How popular is the baby name Ken 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 Ken.

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Popularity of the baby name Ken


Posts that mention the name Ken

What brought the baby name Dearra back in 2017?

YouTube creator De'arra Taylor
De’arra Taylor

After an absence of more than a decade, the name Dearra re-emerged in the U.S. baby name data in 2017:

  • 2019: 37 baby girls named Dearra
  • 2018: 40 baby girls named Dearra
  • 2017: 40 baby girls named Dearra
  • 2016: unlisted
  • 2015: unlisted

What was influencing this name in the late 2010s?

Influencer De’arra (pronounced dee-AYR-uh) Taylor, who made YouTube videos with her boyfriend Ken Walker.

The Atlanta-based couple began both dating and posting photos to Instagram in mid-2014. Their content quickly found an audience, and “[w]hen they hit 600,000 Instagram followers, someone told them to get a YouTube account.”

They launched their primary YouTube channel, De’arra & Ken 4 Life (“DK4L”), in December of 2014.

In August of 2016 — when their channel had 1.3 million subscribers — they posted a video in which they attempted to put on 100 layers of clothing. (They made it to 50 before giving up.) Articles about the video ran in media outlets like Today, US Weekly, and Teen Vogue.

The following year, De’arra and Ken were profiled in New York Magazine in August (when they had 3.6 million subscribers) and appeared in the Tyler Perry movie Boo 2! A Madea Halloween, which was released in October (when they had 3.8 million subscribers).

In September of 2019 — when their channel had 5.7 million subscribers — they posted a video of Ken proposing to De’arra while the couple was vacationing on the Greek island of Santorini. A detailed description of the video was published by Essence a day later.

But in August of 2021, the pair announced — to their 6.17 million subscribers — that they were separating and would stop making videos together. News of their breakup was covered by outlets like Bossip and BET. (I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the baby name De’arra saw its highest-ever usage this particular year.)

What are your thoughts on the name De’arra?

P.S. The girl name that re-emerged most impressively in the data in 2017 was Brennley.

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of a DK4L YouTube video

“Jeopardy!” contestant named after IKEA furniture

Contestant Niklas Berry on the TV game show "Jeopardy!" (Jul. 2023)
Niklas Berry on “Jeopardy!“

Last week, the TV game show Jeopardy! featured a contestant named Nik Berry.

After introducing Nik to the audience, Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings asked Nik about his name:

Nik Berry, a social studies teacher, comes to us from Baltimore. Now, I know a lot of Niks, but you might be the only one who’s named after — what?

Nik responded,

Well, my parents wanted an alternate spelling of Nicholas, so they went with n-i-k-l-a-s because, when they were shopping at IKEA before my birth, they saw a shelf called the Niklas.

Hundreds of U.S. babies have been named Ikea, but this is the first person I know of who was named with a specific piece of IKEA furniture in mind.

According to IKEA’s Norwegian-language Navnekatalogen (“Name Directory”), the Niklas shelf was introduced in 1981. Here’s what it looked like:

IKEA Niklas (1981)
“Never say no to a good book”

What are your thoughts on the name Niklas?

(And, did you know that a handful of U.S. babies have been named after Jeopardy contestants?)

Sources: Contestant Zone – Jeopardy.com, Jeopardy! tweet (20 Jul. 2023)

Images: Screenshot of Jeopardy!; clipping from IKEA’s Navnekatalogen

Where did the baby name Gevan come from in 1952?

The book "Area of Suspicion" (1954) by John D. MacDonald

The baby name Gevan was a one-hit wonder in the U.S. baby name data in 1952:

  • 1954: unlisted
  • 1953: unlisted
  • 1952: 12 baby boys named Gevan [debut]
  • 1951: unlisted
  • 1950: unlisted

But it wasn’t just any old one-hit wonder — it was the top one-hit wonder of the year. And that’s not all — it also tied for top boy-name debut name of the year.

The influence behind Gevan eluded me for a long time…mainly because I wasn’t looking for it. The name Kevin was very trendy in the 1950s, so I initially wrote off Gevan as variant of fast-rising Kevin.

When I finally decided to take a second look at Gevan, though, I did indeed find a distinct explanation.

It was a story called “My Brother’s Widow,” published serially in Collier’s weekly magazine over five consecutive issues from mid-March to mid-April, 1952.

The story’s main character was Gevan “Gev” Dean. After his brother Ken was murdered, Gev returned to his hometown to mind the lucrative family business, Dean Products, where there was an internal power struggle going on. He also had to deal with Ken’s widow, Niki — who happened to be his former girlfriend:

gevan, 1952

After “My Brother’s Widow” came out in Collier’s, author John D. MacDonald beefed it up and released it as a standalone book with a new title, Area of Suspicion, in early 1954.

Further research reveals that at least two of the baby Gevans born in 1952 had the middle name Dean. And other Gevan Deans were born in later years/decades, no doubt to parents who had picked up the book.

Do you like the name Gevan? How would you pronounce it?

P.S. John D. MacDonald’s 1957 novel The Executioners was turned into the 1962 movie Cape Fear.

Sources: Area of Suspicion – The Trap of Solid Gold, John D. MacDonald – Wikipedia, SSA

Where did the baby name Mardeen come from in 1950?

mardeen, baby name, comic, 1950
Mary Worth – July 30, 1950

The name Mardeen has appeared in the U.S. baby name data just twice — once in 1950, then again a couple years later:

  • 1953: unlisted
  • 1952: 5 baby girls named Mardeen
  • 1951: unlisted
  • 1950: 14 baby girls named Mardeen [debut]
  • 1949: unlisted

Other variants of the name (Mardene and Mardine) had been in the data before this, but neither has ever been given to as many as fourteen babies per year.

So where did Mardeen come from? My best guess is a secondary character from the nationally syndicated comic strip Mary Worth. Mardeen made appearances regularly in 1950, from June through August.

Mardeen worked as a housekeeper for fellow character K. T. “Katy” Farrell, who was the 35-year-old, “brilliantly successful” head of a publishing house. Katy was involved in a romance — well, a love triangle — with “young novelist” Gregory Ford, one of Mary Worth’s friends. (Despite the title, Mary herself didn’t often make appearances in the strip.)

The comic Mary Worth, which has been around since the late 1930s, was being written by Allen Saunders and drawn by Ken Ernst at that time.

What do you think of the name Mardeen? How would you spell it?