How popular is the baby name Leia 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 Leia.

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Popularity of the baby name Leia


Posts that mention the name Leia

Where did the baby name Cindel come from in the 1980s?

The character Cindel Towani from the TV movie "Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure" (1984)
Cindel (and an Ewok) from “Caravan of Courage“

While we wait to see whether or not the new Star Wars names Rey and Kylo become as trendy as Luke and Leia became in the ’70s, let’s check out Cindel — the Star Wars name that everyone seems to have forgotten about!

Cindel debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1984, and saw peak usage in 1986:

  • 1988: 10 baby girls named Cindel
  • 1987: 11 baby girls named Cindel
  • 1986: 25 baby girls named Cindel [peak]
  • 1985: 18 baby girls named Cindel
  • 1984: 7 baby girls named Cindel [debut]
  • 1983: unlisted
  • 1982: unlisted

Variant spellings Cyndel and Cyndal debuted in 1985, while Cindal, Cyndil, and Cindell — all one-hit wonders — appeared over the next couple of years.

What’s the source of “Cindel”?

A pair of made-for-TV movies based on stories by George Lucas.

Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure aired on ABC in November of 1984. The sequel, Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, aired on the same station one year later.

Both films feature a young human character named Cindel Towani (played by actress Aubree Miller).

In the first film, her family is shipwrecked on the forest moon of Endor, home of the Ewoks. Her parents, Jeremitt and Catrine Towani, are promptly kidnapped. Cindel and her older brother, Mace, must locate and rescue them, with the Ewoks’ help.

In the second film, a group of marauders kills everyone in the Towani family except for Cindel. She and several friends fight the marauders, and, in doing so, obtain the starcruiser energy cell that Cindel needs to finally leave Endor.

In his book A Brief Guide to Star Wars, author Brian J. Robb notes that Mace is “a name from Lucas’s earliest Star Wars drafts later used for Samuel L. Jackson’s Jedi character in the prequels.” I can’t find any clues about how Lucas came up with the character name Cindel, though.

What are your thoughts on “Cindel”?

Sources:

Popular baby names in Malta, 2014

Flag of Malta
Flag of Malta

According to data from Malta’s National Statistics Office, the most popular name-groups in Malta in 2014 were Elena/Elenia/Helena/Ella and Luke/Luca/Lucas.

Here are Malta’s top 10 girl and boy name-groups of 2014:

Girl Names

  1. Elena/Elenia/Helena/Ella, 97 baby girls
  2. Julia/Yulia/Julianne, 72
  3. Emma/Emmanuela/Ema, 70
  4. Eliza/Elisa/Elizabeth/Elise, 69
  5. Catherine/Katrina/Kate/Katya, 46
  6. Maya/Mia/Myah, 44
  7. Lea/Leah/Leia, 42
  8. Emilia/Emily/Emelie, 41
  9. Amy/Aimee, 39
  10. Maria/Marija/Mariah/Marie, 37 [tie]
    • Anna/Hannah/Ann, 37 [tie]

Boy Names

  1. Luke/Luca/Lucas, 98 baby boys
  2. Matthew/Matthias/Matteo, 97
  3. Jacob/Jake, 77
  4. Zachary/Zak/Zack, 59
  5. Michael/Miguel/Mikhail, 53
  6. Liam/William, 51 [tie]
    • John/Jean/Jonathan/Juan/Gan, 51 [tie]
  7. Benjamin/Ben, 51
  8. Kaiden/Kayden/Kai ,46 [tie]
    • Alexander/Alessandro/Alec, 46 [tie]
  9. Andrew/Andreas/Andre/Andy, 45
  10. Joseph/Beppe/Giuseppe/Josef, 40

Down in 15th place on the boys’ side is “Yannick/Yan” — both are versions of John, and yet they’re not part of the John group, which is tied for 6th.

Speaking of strange things…

Quote about Malta being unable to use Maltese fonts for birth registrations (Times of Malta)

(My blog also cannot handle Maltese fonts, or else I’d be able to write out that paragraph for you.)

I’ve seen governments (e.g., NWT, California) make excuses about not being able to render minority/ethnic names properly on birth certificates, but I’ve never heard of a country that couldn’t render names from its own national language.

Oh, Malta.

Here are the 2013, 2012, 2009, 2007, and 2006 rankings.

Sources: Naming Babies – National Statistics Office – Malta, Luke and Elena remain most popular names given to newborns, ‘Dotty’ system bars patriot baby names

Image: Adapted from Flag of Malta (public domain)

Popular baby names in Malta, 2012

Flag of Malta
Flag of Malta

The most popular baby names in Malta were released back in May.

According to the National Statistics Office, the country’s top names (or name groups, actually) were Matthew/Matthias/Matteo for boys and Eliza/Lisa/Elsie/Elyse/Bettina for girls.

