How popular is the baby name Dexter 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 Dexter.

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Popularity of the baby name Dexter


Posts that mention the name Dexter

Where did the baby name Xavion come from in 1985?

Xavion's single "Eat Your Heart Out" (1984)
Xavion single

Baby names that start with Xav– may be trendy right now, but they weren’t trendy back in the mid-1980s, when the name Xavion suddenly popped up in the U.S. baby name data:

  • 1987: unlisted
  • 1986: unlisted
  • 1985: 13 baby boys named Xavion [debut]
  • 1984: unlisted
  • 1983: unlisted

What put it there?

A Memphis-based rock/funk band called Xavion, which was apparently the first African-American rock group to be featured on MTV.

(An article about MTV programming in a late 1984 issue of Billboard magazine mentioned Xavion in a paragraph about “breakout” acts along with Bad Manners, Dokken, Grim Reaper, Iron Maiden, Whitesnake, and Zebra.)

The band is best remembered for two singles: “Eat Your Heart Out” (which almost reached the Hot 100 chart in September of 1984) and “Get Me Hot” (which reached #72 on the Hot Black Singles chart in January of 1985).

What are your thoughts on the name Xavion?

P.S. Xavion’s lead singer, Dexter Haygood, was a contestant on the first season of (the American version of) The X Factor in 2011.

Sources:

Popular baby names in England and Wales (UK), 2019

Flag of the United Kingdom
Flag of the United Kingdom

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the most popular baby names in England and Wales last year were, yet again, Olivia and Oliver.

Here are the top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2019:

Girl Names

  1. Olivia, 4,082 baby girls
  2. Amelia, 3,712
  3. Isla, 2,981
  4. Ava, 2,946
  5. Mia, 2,500
  6. Isabella, 2,398
  7. Sophia, 2,332
  8. Grace, 2,330
  9. Lily, 2,285
  10. Freya, 2,264

Boy Names

  1. Oliver, 4,932 baby boys
  2. George, 4,575
  3. Noah, 4,265
  4. Arthur, 4,211
  5. Harry, 3,823
  6. Leo, 3,637
  7. Muhammad, 3,604
  8. Jack, 3,381
  9. Charlie, 3,355
  10. Oscar, 3,334

In the girls’ top 10, Lily and Freya replaced Emily and Ella. The boys’ top ten includes the same ten names as in 2018.

In the girls’ top 100, Lara and Mabel replaced Aisha and Francesca. In the boys’ top 100, Alfred, Chester, Hudson, Ibrahim and Oakley replaced Alex, Dexter, Dominic, Kai, Sonny and Tobias.

The fastest risers within the top 100 were Hallie (on the girls’ list) and Tommy (on the boys’).

Several names that saw increased usage due to pop culture were…

  • The girl name Dua, now at an all-time high thanks to English pop singer Dua Lipa, whose parents were Kosovar refugees.*
  • The boy name Kylo, thanks to the Star Wars sequel trilogy. (Kylo debuted in 2015, the year the first film was released.)
  • The boy name Taron, inspired by actor Taron Egerton, who was featured in the 2019 Elton John biopic Rocketman.

Here are the top ten lists for England and Wales separately, if you’d like to compare the regions…

England’s top ten…Wales’s top ten…
Girl NamesOlivia, Amelia, Isla, Ava, Mia, Isabella, Grace, Sophia, Lily, EmilyOlivia, Amelia, Isla, Ava, Freya, Willow, Mia, Ella, Rosie, Elsie
Boy NamesOliver, George, Arthur, Noah, Harry, Muhammad, Leo, Jack, Oscar, CharlieOliver, Noah, Charlie, Jacob, Theo, George, Leo, Arthur, Oscar, Alfie

Finally, here are some of the rare baby names from the other end of the rankings. Each one was given to exactly 3 babies in England and Wales last year.

Rare Girl NamesRare Boy Names
Aiste, Avesta, Bella-Blue, Cosmina, Dolcieanna, Elliw, Floella, Gurveen, Harerta, Hessa, Iffah, Jainaba, Kalsoom, Lussy, Mallie, Nellie-Beau, Otterly, Primavera, Reevie, Reizel, Saffanah, Tuppence, Venba, Winter-Lily, Yidis, Zeemal, ZobiaAuburn, Boycie, Cybi, Dawsey, Eason, Folarin, Gedalya, Glyndwr, Hadrian, Hylton, Isaa, Johnjo, Kaniel, Lazo, Madani, Marmaduke, Now, Olgierd, Pijus, Rakai, Smit, Taqi, Veselin, Wilby, Wulfric, Yilmaz, Zarel

Cybi, pronounced “kubby,” is the (Welsh) name of a 6th-century Cornish saint.

*Kosovar refugees are also mentioned in the posts on Amerikan and Tonibler.

Sources: Baby names in England and Wales: 2019, Baby names for boys in England and Wales (dataset), Baby names for girls in England and Wales (dataset)

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

What gave the baby name Coretta a boost in 1968?

Civil rights activist Coretta Scott King with her four children (Yolanda, Bernice, Martin III, Dexter) in 1971
Coretta Scott King and family

The baby name Coretta was the fastest-rising baby name of 1968:

  • 1970: 146 baby girls named Coretta [rank: 903rd]
  • 1969: 194 baby girls named Coretta [rank: 722nd]
  • 1968: 336 baby girls named Coretta [rank: 523rd]
  • 1967: 13 baby girls named Coretta
  • 1966: 16 baby girls named Coretta

The name also saw it’s highest-ever usage that year, as did the variant spelling Corretta. And another spelling, Koretta, appeared for the very first time in the data in 1968.

What was bringing all this attention to the baby name Coretta in 1968?

Coretta Scott King. She was the wife of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., until his assassination on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. This event put Coretta and her children (Yolanda, Martin III, Dexter, and Bernice*) in the national spotlight.

Not long after the death of her husband, Coretta took Martin’s place as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement. She was instrumental in establishing the national holiday Martin Luther King, Jr. Day — which happens to be today.

Coretta Scott King was named in honor of her paternal grandmother, Cora. The name Cora is a Latinized form of the ancient Greek name Kore (“maiden”), one of the epithets of the goddess Persephone.


*Usage of the names Yolanda and Dexter also increased markedly in 1968. The usage of Martin, which had been declining, saw an uptick that year. (Peak usage was in 1963, the year of MLK’s legendary “I have a dream” speech.) The usage of Bernice was seemingly unaffected by the assassination.

Incidentally, in her 1969 book My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King talked about the naming of her daughters Yolanda (nicknamed Yoki) and Bernice:

I chose the name Yolanda Denise, but my husband had reservations about it. He questioned whether people would call her Yolanda or would mispronounce the name. He was right. Her name is so frequently mispronounced that it bothered her when she was growing up.

There is a tendency among middle-class African Americans to give their children unusual names. Perhaps they are seeking elegance or some special identification. I fell victim to this custom, rather than following the sensible practice of naming the baby after a member of the family. Later Martin said, “If we ever have another baby girl, I’m going to give her a simple name like Mary Jane.”

When we did have another daughter, we called her Bernice Albertine, after her two grandmothers. Her name was not quite Mary Jane, but at least she was named for members of the family.

Sources: Coretta Scott King – Wikipedia, Cora – Behind the Name, SSA

Image: Adapted from Coretta Scott King and family with NEC President Gunther Schuller by New England Conservatory Archives under CC BY-SA 4.0.

What’s in a name, Ethyl?

A few weeks ago, on a Facebook post about Ethel and other e-names, Angel Brave left a comment about an Ethyl Corporation promotional booklet from the 1940s. Playing off the fact that Ethyl is a human name as well as a brand name, the booklet was full of names and definitions.

Her comment reminded me that I’d actually seen advertisements for that very booklet in old magazines. In fact, I was able find four full-page examples in Life.

The earliest ad (click to enlarge) featured the names Henry, Valerie, Caesar, and Jason:

Ethyl Corporation advertisement 1942

The next one had Edgar, Conrad, Hortense, and Moses:

Ethyl Corporation advertisement 1943

The third featured Vivian, Maxwell, Brian, and Albert:

Ethyl Corporation advertisement 1943

And the final ad had Clementine, Dexter, Jasper, and Louise:

Ethyl Corporation advertisement 1943

Which of these sets of names do you prefer? Why?

Sources:

  • Advertisement for Ethyl Corporation. Life 19 Oct. 1942: 9.
  • Advertisement for Ethyl Corporation. Life 7 Jun. 1943: 3.
  • Advertisement for Ethyl Corporation. Life 19 Jul. 1943: 1.
  • Advertisement for Ethyl Corporation. Life 30 Aug. 1943: 1.
  • Ethyl Corporation Records – Smithsonian