How popular is the baby name Lightning 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 Lightning.

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Popularity of the baby name Lightning


Posts that mention the name Lightning

Boy names that debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 2021

lotus bud

Which boy names emerged in the U.S. baby name data in 2021 for the first time ever?

Exactly 500 boy names debuted in the data last year, and the most impressive debut was made by Azaire. Here are the other top debuts:

  1. Azaire, 25 baby boys
  2. Gediz, 21
  3. Jeyvier, 15
  4. Damiri, 14
  5. Ripton, 14
  6. Zakius, 13
  7. Kampbell, 12
  8. Biden, 11
  9. Khaizer, 11
  10. Nuta, 11
  11. Shrithik, 11

The name Biden was no doubt inspired by Joe Biden, who was elected president in late 2020.

Some more debuts:

10 baby boysAmaias, Azekial, Howl, Maclen, Oceano, Oleander
9 baby boysAathiran, Atlus, Avyaanreddy, Cymere, Dhamir, Eleo, Ice, Kapree, Kenshi, Kyza, Riftyn, Three, Yankiel
8 baby boysAadrik, Ador, Amirii, Anansi, Aurum, Ayaat, Bucklee, Emerett, Gervonta, Henlee, Hiyaan, Hyndrix, Inzo, Jerzi, Jetzyn, Jhayco, Karlisle, Kyngdom, Ledgend, Maaran, Ovi, Ovin, Rhiatt, Rodas, Sicarii, Svar, Wilden, Yahnis, Yasuke, Yzael, Zeldris

Finally, here’s a sampling of the rest of the debuts:

  • 7 baby boys: Arcturus, Arminius, Brixson, Darlington, Finnin, Habibullah, Jahvani, Kovie, Lobo, Mellow, Neptune, Osaro, Riften, Ropyr, Teghbir, Zagreus
  • 6 baby boys: Anwyll, Cardinal, Debonair, Evansh, Five, Gilber, Huxtin, Jovial, Kalki, Khrome, Koufax, Lightning, Lugh, Minhaj, Niqo, Pure, Rhema, Rizvan, Saturn, Torbjorn, Varenya, Whiskey, Ymir, Zeelan
  • 5 baby boys: Amnon, Benelli, Caique, Costner, Dhev, Endymion, Grit, Haaland, Henzo, Hotchner, Iyah, Jheico, Kazarion, Keeper, Laiku, Maestro, Nyne, Ohtli, Preacher, Quban, Regulus, Sango, Sansar, Science, Tancredi, Wickham, Woodensley, Yester, Yoshiyahu

Zagreus is the main character of the recently released video game Hades.

Haaland goes hand-in-hand with the fast-rising boy name Erling, as they both refer to Norwegian soccer player Erling Haaland (which alex has already noted — thank you!).

I think it’s particularly interesting that several number-names — Three (9), Five (6), and Nyne (5) — popped up last year. I have no idea why, though.

If you can explain any of the above debuts, please leave a comment!

Source: SSA

Image: Adapted from LotusBud0048a (public domain) by Frank “Fg2” Gualtieri

Baby name story: Olympia Lightning

Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt
Usain Bolt

In May, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt — the eight-time Olympic gold medalist widely considered to be the greatest sprinter of all time — and his girlfriend, Kasi Bennett, welcomed a baby girl.

Her name?

Olympia Lightning Bolt.

(“Lightning Bolt” is dad’s nickname.)

Update, Jun. 2021: The couple recently welcomed two more babies — twin boys! Their names are Saint Leo and Thunder. (“Saint Leo” comes from Usain Bolt’s middle name, St. Leo.)

Sources: Usain Bolt – Wikipedia, Usain Bolt – IAAF, first Usain Bolt tweet (7/7/2020), second Usain Bolt tweet (6/20/2021)

Image: Adapted from Usain Bolt, Anniversary Games, London 2013 by J. Brichto under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Name quotes #62

double quotation mark

Ready for another batch of name-related quotes gathered from all over the place?

Let’s start with Liberian midwife Alice Sumo:

…[S]he was both surprised and delighted when quickly babies were named after her.

“I said ‘oh wow’ because with some of them I didn’t even know that they had named the baby after me! When you go to the market everybody is called Alice of Alex or Ellis. The last time I counted it was 862 Alices but now it has increased to 1,000 plus!

“To me the name Alice is an action name. Alice people are active people, they are caring people, they are loving people. A, the first letter in the alphabet. A for action.”

From an article about names in Israel by Abigail Klein Leichman:

I figured [Forest Rain’s] parents must have been hippies or Native Americans. In mainstream American culture, it is unusual to name children after elements of nature. How many people do you know named Rainbow, Lightning, Juniper Bush, Boulder, Valley, Oak, Prairie, Wellspring, or Wave?

In Israel, such names are extremely commonplace. If Forest Rain translated her name to Ya’ara Tal, no Israeli would think it exotic in the least. The words mentioned above translate to the everyday Hebrew names Keshet, Barak, Rotem, Sela, Guy, Alon, Bar, Ma’ayan, and Gal.

Another difference is that many modern Israeli names are unisex. You often cannot tell by name alone if someone is male or female. Tal, Gal, Sharon, Noam (pleasant), Shachar (Dawn), Inbar (amber), Inbal (bell), Neta (sapling), Ori (my light), Hadar (splendor), Amit (friend), and myriad other common names are used for either gender.

From an Irish newspaper article about the CSO disregarding fadas in Irish baby names:

The CSO recently unveiled its Baby Names of Ireland visualisation tool recently published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) tool allowing users to check the popularity of names officially registered in Ireland. However, it does not allow for names with the síneadh fada or other diacritical marks that denote pronunciation or meaning.

[…]

“Our language, while having a special status afforded it in the Constitution has been progressively marginalised to the fringes of bureaucracy.

“It behoves the Central Statistics Office above all other institutions to be correct in all matters it reports. This is where historians will first go to research,” [author Rossa Ó Snodaigh] said.

For more quotes about names, check out the name quotes category.

Popular and unique baby names in Iowa, 2016

Flag of Iowa
Flag of Iowa

I love that the Social Security Administration releases so much baby name data to the public. But I’ve always had mixed feelings about that 5-baby threshold for inclusion. (Due to privacy concerns, the government doesn’t release names given to fewer than 5 babies per gender, per year.)

Part of me appreciates the threshold. For instance, I like that it adds significance to the pop culture-inspired debut names I’m always posting about, as these names had to hit a certain minimum level of usage in order to register in the data.

But the other part of me? The other part just really, really wants to see those rare/crazy names at the bottom of the list.

So I get excited when I find U.S. data from an official source that does go down to single-instance usage. Up until recently, I only knew about Sonoma County and Los Angeles County, but recently I discovered that Iowa (an entire state!) also releases down-to-1 baby name data. Yay!

But before we get to the rare names, let’s look at the state of Iowa’s top baby names of 2016:

Girl Names
1. Olivia, 203 baby girls
2. Emma, 181
3. Charlotte, 158
4. Harper, 156
5. Ava & Evelyn, 148 each (2-way tie)
6. Amelia, 125
7. Nora, 123
8. Sophia, 112
9. Addison, 101
10. Grace, 96

Boy Names
1. Oliver, 197 baby boys
2. Owen, 178
3. William, 174
4. Wyatt, 170
5. Henry, 165
6. Liam, 159
7. Noah, 149
8. Benjamin, 148
9. Jackson, 144
10. Lincoln, 123

  • In the girls’ top 10, Addison and Grace replaced Avery.
  • In the boys’ top 10, Benjamin and Lincoln replaced Mason and Elijah.
  • In 2015, the top two names were Emma and Liam.

(The SSA rankings for Iowa are similar, but not exactly the same. One notable difference on is that the SSA ranks Grayson 10th on the boys list, and puts Lincoln down in 13th.)

And now for the rarities!

Iowa’s website offers interactive baby name usage graphs that include all names bestowed at least once from 2000 to 2016. Here’s a sampling of rare baby names in Iowa (2000-2016 usage):

Girl NamesBoy Names
Arabia (1)
Bishop (1)
Currency (1)
Dream (3)
Eros (1)
Fairy (1)
Gatsby (1)
Heritage (1)
Irish (5)
Jasper (1)
KeyEssence (1)
Lisbon (1)
Michigan (1)
Nirvana (3)
Orchid (1)
PairoDice (1)
Qy (1)
Reminisce (1)
Scully (1)
Tear (1)
Unity (4)
Veruca (1)
Windy (2)
Xanadu (1)
Yawh (1)
Zinnia (1)		Arcade (1)
Banksy (1)
Cactus (1)
Denali (2)
Elvis (18)
Fonzy (1)
Galaxy (1)
Helium (1)
Indigo (2)
Jeep (3)
Kal-El (3)
Lightning (1)
Mowgli (1)
Notorious (1)
Opttimus (1)
Player (1)
Quest (3)
Racer (3)
Sanctify (1)
Tavern (1)
Universe (1)
Vegas (1)
Winner (4)
Xyn (1)
Young-Sky (1)
Zealand (1)

If you decide to dig through the data, leave a comment and let me know what you spot!

And if you’re friends with any expectant parents in Iowa, tell those lucky ducks that they have access to full sets of baby name rankings for their state. Either send them a link to this post or to one of the pages below…

Sources: Top Baby Names – Iowa Department of Public Health, Baby Names Popularity Over Time – Iowa Department of Public Health

Image: Adapted from Flag of Iowa (public domain)