How popular is the baby name Ida 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 Ida.

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Popularity of the baby name Ida


Posts that mention the name Ida

Popular baby names in Denmark, 2018

Flag of Denmark
Flag of Denmark

According to Statistics Denmark, the most popular baby names in the country in 2018 were (again) Ida and William.

Here are Denmark’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2018:

Girl Names

  1. Ida, 456 baby girls
  2. Emma, 453
  3. Alma, 437 (tie)
  4. Ella, 437 (tie)
  5. Sofia, 423
  6. Freja, 417
  7. Josefine, 411
  8. Clara, 395
  9. Anna, 377
  10. Karla, 357

Boy Names

  1. William, 600 baby boys
  2. Noah, 528
  3. Oscar, 506
  4. Lucas, 495
  5. Victor, 489
  6. Malthe, 482
  7. Oliver, 468
  8. Alfred, 467
  9. Carl, 463
  10. Valdemar, 400

On the girls’ list, Clara and Karla replaced Alberte and Agnes.

On the boys’ list, Valdemar replaced Emil.

Here are Denmark’s rankings for 2017.

Source: Names of Newborn Children – Statistics Denmark

Image: Adapted from Flag of Denmark (public domain)

Uniquely named passengers on the maiden voyage of the Titanic

RMS Titanic
RMS Titanic

On April 15, 1912 — several hours after striking an iceberg — the British ship RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean.

About 2,224 people (passengers and crew) were on board during what would have been the Titanic‘s maiden voyage across the ocean (from Southampton to New York City). More than 1,500 of these people perished.

As you’d expect, most of the people aboard had common names like William, Richard, Alice, and Ida. But some had more eye-catching names, such as…

Female namesMale names
Agda, Albina, Argene, Bannurah, Beila, Clear, Dollina, Hanora, Helmina, Hileni, Imanita, Jelka, Leontine, Lyyli, Malakah, Manca, Manta, Millvina*, Nur-al-Ayn, Shawneene†, Silanah, Tamini, Thamini, Torborg, Treasteall, Velin, Waika, Wendla, ZahieAdola, Antti, Bartol, Branko, Bulus, Cosmo, Einar, Escott, Fotio, Guentcho, Gerios, Halim, Haroutyun, Ilmari, Ingvald, Janko, Jirjis, Jovo, Juha, Juho, Kalle, Kanio, Kerim, Liudevit, Mansur, Mapri, Masabumi, Minko, Mirko, Mito, Nadjalko, Niqula, Pastcho, Peju, Pekka, Penko, Percival, Quigg, Raful, Redjo, Ristju, Rossmore, Saade, Sarkis, Shadrach, Sibley, Sinai, Sleiman, Stanko, Stanio, Stoytcho, Svend, Tannous, Tido, Toufik, Tyrell, Urho, Uscher, Valtcho, Viljo, Woolf, Wyckoff, Ylio, Yoto

The nationalities/languages represented above include Bulgarian, Croatian, Lebanese, Syrian, Turkish, Finnish, and Swedish.

*Millvina’s legal name was Elizabeth Gladys Dean. She was a 2-month-old at the time of the wreck and was the Titanic’s last survivor.

†Shawneene’s name is also given as Shaa’nineh. They’re both transliterated forms of the Arabic word for Palm Sunday, the day on which she was born in 1874 in Syria (now Lebanon).

Sources: Titanic Passenger List – Encyclopedia Titanica, Passengers of the Titanic – Wikipedia
Image: RMS Titanic by F. G. O. Stuart

Name change: Elda to Hedda

Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (1885-1966)
Hedda Hopper

Hedda Hopper was a gossip columnist who came to fame in the early 1940s (when she was in her 50s). But “Hedda Hopper” wasn’t her original name. It was Elda Furry.

She’d been a performer (both on stage and in the movies) as a young woman — long before she wrote for the newspapers. So it’s logical to assume that the name change happened around the time she embarked upon her showbiz career, right?

As it turns out, that wasn’t the case — she made the switch mid-career. Here’s the story:

Elda was working as a chorus girl for DeWolf Hopper’s theater company in the early 1910s…

[DeWolf Hopper] had had four marriages, and was five years older than Elda’s father, but was still a great charmer and anything but jaded. Hopper’s first four wives were named Ella, Ida, Edna and Nella, in that order, and Elda was a natural for the euphonious sequence. So, about a year after their first meeting, Hopper proposed on a train platform in Grand Central and that afternoon they were married in Wading River, N.J.

[…]

Elda shortly became aware of some rather piquant marital complications. Any man with five wives is likely to become confused and, when the wives have such similar names as the Hopper ladies, the situations becomes positively grotesque. Elda discovered that as often as not Hopper would whisper affectionately, “Dear Nella” (or Ella, Ida and Edna) instead of “Dear Elda.” The sensation of being continuously mistaken for someone else became irksome in time, and Elda forthwith visited a numerologist who recommended the name “Hedda.” From then on Hopper never got his lines crossed.

Her marriage to Hopper only lasted from 1913 until 1922, but she retained the name “Hedda Hopper” for the rest of her life.

It’s no coincidence that the usage of the baby name Hedda was highest during the 1940s. Records even reveal that one of the 1944 babies named Hedda was born into a Texas family with the surname Hopper.

Which name do you prefer, Elda or Hedda?

Source: Wickware, Francis Sill. “Hedda Hopper.” Life 20 Nov. 1944: 63-70.

Popular baby names in Denmark, 2017

Flag of Denmark
Flag of Denmark

According to data released by Statistics Denmark, the most popular baby names in the country in 2017 were Ida and William.

Here are Denmark’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2017:

Girl Names
1. Ida, 486 baby girls
2. Emma, 471
3. Sofia, 464
4. Ella, 413
5. Freja, 411
6. Josefine, 406
7. Alma, 389
8. Alberte, 388
9. Anna, 386
10. Agnes, 367

Boy Names
1. William, 565 baby boys
2. Noah, 495
3. Oscar, 486
4. Lucas, 475
5. Carl, 473
6. Victor, 455
7. Oliver, 455
8. Alfred, 444
9. Malthe, 439
10. Emil, 434

On the girls’ list, Ida replaced Sofia as the #1 name, and Josefine and Agnes replaced Clara and Laura in the top 10.

On the boys’ list, William replaced Noah as the #1 name, but the names in the top 10 overall remained the same.

Here are Denmark’s 2016 rankings.

Source: Names of newborn children – Statistics Denmark

Image: Adapted from Flag of Denmark (public domain)