How popular is the baby name Gloria 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 Gloria.

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Popularity of the baby name Gloria


Posts that mention the name Gloria

Baby born during Hurricane Andrew, named Andrew

hurricane

Most of the hurricane-inspired baby names I know of (e.g. Alicia, Gloria, Hazel) were given to girls. So I had to end the series with a boy. :)

Hurricane Andrew hit Florida on August 24, 1992. It ended up demolishing Homestead Air Force Base.

Luckily, Kevin Hicks — who had been stationed at Homestead — was off the base by that point. Kevin, his pregnant wife Heidi, and their daughter Emily had driven 5 hours north to Leesburg to avoid the storm.

But on the day the hurricane hit Homestead, Heidi went into labor (4 days early). She gave birth to a baby boy at Leesburg Regional Medical Center that night.

The baby was named Jacob Andrew.

Source: Bond, Bill. “Hurricane Shoots Down Visiting Air Force Family.” Orlando Sentinel 27 Aug. 1992: 1.

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

Babies born during Hurricane Gloria, named Gloria

hurricane

Two baby girls born in Virginia while Hurricane Gloria was passing through (on September 27, 1985) were named after the storm.

One of the babies belonged to Linda Cowell of Newport News. “Everyone in the shelter was saying if you go into labor, you’ve got to name her Gloria,” she said. And so she did.

The other belonged to Gloria Davis of Virginia Beach. During her pregnancy, her husband hadn’t been too keen on passing Gloria’s name down to a daughter. But when their baby girl happened to be born during a storm with the very same name, he relented.

Sources:

  • “Gloria Leaves Two Little Namesakes.” Miami Herald 29 Sept. 1985: 6A.
  • “Gloria’s Lighter Side.” Evening Independent [St. Petersburg] 28 Sept. 1985: 3-A.

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

Where did the baby name Orchid come from in 1926?

The character Orchid (played by Gloria Swanson) in the movie "Fine Manners" (1926).
Orchid from “Fine Manners“

The flower name Orchid first appeared in the U.S. baby name the data in the mid-1920s:

  • 1928: 6 baby girls named Orchid
  • 1927: 7 baby girls named Orchid
  • 1926: 12 baby girls named Orchid [debut]
  • 1925: unlisted
  • 1924: unlisted

One dozen baby girls remained Orchid’s peak usage for nearly a century (until the record was tied in 2017, then topped in 2020).

Here’s data from the Social Security Death Index for the same span of time:

  • 1928: 1 person with the first name Orchid
  • 1927: 2 people with the first name Orchid (and 1 with Orchid as a middle)
  • 1926: 9 people with the first name Orchid (and 1 with Orchid as a middle)
  • 1925: 2 people with the first name Orchid
  • 1924: 4 people with the first name Orchid

Why were a handful of expectant parents suddenly interested in the name Orchid in 1926?

Because of a silent film called Fine Manners, which was released in August of that year.

Dialogue intertitle featuring the name Orchid from the silent film "Fine Manners" (1926).
Dialogue intertitle from “Fine Manners“

It starred Gloria Swanson as a vivacious-yet-unrefined New York chorus girl named Orchid Murphy. Orchid falls in love with a millionaire named Brian Alden, but, right after Brian asks Orchid to marry him, he learns that he will be traveling abroad on business. During the months of his absence, his Aunt Agatha teaches Orchid about social etiquette (e.g., “a lady never makes a vulgar display of her emotions”).

The consequence is that Brian is deeply disappointed when he returns to find a blasé little Orchid. He scolds his Aunt for having robbed the girl of her vivacity and spark.

What are your thoughts on the baby name Orchid? Would you use it?

P.S. Gloria Swanson’s The Love of Sunya — released less than a year after Fine Manners — also had an influence on U.S. baby names…

Sources:

[Latest update: April 2023]

Where did the baby name Safire come from in 1989?

Sa-Fire's self-titled debut album (1988).
Sa-Fire album

The name Safire first popped up in the U.S. baby name data in the late 1980s:

  • 1991: unlisted
  • 1990: unlisted
  • 1989: 6 baby girls named Safire [debut]
  • 1988: unlisted
  • 1987: unlisted

What put it there?

Latin freestyle singer Sa-Fire.

She was born (as Wilma Cosmé) in Puerto Rico, but grew up in New York.

Her self-titled debut album, released in 1988, spawned four singles — all of which reached Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart.

The most successful was the ballad “Thinking of You,” which was written “about her uncle who died of AIDS in the Bronx.” The song peaked at #12 on the Hot 100 in May of 1989. It climbed even higher (#4) on the Adult Contemporary chart.

One reporter guessed (in 1989) that the trendiness of Sa-Fire and other “up-and-coming Latino stars” had been fueled by a film:

Since the success of the movie and sound track album “La Bamba” two years ago, the American pop music charts have become populated by young Hispanic performers — Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine, Sa-fire, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, Sweet Sensation, Exposé and Martika.

What are your thoughts on the baby name Safire? Do you like it more or less than, say, Safira?

Sources: