How popular is the baby name Fortune 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 Fortune.

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Popularity of the baby name Fortune


Posts that mention the name Fortune

Popular and unique baby names in Alberta (Canada), 2023

Flag of Alberta
Flag of Alberta

Alberta — Canada’s westernmost prairie province — welcomed 47,263 babies last year.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Olivia and Noah, yet again.

Here are Alberta’s top 50+ girl names and top 50 boy names of 2023:

Girl names

  1. Olivia, 210 baby girls
  2. Amelia, 145
  3. Sophia, 138
  4. Charlotte, 135
  5. Emma, 133
  6. Isla, 120
  7. Evelyn, 114
  8. Chloe, 101 (tie)
  9. Violet, 101 (tie)
  10. Ava, 99 (tie)
  11. Emily, 99 (tie)
  12. Hannah, 98 (tie)
  13. Hazel, 98 (tie)
  14. Abigail, 95
  15. Lily, 92
  16. Ella, 91 (tie)
  17. Harper, 91 (tie)
  18. Aurora, 90
  19. Grace, 88
  20. Aria, 87
  21. Mia, 86 (tie)
  22. Nora, 86 (tie)
  23. Ivy, 85
  24. Sophie, 84
  25. Mila, 82
  26. Ellie, 81
  27. Isabella, 79
  28. Eleanor, 78 (tie)
  29. Elizabeth, 78 (tie)
  30. Avery, 73
  31. Georgia, 71 (tie)
  32. Sofia, 71 (tie)
  33. Maya, 67
  34. Naomi, 66
  35. Lucy, 65
  36. Scarlett, 64
  37. Maeve, 62 (3-way tie)
  38. Quinn, 62 (3-way tie)
  39. Sadie, 62 (3-way tie)
  40. Luna, 60
  41. Kinsley, 57 (4-way tie)
  42. Layla, 57 (4-way tie)
  43. Stella, 57 (4-way tie)
  44. Zoey, 57 (4-way tie)
  45. Hailey, 56
  46. Zoe, 55
  47. Paisley, 54 (tie)
  48. Penelope, 54 (tie)
  49. Alice, 53 (6-way tie)
  50. Amira, 53 (6-way tie)
  51. Audrey, 53 (6-way tie)
  52. Eliana, 53 (6-way tie)
  53. Eva, 53 (6-way tie)
  54. Wren, 53 (6-way tie)

Boy names

  1. Noah, 276 baby boys
  2. Liam, 181
  3. Oliver, 178
  4. Theodore, 173
  5. Jack, 153
  6. Henry, 146
  7. Lucas, 140
  8. Benjamin, 137
  9. James, 136
  10. William, 133
  11. Ethan, 131
  12. Owen, 129
  13. Adam, 123
  14. Levi, 117
  15. Bennett, 114 (tie)
  16. Leo, 114 (tie)
  17. Daniel, 111
  18. Maverick, 107
  19. Elijah, 106
  20. Muhammad, 100
  21. Asher, 96
  22. Hudson, 95
  23. Alexander, 94 (tie)
  24. Thomas, 94 (tie)
  25. Nathan, 92
  26. Beau, 90
  27. Jackson, 89
  28. Grayson, 87 (3-way tie)
  29. Luke, 87 (3-way tie)
  30. Wyatt, 87 (3-way tie)
  31. Caleb, 83
  32. Elias, 80
  33. Jacob, 79
  34. Ezra, 78 (3-way tie)
  35. Logan, 78 (3-way tie)
  36. Rowan, 78 (3-way tie)
  37. David, 77 (3-way tie)
  38. Myles, 77 (3-way tie)
  39. Theo, 77 (3-way tie)
  40. Lincoln, 76 (tie)
  41. Luca, 76 (tie)
  42. Isaac, 74 (tie)
  43. Wesley, 74 (tie)
  44. Carter, 73
  45. Arthur, 72 (tie)
  46. Gabriel, 72 (tie)
  47. Michael, 71 (tie)
  48. Samuel, 71 (tie)
  49. Aiden, 70 (tie)
  50. Joseph, 70 (tie)

Thousands of other names were given to a single baby each in Alberta last year. Here’s a small selection of those single-use names:

Unique girl namesUnique boy names
Adonica, Birille, Curly-Anne, Dalanda, Eleojo, Flaxee, Garance, Hailstorm-Leone, Ianah, Jina, Kimowan, Liala, Mihkokwaniy, Mulberry, Nîpsîy, Ozya, Parfaite, Pinkbella, Prism-Rose, Quenzy, Rhya, Simdi, Toriola, Uzira, Vhea, Wapakwaniy, Xeya, Yovela, ZhilaAuxter, Baffin, Chancel, Dezio, Edbert, Firekeeper, Graysky, Hashké, Iron, Jandro, Kalahari, Kisâkihitin, Kittiwake, Ludacris, Mardochée, Mîtos, Nightsong, Omâciw, Pelvin, Qudus, Rastko, Stoic, Tazler, Uros, Vyron, Wynn-Fortune, Xyno, York, Zaffarjot

Some possible explanations and/or influences for a few of the above:

  • Baffin is both an island and a bay in Canada. (Both were named after English explorer William Baffin.)
  • Hashké means “warrior” in Navajo.
  • Kalahari is a desert in Southern Africa.
  • Kimowan means “it is raining” in Cree.
    • The related name Kimiwan, meaning “rain,” was given to 2 baby girls.
  • Kisâkihitin means “I love you” (or, “you are loved by me”) in Cree.
  • Kittiwake refers to a type of seagull.
  • Ludacris is the stage name of American rapper Christopher Bridges.
    • I hope this baby’s family caught Ludacris in Usher’s Super Bowl halftime show earlier this year!
  • Mihkokwaniy means “rose” in Cree.
  • Mîtos means “poplar [tree]” in Cree.
  • Nîpsîy means “willow” in Cree.
  • Omâciw means “moose hunter” or “big game hunter” in Cree.
  • Parfaite means “perfect” in French.
  • Wapakwaniy is one letter away from wapikwaniy, the Cree word for “flower.”

Finally, here’s a link to Alberta’s 2022 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.

Sources: Alberta’s top baby names – Alberta.ca, Alberta’s baby name superstar steals the show again – Alberta.ca, Online Cree Dictionary, You always come first with me: kisâkihitin and “Order of Persons” in Cree – Cree Literacy Network

Image: Adapted from Flag of Alberta (public domain)

Babies named for the Lusitania

RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania

On May 7, 1915, the British passenger ship RMS Lusitania was nearing the end of a risky trans-Atlantic voyage from New York to Liverpool when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat about 11 miles off the southern coast of Ireland.

Europe had been embroiled in WWI for nearly a year by that point. Earlier in 1915, in response to being blockaded by Britain, Germany had declared the seas around Ireland and Great Britain a war zone. This meant unrestricted submarine warfare: U-boats would attack any Allied or neutral ship — military or not — without warning.

The Lusitania sank in just 18 minutes. Of the 1,962 passengers and crew on board, nearly 1,200 perished. The casualties consisted primarily of British and Canadian citizens, but also included 128 Americans.

Judging by the records I’ve seen, hundreds of babies worldwide were named Lusitania that year. Most were born in the United Kingdom. Others were born in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and elsewhere.

Here’s a sampling of the many babies named Lusitania in the UK:

  • Lusitania May Rayson, born in England on May 4, 1915
  • Bronwen Lusitania Davies, born in Wales on May 7, 1915
  • Lusitania Southwell, born in England on May 15, 1915
  • Lusitania Mayo, born in England on May 17, 1915
  • Lusitania Cartwright, born in England in mid-1915
  • Lusitania M. Fox, born in England in mid-1915
  • Lusitania Haywood, born in England in mid-1915
  • Lusitania Ypres Heavingham, born in England on June 20, 1915
  • Lusitania Nash, born in Wales in mid-1915
  • Lusitania Walker, born in England in mid-1915
  • Lusitania Cranstone, born in England in mid-1915
  • Lusitania G. Elias, born in Wales in mid-1915
  • Lusitania Wiggins, born in England in mid-1915
  • Lusitania Hayden, born in Eng in late 1915
  • Lusitania R. Horncastle, born in England in late 1915
  • Lusitania Colbridge, born in England on December 3, 1915

And here are a few of the U.S-born Lusitanias:

  • Lusitania Looney, born in Virginia in July of 1915
  • Lusitania Vinson (married name Lusitania Kelley), born in Oklahoma in March of 1916
  • Lusitania Henselman, born in Wisconsin circa 1916
  • Lusitania Krupinski, born in Missouri circa 1916
  • Lusitania Totino, born in New Jersey in May of 1917

Though the U.S. public was outraged by the destruction of the Lusitania, president Woodrow Wilson was reluctant to get the country involved in World War I.

Several months later, in September of 1915, Germany agreed to stop attacking passenger vessels.

In January of 1917, however, Germany decided to resume unrestricted U-boat warfare. This reversal — along with the interception and decoding of the Zimmermann Telegram — convinced Wilson to ask Congress to declare war against Germany. Which it did, on April 6, 1917.

The RMS Lusitania was named after the ancient Roman province of Lusitania, located on the Iberian peninsula. The province, in turn, was named after the Lusitanians — the people who’d lived in the region before it was conquered by the Roman Republic.