Here are Malta’s top 20 girl names and top 20 boy names of 2012:

Girl Names

  1. Eliza/Lisa/Elsie/Elyse/Bettina, 98 baby girls
  2. Elena/Elenia/Helena/Ella, 91
  3. Julia/Yulia/Julianne, 67
  4. Emma/Emmanuela/Ema, 54
  5. Maya/Mia/Myah, 47
  6. Lea/Leah/Leia, 46
  7. Christina/Christa/Christabel/Krystle, 45
  8. Mikela/Makaila/Michelle, 44
  9. Chloe/Khloe, Maria/Marija/Mariah/Marie, 39 each [2-way tie]
  10. Amy/Aimee, 37
  11. Kailey/Kai/Kaleigh, 34
  12. Martina/Martine, 32
  13. Catherine/Katrina/Kate/Katya, 30
  14. Jade/Giada, 28
  15. Anna/Hannah/Ann, 27
  16. Amber/Amberley, Sophia/Sophie, 24 each [2-way tie]
  17. Jasmine/Yasmine/Yasmeen, Chanel/Shanelle, 23 each [2-way tie]
  18. Emilia/Emily/Emelie, 21
  19. Hailey/Hailee/Hayleigh, Alison/Alice/Alicia/Alyssa/Aly, Faith, 19 each [3-way tie]
  20. Aaliyah/Alaya, 18

Boy Names

  1. Matthew/Matthias/Matteo, 101 baby boys
  2. Jacob/Jake, 98
  3. Luke/Luca/Lucas, 87
  4. Zachary/Zak/Zack, 58
  5. Kaiden/Kayden/Kai, 56
  6. John/Jean/Jonathan/Juan/Gan, 50
  7. Aiden/Ayden, 47
  8. Nathan/Nathaniel, 45
  9. Isaac/Izaak, Liam/William, 43 each [2-way tie]
  10. Alexander/Alessandro/Alec, 42
  11. Benjamin/Ben, 40
  12. Michael/Miguel/Mikhail, 39
  13. Nicholas/Nick/Nicolai, 36
  14. Jaden/Jayden/Jadon, Joseph/Beppe/Giuseppe/Josef, 35 each [2-way tie]
  15. Daniel/Dan/Danil, 30
  16. Yannick/Yan, Jack/Jackson/Jacques, Thomas/Tommas/Tommy, 29 each [3-way tie]
  17. Mason/Maison, Kyle/Kail, Andrew/Andreas/Andre/Andy, 28 each [3-way tie]
  18. James/Jamie/Jayme, 26
  19. Gabriel/Gabrijel/Gabryl, 24
  20. Julian/Julien/Guiliano, Denzel/Danzel/Denzilee, 22 each [2-way tie]

The 98 baby girls of the Eliza/Lisa/Elsie/Elyse/Bettina group represent 4.8% of all baby girls born in Malta in 2012, and the 101 baby boys of the Matthew/Matthias/Matteo group represent 4.6% of all baby boys.

I have three earlier Malta lists (2006, 2007, 2009) here at NBN, but there are even more (2002 through 2012, inclusive) at the NSO website — use the link below.

Source: Naming Babies: 2012 (NSO)

Image: Adapted from Flag of Malta (public domain)

Where did the baby name Darth come from in 1977?

The characters Darth Vader and Princess Leia from the movie "Star Wars" (1977)
Darth Vader and Princess Leia from “Star Wars“

I’m sure you know that Star Wars — often considered to be one of the greatest science-fiction movies of all time — gave boosts to the baby names Luke and Leia (pronounced LAY-uh) back in the late ’70s:

Boys named LukeGirls named Leia
19792,471 (rank: 110th)118
19781,882 (rank: 139th)156 (rank: 911th)
19771,241 (rank: 190th)98
1976914 (rank: 223rd)21
1975779 (rank: 256th)20

But did you know that the movie also influenced a handful of expectant parents to name their babies Darth?

Yup — as in Darth Vader. As in the Jedi-gone-bad who was the main antagonist of the original Star Wars trilogy. (The character was physically portrayed by English bodybuilder David Prowse, but voiced by American actor James Earl Jones.)

The first Star Wars film was released in 1977, and that’s the year we start seeing babies named Darth in the U.S. baby name data:

  • 1979: 7 baby boys named Darth
  • 1978: 13 baby boys named Darth
  • 1977: 9 baby boys named Darth [debut]
  • 1976: unlisted
  • 1975: unlisted

But the Force wasn’t strong with this one. The name didn’t stay in the data long enough to see the release of the second film, The Empire Strikes Back, in 1980.

So where did the character name “Darth Vader” come from?

After discarding the early name “Dark Water,” George Lucas played around with various surnames (including Vader, Wilson, and Smith) for the “tall, grim-looking general.” He eventually settled upon the combination “Darth Vader” in 1972.

Interestingly, the German/Dutch surname Vader happens to mean “father” or “senior.” Perhaps this definition inspired Lucas to turn Darth Vader into Luke’s father — a plot twist that didn’t come along until in 1978, in the second draft of the script for The Empire Strikes Back.

Decades after the first Star Wars films came out, though, Lucas had this to say about the origin of Darth Vader’s name:

“Darth” is a variation of dark. And “Vader” is a variation of father. So it’s basically Dark Father.

It does seem like Darth was based on the word “dark,” but it’s hard to know if Lucas really took the definition of Vader into account back in the early 1970s, long before the character was anyone’s father.

What are your thoughts on the name Darth?

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of Star Wars

[Latest update: Feb. 2025]