How popular is the baby name Joffre 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 Joffre.

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Popularity of the baby name Joffre


Posts that mention the name Joffre

Where did the baby name Armistice come from in 1918?

Headline "Armistice Is Signed" on the front page of the Carson City Daily Appeal (Nov. 11, 1918)

The word Armistice, which refers to cessation of combat, popped up in the U.S. baby name data in 1918:

  • 1920: unlisted
  • 1919: 5 baby boys named Armistice
  • 1918: 5 baby girls named Armistice [debut]
  • 1917: unlisted
  • 1916: unlisted

The influence, of course, was the Armistice declared on November 11, 1918, that signaled the end of World War I. From that point forward, November 11 became known as Armistice Day*.

Newspaper headlines across the nation highlighted the word. Here’s another example:

Headline "Armistice Is Signed" on the front page of the Evening Missourian (Nov. 11, 1918)

And another:

Headline "Armistice Signed - War Over" on the front page of the Brattleboro Daily Reformer (Nov. 11, 1918)

A few of the babies named Armistice even got “Day” as a middle name. And at least one of these “Armistice Day” babies, born in Connecticut in 1927, managed to make it into the papers:

Bridgeport, it has developed, is to have an Armistice Day the year round. Born on Nov. 11 last, the infant daughter of a local family is believed to be the first child in the country named in honor of the world holiday. Her official name is “Armistice Day Guiseppina [sic] Olympia Bredice.” Her father is an employee of a local sewing machine factory.

What do you think of Armistice as a first name?

*It was renamed Veterans Day in 1954.

Source: “Baby named “Armistice Day”.” Reading Eagle 23 Nov. 1927: 4.
Images: LOC

P.S. More WWI baby names: Foch, Marne, Allenby, Joffre, Pershing, Tasker, and Liberty.

Name quotes #70

double quotation mark

It’s April Fools’ Day! I don’t have any pun names (like Seymour Butts) for you today, but here are some name quotes…

From an article about the top baby names across Ontario:

As for Maverick — the number one boy name in Sault Ste. Marie — Government and Consumer Services Minister Bill Walker said it’s an interesting choice, quipping: “It’s better than Goose” — referring to the main characters from the movie Top Gun.

From a collection of baby name stories contributed by Long Island moms:

My grandfather hated tattoos. He used to tell his standard stories and would say only people who had tattoos in ‘his day’ were sailors. He said their tattoos always said either ‘death before dishonor’ or ‘true love Mabel.’ He always used Mabel as the example name. I’m not sure why. He died in 2013. We named our daughter Mabel as a nod to him.

From a 2011 article in Fortune about finance guru Ramit Sethi:

Sethi says his name was originally supposed to be Amit, not Ramit. But when his parents realized that Amit Singh Sethi’s initials spelled out a profanity, they went back to the registrar and convinced him that he had erroneously dropped an “R.” “Like true immigrants, they didn’t request a name change, because that would be, like, $50,” he says.

From the blog of UK historian Elizabeth Walne:

Some first names can be very helpful in providing an approximate birth date for an individual if you are unsure. I once researched a family with sons Foch, Petain and Joffre – all Marshals of France during WWI, effectively ‘dating’ them to around 1914-18.

Another example with less specific dates is the girl’s name ‘Adelaide’ which became popular with Adelaide, wife of William IV (born 1792, crowned Queen Consort 1831 and died 1849) and then fell in popularity – but importantly for red herring purposes didn’t disappear completely – after the turn of the century.

How columnist Richard Ord chose a middle name for his son:

His great grandad on his mother’s side was called Aston, so my wife told me, and so that became his middle name.

It wasn’t until a few months after his birth that my wife’s dad asked me about where the name came from.

Surprised, I told him that he took the family name of Aston. “You know, after his great grandad?!”

“Oh,” he replied. “But that wasn’t his name. That was his nickname. His mates called him Aston because he was the only Aston Villa supporter in the West End of Newcastle!”

In my book that makes his middle name even better.

For more quotes about names, check out the name quotes category.

More WWI names: Allenby, Joffre, Pershing, Tasker

French General Joseph Joffre (1852-1931)
Joseph Joffre

The highest-debuting baby names of 1918 were Foch and Marne, for French general Ferdinand Foch and the Second Battle of the Marne. But Foch and Marne weren’t the only WWI-related baby names to debut in the U.S. baby name data during the 1910s. Here are four more…

Allenby

  • 1920: unlisted
  • 1919: unlisted
  • 1918: 6 baby boys named Allenby [debut]
  • 1917: unlisted
  • 1916: unlisted

The name Allenby, which appeared in the baby name data only once, comes from British Field Marshal Edmund Allenby (1861-1936). He was given command of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) in mid-1917.

Joffre

  • 1919: 7 baby boys named Joffre
  • 1918: 35 baby boys named Joffre
  • 1917: 37 baby boys named Joffre
  • 1916: 16 baby boys named Joffre
  • 1915: 14 baby boys named Joffre
  • 1914: 6 baby boys named Joffre [debut]
  • 1913: unlisted

The name Joffre, which debuted in 1914 and peaked in 1917, was inspired by French General Joseph Joffre (1852-1931). He was commander-in-chief of the French Army during World War I.

The Social Security Death Index (SSDI) tells me that two of those 1917 babies were named Joffre Pershing and Joffre Haig, and that another Joffre Pershing was born in 1918.

American General John Pershing (1860-1948)
John Pershing

Pershing

  • 1920: 28 baby boys named Pershing
  • 1919: 103 baby boys named Pershing [rank: 595th]
  • 1918: 295 baby boys named Pershing [rank: 334th]
  • 1917: 53 baby boys named Pershing [rank: 882nd]
  • 1916: unlisted
  • 1915: 10 baby boys named Pershing [debut]
  • 1914: unlisted

The name Pershing, which debuted in 1915 and peaked in 1918, was inspired by General John Pershing (1860-1948). He was the only person promoted to the highest rank in the U.S. Army — General of the Armies — during his lifetime (in 1919).

No doubt scores of other baby boys were named “John Pershing,” such as John Pershing Williams, born in August of 1917 to Mr. and Mrs. W. J. S. Williams of Scioto County, Ohio.

Tasker

  • 1920: unlisted
  • 1919: 8 baby boys named Tasker
  • 1918: 7 baby boys named Tasker [debut]
  • 1917: unlisted
  • 1916: unlisted

The name Tasker comes from General Tasker Bliss (1853-1930). He was the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army from 1917 to 1918.

Not surprisingly, the WWI names above fell out of favor after the early 1920s. But the last three did reappear in the U.S. baby name data in the early ’40s, during WWII. Pershing returned in 1940, while Joffre and Tasker came back in 1942.

What are your thoughts on these names?

Source: “Namesake Son for General Pershing.” Portsmouth Times 26 Oct. 1917.