How popular is the baby name Goodluck 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 Goodluck.

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Popularity of the baby name Goodluck


Posts that mention the name Goodluck

Baby names with OO: Cooper, Brooklyn, Rooney

raccoon in a tree

Looking for baby names that feature the letter-pair OO?

I’ve collected oodles of OO names for you in this post!

Before we get to the names, though, let’s get one big question out of the way…

What sound does OO make?

In today’s English, OO commonly makes the sound you hear in the words boot, food, and moon. But it can also make other sounds, such as the ones you hear in the words blood, or door, or good.

Why all this diversity?

A lot of it has to do with the Great Vowel Shift, which lasted from the late 14th century until about 1700. The GVS was a major factor in the transition from Middle English to Modern English.

In Middle English, OO tended to make a “long o” sound. (As one of my sources explained, “scribes often indicated a long vowel sound by doubling the vowel letter.”) So, in Middle English, the words boot, food, and moon sounded more like “boat,” “foad,” and “moan.”

During the Great Vowel Shift, the pronunciation of most long vowel sounds inexplicably shifted “upward” in the mouth, and the words boot, food, and moon acquired their present-day pronunciations.

But it’s not quite as simple as that. Because some words underwent multiple pronunciation changes during the GVS, while others didn’t undergo any change at all.

And this resulted in OO having a variety of pronunciations in Modern English.

Now, back to the names!

Names with OO

Below are dozens of names that feature the letter-pair OO. Most of these names come directly from the U.S. SSA’s baby name data.

  • Ajooni
  • Alanood
  • Anoop
  • Aroosh
  • Atwood
  • Avnoor
  • Aynoor
  • Batool
  • Bloom
  • Booker
  • Boomer
  • Boone
  • Booth
  • Brentwood
  • Brooke, Brook
  • Brookelle
  • Brooker
  • Brookie
  • Brooklee, Brookley, Brookleigh
  • Brooklyn, Brooklynn, Brooklynne, Brooklin, Brooklinn, Brooklen, Brooklenn, Brookelyn, Brookelynn, Brookelynne
  • Brooks, Brookes, Broox
  • Brooksie
  • Brooksley
  • Brookson
  • Brookston
  • Cooke
  • Coolidge, Cooledge
  • Cooper, Kooper
  • Dawood
  • Delwood
  • Derwood, Durwood
  • Eastwood
  • Eknoor
  • Elwood, Ellwood
  • Farooq
  • Fleetwood
  • Garwood
  • Glenwood, Glennwood
  • Goodluck
  • Goodman
  • Goodness
  • Goodwin
  • Greenwood
  • Gurnoor
  • Hagood
  • Ha-Joon
  • Harnoor
  • Haroon
  • Harwood
  • Haywood, Heywood
  • Hooper
  • Hoor
  • Hoorain
  • Hooria, Hooriya
  • Hoover
  • Htoo
  • Japnoor
  • Jasnoor
  • Ji-Hoo
  • Ji-Soo
  • Jood
  • Joon
  • Joory
  • Joost
  • Kenwood
  • Kirkwood
  • Kohinoor
  • Kulsoom
  • Leeloo
  • Lenwood
  • Lindwood
  • Linwood
  • Lockwood
  • Lynwood, Lynnwood
  • Mahmood
  • Mahnoor
  • Manroop
  • Mansoor
  • Marwood
  • Masooma
  • Maysoon
  • Maywood
  • Moo
  • Moon
  • Moosa
  • Nooh
  • Noomi
  • Noor
  • Noora, Noorah
  • Nooreh
  • Noori
  • Nooria, Nooriyah
  • Noorseen
  • Noortje
  • Noorulain
  • Norwood
  • Oona, Oonagh
  • Oormi
  • Osgood
  • Prabhnoor
  • Poorna
  • Raywood
  • Roo
  • Roohi
  • Rook
  • Rooney
  • Roop
  • Roope
  • Roosevelt
  • Rooster
  • Seabrooke
  • Sherwood
  • Shooter
  • Sookie
  • Stanwood
  • Sun-Woo
  • Underwood
  • Westbrook
  • Wood
  • Woodard
  • Woodensley
  • Woodfin
  • Woodford
  • Woodland
  • Woodley
  • Woodlyn
  • Woodrow
  • Woodruff
  • Woods
  • Woodson
  • Woodward
  • Woody, Woodie
  • Woo-Jin
  • Yaqoob
  • Yaqoot
  • Yoona
  • Zaroon
  • Zooey

A number of the above represent transferred usage of various English surnames — particularly those that contain words like “wood,” “good,” and “brook.”

