How popular is the baby name Ikea 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 Ikea.

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Popularity of the baby name Ikea


Posts that mention the name Ikea

“Jeopardy!” contestant named after IKEA furniture

Contestant Niklas Berry on the TV game show "Jeopardy!" (Jul. 2023)
Niklas Berry on “Jeopardy!“

Last week, the TV game show Jeopardy! featured a contestant named Nik Berry.

After introducing Nik to the audience, Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings asked Nik about his name:

Nik Berry, a social studies teacher, comes to us from Baltimore. Now, I know a lot of Niks, but you might be the only one who’s named after — what?

Nik responded:

Well, my parents wanted an alternate spelling of Nicholas, so they went with n-i-k-l-a-s because, when they were shopping at IKEA before my birth, they saw a shelf called the Niklas.

Hundreds of U.S. babies have been named Ikea, but this is the first person I know of who was named with a specific piece of IKEA furniture in mind.

According to IKEA’s Norwegian-language Navnekatalogen (“Name Directory”), the Niklas shelf was introduced in 1981. Here’s what it looked like:

IKEA Niklas (1981)
“Never say no to a good book”

What are your thoughts on the name Niklas?

(And, did you know that a handful of U.S. babies have been named after Jeopardy contestants?)

Sources: Contestant Zone – Jeopardy.com, Jeopardy! tweet (20 Jul. 2023)

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]

Baby name story: Eden

We’ve seen English babies named for a bingo hall, a shoe store, a fish and chip shop, another fish and chip shop…and now we have one named after a shopping mall.

On October 9, Kim Leighton of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, gave birth outside her family’s flat, which is quite close to the Eden shopping centre. Close enough, in fact, that the birth was recorded on the mall’s CCTV cameras.

The baby girl was named Leanne Eden — middle name for the mall.

Source: Lucky it wasn’t Ikea! Mother names her baby after Eden shopping centre following surprise labour outside stores

P.S. I love how the title of the news story contains a quip about Ikea. The author must not know Ikea has been used as a baby name for decades now.

Where did the baby name Ikea come from in 1985?

IKEA store

In May of 2002, Linda Dagless of the UK welcomed her fourth baby girl. Inspired by an advertisement for the furniture company Ikea, she decided to name the baby Ikea.

The name was so unusual that it made headlines:

At the time, she told her local paper in Norwich: “I was pregnant, sitting on the sofa with my boyfriend and trying to think of a name for the little girl I was going to have when I noticed the Ikea advert.

“I saw the name Ikea and thought it would make a nice name for my baby.

“I have seen the Ikea adverts on the telly and in magazines and thought they always had nice furniture, but I’ve never been to the shop. I’m now planning to go there with my mum.

The name Ikea has been just as unusual in the U.S., at least over the last decade:

  • 2013: unlisted
  • 2012: 5 baby girls named Ikea
  • […]
  • 2007: 5 baby girls named Ikea
  • 2006: 8 baby girls named Ikea
  • 2005: 8 baby girls named Ikea
  • 2004: 7 baby girls named Ikea
  • 2003: 6 baby girls named Ikea
  • 2002: 6 baby girls named Ikea
  • 2001: unlisted
  • 2000: 6 baby girls named Ikea

If you go back a bit further, though, this is what you’ll see:

  • 1999: 14 baby girls named Ikea
  • 1998: 18 baby girls named Ikea
  • 1997: 20 baby girls named Ikea
  • 1996: 23 babies named Ikea
  • 1995: 29 baby girls named Ikea
  • 1994: 33 baby girls named Ikea
  • 1993: 31 baby girls named Ikea
  • 1992: 43 baby girls named Ikea
  • 1991: 45 baby girls named Ikea
  • 1990: 65 baby girls named Ikea
  • 1989: 72 baby girls and 9 baby boys named Ikea
  • 1988: 27 baby girls named Ikea
  • 1987: 44 baby girls named Ikea
  • 1986: 30 baby girls named Ikea
  • 1985: 35 baby girls named Ikea [debut]
  • 1984: unlisted

Nearly 600 babies in the U.S. have been named Ikea (and dozens more named Ikeia and other spelling variants) since the name first popped up on the SSA’s baby name list in 1985. This is the year the Swedish company — whose name is an acronym for Ingvar Kamprad (the founder), Elmtaryd (his childhood homestead), Agunnaryd (his hometown) — opened its first store in the U.S.

Even more interesting is the spread of the baby name Ikea across America, following Ikea store openings:

1985
First Ikea opens near Philadelphia, PA.
35 baby girls named Ikea: 25 in PA, 7 in NJ.

1986
Second Ikea opens near Washington, D.C. (in Virginia).
30 baby girls named Ikea: 10 in D.C., 9 in PA, 6 in VA.

1987
No new Ikea stores.
44 baby girls named Ikea: 12 in D.C., 9 in PA, 7 in NJ, 5 in MD.

1988
Third Ikea opens near Baltimore, MD.
27 baby girls named Ikea: 8 in MD, 6 in PA.

1989
Fourth Ikea opens near Pittsburgh, PA.
72 baby girls named Ikea: 19 in MD, 7 in NC, 6 in PA, 6 in MI.
9 baby boys named Ikea: 7 in D.C.

1990
Fifth and sixth Ikeas open near Los Angeles and new New York City (in New Jersey).
65 baby girls named Ikea: 14 in MD, 7 in LA, 7 in PA, 5 in NJ. (Ikea appears on the state lists for both California and New York during the ’90s.)

Usage of the baby name Ikea tapered off after 1990, perhaps because most Americans were aware that “Ikea” was the name of a furniture store by that point.

Have you ever met a person named Ikea?

Sources: A child called Ikea: Myth or reality?, The Store That Runs on a Wrench, How Ikea Became America’s Furniture-Selling Powerhouse
Image: Adapted from IKEA – Portland, Oregon by Kingofthedead under CC0 1.0.