How popular is the baby name Grant 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 Grant.

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Popularity of the baby name Grant


Posts that mention the name Grant

Baby names needed: Boy and girl names for fraternal twins

A reader named Abby is expecting fraternal twins, a boy and a girl, in October. She and her husband already have a son named Leo Sebastian.

They’re aiming for vintage names (with kind of a quirky/British feel) that aren’t too popular. These are their favorites so far, top picks in italics.

 Boy NamesGirl Names
Her Picks:Edward (Teddy)
Henry
Jasper
Jude
Maxwell (Max)
Oliver		Alice
Elsa (Elsie)
Ivy
Juliet
Violet
His Picks:August (Auggie/Gus)
Dashiell (Dash)		Beatrix
Felicity
Matilda
Penelope (Nellie)
Ramona

Abby says, “He thinks mine are slightly boring, I think his are a tad too flamboyant.”

They’d like our opinions on two things:

  1. What other boy and girl names would we suggest?
  2. Out of the current favorites, what are the best pairings?

The twins’ surname will be similar to Waters.

Here are my thoughts…

1. First, name suggestions. Most of these names have a vintage feel, and none of are currently in the top 100 (though several are heading that way).

Boy NamesGirl Names
Archer
Byron
Calvin
Elias
Felix
Gideon
Graham
Grant
Heath
Hugh
Niles
Oscar
Pierce
Roman
Rufus
Seth
Silas
Simon
Theodore (Teddy)
Tobias		Adele/Adeline
Camille
Cecily
Celia
Corinne
Daphne
Eloise
Esme
Eugenia
Flora
Hazel
Helena
Iris
Jane
Josephine
Marion
Millicent (Millie)
Nicola
Rosamund
Stella

I didn’t include any w-names, but I was tempted to throw in Willa and Winifred (Winnie). Maybe even Wilhelmina (Minnie).

2. Out of the current favorites, Henry and Penelope are the two I like best for twins. I also like Maxwell and Beatrix (because both have that quirky x).

What other names/pairings would you suggest to Abby?

Baby name needed: Boy name that’s “strong, unusual”

Cassandra is expecting a baby boy in early June and she’d like some name suggestions.

She’s looking for “strong, unusual names” with one or two syllables. So far, Cassandra likes the name Fox and her partner prefers Aston. The baby’s surname will begin with an L and have one syllable. (Think Ladd.)

When I hear “strong,” I think of plosives (p, b, t, k, etc.). So I focused on short names with strong sounds that aren’t currently in the top 100. Here’s what I came up with:

Bennett
Brent
Brett
Brock
Cash
Chet
Clark
Colt
Corbin
Craig		Dane
Dax
Deacon
Drake
Duke
Emmett
Flint
Frank
Garrett
Grant		Gray
Holt
Jax
Jett
Kai
Keaton
King
Knox
Paxton
Pierce		Quinn
Rex
Rhett
Stone
Tate
Trent
Tucker
Victor
Zack
Zane

Which of the above do you like best? What other names would you suggest to Cassandra?

Update: The baby has arrived! Click here to see the name.

Dad’s computer algorithm spits out so-so baby name

Over the weekend, I read Renee Moilanen’s funny account of her husband attempting “a more mathematical approach to baby naming” after all other methods had failed.

First, he had us each write down names that appealed to us. Second, my husband categorized our choices using three different baby name books to determine that we wanted a timeless name in the “fitting in/standing out” genre. Next, he downloaded 200 years’ worth of historical baby name data from the Social Security Administration and loaded it into a geeky software program called Matlab.

Lastly – I swear I am not making this up – he created an algorithm to yield all of the timeless, fitting in/standing out and not-too-trendy names by weeding out names with big popularity spikes (goodbye Jennifer and Jason) and those currently in the top 100 of popularity.

(Have to be nitpicky for just a second — the SSA only has about 130 years’ worth of data, not 200 years’ worth.)

Sadly, after all that work, they didn’t find a name they loved.

[W]e picked a name off the list that we both could tolerate. We didn’t love it, and even now, we only half-joke about changing it. But the name seems like it suits our serious little engineer-in-training: Grant.

Undoubtedly, when Grant grows up, he’ll hate his name. But at the very least, he’ll have to appreciate his father’s dogged determination to find a quantifiably perfect name. My husband spent many long nights tweaking that algorithm and crunching data for a little guy he’d never met but loved just the same.

On the one hand, it’s a great story. I love that the husband actually set out to find a “quantifiably perfect name.”

On the other hand, the name they ended up with is one they “tolerate” and “half-joke about.” Hm.

What do you think — successful experiment?

Source: Who picks a name for a newborn without crunching the data first?

American men with presidential names

Over at the New York Times photojournalism blog Lens, Patrick Witty has just finished a series of blog posts about New York-area males with presidential names. In one of his posts, he says:

Some of the presidential doppelgängers I met over the past nine months were named to honor the great men who have occupied the Oval Office; others inherited the name from their fathers. Regardless, living with such a name can be a burden.

He was able to track down 11 men and one baby with the names Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, John F. Kennedy, Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge, Ulysses Grant, Abraham Lincoln, John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. Interesting stuff. (The photos are cool as well.)

P.S. Ever wonder how many presidents were named after family members?