How popular is the baby name Iuma 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 Iuma.

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Popularity of the baby name Iuma


Posts that mention the name Iuma

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

  • (none yet)

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: Dec. 2023]

Where did the name Ariba come from?

Graph of the usage of the baby name Ariba in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Ariba

As far as I know, the first internet- or tech-related baby name to debut on the U.S. charts was Iuma, which appeared in 2000 thanks to a baby name contest put on by the now-defunct Internet Underground Music Archive.

…But am I overlooking Ariba?

Like Iuma, the baby name Ariba debuted in 2000, then dropped off the list again in 2001:

  • 2004: 10 baby girls named Ariba
  • 2003: 7 baby girls named Ariba
  • 2002: 8 baby girls named Ariba
  • 2001: unlisted
  • 2000: 11 baby girls named Ariba [debut]
  • 1999: unlisted

Ariba may have simply been a variant spelling of the Muslim name Areeba, which started appearing in the data in the mid-1990s. The names Areebah and Aribah also debuted in the early 2000s, for instance.

On the other hand, it may have been inspired by California software company Ariba, which was making headlines around that time. The B2B company had an impressive IPO in mid-1999, and the stock price surged during 2000. (“Ariba Executes Marketplace Magic” declared The Motley Fool in July.)

Of the hundreds of technology/internet companies (WedMD, Red Hat, Priceline, iVillage, NaviSite, etc.) that went public around the same time, Ariba was one of the few with a name that sounded even remotely human.

But the stock crashed in mid-2001 with the bursting of the dot-com bubble.

What do you think: Did Ariba debut — and then drop off the list just as suddenly — thanks to tech news/hype, or were those 11 Aribas bound to show up in the data regardless due to prevailing trends?

Sources: Twitter’s Up 75%? Bah, That’s Nothing Compared With 1999, Ariba’s next big challenge: managing hypergrowth

For-profit baby names

California mom-to-be Natasha Hill — the woman who was supposed to be getting $5,000 for allowing strangers to name her unborn baby via the site Belly Ballot — isn’t really pregnant. She isn’t even really named “Natasha Hill.”

Her name is Natasha Lloyd, and she’s an actress who was hired by the website’s founder to help drum up publicity.

Yep — the whole thing was a hoax. The folks at Today.com were the ones to figure it out:

When TODAY Moms first reported on the contest, some readers were incredulous; they couldn’t believe a real mom would do such a thing. Now it appears they were right.

Except…they weren’t. Several “real moms” (and dads) have indeed done such a thing. Here are all the for-profit baby names (and attempts) I know of:

*I never blogged about these three, so here are the details:

  • In 2001, Jason Black and Frances Schroeder of New York tried to auction off the name of the their third child (first son) via Yahoo and eBay. They were aiming for a corporate sponsor, so the bidding started at $500,000. No one bid. They ended up naming the baby Zane Black.
  • In 2002, Bob and Tracy Armstrong from Florida tried to auction off the name of their baby (gender unknown) via eBay. After eBay pulled the auction for the third time, they decided not to try again.
  • In 2002, Heather and Steve Johnston of Washington state tried to auction off the name of their baby boy via eBay. The bidding started at $250,000. I found no follow-up stories, so I imagine the auction was either pulled or unsuccessful.

Video games on one end, $15,000 on the other…such wildly different values placed on baby names. Kinda fascinating, isn’t it?

Sources: $5,000 online baby-name contest revealed as hoax, Mom crowdsources baby name for $5,000

Image: Adapted from $20 Federal Reserve Bank Note (1929) (public domain)

[Latest update: March 2022]

10 Technology-inspired baby names like “Like”

Facebook "Like"

A few months ago, PCWorld published a list of 10 tech-inspired baby names better than Like.

I thought I’d compile a similar list, but go in the opposite direction. So below are ten real-life, headline-grabbing, tech-inspired names just like Like.

Starting, of course, with Like:

Like

An Israeli baby girl was named Like after the Facebook “Like Button” in 2011. (Go like baby Like, if you like!)

Facebook

A Egyptian baby girl was named Facebook after the social networking site Facebook in 2011.

Google

A Swedish baby boy was named Google after the search engine Google in 2005.

[I’ve never blogged about this one before, surprisingly. Oliver Google Kai was born on September 12, 2005, in Kalmar, Sweden, to Dr. Walid Elias Kai (who is Lebanese) and his wife Carol (who is Swedish). Google’s response: “We wish him long life and good health, and hope his schoolmates aren’t too hard on him.”]

@

A Chinese baby boy was possibly named @ after the “at” symbol found in e-mail addresses in 2007. (The name may or may not have been approved by the Chinese government.)

Vista

A Canadian baby girl was named Vista after the Windows Vista operating system in 2007.

2.0

An American baby boy was named Jon Blake Cusack 2.0 — 2.0 in place of a more traditional suffix, like II or Jr. — in 2004.

Annanova

A Dutch baby girl was named Annanova after virtual newscaster Ananova in 2000.

Iuma

A handful of babies from various countries were named Iuma as part of the Internet Underground Music Archive (IUMA) baby naming contest in 2000.

Linux

The name Linux debuted in the U.S. baby name data in the early 2010s.

Dovahkiin

An American baby boy was named Dovahkiin after a video game character just a few days ago. (Other video game baby names include Zelda and Rinoa)

For less-crazy tech-inspired names, try PCWorld’s list, or try my namestorms for internet lovers and/or computer lovers.

Update, 1/2014: Here’s another tech-related name — an American baby girl has been named Tali’Zorah after a video game character.