How popular is the baby name Juan 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 Juan.

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Popularity of the baby name Juan


Posts that mention the name Juan

Baby born with heart outside body, named Corazon (“heart”)

María Corazón Rafael, 1939
María Corazón

On August 7, 1939, a 7-pound baby girl was born in a maternity hospital in the Tondo slum district of Manila, the capital of the Philippines.

Everything about the baby was normal except for one thing: she was born with her heart outside of her body.

As doctors debated what to do, they protected her tiny heart with a stemless cocktail glass.

She slept and ate normally, though her crib was lined with hot water bottles and she was fed with an eye-dropper. Whenever she cried, her exposed heart would beat faster.

Her mother, Esperanza Rafael, was told about her daughter’s condition several days after the birth. By then, a Catholic priest had already baptized her with the name María Corazón, Spanish for “Mary Heart.” (Typically the name María Corazón refers to the Virgin Mary, but, in this case, of course, it also referred to the baby’s dire medical condition.)

Esperanza attributed her daughter’s malformation to her worship of a picture of the Sacred Heart, which features the exposed heart of Jesus Christ.

Visitors flocked to see María Corazón. One of these visitors was Aurora Quezón, wife of Philippine president Manuel Quezón. Another was Manila Mayor Juan Posadas, who “told doctors to spare no efforts to save the child … he would pay all expenses.”

María Corazón’s father, a 31-year-old mining company clerk and law student, turned down various commercial offers, including “a $10,000 offer by a Manila sportsman to take the baby to the New York World’s Fair by clipper plane.”

The doctors refused to risk María’s life by performing an operation, but they did bring in a movie camera to record the baby and her exposed heart.

The resultant film was to be donated to medical science, said Dr. Guillermo del Castillo, who delivered Maria, for study in the hope that some technique could be devised to correct such future abnormalities should it fail to aid its donor.

After living a total of 162 hours and 25 minutes, baby María Corazón died of bronchial pneumonia on August 14.

Sources:

  • “Baby Born in Philippines With Heart Outside Body.” Milwaukee Journal 8 Aug. 1939: 6.
  • “Credits Worship for Baby With Heart Outside Body.” New London Evening Day 9 Aug. 1939: 9.
  • “News Summary.” Philippine Magazine. 36.9 (1939): 358.
  • “Operation on Baby Ruled Out.” Leader-Post 10 Aug. 1939: 5.
  • “Outside Heart Baby Dies After Living for Week in Hospital in Manila.” Evening Independent 14 Aug. 1939: 3.
  • “People in The News.” Life 28 Aug. 1939: 20.
  • “Picture Held Reason for Malformation.” Leader-Post 9 Aug. 1939: 1.
  • Wilson, Richard C. “Child With Heart Outside Body Amazes Entire Medical Profession.” Bend Bulletin 10 Aug. 1939: 1.

Image: Clipping from Life magazine (28 Aug. 1939)

Biggest changes in boy name popularity, 2010

For the last few years, the SSA has re-ordered the top 500 (or so) baby names according to rank change.

Below I’ve done the same sort of analysis, but I changed two things. First, I focused on the number of babies instead of on rankings. Second, I looked at the entire list, not just the top 500.

And that’s why these lists and the SSA’s lists look so different. :)

The boy names that increased and decreased the most in terms of usage are below. The girl names were in the last post.

Biggest Increases, 2009 to 2010

  1. Mason, +4074 babies (rank change: 34th to 12th)
  2. Bentley, +3221 (515th to 101st)
  3. Liam, +2317 (49th to 30th)
  4. Eli, +1601 (90th to 65th)
  5. Easton, +1330 (253rd to 145th)
  6. Grayson, +1077 (173rd to 122nd)
  7. Elijah, +984 (22nd to 18th)
  8. Levi, +935 (85th to 70th)
  9. Jacob, +839 (1st to 1st)
  10. Bryson, +771 (151st to 120th)
  11. Lucas, +727 (39th to 35th)
  12. Axel, +645 (264th to 187th)
  13. Colton, +516 (93rd to 73rd)
  14. Jeremiah, +485 (65th to 52nd)
  15. Asher, +474 (165th to 139th)
  16. Brayden, +474 (48th to 40th)
  17. Greyson, +451 (347th to 249th)
  18. Henry, +448 (71st to 67th)
  19. Miles, +434 (162nd to 137th)
  20. Jaxon, +423 (124th to 99th)

Biggest Decreases, 2009 to 2010

  1. Joshua, -2311 babies (rank change: 6th to 11th)
  2. Christopher, -2129 (10th to 13th)
  3. Matthew, -1941 (13th to 16th)
  4. Ethan, -1917 (2nd to 2nd)
  5. Daniel, -1777 (7th to 8th)
  6. Michael, -1689 (3rd to 3rd)
  7. Christian, -1620 (23rd to 29th)
  8. Alexander, -1541 (4th to 6th)
  9. Aidan, -1523 (72nd to 94th)
  10. Kevin, -1476 (44th to 58th)
  11. Brandon, -1331 (38th to 43rd)
  12. David, -1328 (14th to 15th)
  13. Nicholas, -1252 (32nd to 38th)
  14. Ryan, -1185 (19th to 23rd)
  15. Joseph, -1162 (15th to 20th)
  16. Gavin, -1159 (33rd to 37th)
  17. Jose, -1139 (43th to 51st)
  18. Tyler, -1130 (28th to 34th)
  19. Angel, -1102 (37th to 42nd)
  20. Juan, -1048 (67th to 75th)

As with the girl names, three of the above (Jacob, Ethan and Michael) were big winners/losers according to the numbers, but their rankings stayed the same.

Where did the baby name Marichal come from in 1965?

Baseball player Juan Marichal
Juan Marichal

The curious name Marichal popped up in the U.S. baby name data in 1965:

  • 1967: unlisted
  • 1966: unlisted
  • 1965: 8 baby boys named Marichal [debut]
  • 1964: unlisted
  • 1963: unlisted

That was the only time it ever appeared in the data. (Marichal was one of the top one-hit wonder names of 1965, in fact.)

Where did it come from?

Dominican-born professional baseball player Juan Marichal (pronounced mah-ree-CHAHL).

He was a high-kicking, right-handed pitcher who played primarily for the San Francisco Giants (1960-1973). He was the winningest pitcher of the 1960s; his bronze plaque at the Baseball Hall of Fame states that he “won 243 games and lost only 142 over 16 seasons” and “won 20 games six times and no-hit Houston in 1963.”

But his name was in the news more than usual in 1965 thanks to a specific incident that happened in August.

While he was at-bat during a game with the Dodgers, he ended up attacking Dodgers catcher John Roseboro with the bat, and this resulted in a 14-minute brawl, stitches for Roseboro, and a suspension and hefty fine for Marichal. (This was just weeks after Marichal was on the cover of SI for the first and only time.)

What are your thoughts on the baby name Marichal?

Sources:

Image: Clipping from the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine (9 Aug. 1965)

Baby names of Antarctica: Solveig, Emilio, Juan, Gisella

Only a handful of babies have been born on Antarctica. Ever wonder what their names are?

Me too. So I looked them up.

First I should mention Solveig Gunbjørg Jacobsen, a Norwegian baby girl who was born on South Georgia Island on October 8, 1913. She wasn’t the first baby born on Antarctica itself, but she was the first baby born in the southern polar region.

The first true Antarctican baby was Emilio Marcos de Palma, born at Argentine research station Esperanza Base in Hope Bay, Trinity Peninsula, Antarctica, on January 7, 1978.

Silvia Morella de Palma, the wife of Esperanza’s station leader, was flown in when she was seven months pregnant. The idea was to claim sovereignty by giving birth to the first native-born Antarctican.

Over the next five years, seven more babies were born at Esperanza Base, but I haven’t had any luck tracking down their names.

But — given the “historical rivalry between Chile and Argentina” — you can bet that Chile wasn’t going to be far behind on this. The only other civilian settlement in Antarctica, Villa Las Estrellas, located on a Chilean military base on King George Island, welcomed its first baby, Juan Pablo Camacho, in 1984.

Nicknaming him “the penguin,” [military officials in General Pinochet’s government] contended that he was the first baby conceived and born in Antarctica, drawing a contrast to Argentines born to mothers who might have given birth in Antarctica but became pregnant elsewhere.

Two more babies (one named Gisella) have since been born at Villa Las Estrellas.

If you happen to know the names/nationalities of any of the other Antarctican babies, please leave a comment!

P.S. Babies born on the other side of the world — in the Arctic — include Charlie Polaris, Marie Ahnighito, and Karina.

Sources:

Image: Argentinian station Esperanza by Samuel Blanc under CC BY-SA 3.0.