How popular is the baby name Danity 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 Danity.

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Popularity of the baby name Danity


Posts that mention the name Danity

What turned Aubrey into a girl name in the 1970s?

The Bread album "Guitar Man" (1972)
Bread album

We’ve already discussed whether we think Aubrey is a girl name or a boy name. But, in that post, I forgot to mention why the name Aubrey, which was traditionally used as a male name, underwent a gender switch in the first place.

See, it all started in the 1970s…

Graph of the usage of the baby name Aubrey in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Aubrey
Girls named AubreyBoys named Aubrey
1975229 (rank: 666th)199 (rank: 572nd)
1974185 (rank: 757th)174 (rank: 608th)
1973142 (rank: 882nd)169 (rank: 611th)
197220180 (rank: 595th)
197110218 (rank: 545th)

In 1973, the usage of Aubrey as a girl name suddenly increased and the name reached the girls’ top 1,000 for the first time.

The next year, the usage for girls — still rising — surpassed the usage for boys. And it’s been that way ever since.

What caused the switch?

The Bread song "Aubrey" (1973).
Bread single

The song “Aubrey” (1973) by the group Bread, which was included on their late 1972 album Guitar Man. Here’s how it begins:

And Aubrey was her name,
a not so very ordinary girl or name.
But who’s to blame?

The melancholy ballad was released as a single in February of 1973. It peaked at #15 on Billboard‘s “Hot 100” chart a month later.

Several decades later, in the early 2000s, the usage of (girl-name) Aubrey rose very quickly. Aubrey reached the girls’ top 100 for the first time in 2006:

Baby girls named AubreyBaby boys named Aubrey
20085,566 (rank: 42nd)135
20074,506 (rank: 69th)138
20063,659 (rank: 93rd)142
20052,264 (rank: 153rd)148
20041,815 (rank: 190th)145

We can attribute this sudden trendiness to singer Aubrey O’Day — first of the reality TV show Making the Band 3 (2005-2006), then of the musical group Danity Kane.

So, what does the name Aubrey mean?

The name can be traced back (via Old French) to two possible Germanic sources. The first is the name Alberic, made up of the elements alb, “elf,” and ric, “powerful.” The second is the female name Albrada/Alberada, made up of the elements alb, “elf,” and rad, “counsel.”

(Most baby name books/websites try to create a phrase out of the unrelated elements in compound Germanic names. They’ll say Aubrey means “ruler of elves,” for instance. But, as I mentioned in the Wilbrod post, it’s more accurate to leave the elements unconnected.)

What are your thoughts on the baby name Aubrey?

Sources:

Pop culture baby name game, 2010

Britney Spears album

Know what today is? It’s Britney Spears’ birthday! (Come on, you didn’t already know that?)

So today is the perfect day to start playing the Pop Culture Baby Name Game.

What’s that? It’s a game in which we try to predict which pop culture-inspired baby names will appear on the SSA’s official baby name list for the first time in 2010. Danity and Daughtry made it for the first time in 2007, Obama and Palin in 2008, the infamous Renesmee in 2009…which pop culture baby names will make their debut in 2010?

Think back to notable occurrences of 2010 and late 2009. Think about movies, music, books, video games, sports, politics, products, and whatever else made headlines and/or caught your attention. What brand-new baby names might these things have inspired?

Here are some possibilities I’ve already blogged about:

Another that has since come to mind is Etsy, which looks and sounds like Betsy with the B chopped off.

What other potential names can you think of? (Remember — oddball names like Chachi and Darth have made the SSA’s list in years past, so don’t be afraid to think outside the box on this!)

Where did the baby name Jodeci come from in 1991?

The album "Diary of a Mad Band" (1993) by Jodeci
Jodeci album

We’ve talked about babies named after Bon Jovi, Danity Kane, Roxette, and even Starship. So today let’s look at Jodeci.

In 1990, the four-man R&B group Jodeci was formed by Joel “JoJo” Hailey, Donald “DeVante Swing” DeGrate, Dalvin “Mr. Dalvin” DeGrate, and Cedric “K-Ci” Hailey. The name of the band was pieced together from the jo of JoJo, the de of DeGrate, and the ci of K-Ci.

Jodeci’s first album, the successful Forever My Lady, was released in 1991. Sure enough, that’s the year we start seeing babies named Jodeci:

  • 1996: 29 girls, 13 boys named Jodeci
  • 1995: 32 girls, 15 boys named Jodeci
  • 1994: 19 girls, 23 boys named Jodeci
  • 1993: 33 girls, 29 boys named Jodeci
  • 1992: 77 girls, 94 boys named Jodeci
  • 1991: 13 girls, 12 boys named Jodeci [debut]
  • 1990: unlisted
  • 1989: unlisted

We also see a steep rise in the usage of DeVante, which was the fastest-rising boy name of 1991:

  • 1994: 852 baby boys named Devante [rank: 309th]
  • 1993: 961 baby boys named Devante [rank: 289th]
  • 1992: 1565 baby boys named Devante [rank: 199th] (peak)
  • 1991: 131 baby boys named Devante [rank: 923rd]
  • 1990: 9 baby boys named Devante

(And the sudden trendiness of DeVante gave big boosts to variant forms like Davante, Dvonte, Devonta, Devonte, Davonte, Davonta, Devontae, Davontae, Devontay, Dvontae, Devaunte, etc.

And in 1992, Dalvin became the second-fastest-rising boy name:

  • 1994: 143 baby boys named Dalvin [rank: 912th]
  • 1993: 179 baby boys named Dalvin [rank: 789th] (peak)
  • 1992: 132 baby boys named Dalvin [rank: 923rd]
  • 1991: 6 baby boys named Dalvin
  • 1990: 13 baby boys named Dalvin

Jodeci put out a second album in 1993, a third in 1995, then went on hiatus in 1996. After they stopped releasing new material, usage of the name declined.

A related name that was used around this time was K-Ci:

  • 2001: unlisted
  • 2000: 6 boys named K-Ci
  • 1999: 6 boys named K-Ci
  • 1998: 5 boys named K-Ci
  • 1997: unlisted
  • 1996: unlisted
  • 1995: 7 boys named K-Ci [debut]
  • 1994: unlisted

This one was helped along by the band K-Ci & JoJo, formed by two Jodeci members around 1996.

The names Jodeci and K-Ci may be down, but don’t count them out. In about a month, a reality TV show starring K-Ci and JoJo will premiere on TVOne. Also, there’s a talented high school football player out there named Jodeci Mays. (He scored seven touchdowns a couple of weeks ago.) Visibility often leads to usage, so the TV show and/or the athlete could help revive the names, you never know…

Where did the baby name Danity come from in 2007?

Danity Kane's self-titled debut album (2006)
Danity Kane album

Danity Kane was a pre-fabricated American band formed via the reality TV show Making the Band in late 2005. The group released two successful albums before disbanding in early 2009.

The name of the band had been inspired by the doodlings of band member Dawn Richard:

During a June 2006 appearance on MTV’s TRL, it was announced the group would be called Danity Kane, a reference to a superhero Dawn had created and sketched in the studio during downtime.

Danity wasn’t used much (if at all) as a baby name in the U.S. until 2007, when it popped up in the SSA’s baby name data for the first time:

  • 2009: 31 baby girls named Danity
  • 2008: 27 baby girls named Danity
  • 2007: 26 baby girls named Danity [debut]
  • 2006: unlisted
  • 2006: unlisted

Do you think the name will continue to see usage for much longer now that Danity Kane is no more?