How popular is the baby name George 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 George.

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Popularity of the baby name George


Posts that mention the name George

Baby born to Governor of South Australia, named Adelaide

Annabel Mary Adelaide Norrie, youngest child of Gov. Willoughby Norrie, in late 1946
Annabel Mary Adelaide Norrie

In mid-1944, Willoughby Norrie — who’d served as an officer in the British Army for more than three decades, and fought in both World Wars — was appointed Governor of South Australia. (Australia was a self-governing dominion of the British Empire at that time.)

Later the same year, he relocated his family and staff to the South Australian capital of Adelaide.

In December of 1945, Norrie and his second wife, Patricia, welcomed a baby girl.

Her name?

Annabel Mary Adelaide — third given name in honor of the city of Adelaide (which was also her birthplace, of course).

The city had been named in 1836 after Queen Adelaide, the German-born wife of King William IV.

(Norrie also had five older children: Diana, Rosemary, George, Guy, and Sarah.)

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Annabel Norrie (State Library of South Australia)

Where did the baby name Kennan come from in 1952?

American diplomat George F. Kennan (1904-2005)
George F. Kennan

The name Kennan popped up in the U.S. baby name data for the first time 1952:

  • 1954: 11 baby boys named Kennan
  • 1953: 6 baby boys named Kennan
  • 1952: 8 baby boys named Kennan [debut]
  • 1951: unlisted
  • 1950: unlisted

If there’s a reason — and typically there’s a reason — my guess is George F. Kennan, the Russian-speaking diplomat nominated by President Truman in February of 1952 to be the U.S. Ambassador to the USSR.

He started the job in May, but didn’t last long.

Why? Because, in mid-September, while addressing the press in Berlin, Kennan “compared life in the Moscow Embassy with his internment by the Nazis at Bad Nauheim.”

Stalin wasn’t pleased.

In early October, the USSR accused Kennan of making “slanderous attacks hostile to the Soviet Union in a rude violation of generally recognized norms of international law.” He was declared a persona non grata and refused re-admittance into the country.

George Kennan making headlines throughout the year — not to mention the similarity of his surname to the then-trendy baby names Kenneth and Kevin — is likely what influenced a handful of expectant parents to name their sons Kennan in 1952.

What are your thoughts on Kennan as a first name?

P.S. Keenan’s father had a cool name: Kossuth Kent Kennan. He was born in Milwaukee in 1851, the year Hungarian freedom fighter Lajos Kossuth visited the city during a tour of the United States. (Lajos is the Hungarian form of Louis.)

P.P.S. In March of 1967, George Kennan was asked “to go to Switzerland on a secret mission to establish the bona fides of a woman who had defected from the Soviet Union and claimed to be the daughter of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.” The next month, news broke of Svetlana’s defection to the U.S.

Sources:

Image: George F. Kennan (LOC)

Popular baby names (and Maori baby names) in New Zealand, 2022

Flag of New Zealand
Flag of New Zealand

The island nation of New Zealand is located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, about 1,200 miles east of Australia.

Last year, New Zealand welcomed a total of 59,711 babies. What were the most popular names among these babies? Isla and Oliver.

Here are New Zealand’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2022:

Girl Names

  1. Isla, 246 baby girls
  2. Amelia, 210
  3. Charlotte, 208
  4. Mila, 182
  5. Lily, 180
  6. Ava, 179
  7. Willow, 177
  8. Olivia, 175
  9. Harper, 167
  10. Sophie, 166
  11. Hazel, 164
  12. Mia, 161
  13. Ella, 157
  14. Isabella, 156
  15. Ruby, 149
  16. Chloe, 144
  17. Millie, 137
  18. Zoe, 130
  19. Grace, 128
  20. Lucy, 117 (tie)
  21. Olive, 117 (tie)
  22. Emily, 116
  23. Aria, 115
  24. Freya, 114
  25. Ivy, 111
  26. Evelyn, 110
  27. Georgia, 105 (tie)
  28. Sienna, 105 (tie)
  29. Layla, 102 (tie)
  30. Poppy, 102 (tie)
  31. Matilda, 101 (tie)
  32. Sophia, 101 (tie)
  33. Frankie, 100
  34. Luna, 96
  35. Mackenzie, 95
  36. Ellie, 94
  37. Sadie, 92
  38. Maia, 91
  39. Florence, 87
  40. Riley, 86
  41. Isabelle, 85 (tie)
  42. Margot, 85 (tie)
  43. Maeve, 84
  44. Evie, 83 (tie)
  45. Violet, 83 (tie)
  46. Aurora, 80 (tie)
  47. Billie, 80 (tie)
  48. Daisy, 78
  49. Sofia, 75
  50. Eleanor, 73

Boy Names

  1. Oliver, 274 baby boys
  2. Noah, 262
  3. Leo, 243
  4. Jack, 234
  5. Luca, 222
  6. Theodore, 219
  7. George, 211
  8. Charlie, 195
  9. Hudson, 169 (tie)
  10. William, 169 (tie)
  11. Oscar, 166
  12. Arthur, 160
  13. Elijah, 158
  14. Arlo, 156
  15. Thomas, 151
  16. James, 150
  17. Archie, 146
  18. Henry, 144
  19. Lucas, 140
  20. Hunter, 138
  21. Liam, 136
  22. Mason, 130
  23. Theo, 124
  24. Ezra, 123 (tie)
  25. Max, 123 (tie)
  26. Levi, 121
  27. Cooper, 120
  28. Carter, 114
  29. Hugo, 112
  30. Lachlan, 110
  31. Asher, 109
  32. Beau, 108
  33. Finn, 104
  34. Archer, 103 (tie)
  35. Felix, 103 (tie)
  36. Benjamin, 100 (tie)
  37. Luka, 100 (tie)
  38. Jasper, 94
  39. Luke, 92
  40. Harry, 91
  41. Ethan, 88
  42. Alexander, 87 (tie)
  43. Roman, 87 (tie)
  44. Grayson, 85 (tie)
  45. Harrison, 85 (tie)
  46. Jackson, 83 (3-way tie)
  47. Lincoln, 83 (3-way tie)
  48. Samuel, 83 (3-way tie)
  49. Jacob, 82 (tie)
  50. Louie, 82 (tie)

This is the tenth year in a row that Oliver has been New Zealand’s #1 boy name.

The news release also mentioned that the “most popular gender-neutral name for 2022 was Riley,” which ranked 40th for girls and 51st for boys.

And what about the top Maori baby names?

Maori girl names

  1. Aroha / Te Aroha
  2. Aria
  3. Anahera
  4. Maia
  5. Moana
  6. Kaia
  7. Manaia
  8. Atarangi / Te Atarangi
  9. Ataahua
  10. Marama

Maori boy names

  1. Ariki / Te Ariki / Teariki
  2. Nikau
  3. Wiremu
  4. Rawiri
  5. Mikaere
  6. Manaia
  7. Kai
  8. Manaaki
  9. Kahurangi
  10. Koa

There are a couple of things we need to note about the Maori baby name rankings, though.

First, the Maori rankings don’t cover the same period of time as the national rankings. Instead, they cover births from June 21, 2022, to July 9, 2023. Why? Because these dates are linked to Matariki, or Maori New Year. (The Maori word Matariki refers to both the Pleiades star cluster and to the yearly celebration of the Pleiades’ return to the night sky, in late June or early July).

Second, a more thorough process is now being used to determine which names to include in the Maori rankings. Previously, the only criterion was that the names be made up of letters in the Maori alphabet. Now, on top of that, the names must: end in a vowel, be “carefully considered and checked,” be discussed with a Maori elder, and be reviewed by the Maori Language Commission.

In 2021, the top names overall in New Zealand were Charlotte and Oliver.

Sources: Top Baby Names – New Zealand Government, Aotearoa’s top ten Maori baby names of the year revealed for Matariki, Matariki (the Pleiades) – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Image: Adapted from Flag of New Zealand (public domain)

What turned Juniper into a baby name in 1969?

Donovan's single "Jennifer Juniper" (1968)
The single “Jennifer Juniper”

The playful song “Jennifer Juniper” by Scottish musician Donovan was released as a single in early 1968. It peaked at #26 on the U.S. Hot 100 chart in April.

Jennifer Juniper lives upon the hill
Jennifer Juniper, sitting very still

The inspiration behind the song was Jenny Boyd — the younger sister of famous English model Pattie Boyd (who, at that time, was married to George Harrison of the Beatles).

What effect did the song have on the baby names Jennifer and Juniper?

With Jennifer it’s hard to tell, as the name was already extremely trendy. It was also being featured elsewhere in pop culture (e.g., the 1968 song “Jennifer Eccles” by the Hollies).

  • 1971: 56,775 baby girls named Jennifer [rank: 1st]
  • 1970: 46,153 baby girls named Jennifer [rank: 1st]
  • 1969: 33,702 baby girls named Jennifer [rank: 3rd]
  • 1968: 26,850 baby girls named Jennifer [rank: 4th]
  • 1967: 18,238 baby girls named Jennifer [rank: 10th]

Incidentally, Jenny Boyd’s legal name was not Jennifer Boyd, but Helen Mary Boyd. Here’s the story, according to Pattie:

She wasn’t actually christened Jenny: my mother named her Helen Mary, to please a couple of aunts, but I had a favorite teddy at the time called Jenny and I insisted my new sister be called by the same name.

It’s much easier to see the effect of “Jennifer Juniper” on the name Juniper, which debuted in the U.S. baby name data the year after the song came out:

  • 1971: 12 baby girls named Juniper
  • 1970: 7 baby girls named Juniper
  • 1969: 5 baby girls named Juniper [debut]
  • 1968: unlisted
  • 1967: unlisted

It’s interesting that Donovan’s song “Laléna” came out months after “Jennifer Juniper,” and yet the name Lalena debuted in the SSA data a year ahead of Juniper.

Despite sounding similar, the names Jennifer and Juniper have different etymologies. Juniper, which refers to a type of tree, comes from the Latin word iuniperus. Jennifer, on the other hand, can be traced back to the Welsh name Gwenhwyfar, which is based on a pair of Celtic words that may have meant “white” and “phantom.” (The Arthuruan name Guinevere has the same origin.)

Which name, Jennifer or Juniper, do you prefer? Why?

Sources: