How popular is the baby name Jonas 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 Jonas.

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Popularity of the baby name Jonas


Posts that mention the name Jonas

Popular baby names in Germany, 2010

Flag of Germany
Flag of Germany

According to the Association for German Language (GfdS), the most popular baby names in Germany in 2010 were Sophie/Sofie and Maximilian:

Girl Names

  1. Sophie/Sofie
  2. Marie
  3. Maria
  4. Sophia/Sofia
  5. Mia
  6. Anna
  7. Lena
  8. Emma
  9. Hannah/Hanna
  10. Johanna

Boy Names

  1. Maximilian
  2. Alexander
  3. Paul
  4. Leon
  5. Lukas/Lucas
  6. Luca/Luka
  7. Elias
  8. Louis/Luis
  9. Jonas
  10. Felix

(These rankings don’t account for all German births last year, but they do account for over 50% of them.)

The GfdS also offered examples of the unusual baby names parents wanted to bestow in 2010. Some were accepted by the government, others were rejected.

Accepted:Rejected:
Belana
Kantorka
Kix
Laperla
Lelibeth
Loana
Lovelle
Miransah
Monel
Napoleon
Noredien
Nox
Quidan
Segesta		Cheraldine
Gihanna
Idjen (rather than Etienne)
Junge (“boy”)
Laslo (for a girl)
Leuis
Menez
Partizan
Pfefferminza (pfefferminze is “peppermint”)
Puppe (“doll”)

Finally, my source claims German law “stat[es] that middle names, like nicknames, can be modified at will.” I wasn’t aware of this. Can anyone out there confirm/deny?

Source: ‘Maximilian’ and ‘Sophie’ most popular baby names of 2010

Image: Adapted from Flag of Germany (public domain)

Popular baby names in Norway, 2010

Flag of Norway
Flag of Norway

The top baby girl and baby boy names in Norway last year were Emma and Lukas — the same as in 2009.

Here are the top ten girl names:

  1. Emma (465 baby girls)
  2. Linnea/Linea (452)
  3. Sara/Sahra/Sarah (426)
  4. Sofie/Sophie (423)
  5. Nora/Norah (411)
  6. Ingrid/Ingerid/Ingri (399)
  7. Thea/Tea (389)
  8. Emilie (387)
  9. Ida (381)
  10. Maja/Maia/Maya (353)

And here are the top ten boy names:

  1. Lukas/Lucas (552 baby boys)
  2. Emil (492)
  3. Mathias/Matias (491)
  4. William (443)
  5. Magnus (435)
  6. Markus/Marcus (428)
  7. Jonas (423)
  8. Kristian/Christian (400)
  9. Oliver (384)
  10. Alexander/Aleksander (380)

And here are a few other interesting facts:

  • 52% of the girls born in 2010 have names that end with -a or -ah.
  • 20% of the boys born in 2010 have biblical names.
  • Mohammad was the most popular baby boy name in Oslo.
  • Norwegian parents seem to be “avoiding names involving the uniquely Norwegian letters of æ, ø and å, which often cause problems and confusion in e-mail addresses and other aspects of a globalized society.”

That last point is particularly interesting. On the one hand, it’s cool that parents are gravitating toward names that will make their children’s lives simpler. On the other, names featuring Scandinavian letters like æ, ø and å represent Norway’s heritage, and it would a shame to see cultural gems like Bjørn and Jørgen fall by the wayside. (Though perhaps it’s inevitable…?)

Sources: Statistics Norway, ‘Emma’ and ‘Lukas’ most popular baby names

Image: Adapted from Flag of Norway (public domain)

Biggest changes in baby name popularity, 2009

Just like there were some ups and downs in the stock market yesterday, there were some ups and downs in baby name popularity between 2008 and 2009.

The SSA has published a handy pair of tables showing changes in baby name popularity. Only names that cracked the top 500 during either 2008 or 2009 were included, but still it’s a lot of useful information. Here are the biggest winners and losers in the group:

Boys Girls
Gains Cullen, +297
Jax, +266
King, +248
Emmett, +215
Colt, +164 		Maliyah, +342
Isla, +273
Caylee, +251
Kinley, +214
Arabella, +209
Losses Alvin, -133
Marc, -106
Jonas, -105
Isiah, -91
Brett, -80 		Marely, -517
Mylee, -420
Jaslene, -294
Allisson, -197
Haylie, -145

The numbers show the difference in ranking from 2008 to 2009. Cullen ranked 297 spots higher, for instance, so it became much more popular (no doubt thanks to Twilight). Alvin ranked 133 spots lower, on the other hand, so it became a lot less popular.

Popular baby names in the United States, 2009

Flag of the United States
Flag of the United States

It’s that time of year again! Here are the new top ten U.S. baby names for each gender:

Girl names

  1. Isabella (was 2nd)
  2. Emma (was 1st)
  3. Olivia (was 4th)
  4. Sophia (was 7th)
  5. Ava (was 5th)
  6. Emily (was 3rd)
  7. Madison (was 6th)
  8. Abigail (was 8th)
  9. Chloe (was 10th)
  10. Mia (was 14th)

Boy names

  1. Jacob (was 1st)
  2. Ethan (was 3rd)
  3. Michael (was 2nd)
  4. Alexander (was 6th)
  5. William (was 8th)
  6. Joshua (was 4th)
  7. Daniel (was 5th)
  8. Jayden (was 11th)
  9. Noah (was 15th)
  10. Anthony (was 7th)

Highlights: Isabella trumps Emma. Jayden, Noah and Mia make the top 10. Michael slips out of the top 2 for the first time since the 1950s.

Here’s more from the SSA’s news release:

This year’s winner for the biggest jump is Maliyah, which undoubtedly is related to the popularity of the First Family. Malia (the spelling used by the First Daughter), also is one of the top 10 fastest risers among girls names. Isla, the name of popular actress Isla Fisher (and wife of Sacha Baron Cohen — aka Borat, which thankfully has yet to make the list) was the second fastest riser among girls. On the boy’s side, Cullen had the biggest increase, likely attributable to the popular character Edward Cullen in the “Twilight” novels and movies. King came in as the number three top mover for boys, but more on Elvis later.

The girl’s name Marely, which interestingly had the third largest increase last year, had the biggest drop this year from number 334 to 851. Mylee had the second biggest drop; Miley (as in Cyrus) also dropped in popularity. In the wake of controversies surrounding Lindsay Lohan, Lindsay dropped from number 381 to 524. Brett, Jonas and Alvin are among the boy’s names with the largest decreases. With Brett, Social Security wonders if Americans are ready to retire the name (sorry Vikings’ fans, we mean Jets’ fans, um Packers’ fans). And despite the soaring popularity of singing trios — whether human brothers or the chipmunk variety — fewer people apparently are willing to name their sons Jonas or Alvin.

With 69 baby Baracks born in 2009, Barack continues to move up the list to number 1,993 from 2,424 in 2008, and 12,535 in 2007, but still lags well behind First Dog Bo at 782.

Many patterns of recent years continued. Religious names continue to be very popular, including the girl names Heaven at number 275 and Nevaeh (Heaven spelled backwards) at 34. Messiah was number 663 for boys. An extraordinary 3.7 percent of the Top 1000 boy names rhymed with the word “maiden” and names associated with cities, states, or countries were popular, particularly for girls.

Are you surprised that Isabella is the new #1 girl name? Were you expecting it?

Sources: SSA, Isabella Reigns as New Queen of Baby Names – Takes Top Spot on Social Security’s Most Popular Baby Names List – SSA

Image: Adapted from Flag of the United States (public domain)