How popular is the baby name Jose 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 Jose.
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According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Valencia saw a spike in usage in 1927:
1929: 11 baby girls named Valencia
1928: 22 baby girls named Valencia
1927: 65 baby girls named Valencia [rank: 934th]
1926: 18 baby girls named Valencia
1925: 5 baby girls named Valencia
It reached the girls’ top 1,000 for the first time that year, in fact.
What gave it a boost?
Both a song and a film.
The song, “Valencia,” was originally composed by José Padilla for the 1924 Spanish operetta La bien amada.
A couple of years later, the song — with lyrics translated into English — was introduced to Americans in the musical The Great Temptations, which ran on Broadway from May to November, 1926.
“Valencia” became very popular in the U.S. that year. Various orchestras made recordings of the song, but it was the version [vid] by Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra (featuring vocalist Franklyn Baur) that became the top single of 1926, reaching the #1 spot in early July and staying put for over 2 months.
In December of the same year, a silent film called Valencia was released. One reviewer, unimpressed, stated:
The popularity of the song seems to have been a sufficient excuse for M-G-M’s picture, which adopts the name but is not so fortunate in the story that purports to be “Valencia.”
The movie’s main character, Valencia (played by actress Mae Murray), was a Spanish dancer in love with a sailor named Felipe. But she was also being pursued by Don Fernando, the local governor, who threw Felipe in jail. Valencia made “the usual sacrifice to secure Felipe’s freedom.”
While the movie wasn’t a box office hit, it contributed to the trendiness of the baby name Valencia in 1927.
What are your thoughts on the name Valencia?
P.S. In 1950, the name — which was just starting to rise again, perhaps due to the baby boom — got another nudge from “Valencia,” sung this time by crooner Tony Martin. His rendition peaked at #18 on the charts that year.
The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico welcomes roughly 19,000 babies per year.
Last year, the most popular baby names in Puerto Rico were Valentina and Thiago.
Here are Puerto Rico’s top 50 girl names and top 50+ boy names of 2023:
Girl names
Valentina, 177 baby girls
Aurora, 113 (tie)
Emma, 113 (tie)
Victoria, 100
Catalina, 94 (tie)
Luna, 94 (tie)
Amaia, 89 (tie)
Gianna, 89 (tie)
Isabella, 88
Alaia, 82
Mia, 80
Mikaela, 78
Ainara, 75 (tie)
Amira, 75 (tie)
Milena, 70
Amalia, 68
Amanda, 66
Antonella, 65
Camila, 62
Amelia, 61
Elena, 57 (tie)
Leah, 57 (tie)
Paula, 56
Sofia, 54
Kamila, 50
Gia, 47
Stella, 42
Mila, 41
Ainhoa, 40
Sophia, 39
Adara, 38
Lia, 36
Alana, 35
Amirah, 32 (4-way tie)
Nahia, 32 (4-way tie)
Nahiara, 32 (4-way tie)
Valeria, 32 (4-way tie)
Andrea, 31
Paulette, 30
Alanna, 29 (tie)
Brianna, 29 (tie)
Adhara, 28 (4-way tie)
Amahia, 28 (4-way tie)
Ana, 28 (4-way tie)
Gabriela, 28 (4-way tie)
Paulina, 27
Amaya, 25 (4-way tie)
Arlet, 25 (4-way tie)
Katalina, 25 (4-way tie)
Mariana, 25 (4-way tie)
Boy names
Thiago, 290 baby boys
Liam, 264
Noah, 201
Mateo, 156
Sebastian, 146
Lucas, 140
Dylan, 119
Ian, 115
Matias, 94
Adrian, 89 (tie)
Elian, 89 (tie)
Jayden, 84
Mauro, 79
Angel, 77
Milan, 76
Ethan, 74
Nicolas, 70
Jacob, 67
Fabian, 66
Diego, 65
Elias, 63
Gael, 59
Aaron, 56
Isaac, 51
Eithan, 50 (tie)
Eliam, 50 (tie)
Gian, 49
Enzo, 48
Evan, 45 (tie)
Luis, 45 (tie)
Isaias, 44 (tie)
Matteo, 44 (tie)
Daniel, 42
Julian, 40
Caleb, 37
Eiden, 36 (3-way tie)
Gabriel, 36 (3-way tie)
Matthew, 36 (3-way tie)
Carlos, 34 (tie)
Santiago, 34 (tie)
Aiden, 33 (3-way tie)
Damian, 33 (3-way tie)
Dario, 33 (3-way tie)
Alejandro, 32 (tie)
Amir, 32 (tie)
Alan, 30
Alvaro, 29 (3-way tie)
Keyden, 29 (3-way tie)
Ryan, 29 (3-way tie)
Iker, 28 (3-way tie)
Jose, 28 (3-way tie)
Zaid, 28 (3-way tie)
Eiden on the boys’ list caught my attention, as Eiden was also mentioned in the SSA’s press release this year. It’s on the rise both in the U.S. and in Puerto Rico right now.
The person who wrote the press release theorized that the rise of Eiden was being fueled by Wisconsin-based influencer Wyatt Eiden. But the name’s increasing popularity in Puerto Rico — plus the fact that 40% of Eiden’s U.S. usage occurred in four states with large Spanish-speaking populations (TX, CA, NY, and FL) — makes me think the name is being used primarily among U.S.-based Latin Americans (who are probably not watching Wyatt Eiden’s English-language interview/trivia videos on TikTok).
(And now I’m thinking of a recent comment by alex, who noticed that “names that have seen some use in Caribbean Latin America for 20+ years” are starting to pop up in the U.S. data, and wondered if Venezuelan immigration might have something to do with it…)
In 2022, the top names in Puerto Rico were Valentina and Liam.
Finally, what were the most popular baby names in all the other U.S. territories (American Samoa, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Northern Mariana Islands) combined last year? Olivia and Elijah.
Xolotl refers to the “divine force of lightning and death” (among other things) in Nahuatl.
Zantedechia is one letter away from Zantedeschia, the name of a genus of flowering plants. (The calla lily is a member of this genus.) The genus was named after Italian physician/botanist Giovanni Zantedeschi (1773-1846).
Finally, here are Sonoma’s 2022 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.
The South American country of Uruguay doesn’t publish an annual list of top baby names per se, but Uruguay’s Dirección Nacional de Identificación Civil (DNIC) does release a list of all the names used among people who obtained their Uruguayan identity card for the first time within a given year.
As we saw in 2021 and 2020, the DNIC rankings combine all names (male and female) together on a single list, but don’t combine different forms of the same name (e.g., Maria and María) into single entries on that list. Most notably, the rankings account for not just first-name usage, but also second-name usage (as Uruguayans are allowed to include a maximum of two given names on their identity cards).
So now that we have all that out of the way… the DNIC data reveals that the most-registered names in the country in 2022 were María and Juan.
Here are Uruguay’s top 100+ registered names of 2022:
María, 1,170 babies
Juan, 1,138
Maria, 1,108
Isabella, 885
Benjamín, 780
Emma, 766
Mateo, 728
Valentina, 660
Catalina, 659
Luis, 648
Alejandro, 647
Martina, 640
Felipe, 637
Carlos, 589
Valentín, 568
Ezequiel, 562
Emilia, 559
Manuel, 556
Daniel, 555
Lorenzo, 550
Julieta, 546
José, 535
Gabriel, 518
Jose, 517
Nicolás, 491
Sofía, 486
Ignacio, 455
Alberto, 452
Santiago, 450
Francisco, 442
David, 438
Agustín, 435
Olivia, 429
Josefina, 422
Valentino, 416
Antonio, 410 (tie)
Lucas, 410 (tie)
Bautista, 405
Delfina, 396
Lautaro, 389
Benjamin, 384
Eduardo, 383
Belén, 378
Thiago, 372
Gael, 371
Santino, 370
Victoria, 367
Javier, 365
Agustina, 363
Jorge, 362
Emiliano, 358
Dante, 357
Alexander, 351
Tomás, 342
Paulina, 335
Miguel, 334
Rafael, 329
Ana, 324
Joaquín, 320
Samuel, 315
Pablo, 313
Sofia, 309
Pilar, 308
Diego, 307
Zoe, 306
Alfonsina, 300
Renata, 297
Clara, 278 (3-way tie)
Liam, 278 (3-way tie)
Sebastián, 278 (3-way tie)
Milagros, 276
Francesca, 271
Fernando, 268
Emily, 265
Enrique, 262
Facundo, 261
Federico, 260 (tie)
Pedro, 260 (tie)
Angel, 258
Bastian, 253
Bruno, 252 (tie)
Martín, 252 (tie)
Alejandra, 251
Carolina, 249 (tie)
Noah, 249 (tie)
Guadalupe, 246
Nicolas, 243
Vicente, 240
Enzo, 235
Salvador, 228
Sebastian, 227
Juana, 225
Valentin, 222
Guillermo, 220
Alma, 218 (tie)
Emanuel, 218 (tie)
Nahuel, 215
Camila, 211 (tie)
Elena, 211 (tie)
Andres, 210
Andrés, 209 (3-way tie)
Benicio, 209 (3-way tie)
Paz, 209 (3-way tie)
Gabriela, 208
Beatriz, 207
Ciro, 206 (tie)
Martin, 206 (tie)
Maite, 203
Andrea, 202
Elizabeth, 200 (tie)
Laura, 200 (tie)
Isabel, 199 (tie)
Mia, 199 (tie)
Luciano, 198
Ismael, 197
Jazmín, 195
Camilo, 194
Marcelo, 192
Franco, 190
Agustin, 189
Alfonso, 187
Aitana, 186 (tie)
Bianca, 186 (tie)
Ramiro, 185
Gustavo, 184
Cataleya, 183
Roberto, 178
Ariel, 176
Lucía, 174
Micaela, 173 (tie)
Ricardo, 173 (tie)
(I went down this far to ensure that at least fifty girl names were included.)
Here are a few names from lower down on the list:
80 babies were named Celeste, which is the nickname of Uruguay’s national soccer team.
73 babies were named Aylen, and roughly two hundred more were given a different spelling of the name (e.g., Ayelen, Aylén, Ayelén, Aylín, Aylin). This is a Mapuche name with several possible meanings, including “ember” and “clear.”
38 babies were named Coromoto, which comes from a Marian title.
15 babies were named Inti, which is the Quechua word for “sun.”
9 babies were named Amaru, which is the Quechua word for “snake.”
8 babies were named Borja, which comes from the name of Spanish saint Francisco de Borja.
7 babies were named Irupé, which is the Guaraní word for the large South American water-lily Victoria cruziana.
5 babies were named Yamandú, which was the name of a historical Guarani chief.
4 babies were named Chiquinquira, which comes from a Marian title.
Two others were named Aurora de la Chiquinquira and Leomarys de la Chiquinquira.
4 babies were named Itanú, which is a Charrúa name said to mean “heartbeat of stone.”
3 babies were named Guidaí, which is the Charrúa word for “moon.”
3 babies were named Tacuabé, which was the name of a historical Charrúa man.
Following the Massacre of Salsipuedes in 1831, Tacuabé and several other Charrúa prisoners were taken to France to be put on exhibition.
2 babies were named Amancay, which is a Quechua word that refers to a lily-like South American flower.
2 babies were named Amapola, which means “poppy” in Spanish.
2 babies were named Atahualpa, which was the name of the last emperor of the Inca.
2 babies were named Everton, which may refer to Everton F.C.
2 babies were named Leunam, which is Manuel spelled backwards.
2 babies were named Pérola, which means “pearl” in Portuguese.
2 babies were named Uruguay.
And, because Uruguay releases all of its baby name data, we can also check out the unique names at the bottom of the list. Here’s a selection Uruguay’s single-use baby names of 2022:
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