How popular is the baby name Leimomi 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 Leimomi.

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Popularity of the baby name Leimomi


Posts that mention the name Leimomi

Baby names inspired by M&M’S

M&M'S baby names, candy baby names

What’s the best thing about Halloween? If you said the costumes, or the parties, or the history, or the carving of very elaborate jack-o’-lanterns…you’d be wrong. Because the correct answer is: the candy.

But, as funny as I think it would be to meet a kid named Twizzler, I don’t want people taking names from candy wrappers and putting them onto birth certificates. So let’s look at candy-inspired baby names in a slightly different way by focusing on a single brand with a simple name: M&M’S.

Did you know that M&M’S are the top-selling Halloween candy in California, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C.? They’re the second-best seller in eight other states, and the third-best seller in three more.

More important for our purposes, though, is the fact that the brand name is essentially the same letter twice. So let’s check out baby names that similarly have two M’s, but two separate M’s. Because, if the candies won’t melt in your hand, the M’s shouldn’t meld in a name.

So here are over 20 baby names with two audibly distinct M’s, just like M&M’S candies:

  • Amram (m) – “exalted nation” in Hebrew.
  • Chrysanthemum (f) – flower name, from the ancient Greek words for “gold” and “flower.”
  • Jemima (f) – “dove” in Hebrew.
  • Kimimila (f) – “butterfly” in Lakota.
  • Leimomi (f) – “pearl lei” or “pearl child” in Hawaiian.
  • Malcolm (m) – “disciple of Saint Columba” in Scottish.
  • Mamie (f) – pet form of Mary or Margaret.
  • Maram (f) – “wish, desire” in Arabic.
  • Maximus, Maxima, Maximilian, etc. (m/f)- “greatest” in Latin.
  • Megumi (f) – Japanese name with various possible meanings, including “love, affection.”
  • Memphis (m/f) – “his beauty” in Egyptian.
  • Menachem (m) – “comforter” in Hebrew.
  • Mimi (f) – pet form of M-names like Mary and Maria.
  • Miriam (f) – original Hebrew form of Mary.
  • Maryam (f) – Arabic form of Maria.
  • Momoka (f) – Japanese name with various possible meanings, including “peach” + “fragrance.”
  • Montgomery (m) – English surname, from Norman French, meaning “Gumarich’s mountain.”
  • Mortimer (m) – English surname, from Old French, meaning “still water.”
  • Muhammad (m) – “praiseworthy” in Arabic.
  • Tomomi (f) – Japanese name with various possible meanings, including “friend” + “beautiful.”

Which of the M+M names above do you like best?

And, are you curious to know what the M’s in “M&M’S” actually stand for? Mars and Murrie, the surnames of Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie, the businessmen who created M&M’S back in the early 1940s. Forrest was the sons of Frank C. Mars (founder of Mars, Incorporated) and Bruce was the son of William F. R. Murrie (president of Hershey’s).

Sources: Top Halloween Candy by State [Interactive Map] – CandyStore.com, Memphis – Online Etymology Dictionary, Behind the Name

Where did the baby name Haunani come from in 1953?

Soundtrack to the movie "From Here to Eternity" (1953)
“From Here to Eternity” soundtrack

In 1953, the Hawaiian name Haunani saw high enough national usage* to appear for the first time in the U.S. baby name data:

  • 1955: unlisted
  • 1954: unlisted
  • 1953: 6 baby girls named Haunani [debut]
    • 5 born in Hawaii specifically
  • 1952: unlisted
  • 1951: unlisted

The soundtrack to From Here to Eternity — one of the top-grossing movies of not just 1953, but the entire decade — featured a song called “Haunani.”

The song had been composed by hapa haole musician Randall Kimeona “Randy” Oness for his daughter Haunani (b. 1944). The lyrics were originally in Hawaiian, but English lyrics were added later by lyricist Jack Pitman. Here’s the English version of “Haunani,” as sung by Alfred Apaka:

Later the same year, Coral Records put out an album of the film’s Hawaiian songs, including “Haunani,” performed by Danny Stewart and His Islanders.

The Hawaiian name Haunani is composed of two elements: hau, meaning “ruler,” and nani, meaning “beauty” or “glory.” (Hau also happens to be a Hawaiian word for snow.)

Do you like the name Haunani? Do you like it more or less than Leimomi?

Sources:

*The minimum threshold for inclusion in the publicly available dataset is five U.S. babies per gender, per year.

Where did the baby name Leimomi come from in 1959?

The Surfers album "On The Rocks" (1958)
The Surfers album

Leimomi, a Hawaiian name that means “pearl lei” or “pearl necklace,” debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1959 — the year that Hawaii became the 50th state.

  • 1963: unlisted
  • 1962: unlisted
  • 1961: 6 baby girls named Leimomi
  • 1960: unlisted
  • 1959: 8 baby girls named Leimomi [debut]
    • 5 born in Hawaii specifically
  • 1958: unlisted
  • 1957: unlisted

The debut was likely inspired by the song “Leimomi,” written by Alvin Kaleolani Isaacs and recorded by Hawaiian foursome The Surfers (Alan Naluai, Clayton Naluai, Patrick Kalani Sylva and Bernie Ching) for their debut album On the Rocks (1958).

The Surfers — like [Don] Ho, Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman — were in the first wave of musicians to bring the Islands’ music to the post-statehood Mainland audience.

Their debut album “was a whopping hit” successful enough to allow the boys to quit college and devote “all their time to making more records and appearing in clubs” and other places, including Disneyland and the Stardust in Las Vegas.

The name Leimomi has been in and out the SSA’s data since then, last appearing in 1990. What do you think of it?

Sources: