How popular is the baby name Donald 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 Donald.

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Popularity of the baby name Donald


Posts that mention the name Donald

2 Babies born during wind storms, named Gale

hurricane

1945: While an unnamed Category 4 hurricane was pummeling south Florida on September 15, 1945, Lt. and Mrs. Carl Landau (who were staying at a shelter in West Palm Beach) welcomed a baby girl. They named her Karen Gale.

1950: During the gusty Great Appalachian Storm of November 24-25, 1950, Mr. and Mrs. Donald Quinn of Burlington, Vermont, welcomed a baby girl. They named her Gale.

(And don’t forget Barbara Gale, named for Hurricane Barbara in 1953.)

Sources:

  • “Baby Born in Storm Gets Name of Gale.” Los Angeles Times 17 Sep. 1945: 1.
  • “Named for Storm.” Eugene Register-Guard 12 Dec 1950: 23.
  • “Storm Speeds Toward Georgia, South Carolina Coast.” Sun [Baltimore] 17 Sep. 1945: 1.

Image: Adapted from Hurricane Elena by NASA (public domain)

Dogs named Carlo, thanks to “Jane Eyre”

dog, pointer

Did you know that Emily Dickinson got a dog in 1849 and named him Carlo after the dog in the novel Jane Eyre (1847)?

The fictional dog created by Charlotte Bronte was a pointer, while the nonfictional dog owned by Emily Dickinson was likely a brown Newfoundland.

Many other dogs (both real and fictional) were named Carlo around this time as well, no doubt due to the influence of Jane Eyre.

At least five of the dogs residing in Amherst, Massachusetts (Dickinson’s hometown) in 1858 were named Carlo, for instance.

Dogs named Carlo were also featured in books such as Cranford (1851) by Elizabeth Gaskell and Reveries of a Bachelor (1850) by “Ik Marvel” (pseudonym of Donald Grant Mitchell).

Source: Carlo (1849-1966), dog – Emily Dickinson Museum

Image: Adapted from Kenzo cazando en sanbernardo (public domain)

[Latest update: Apr. 2024]

Where did the baby name Crystalgayle come from?

The Crystal Gayle album "We Must Believe In Magic" (1977).
Crystal Gayle album (1977)

The compound name Crystalgayle was a one-hit wonder in the U.S. baby name data in 1981:

  • 1983: unlisted
  • 1982: unlisted
  • 1981: 5 baby girls named Crystalgayle [debut]
  • 1980: unlisted
  • 1979: unlisted

The source, of course, is country singer Crystal Gayle.

The timing of the debut has less to do with her career, though, than with the sudden trendiness of the name Krystle, thanks to TV character Krystle Carrington (from the prime-time soap opera Dynasty).

But the name Crystal — without the Gayle — does seem to have been given a boost by Crystal Gayle’s best-known hit, “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue,” which came out in mid-1977. It was already on the rise in the ’70s, but that rise accelerated in ’77 and ’78:

  • 1979: 13,467 baby girls named Crystal (rank: 18th)
  • 1978: 12,592 baby girls named Crystal (rank: 18th)
  • 1977: 9,728 baby girls named Crystal (rank: 25th)
  • 1976: 6,947 baby girls named Crystal (rank: 36th)
  • 1975: 6,244 baby girls named Crystal (rank: 43rd)

Crystal Gayle was born Brenda Gail Webb in 1951. She was the youngest of eight; her siblings were named Melvin, Loretta, Herman, Willie, Donald, Peggy, and Betty.

Brenda was ready to start her singing career as soon as she was done with high school. At that point, her sister Loretta — nearly 19 years her senior — had already turned herself into famous country singer Loretta Lynn. So Brenda signed with Loretta’s recording label, Decca.

As the label already had Brenda Lee, a change of name was needed and, when they drove past a sign for Krystal hamburgers, Lynn said, ‘That’s your name. Crystals are bright and shiny, like you.’

(The founders of the fast food chain Krystal were keen on cleanliness, so they chose the name “Crystal” to evoke the idea of a crystal-clean restaurant, but decided to spell it with a “K” to make it distinctive.)

What are your thoughts on the name Crystal? What’s your preferred spelling of the name?

Sources:

  • Crystal Gayle – Wikipedia
  • Hogan, David G. Selling ’em by the Sack: White Castle and the Creation of American Food. NY: New York University Press, 1999.
  • Larkin, Colin. The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. 5th ed. London: Omnibus Press, 2011.
  • Shearer, John. “75 Years Of Krystal.” Chattanoogan.com 8 Oct. 2007.
  • SSA

Where did the baby name Kiefer come from in 1988?

Kiefer Sutherland in Stand By Me (1986)

Actor Donald Sutherland and his second wife, Shirley Douglas, welcomed twins in late 1966. One of the twins was a baby girl named Rachel, the other was a baby boy named Kiefer after “Warren Kiefer,” alias of Lorenzo Sabatini, who had written and directed Donald’s first film, Castle of the Living Dead (1964).

The baby name Kiefer ended up debuting impressively (tied for 44th highest of all time!) in the SSA’s baby name data in 1988, thanks to Kiefer Sutherland’s success in films like The Lost Boys (1987) and Young Guns (1988).

  • 1993: 97 baby boys named Kiefer
  • 1992: 114 baby boys named Kiefer
  • 1991: 204 baby boys named Kiefer [rank: 709th]
  • 1990: 143 baby boys named Kiefer [rank: 855th]
  • 1989: 93 baby boys named Kiefer
  • 1988: 35 baby boys named Kiefer [debut]
  • 1987: unlisted
  • 1986: unlisted

The name even reached the boys’ top 1,000 for a couple of years (1990 & 1991). It’s sudden trendiness gave similar names like Keifer, Kieffer, and Keefer a boost as well.

The German surname Kiefer has several possible derivations. In some families it was originally an occupational name for a cooper or someone who kept a wine cellar (from Middle High German kuofe, “barrel”), in others it began as a nickname for a quarrelsome person (Middle High German kiffen, “to quarrel”), and in others it was simply an ornamental name referring to a pine tree (German kiefer, “pine”).

What are your thoughts on the baby name Kiefer?

Sources:

  • Marks, Michele. “Ask Michele.” Southeast Missourian 22 Apr. 1993: 2.
  • Hanks, Patrick. (Ed.) Dictionary of American Family Names. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.