, Ontario and Vicinity. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1974.

Image: Adapted from Elora Gorge Cliff Face by Kalejade under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Baby name story: Keane

I know of dozens of babies that were named after cars. But this is the only one I know of that was named for a highway exit:

Susie and Dan McLaughlin of Meadville, Pennsylvania, were expecting a baby in the summer of 1998. When Susie went into labor, they got into Susie’s sister’s car and began heading toward the hospital via Interstate 79.

The baby wasn’t willing to wait, however. So they pulled the car over near the McKean exit and Susie proceeded to give birth to a baby boy in the back seat.

The baby’s name? Keane, after the exit.

(McKean township takes its name from the 2nd Governor of Pennsylvania, Thomas McKean.)

Source: “Baby Named After Highway Exit.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 17 Jul. 1998: B-4.