How popular is the baby name Harnaaz 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 Harnaaz.

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Popularity of the baby name Harnaaz


Posts that mention the name Harnaaz

Baby named for Miss Universe, becomes Miss Universe contestant

Chelsi Shikongo at the Miss Universe pageant
Chelsi Shikongo

While doing research for yesterday’s post about Chelsi Smith, I came across another beauty queen with the same first name: Chelsi Shikongo.

Chelsi Tashaleen Shikongo was born in Namibia in 1998, and was indeed named after Chelsi Smith, the American who’d won the Miss Universe pageant in Namibia three years earlier.

Shikongo went on to win the title of Miss Namibia 2021, and to represent Namibia at the Miss Universe pageant (which was ultimately won by Harnaaz Sandhu of India). Though Shikongo wasn’t chosen as a finalist, the red dress she wore during the preliminary evening gown competition was inspired by the one that Smith had been wearing when she’d won the crown decades earlier.

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of the TV broadcast of the 70th Miss Universe pageant

What gave the baby name Harnaaz a boost in 2022?

Harnaaz Sandhu, Miss Universe 2021
Harnaaz Sandhu

According to the U.S. baby name data, the uncommon name Harnaaz jumped to peak usage in 2022:

  • 2023: 24 baby girls named Harnaaz
    • 10 born in California
  • 2022: 27 baby girls named Harnaaz
    • 12 born in California
  • 2021: 6 baby girls named Harnaaz
  • 2020: 5 baby girls named Harnaaz
  • 2019: unlisted

It was also one of the fastest-rising girl names in Canada that year.

Why?

Because of Indian beauty queen Harnaaz Sandhu, who was crowned Miss Universe in Eilat, Israel, in December of 2021.

Notably, she was the first Sikh woman to win the title, and it’s likely that most of her namesakes were born into Sikh families. More than half of the roughly 280,000 Sikhs in the U.S. live in California specifically, and Canada is home to more than 770,000 Sikhs — the largest Sikh population outside of India.

What does her name mean? Her mother defined it as “everyone’s pride.”

We named her Harnaaz as she is the first and the last daughter in our extended Jat Sikh family. She has 17 brothers in the extended family. Today she has made the entire country proud.

Indeed, her name is made up of two elements, har and naaz, which are Hindi words meaning “each, every” and “pride.”

What are your thoughts on the name Harnaaz?

P.S. In her immediate family, Harnaaz Sandhu has a single brother, Harnoor. The noor element in his name means “light.”

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of the TV broadcast of the 70th Miss Universe pageant

Girl names that end with a Z-sound

Girl names that end with a Z-sound

In the U.S., most of the names given to baby girls end with a vowel sound. And many of the remaining names end with an N-sound.

So, what about girl names that end with other sounds?

Below is a selection of girl names that end with a Z-sound, regardless of last letter. The names are ordered by current popularity.

Eloise
An English form of the French name Héloïse, which may be derived from a Germanic name made up of elements meaning “healthy, whole” and “wide.” Here’s the popularity graph for Eloise.

Rose
From the type of flower. Here’s the popularity graph for Rose.

Collins
From the surname, which has various possible derivations. Here’s the popularity graph for Collins.

Liz
A nickname for Elizabeth. Here’s the popularity graph for Liz.

Inez
An English form of the Spanish name Inés. Here’s the popularity graph for Inez.

Aries
From the zodiacical constellation (whose name means “ram” in Latin). Here’s the popularity graph for Aries.

Hayes
From the surname, which has various possible derivations. Here’s the popularity graph for Hayes.

Primrose
From the type of flower. Here’s the popularity graph for Primrose.

Praise
From the English vocabulary word. Here’s the popularity graph for Praise.

Blaise
The French form of the Roman name Blasius, meaning “lisping.” Here’s the popularity graph for Blaise.

Melrose
From the Scottish surname, which is derived from a place name made up of elements meaning “bare” and “moor.” Here’s the popularity graph for Melrose.

Rivers
A variant of the English surname River, which has several possible derivations. Here’s the popularity graph for Rivers.

Jewels
A form of the name Jules influenced by the English word jewel. Here’s the popularity graph for Jewels.

Rawlings
A variant of the English surname Rawling, which is derived from the name Raul. Here’s the popularity graph for Rawlings.

Harnaaz
A Hindi name made up of elements meaning “every” and “pride.” Here’s the popularity graph for Harnaaz.


Less-common girl names that end with a Z-sound include Mills, Rhodes, Jazz, Ceres, Mumtaz, Rollins, and Turquoise.

Which of the above do you like most? What others can you think of?

P.S. Here are lists of girl names that end with D-, K-, L-, M-, R-, S-, T-, and V-sounds.

Sources: SSA, Behind the Name, Aries – Wiktionary

Girl names on the rise in Canada in 2022

hot air balloons

Which names were the trendiest among baby girls in Canada last year?

Below you’ll find Canada’s fastest-rising and highest-debuting girl names of 2022.

Before we get to the names, though, please note that rises and debuts in the Canadian data aren’t going to be directly comparable to rises and debuts in the U.S. data, because Canada releases much less data than the U.S. does. Canada’s data only goes back to 1991, and only goes down to names given to five more more babies per gender, per year.

(The U.S. baby name data does have a similar 5-baby threshold for inclusion, but the U.S. is nearly nine times larger than Canada in terms of population. To make the cut-offs equivalent, you’d have to increase the U.S. number to something like 45 babies.)

Ok, now that that’s out of the way…

Rises (absolute)

Here are the girl names that saw the biggest increases in usage in terms of absolute change (numbers of babies) from 2021 to 2022:

  1. Millie, rose from 153 to 208 baby girls (+55)
  2. Wren, 233 to 281 (+48) [tie]
  3. Lily, 813 to 861 (+48) [tie]
  4. Ajooni, 53 to 95 (+42)
  5. Selena, 154 to 195 (+41) [3-way tie]
  6. Myla, 163 to 204 (+41) [3-way tie]
  7. Eloise, 324 to 365 (+41) [3-way tie]

Ajooni may have been influenced by the Hindi-language soap opera Ajooni, which aired from mid-2022 to mid-2023 on the Disney-owned TV channel Star Bharat.

Rises (relative)

Here are the girl names that saw the biggest increases in usage in terms of relative change (percentages of babies) from 2021 to 2022:

  1. Harnaaz, rose from 11 to 49 baby girls (345% increase)
  2. Anabia, 8 to 29 (263%)
  3. Lindsey, 6 to 21 (250%) [tie]
  4. Raunak, 6 to 21 (250%) [tie]
  5. Rya, 5 to 17 (240%)

Harnaaz, which was also one of the fast-rising girl names in the U.S. last year, was influenced by beauty queen Harnaaz Sandhu of India. She was crowned Miss Universe in December of 2021.

Debuts

Finally, here are the girl names that debuted most impressively in Canada’s baby name data in 2022:

  1. Cirilla, 17 baby girls
  2. Halston, 13
  3. Hiraya, 12
  4. Wrenlee, 11 [tie]
  5. Ozzy, 11 [tie]

Cirilla was no doubt inspired by the character Princess Cirilla from The Witcher, which began as a series of fantasy novels, but has since been made into a Netflix series (among other things). Cirilla debuted in the U.S. data in 2016 with about the same number of babies, interestingly.

Other girl-name debuts included Laramie (6), Peach (6), Winslet (6), and Valley (5).

And, just in case you’re curious about the decreases, Canada’s fastest-falling girl names in terms of absolute change were Olivia, Ava, and Emma, and in terms of relative change were Tiaraoluwa, Addisyn, and Kaila.

Sources: First names at birth by sex at birth, selected indicators (Number) – Statistics Canada, Baby Names Observatory – Statistics Canada

Image: Adapted from Turkey-2036 by Dennis Jarvis under CC BY-SA 2.0.