How popular is the baby name Irene 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 Irene.

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Popularity of the baby name Irene


Posts that mention the name Irene

Baby name story: Alexandra Naldera

George and Mary Curzon (in 1903)
George and Mary Curzon (in 1903)

British statesman George Curzon and his first wife, American heiress Mary Leiter, were married in 1895. They had a total of three children, all girls.

The first two were named Mary Irene (b. 1896) and Cynthia Blanche (b. 1898).

The third — born in early 1904, while George was serving as Viceroy of India — was named Alexandra Naldera.

Why?

Her first name honored her godmother, Queen Alexandra, and her middle name came from the Indian hill station of Naldera, which is where she was conceived in mid-1903.

Naldera — located about 20 miles away from the city of Shimla, the summer capital of British India — was where George and Mary “would withdraw for a respite from official duties, where Mary could rest and Curzon could work out of doors.”

The settlement’s name (now spelled Naldehra) was likely derived from the term Nag Devta, meaning “serpent deity” — a nod to the local Naga temple.

Sources:

Image: George Curzon with his wife posing with a hunted Bengal tiger, 1903

Minnesota family with 22 children

kinderfest

In the mid-20th century, Alvin Joseph Miller and Lucille Rose Miller (née Kahnke) of Waseca, Minnesota, had 22 children — 15 girls and 7 boys.

Here are the names of all 22 siblings:

  1. Ramona Mary (born in 1940), who became a Franciscan nun
  2. Alvin Joseph, Jr. (b. 1942)
  3. Rose Ann (b. 1943)
  4. Kathleen Edith (b. 1945)
  5. Robert Vincent (b. 1946)
  6. Patricia Jean (b. 1947)
  7. Mary Lucille (b. 1948), nicknamed “Marylu”
  8. Diane Margaret (b. 1949)
  9. John Charles (b. 1950)
  10. Janet Irene (b. 1951)
  11. Linda Louise (b. 1953)
  12. Virginia Therese (b. 1954)
  13. Helen Rita (b. 1955), who wrote a book about growing up in a large family
  14. Arthur Lawrence (b. 1956)
  15. Dolores Maria (b. 1957)
  16. Martin Peter (b. 1959)
  17. Pauline Carmel (b. 1960)
  18. Alice Callista (b. 1961)
  19. Angela Mary (b. 1962)
  20. Marcia Marie (b. 1963)
  21. Gregory Eugene (b. 1964)
  22. Damien Francis (b. 1966)

Eight of the children had been born by April of 1950, when the Miller family was interviewed for the U.S. Census:

The Miller family on the 1950 U.S. Census
The Miller family (1950 U.S. Census)

Alvin and Lucille raised their children on a 300-acre farm that included a seven-bedroom farmhouse. Here’s how Diane (#8) described her childhood:

I remember a lot of rides in the wheelbarrow from the granary to the barn. I remember a lot of grinding feed, a lot of egg washing and packing, a lot of sitting by the wood stove in the basement, singing songs as we candled eggs.

Which of the names above do you like most?

P.S. Thank you to Destiny for letting me know about the Miller family a few months ago! (Destiny also told me about the Jones family of West Virginia.)

Sources:

Image: Ein Kinderfest (1868) by Ludwig Knaus

What gave the baby name Dorinda a boost in 1944?

The character Dorinda from the movie "A Guy Named Joe" (1943)
Dorinda from “A Guy Named Joe

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Dorinda saw a sharp spike in usage in the mid-1940s:

  • 1946: 72 baby girls named Dorinda [rank: 989th]
  • 1945: 81 baby girls named Dorinda [rank: 841st]
  • 1944: 147 baby girls named Dorinda [rank: 607th]
  • 1943: 22 baby girls named Dorinda
  • 1942: 24 baby girls named Dorinda

It was the fastest-rising baby name of 1944, in fact.

Several Dorinda-like names got a boost around that time as well:

194319441945
Drenda.50†37
Drinda.22*20
Dorenda.11*5
Darenda.9*.
Derinda.7*6
Dirinda.7*.
Durinda.7*6
Derenda.7*6
Darinda..6*
*Debut, †Peak usage

(Dirinda was a one-hit wonder.)

The name Dorinda would have sounded fashionable in the 1940s — a decade during which names like Linda, Brenda, Glenda, and Wanda ranked inside the girls’ top 100. But its sudden trendiness can be traced back to a specific influence: a movie character.

The romance/fantasy film A Guy Named Joe (which did not feature any characters named Joe, incidentally) was released in March of 1944. It went on to become one of the highest-grossing films of the year.

The main character was WWII bomber pilot Pete Sandridge (played by Spencer Tracy). After being killed in action — and leaving behind his girlfriend Dorinda (played by Irene Dunne) — he found himself in the afterlife, where he was told to return to Earth as a guardian angel. His first assignment was a young military pilot named Ted (played by Van Johnson). Eventually, Ted happened to meet, and fall for, a grieving Dorinda — which made things complicated for Pete.

What are your thoughts on the name Dorinda? Would you use it?

Sources: A Guy Named Joe – Wikipedia, A Guy Named Joe (1944) – Turner Classic Movies, 1944 in film – Wikipedia, SSA

Image: Screenshot of A Guy Named Joe

Popular baby names in Gibraltar, 2023

Flag of Gibraltar
Flag of Gibraltar

The British overseas territory of Gibraltar — located at the southern tip of Europe’s Iberian Peninsula, just a few miles away from Northern Africa — is home to roughly 32,700 people

Last year, Gibraltar welcomed 319 babies — 149 baby girls, and 170 baby boys. (My source article said the final tally was 318, but the full list [PDF] included an extra name.)

What were the most popular names among these babies? Ava/Lucia (tie) and Luca.

Here are Gibraltar’s top girl names and top boy names of 2023:

Girl names

  1. Ava and Lucia, 4 baby girls each (tie)
  2. Evie, Lily, Olivia, and Sienna, 3 each (4-way tie)
  3. Alba, Arabella, Brielle, Emma, Esme, Indie, Lena, Luna, Madison, Mia, Noa, Sofia, Sophia, Sophie, Talia, and Valentina, 2 each (16-way tie)

Boy names

  1. Luca, 5 baby boys
  2. Jack, Leon, and Liam, 4 each (3-way tie)
  3. James, Noah, Theo, and William, 3 each (4-way tie)
  4. Aiden, Alexander, Axel, Daniel, Dylan, Evan, Hugo, Jackson, Jake, Joey, Julian, Karim, Leo, Leonardo, Lucas, Matthew, Michael, Mohamed, Rafael, Robin, and Ryan, 2 each (21-way tie)

The rest of the names were each bestowed once. (Except for Reign, which was bestowed twice overall — once for each gender.)

Unique girl names (97)Unique boy names (99)
Aasiyah, Abigail, Adrianna, Alexandra, Alma, Amelia, Amiah, Anastasia, Anoushka, Anya, Aria, Arianna, Arianne, Arna, Avery, Bassma, Blossom, Carla, Charlotte, Chloe, Cole, Cora, Daisy, Daniella, Deborah, Devorah, Eadie, Eleanor, Elena, Eliana, Elie, Ella, Elodie, Elouisa, Elsie, Emilia, Emilie, Emily, Faith, Farah, Gia, Giselle, Grace, Gracie-Rae, Hallie, Hannah, Holly, Irene, Isabella, Isadora, Jawhara, Joudia, Julietta, Kaila, Kylie, Layan, Lia, Lilijana, Lilya, Lorena, Lucie, Lucy, Luella, Maram, Matilda, Maya, Mila, Miral, Molly, Niah, Niv, Nora, Nylah, Ottilie, Paige, Penelope, Reign, Rhea, Ria, Riley-Mae, Rina, Rivka, Ruth, Sabrina, Sage, Sara, Scarlett, Sia, Skye, Souhaila, Sydney, Tania, Teresa, Tillia, Vivienne, Yashu, ZainabAaron, Adonis, Alejandro, Alfei, Anthon, Aries, Ashton, August, Ayaan, Ayman, Brooke, Caleb, Charles, Christian, Cody, Colby, Cory, Elai, Eliyahu, Elliott, Eneko, Eoin, Etienne, Evren, Ezio, Finley, Frederick, Gino, Godred, Grayson, Harvey, Hayden, Hiyaan, Ilan, Indra, Jai, Jamie, Jayce, Jayme, Jesse, Johar, Joseph, Joshua, Jovan, Justin, Kai, Keenan, Kobe, Koen, Laurence, Lawson, Lee, Logan, Louay, Louie, Luke, Mael, Mason, Matteo, Max, Milan, Musa, Nasir, Nate, Nathan, Nathaniel, Nial, Nicholas, Nicolas, Nikolai, Nolan, Nyle, Oliver, Ori, Owen, Ramy, Raphael, Ray, Refael, Reign, Rex, Rian, Ricardo, River, Romeo, Roux, Ruben, Rylee, Salman, Sam, Samuel, Scott, Stefan, Theodore, Thiago, Yaakov, Yisroel, Zachary, Ziggy

Finally, here are Gibraltar’s 2022 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Flag of Gibraltar (public domain)