Sources: FamilySearch.org, RMS Lusitania – Wikipedia, Unrestricted U-boat Warfare | National WWI Museum and Memorial, Timeline (1914 – 1921) – LOC

P.S. In 1982, divers salvaged one reel of the silent film The Carpet from Bagdad, which featured a character named Fortune, from the wreckage of the Lusitania.

Baby names for tea lovers: Camellia, Thomas, Jasmine, Grey

chai

We haven’t done a baby name brainstorm in a long time! The last one we did was for coffee lovers, so let’s follow that up with one for tea lovers.

Here are some tea-inspired baby names for all the tea lovers out there:

Camellia
The Camellia sinensis plant is our primary source of tea. The genus was named by Carl Linnaeus in honor of Czech missionary and botanist Georg Joseph Kamel (1661-1706). Here’s the popularity graph for Camellia.

Catherine, Catarina
Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza (originally Catarina de Bragança) popularized tea-drinking among the British nobility in the mid-1600s upon her marriage to England’s King Charles II in 1662. (Fun fact: The borough of Queens in New York City was named during Catherine’s tenure, so it was presumably named for her.) Here are the popularity graphs for Catherine and Catarina.

Thomas
Multiple people named Thomas are associated with the history of tea:

  • Thomas Garway was the first person sell tea in London, in 1657.
  • Thomas Twining founded Twinings of London in the early 1700s.
  • Thomas Lipton founded Lipton Tea in the 1890s.
  • Thomas Sullivan of New York inadvertently invented teabags in 1907 when he distributed tea samples in loosely woven silk bags — and people started using the bags to brew the tea.

Here’s the popularity graph for Thomas.

Robert, Fortune
Britain was obsessed with tea by the 1800s, but China controlled the tea trade. So in the late 1840s, the British East India Company sent Scottish botanist Robert Fortune to China to learn the secrets of Chinese tea production, and to smuggle tea plants and seedlings out of the country (and take them to India). Here are the popularity graphs for Robert and Fortune.

Chai
Chai is the word for “tea” in various languages. It’s also used to refer specifically to masala chai, a type of spiced tea that originated in India. Here’s the popularity graph for Chai.

Jasmine
Jasmine tea is a blend made with green tea and jasmine blossoms. Here’s the popularity graph for Jasmine.

Grey, Earl
Earl Grey tea is a blend made with black tea and oil of bergamot (a type of citrus fruit). It existed as far back as the 1880s and is thought to be named after former British Prime Minister Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey. Here are the popularity graphs for Earl and Grey.

Nanette
The famous song “Tea for Two” comes from the 1925 musical No, No, Nanette. It’s a duet sung during Act II by characters Nanette and Tom. Here’s the popularity graph for Nanette.

Dorotea, Mattea, Timotea, Teague (and others)
While these names aren’t strongly associated with the beverage, they do happen to feature the letter sequence “t-e-a.” Here are the popularity graphs for Dorotea, Mattea, Timotea, and Teague.

What other baby names with a tea association can you come up with?

Image: Adapted from Chai in Sakora by Dadhichbittu007 under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Where did the baby name Eydie come from in 1954?

Singer Eydie Gormé (1928-2013)
Eydie Gormé (in 1954)

The name Eydie first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1954:

  • 1960: 27 baby girls named Eydie
  • 1959: 37 baby girls named Eydie
  • 1958: 50 baby girls named Eydie [peak]
  • 1957: 23 baby girls named Eydie
  • 1956: 11 baby girls named Eydie
  • 1955: 10 baby girls named Eydie
  • 1954: 5 baby girls named Eydie [debut]
  • 1953: unlisted

Where did it come from?

Pop singer Eydie Gormé.

She was most famous during in the 1960s: her biggest hit was “Blame It on the Bossa Nova” (1963), and she won a Grammy for “If He Walked Into My Life” (1966).

But she first came to people’s attention when she started making regular TV appearances in 1953 on the The Tonight Show, originally hosted by Steve Allen. She often performed with her husband, Steve Lawrence.

Eydie was born Edith Garmezano in New York City in 1928. (Her husband’s birth name was Sidney Liebowitz.) Her family — parents Nessim and Fortune, siblings Robert and Corene — later shortened the surname to Gormé. She adopted the stage name Edie when she started singing, but was so frequently called “Eddie” that she decided to add a Y to emphasize the correct pronunciation (ee-dee).

What are your thoughts on the name Eydie?

Sources: Eydie Gormé – Wikipedia, Winners – Best Female Pop Vocal Performance – Grammy.com, Singer Eydie Gorme dies at 84
Image: Radio-TV Mirror, Aug. 1954