How popular is the baby name Georgia 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 Georgia.
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A few weeks ago I wrote about the Radford family, with 16 kids.
Here’s another brood from England that’s nearly as large — the Watson family of Guernsey, with 14 children:
Which of the 14 names is your favorite?
Source: Single mother of 14 slams critics who brand her a scrounger
Image: Ein Kinderfest (1868) by Ludwig Knaus
The most popular baby names in New Zealand were announced the other day.
According to the NZ Department of Internal Affairs, New Zealand’s top names last year were Olivia and Jack.
Here are New Zealand’s top 25 girl names and top 25 boy names of 2012:
Girl Names
Boy Names
The name Jack has followed an interesting path in the NZ rankings. It was #1 from 2005 until 2009, sank to 4th in 2010, to 10th in 2011, and is now back in first place.
Sources: Olivia, Jack top baby names, Most Popular Male and Female First Names
Image: Adapted from Flag of New Zealand (public domain)
The most popular baby names in Scotland were announced last week.
According to the General Register Office, the preliminary winners were Jack for boys and Sophie for girls. Jack has been #1 for five years in a row, and Sophie for eight years in a row.
Here are Scotland’s top 20 girl names and top 20 boy names of January-November, 2012:
| Baby Girl Names | Baby Boy Names |
|---|---|
| 1. Sophie 2. Emily 3. Olivia 4. Ava 5. Lucy 6. Isla 7. Lily 8. Jessica 9. Amelia 10. Mia 11. Millie 12. Eva 13. Ellie 14. Chloe 15. Freya 16. Sophia 17. Grace 18. Emma 19. Hannah 20. Holly | 1. Jack 2. Lewis 3. Riley 4. James 5. Logan 6. Daniel 7. Ethan 8. Harry 9. Alexander 10. Oliver 11. Max 12. Tyler 13. Aaron & Charlie [tie] 15. Adam 16. Finlay 17. Alfie 18. Mason 19. Ryan 20. Liam & Lucas [tie] |
Some of the names that increased in popularity from 2011 to 2012:
| Lola (up 24 places to #63) Mollie (up 24 places to #68) Amelia (up 20 places to #9) Orla (up 19 places to #36) Hollie (up 18 places to #39) Georgia (up 13 places to #58) Lexi (up 12 places to #38) Lacey (up 12 places to #41) Poppy (up 11 places to #34) | Harris (up 20 places to #29) Harrison (up 20 places to #53) Tyler (up 20 places to #12) Brodie (up 17 places to #54) Max (up 15 places to #11) Mason (up 13 places to #18) Finn (up 13 places to #66) Riley (up 11 places to #3) |
New to the top 100 are Bella, Darcy, Emelia, Lois, Scarlett and Willow (for girls) and Alex, Blake, Calvin, George, Olly, Sebastian, Shay and Zac (for boys).
Among the names moving downward are Abigail, Chloe, Jasmine and Phoebe (for girls) and Aiden, Jayden and Mohammed for boys. (Aiden is down 16 places to #36; Jayden down 10 places to #40.)
To compare, here’s last year’s post on the top baby names in Scotland.
Scotland’s official rankings will be out after the year ends.
Sources: Jack and Sophie are Scotland’s top baby names, Jack and Sophie top Scots baby names list in 2012, Scotland’s favourite baby names revealed
Image: Adapted from Flag of the United Kingdom (public domain)
On August 6, 1911, Dr. George Thaddeus Brown of the Georgia House of Representatives and his wife Avis welcomed a baby girl.
The Georgia General Assembly promptly passed a resolution stating that the baby would be named Georgia after the state.
They then presented Avis with a certified copy of the resolution and a “magnificent silver loving cup” whose inscription noted that Georgia was “named by this body August 11th 1911.”
Georgia’s obituary in the Miami Herald noted that she was the inspiration behind the jazz standard “Sweet Georgia Brown” (1925):
According to family legend, it was her father who immortalized her when he met composer Ben Bernie in New York. A medical student at the time, George Brown told the composer about his family, including his youngest daughter with one brown eye and one green eye. Bernie whipped up lyrics to a melody by Kenneth Casey and Maceo Pinkard.
There’s no way to know if the story is true. (One part doesn’t quite work: Dr. Brown attended post-graduate medical school in New York in the 1890s, long before his daughter was born.) But the last line of the chorus does seem to refer to Dr. Brown’s daughter: “Georgia claimed her, Georgia named her, sweet Georgia Brown.”
A whistled version of “Sweet Georgia Brown,” recorded by Brother Bones in 1949, was chosen as the theme song of the Harlem Globetrotters in 1952 and became world-famous. According to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), “Sweet Georgia Brown” was one of the most-performed songs of the 20th century.
P.S. Georgia is the second baby I know of who was named by a state legislature…
Sources:
Image from DigitalCommons at UMaine (PDF)
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