Speaking of surnames (and surnames being used as first names), did you know that five U.S. presidents had OO-names? Weirdly, all five served during the first half of the 20th century:

  • Theodore Roosevelt (in office from 1901 to 1909)
  • Woodrow Wilson (1913 to 1921)
  • Calvin Coolidge (1923 to 1929)
  • Herbert Hoover (1929 to 1933)
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933 to 1945)

Which of all the OO names above to do you like most? (Can you think of any that I missed?) Let me know in the comments!

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Raton laveur commun (Procyon lotor) by Clément Bardot under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Interesting one-hit wonder names in the U.S. baby name data

single flower

They came, they went, and they never came back!

These baby names are one-hit wonders in the U.S. baby name data. That is, they’ve only popped up once, ever, in the entire dataset of U.S. baby names (which accounts for all names given to at least 5 U.S. babies per year since 1880).

There are thousands of one-hit wonders in the dataset, but the names below have interesting stories behind their single appearance, so these are the one-hits I’m writing specific posts about. Just click on a name to read more.

2020s

  • 2020: Jexi

2010s

2000s

1990s

1980s

1970s

1960s

1950s

1940s

1930s

1920s

1910s

1900s

  • (none yet)

1890s

As I discover (and write about) more one-hit wonders in the data, I’ll add the names/links to this page. In the meanwhile, do you have any favorite one-hit wonder baby names?

Image: Adapted from Solitary Poppy by Andy Beecroft under CC BY-SA 2.0.

[Latest update: Apr. 2024]

Popular baby names in the Netherlands, 2015

Flag of the Netherlands
Flag of the Netherlands

According to data from Sociale Verzekeringsbank (SVB), the most popular baby names in the Netherlands in 2015 were Emma and Liam.

Here are the Netherlands’ top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2015:

Baby Girl NamesBaby Boy Names
1. Emma
2. Julia
3. Sophie
4. Anna
5. Mila
6. Eva
7. Tess
8. Lotte
9. Sara
10. Zoë
1. Liam
2. Sem (a form of Shem)
3. Lucas
4. Luuk
5. Noah
6. Milan
7. Daan
8. Levi
9. Finn
10. Jesse

On the girls’ list, Lotte replaced Isa (which fell from 6th place to 20th).

On the boys’ list, Jesse replaced Bram (which fell from 2nd place to 13th).

Another significant mover of the boys’ list was Liam itself. Liam ranked 17th in 2013, then 9th in 2014, and finally 1st in 2015.

Other names bestowed last year in the Netherlands include Goodluck, Dikshit, Lovelace, Genius, Narbys-Lenay, Rooney, Amen, Islam, Jood, Godmother, Eh, and You.

The top names in 2014 were Sophie and Daan. In 2013, they were Tess and Sem.

Sources: Kindernamen top 20 – SVB, Emma and Liam are most popular Dutch kids names, but what about little Eh?

UPDATE, Nov. 2016: According to Amsterdam University researchers, who took combined spellings into account, the top names of 2015 were Sarah and Luuk. My source didn’t offer the researchers’ full top 10 lists, but here’s what I took from the article:

1. Sarah/Sara/Zara
2. Sophie/Sofie
3. Anne/Anna
4. Lisa/Lize/Lise/Liza

1. Luuk/Luc/Luke
2. Lucas/Lukas
[…]
10. Mohamed/Mohammed/Muhammed/Mohammad

Source: Sarah and Luuk are the most popular Dutch baby names, say university researchers

Image: Adapted from Flag of the Netherlands (public domain)

Where did the baby name Goodluck come from in 2010?

Nigerian politician Goodluck Jonathan.
Goodluck Jonathan

The unusual name Goodluck was a one-hit wonder in the U.S. baby name data in 2010:

  • 2012: unlisted
  • 2011: unlisted
  • 2010: 8 baby boys named Goodluck [debut]
  • 2009: unlisted
  • 2008: unlisted

Why?

Looks like the answer is Nigerian politics!

In May of 2010, Nigeria’s vice president, Goodluck Jonathan, became the 14th president of the country upon the death of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Goodluck served as president until 2015.

Interestingly, Goodluck’s wife, Patience, also has a name that comes from English vocabulary. :)

What are your thoughts on the auspicious-sounding baby name Goodluck?

Source: Goodluck Jonathan – Wikipedia