How popular is the baby name Eddie 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 Eddie.

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Popularity of the baby name Eddie


Posts that mention the name Eddie

How did Hakeem Olajuwon influence baby names?

Hakeem Olajuwon
Hakeem Olajuwon

Akeem Olajuwon emigrated from Nigeria to play basketball at the University of Houston from 1980 to 1984. He then played professional basketball from 1984 to 2002 — half of that time as Akeem, the other half of that time as Hakeem. (He changed the spelling of his first name in 1991.)

How did Olajuwon’s successful career affect the popularity of the baby names Akeem, Hakeem and Olajuwon? Let’s check it out…

AkeemHakeemOlajuwon
200356865
200265839
20016311511
2000771328
19996113415
19989719416
199711622624
199614624126
1995*17424754
1994*22226458
199324216616
199232520018
199141924124
199057027222
198945927919
19882216517
19871785523
19862832952
19851603622
19842545019
19831923515*
19823222.
1981831.
*Debut

*These are the two years Olajuwon led the Houston Rockets to NBA championships.

So, why did Olajuwon change the spelling of his first name?

“It’s no big deal,” Olajuwon says. “I just want to go back to using the original spelling, the way it is meant to be spelled in Arabic.”

According to Olajuwon, “Hakeem,” in Arabic, means “a wise man; a doctor.”

But “Akeem,” which is the way it’s been spelled since he arrived in the United States in 1981, has no translation.

What does Olajuwon’s surname mean? According to NBA.com, Olajuwon means “always being on top.” In every Yoruba name that starts with Ola- that I’ve come across, though, Ola- means “wealth.” So I don’t know about that NBA definition. (I also don’t know what -juwon might mean.)

Finally, did you notice how the usage of Akeem and Hakeem jumped from 1988 to 1989, but the usage of Olajuwon stayed the same? The main inspiration here was likely Hakim of R&B group The Boys, which scored a few hit singles around this time. In fact, the names of all four of The Boys — Khiry, Hakim, Tajh & Bilal — got a boost in 1989.

Update, Sept. 2021: I think Jamie’s theory about the name Akeem also being influenced in 1989 by the 1988 movie Coming to America — in which comedian Eddie Murphy plays lead character Prince Akeem Joffer of the (fictional) African nation Zamunda — makes perfect sense! Off to add it to the timeline…

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Hakeem Olujuwan signs autographs (public domain)

Where did the baby name Ridgely come from in 1946?

Actor John Ridgely in the movie "The Big Sleep" (1946).
John Ridgely in “The Big Sleep“

The baby name Ridgely crept into the U.S. baby name data for the first time in the mid-1940s:

  • 1948: 6 baby boys named Ridgely
  • 1947: 6 baby boys named Ridgely
  • 1946: 6 baby boys named Ridgely [debut]
  • 1945: unlisted
  • 1944: unlisted

I’m not 100% sure about the reason, but I think this is a good guess: actor John Ridgely (whose birth name was John Rea).

He played secondary characters in movies from the ’30s to the ’50s, but one of his most successful movies — and one in which he played a key character — was The Big Sleep (1946). It was a detective film starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Ridgely played a gangster named Eddie Mars.

The same year, John Ridgely could also be seen as Cary, the husband of Ginna, in the movie My Reputation.

What are your thoughts on this theory?

Sources: The Big Sleep (1946) – TCM, SSA