How popular is the baby name Jefferson in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Find out using the graph below! Plus, check out all the blog posts that mention the name Jefferson.

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Popularity of the Baby Name Jefferson


Posts that Mention the Name Jefferson

Babies named for Napoléon Bonaparte

Portrait of French Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821)
Napoléon Bonaparte (circa 1812)

French military leader Napoléon Bonaparte may have spent his life trying to conquer a continent, but that life began and ended on islands.

He was born (as “Napoleone Buonaparte”) on the Mediterranean island of Corsica in 1769 — the same year that France took Corsica from the Republic of Genoa (now part of Italy). He died while in exile on the remote South Atlantic island of Saint Helena in 1821.

In between, Napoléon: attended military school on the mainland, began serving in the French Army, rose to prominence during the French Revolution and the French Revolutionary Wars, became the de facto leader of France in 1799, declared himself Emperor in 1804, and proceeded to build a vast empire via the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815).

Needless to say, a large number of babies all over the world have been named “Napoleon” since that time.

I don’t want this post to get too crazy, though, so I’ve decided to collect namesakes from just two locations — France and the U.S. — and to stick to the years during which Napoléon was active.

Portrait of First Consul Napoléon Bonaparte (1769-1821)
Napoléon Bonaparte (circa 1803)

Napoléon’s namesakes in France

Thousands of French babies were named in honor of Napoléon from the mid-1790s to the mid-1810s.

In contrast with namesakes in other countries (like the U.S. and England), most of his French namesakes were given only his first name — not both names — and it was typically combined with one or more traditional French names (e.g., “Louis Napoléon,” “Jean Baptiste Napoléon”).

With that in mind, I went out of my way to find combinations that were a bit more varied…

  • Napoléon Baillot, b. 1793 in France
  • Jacques Napoléon Desiré Campa, b. 1795 in France
  • Napoléon Stéphanie Joseph Therin, b. 1797 in France
  • Napoléon Joseph Buttin, b. 1799 in France
  • Napoléon-Jean Demeester, b. 1800 in France
  • Napoléon Nicolas Senelar, b. 1801 in France
  • Guillaume Napoléon Pelletier, b. 1802 in France
  • Willebrod Napoléon Désiré Degrave, b. 1803 in France
  • Charlemagne Napoléon Lambert, b. 1804 in France
  • Napoléon Louis François Richounne, b. 1805 in France
  • Napoléon Parfait Furpille, b. 1806 in France
    • parfait means “perfect” in French
  • Bienaimé Napoléon Le Cagneux, b. 1807 in France
    • bienaimé means “beloved” in French
  • François Desiré Prosper Napoléon Loiseau, b. 1808 in France
  • Napoléon La Paix Lemasson, b. 1809 in France
    • la paix means “peace” in French
  • Gustave Napoléon Fichet, b. 1810 in France
  • Esprit Napoléon Houdry, b. 1811 in France
    • esprit means “spirit” in French
  • Napoléon Bonaventure Dusautier, b. 1812 in France
  • Auguste César Napoléon Decoene, b. 1813 in France
  • Napoléon-Etienne Vernoni, b. 1814 in France
  • Fructueux Napoléon Artigue, b. 1815 in France
    • fructueux means “successful” in French

Almost all of the namesakes in this group were boys, but a handful were girls with feminized forms of the name (like Napoléonne, Napoléonide, and Napoléontine).

Several dozen more boys — most of them born early on — were given only the surname:

  • Jacques Dominique Bonaparte Venkirch, b. 1796 in France
  • Augustin Bonaparte Joseph Galle, b. 1797 in France
  • Jean Baptiste Bonaparte Mollard, b. 1798 in France
  • Séraphin Adolphe Bonaparte Decorne, b. 1799 in France
  • Alexis Sébastien Bonaparte Poirée, b. 1801 in France

Napoléon had usually been called “General Bonaparte” or “citizen Bonaparte” before mid-1802, when the people of France went to the polls to decide: “Should Napoléon Bonaparte be consul for life?” Millions voted yes, and, after that, “he was generally known as Napoléon rather than Bonaparte.”

Napoléon’s namesakes in the U.S.

Napoléon didn’t wage any wars on North American soil (though he did sell a lot of that soil in 1803, when he let go of the Louisiana Territory for $15 million). Nonetheless, U.S. newspapers paid close attention to him:

French plebiscite mentioned in U.S. newspaper (July, 1802)
The “consul for life” vote mentioned in a Virginia newspaper, 1802

Americans were clearly impressed by Napoléon’s achievements, judging by the hundreds of U.S. namesakes born in the late 1790s and first decades of the 1800s. Many of these babies received both his first name and his surname:

Others were given only his first name:

And a good number simply got his surname:

  • Buonapart Manly Towler, b. 1796 in New York
  • Buonaparte Bennett, b. 1797 in Maryland
  • Buonaparte Mann, b. 1798 in Rhode Island
  • William Bonaparte Wood, b. 1799 in Massachusetts
  • Charles Bonapart Hunt, b. 1800 in Maine
  • George Washington Bonaparte Towns, b. 1801 in Georgia
  • Louis Bonaparte Chamberlain, b. 1802, probably in Mississippi
  • Lucion Bonaparte Keith, b. 1803 in Massachusetts
  • Consul Bonaparte Cutter, b. 1804 in Massachusetts
    • Napoléon Bonaparte served as Premier consul from 1799 to 1804
  • John Bonaparte Dixon, b. 1805 in North Carolina
  • Erastus Bonaparte White, b. circa 1806 in Rhode Island
  • Socrates Bonaparte Bacon, b. 1807 in Massachusetts
  • Bonaparte Crabb, b. 1808 in Tennessee
  • Madison Bonaparte Miller, b. 1809 in Vermont
    • James Madison served as 4th U.S. president from 1809 to 1817
  • Bonaparte Hopping, b. 1810 in New Jersey
  • Israel Bonaparte Bigelow, b. 1811 in Connecticut
  • Joseph Bonaparte Earhart, b. 1812 in Pennsylvania
  • Ampter Bonaparte Otto, b. 1813 in New York
  • William Bonaparte Steen, b. 1814 in South Carolina
  • Leonard Bonaparte Williams, b. 1815 in Virginia

A few of the people named Bonaparte (but not Napoléon) did have other given names — like Lucien, and Jerome — that could have been inspired by other members of the Bonaparte family. I found a Josephine Bonaparte Evans (b. 1815), for instance, who was probably named after Napoléon’s first wife.

Another of the relatively few females in this group was Federal Anne Buonapart Gist (b. 1799), the daughter of Joshua Gist, who served in the Maryland Militia during the Revolutionary War.

Defining “Napoléon” and “Bonaparte”

Other famous men named Napoléon Bonaparte (including Napoleon III) also had namesakes, but it was the original Napoléon Bonaparte who put these two unusual names on the map.

So…what do they mean?

The Italian forename Napoleone has obscure origins, so the meaning isn’t known for certain. One popular theory is that it’s made up of the elements Neapolis, the original name of Naples, and leone, meaning “lion.” When Bonaparte was born in 1769, the name was “relatively common around Genoa and Tuscany,” though it was spelled a variety of ways (e.g., Nabulio, Nabulione, Napulione, Napolionne, Lapulion). The name had been used in his family before; his father’s uncle, for instance, was also named Napoleone.

The Italian surname Buonaparte, on the other hand, is much more straightforward: it’s made up of the elements buona, meaning “good,” and parte, meaning “part, share, portion.”

Was anyone in your family tree named after Napoléon?

Sources:

The Lamar family of Georgia

Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar I (b. 1797)
Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar I

John and Rebecca Lamar married in the mid-1790s and lived on a 1,000-acre cotton plantation near Milledgeville, Georgia. They welcomed a total of nine children, four sons and five daughters, whose names were…

  1. Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus (b. 1797)
  2. Mirabeau Buonaparte (b. 1798)
  3. Thomas Randolph (b. 1800)
  4. Evalina (b. 1803)
  5. Jefferson Jackson (b. 1804)
  6. Amelia (b. 1807)
  7. Louisa Elizabeth (b. 1807)
  8. Mary Ann (b. 1814)
  9. Loretto Rebecca (b. 1818)

The boys were named by their paternal uncle, Zachariah — a self-taught bachelor who also lived on the plantation and who,

like many of the men in the old plantation times, gave himself up to the ideal world of literature and history […] So when son after son was born to the head of the house this bookish enthusiast claimed the privilege of naming his infant nephews after his favorite of the moment, and the amiable and doubtless amused parents consented. Thus Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus, Mirabeau Buonparte, Jefferson Jackson, Thomas Randolph, and Lavoisier Legrand (a grandchild) indicate how his interest shifted from history to politics, and from politics to chemistry.

Oldest son Lucius (named for Roman statesman Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus) went on to become a judge. Two of his own sons — Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II and Jefferson Mirabeau Lamar — had careers in law as well. In fact, Lucius II served on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1888 to 1893.

Second son Mirabeau (named for the Comte de Mirabeau and Napoleon) also went into law initially. Later he got into politics, and ended up becoming the second president of the Republic of Texas. (He was also the first vice president, under Sam Houston.)

I couldn’t find anyone in the family’s third generation named “Lavoisier Legrand,” but one of Mary’s sons was named Lucius Lavoisier (middle name in honor of French chemist Antoine Lavoisier).

Sources:

Numerology & baby names: Number 8

Baby names with a numerological value of 8

Here are hundreds of baby names that have a numerological value of “8.”

I’ve sub-categorized them by overall totals, because I think that some of the intermediate numbers could have special significance to people as well.

Within each group, I’ve listed up to ten of the most popular “8” names per gender (according to the current U.S. rankings).

Beneath all the names are some ways you could interpret the numerological value of “8,” including descriptions from two different numerological systems.

8

The following baby names add up to 8.

  • “8” girl names: Bea
  • “8” boy names: Abe

8 via 17

The following baby names add up to 17, which reduces to eight (1+7=8).

  • “17” girl names: Gia, Bo, Afia, Abida, Aana, Adiba, Cala, Kada, Beia
  • “17” boy names: Bo, Mac, Cam, Md, Jeb, Adeeb, Ibaad, Abie, Aabid, Ege

8 via 26

The following baby names add up to 26, which reduces to eight (2+6=8).

  • “26” girl names: Leah, Maci, Jana, Pia, Aahana, Brea, Dua, Gema, Cami, Anja
  • “26” boy names: Eli, Bode, Bear, Obed, Eben, Adil, Asaad, Mica, Baer, Mega

8 via 35

The following baby names add up to 35, which reduces to eight (3+5=8).

  • “35” girl names: Mila, Clara, Laila, Heidi, Alicia, Dahlia, Cadence, Hadlee, Carla, Cleo
  • “35” boy names: Liam, Cole, Eric, Jax, Kaden, Edgar, Jase, Abram, Kian, Makai

8 via 44

The following baby names add up to 44, which reduces to eight (4+4=8).

  • “44” girl names: Ariana, Faith, Hope, Keira, Helen, Jenna, Opal, Anais, Kiera, Erika
  • “44” boy names: Kaiden, Jayce, Abraham, Judah, Brian, Dante, Andy, Allen, Braden, Ray

8 via 53

The following baby names add up to 53, which reduces to eight (5+3=8).

  • “53” girl names: Julia, Eliza, Samara, Laura, Chelsea, Kendra, Reign, Rosa, Livia, Kori
  • “53” boy names: Gavin, Bryce, Kyle, Archer, Colin, Atlas, Khalil, Keith, Saul, Kamari

8 via 62

The following baby names add up to 62, which reduces to eight (6+2=8).

  • “62” girl names: Natalie, Leilani, Kylie, Sienna, Georgia, Arielle, Ariyah, Jordan, Danielle, Serena
  • “62” boy names: Mason, Josiah, Jordan, Ronan, Adonis, Callum, Briggs, Randy, Talon, Hassan

8 via 71

The following baby names add up to 71, which reduces to eight (7+1=8).

  • “71” girl names: Avery, Zoey, Adalynn, Jasmine, Finley, Lauren, Rowan, Gabrielle, Shelby, Octavia
  • “71” boy names: Samuel, Rowan, Rhett, Avery, Finley, Orion, Kyler, Mathias, Zayne, Emanuel

8 via 80

The following baby names add up to 80, which reduces to eight (8+0=8).

  • “80” girl names: Savannah, Alexandra, Cassidy, Emberly, Colette, Monroe, Cassandra, Stevie, Ensley, Cynthia
  • “80” boy names: Tyler, Bennett, Brooks, Alejandro, Spencer, Moises, Emmitt, Bryant, Jeremias, Giancarlo

8 via 89

The following baby names add up to 89, which reduces to eight (8+9=17; 1+7=8).

  • “89” girl names: Raelynn, Emerson, Summer, Alexandria, Felicity, Winter, Virginia, Ivory, Avalynn, August
  • “89” boy names: Wyatt, Wesley, August, Emerson, Titus, Travis, Garrett, Enrique, Mauricio, Quincy

8 via 98

The following baby names add up to 98, which reduces to eight (9+8=17; 1+7=8).

  • “98” girl names: Scarlett, Valentina, Allyson, Crystal, Jocelynn, Londynn, Kenzley, Julietta, Kynzlee, Justine
  • “98” boy names: Trevor, Jefferson, Marquis, Lazarus, Klayton, Zephyr, Britton, Giuseppe, Brexton, Kurtis

8 via 107

The following baby names add up to 107, which reduces to eight (1+0+7=8).

  • “107” girl names: Treasure, Dominique, Phoenyx, Charolette, Jourdyn, Winsley, Journeigh, Chrisette, Shukrona, Lynnley
  • “107” boy names: Preston, Dominique, Giovanny, Yousuf, Shourya, Phoenyx, Prosper, Norberto, Rayshaun, Ruston

8 via 116

The following baby names add up to 116, which reduces to eight (1+1+6=8).

  • “116” girl names: Royalty, Annistyn, Eternity, Suzette, Christianna, Graylynn, Ruqayyah, Jozlynn, Rhylynn, Christyn
  • “116” boy names: Cornelius, Stryker, Treyson, Royalty, Christiano, Prescott, Dimitrios, Burhanuddin, Maxemiliano, Josemiguel

8 via 125

The following baby names add up to 125, which reduces to eight (1+2+5=8).

  • “125” girl names: Tristyn, Rozalynn, Anjolaoluwa, Remingtyn, Skyelynn, Oliviarose, Sophiarose, Quintessa, Skylynne, Charlestyn
  • “125” boy names: Kyngston, Tristyn, Octavious, Oluwademilade, Trystin, Dontavius, Vishruth, Johnrobert, Johnpatrick, Prinston

8 via 134

The following baby names add up to 134, which reduces to eight (1+3+4=8).

  • “134” girl names: Willoughby
  • “134” boy names: Constantine, Massimiliano, Christensen, Juanantonio, Willoughby, Muhammadibrahim, Muzzammil

8 via 143

The following baby names add up to 143, which reduces to eight (1+4+3=8).

  • “143” girl names: Montserrat, Skylarrose, Monserratt, Oluwafifehanmi
  • “143” boy names: Kaitochukwu

8 via 161

The girl name Prosperity adds up to 161, which reduces to eight (1+6+1=8).

8 via 170

The boy name Josephanthony adds up to 170, which reduces to eight (1+7+0=8).

8 via 197

The girl name Moyosoreoluwa adds up to 197, which reduces to eight (1+9+7=17; 1+7=8).

What Does “8” Mean?

First, we’ll look at the significance assigned to “8” by two different numerological sources. Second, and more importantly, ask yourself if “8” or any of the intermediate numbers above have any special significance to you.

Numerological Attributes

“8” (the octad) according to the Pythagoreans:

  • “They used to call the ogdoad [group of eight] ’embracer of all harmonies’ because of this marvellous attunement, or because it is the first to have been attuned and multiplied so as to be equal-times-equal-times-equal, which is a most lawful generation. So when they call it ‘Cadmean,’ they should be understood to be referring to the fact that, as all historians tell us, Harmonia was the wife of Cadmus.”
  • “The number 8 is the source of the musical ratios”
  • “All the ways in which it is put together are excellent and equilibrated tunings.”
  • “The ogdoad is called ‘safety’ and ‘foundation,’ since it is a leader, because two is a leader: the seed of the ogdoad is the first even number.”
  • “They used to call the ogdoad ‘mother, ‘ perhaps [because] even number is female”
  • “The eighth sphere encompasses the whole ‘ hence the saying ‘All is eight.'”

“8” according to Edgar Cayce:

  • “Eight – a money number” (reading 261-14).
  • “Eight indicates the commercial change” (reading 261-15).
  • “This brings eight as a vibration for the entity that means an awakening within the inner self to the new possibilities, the new opportunities within self that may make for not only carrying with it the abilities but the obligations of same as well. For to whom much is given in any manifested form, of him much is required” (reading 707-1).
Personal/Cultural Significance

Does “8” — or do any of the other numbers above (e.g., 35, 44, 71, 143) — have any special significance to you?

Think about your own preferences and personal experiences: lucky numbers, birth dates, music, sports, and so on. Maybe you like how “35” (i.e., 35 mm format) reminds you of photography and film, for example.

Also think about associations you may have picked up from your culture, your religion, or society in general.

If you have any interesting insights about the number 8, or any of the other numbers above, please leave a comment!

Source: Theologumena Arithmeticae, attributed to Iamblichus (c.250-c.330).

Unusual political names in Connecticut

James A. Bill (1817-1900) of Lyme, Connecticut, served in the Connecticut state senate in 1852 and 1853 and in the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1849 and 1867. He also happened to be a rare pro-slavery Northerner in the years before and during the Civil War. This fact is reflected in the names of the last three children:

  1. Elizabeth
  2. Phoebe
  3. Mary
  4. Rebecca
  5. Lodowick
  6. James
  7. Kansas Nebraska (born in July, 1855)
  8. Lecompton Constitution (b. October, 1857)
  9. Jefferson Davis (b. February, 1862)

Kansas Nebraska Bill was named after the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), which created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, but also allowed the territories to decide for themselves whether or not they would permit slavery (the “popular sovereignty” principle).

Lecompton Constitution Bill was named after the Lecompton Constitution (1857), a proposed pro-slavery constitution for the state of Kansas that was defeated early the next year.

And Jefferson Davis Bill was, of course, named after Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy throughout the Civil War.

Their older brother, Lodowick, inherited his interesting first name from James’s father. The name Lodowick — like Louis, Ludwig, and Luigi — can be traced back to the Germanic name Chlodovech, which consists of the elements hlud, meaning “famous, loud” and wig, meaning “war, battle.”

[Other notable Civil War-era baby names include Emancipation Proclamation (“Prockie”), Gettysburg (“Gettie”), Kenesaw Mountain, and Elmer Ellsworth.]

Sources: