How popular is the baby name Louis 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 Louis.

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Popularity of the baby name Louis


Posts that mention the name Louis

Popular baby names in Switzerland, 2014

Flag of Switzerland
Flag of Switzerland

According to data from the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO), the country’s most popular baby names overall in 2014 were Emma and Noah.

But the #1 names within each language group don’t quite match up with these overall #1 names, so here are Switzerland’s top baby names of 2014 broken down by language group:

French

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Emma (163 baby girls)
2. Eva (98)
3. Léa (96)
4. Camille (85)
5. Zoé (84)
6. Alice (83)
7. Chloé (82)
8. Alicia (74)		1. Gabriel (153 baby boys)
2. Liam (128)
3. Lucas (113)
4. Ethan (107)
5. Nathan (104)
6. Noah (102)
7. Louis (97)
8. Luca (94)

Ethan jumped from 12th to 4th, and Camille continues to rise (8th to 4th).

German

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Mia (312 baby girls)
2. Lara (294)
3. Emma (293)
4. Laura (277)
5. Anna (271)
6. Sara (245)
7. Lea (244)
8. Leonie (234)		1. Noah (338 baby boys)
2. Leon (313)
3. Luca (288)
4. Levin (280)
5. David (265)
6. Elias (259) – tie
6. Julian (259) – tie
8. Tim (246)

Elias jumped from 14th to 6th, and Anna from 12th to 5th.

Italian

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Giulia (34 baby girls)
2. Sofia (33)
3. Emma (28)
4. Alice (26)
5. Emily (24) – tie
5. Mia (24) – tie
7. Aurora (23) – tie
7. Noemi (23) – tie		1. Leonardo (40 baby boys)
1. Gabriel (37)
3. Liam (31)
4. Alessandro (24)
5. Lorenzo (23)
6. Enea (20)
7. Matteo (19) – tie
7. Noah (19) – tie

Enea jumped from 19th to 6th, and Aurora from 12th to 7th.

Romansh

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Luana
2. Léonie		1. Andrin
2. Nino

According to a Behind the Name contributor, Andrin is a “Romansh form of Heinrich (Henry), originally from the Engadine valley in southeast Switzerland.”

Finally, here are Switzerland’s top baby names for 2013, if you’d like to compare.

Sources: The Swiss name that’s popular across all languages – 2014 baby names, Swiss Statistics – The most popular first names

Image: Adapted from Flag of Switzerland (public domain)

Popular boy names: Biblical vs. Non-Biblical

How has the ratio of Biblical names to non-Biblical names changed over time (if at all) among the most popular baby names in the U.S.?

This question popped into my head recently, so I thought I’d take a look at the data. We’ll do boy names today and girl names tomorrow.

First, let’s set some parameters. For these posts, “Biblical” names are personal names (belonging to either humans or archangels) mentioned in the Bible, plus all derivatives of these names, plus any other name with a specifically Biblical origin (e.g., Jordan, Sharon, Genesis). The “most popular” names are the top 20, and “over time” is the span of a century.

For boy names, the ratio of Biblical names to non-Biblical names has basically flipped over the last 100 years. Here’s a visual — Biblical names are in the yellow cells, non-Biblical names are in the green cells, and a borderline name (which I counted as non-Biblical) is in the orange cell:

Popular boy names: Biblical vs. non-Biblical.
Popular boy names over time: Biblical (yellow) vs. non-Biblical. Click to enlarge.
  • Biblical names: Adam, Alexander, Andrew, Austin (via Augustus), Benjamin, Daniel, David, Elijah, Ethan, Jack (via John), Jackson (via John), Jacob, James, Jason, John, Jonathan, Joseph, Joshua, Justin (via Justus), Lucas, Mark, Matthew, Michael, Nathan, Nicholas, Noah, Paul, Stephen, Steven, Thomas, Timothy, Zachary
  • Non-Biblical names: Aiden, Albert, Anthony, Arthur, Billy, Brandon, Brian, Charles, Christopher, Dennis, Donald, Dylan, Edward, Eric, Frank, Gary, George, Harold, Harry, Henry, Jayden, Jeffrey, Kenneth, Kevin, Larry, Liam, Logan, Louis, Mason, Raymond, Richard, Robert, Ronald, Ryan, Scott, Tyler, Walter, William
  • Borderline name: Jerry (can be based on the Biblical name Jeremy/Jeremiah or on the non-Biblical names Jerome, Gerald, Gerard)

It felt strange putting an overtly Christian name like Christopher in the non-Biblical category, but it doesn’t appear anywhere in the Bible, so…that’s where it goes.

Here are the year-by-year tallies:

YearTop 20 names
given to…		# Biblical# Non-Biblical
191440% of baby boys5 (25%)15 (75%)
192443% of baby boys6 (30%)14 (70%)
193443% of baby boys7 (35%)13 (65%)
194447% of baby boys7 (35%)13 (65%)
195446% of baby boys11 (55%)9 (45%)
196442% of baby boys11 (55%)9 (45%)
197438% of baby boys11 (55%)9 (45%)
198436% of baby boys14 (70%)6 (30%)
199427% of baby boys14 (70%)6 (30%)
200419% of baby boys14 (70%)6 (30%)
201414% of baby boys14 (70%)6 (30%)

But there’s a huge difference between sample sizes of 40% and 14%, so let’s also take a look at the 2014 top 100, which covers 42% of male births.

By my count, last year’s top 100 boy names were half Biblical, half non-Biblical:

Biblical names (49)Non-Biblical names (51)
Noah, Jacob, Ethan, Michael, Alexander, James, Daniel, Elijah, Benjamin, Matthew, Jackson (via John), David, Lucas, Joseph, Andrew, Samuel, Gabriel, Joshua, John, Luke, Isaac, Caleb, Nathan, Jack (via John), Jonathan, Levi, Jaxon (via John), Julian (via Julius), Isaiah, Eli, Aaron, Thomas, Jordan, Jeremiah, Nicholas, Evan, Josiah, Austin (via Augustus), Jace (via Jason), Jason, Jose, Ian, Adam, Zachary, Jaxson (via John), Asher, Nathaniel, Justin (via Justus), JuanLiam, Mason, William, Logan, Aiden, Jayden, Anthony, Carter, Dylan, Christopher, Oliver, Henry, Sebastian, Owen, Ryan, Wyatt, Hunter, Christian, Landon, Charles, Connor, Cameron, Adrian, Gavin, Robert, Brayden, Grayson, Colton, Angel, Dominic, Kevin, Brandon, Tyler, Parker, Ayden, Chase, Hudson, Nolan, Easton, Blake, Cooper, Lincoln, Xavier, Bentley, Kayden, Carson, Brody, Ryder, Leo, Luis, Camden

(Christian, Angel, Xavier, Dominic…all technically non-Biblical, despite having strong ties to Christianity.)

50%-50% isn’t quite as extreme as 70%-30%, but it’s still noticeably more Biblical than 1914’s 25%-75%.

Do any of these results surprise you?

Popular baby names in Germany, 2014

Flag of Germany
Flag of Germany

According to data from the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (Association for German Language), the most popular baby names in Germany in 2014 were Hanna/Hannah and Luis/Louis.

Here are the country’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2014:

Girl namesBoy names
1. Hanna/Hannah
2. Mia
3. Emma
4. Sophia/Sofia
5. Emilia
6. Lena
7. Anna
8. Lea/Leah
9. Marie
10. Lina		1. Luis/Louis
2. Leon/Léon
3. Maximilian
4. Ben
5. Paul
6. Lukas/Lucas
7. Jonas
8. Noah/Noa
9. Luka/Luca
10. Felix

On the girls’ list, Lea/Leah replaced Johanna.

On the boys’ list, Maximilian replaced Finn/Fin/Fynn.

The previous #1 names were Mia and Ben.

Here are the top baby names in Germany for 2013, 2012 and 2010.

Update, 5/7: I replaced the original rankings in this post (which mixed firsts and middles) with the rankings above (which is first names only). Thanks, Diane!

Sources: GfdS (2014), GfdS (2013)

Image: Adapted from Flag of Germany (public domain)

What popularized the baby name Marva in the 1930s?

Boxer Joe Louis (1914-1981) and his wife Marva
Joe and Marva Louis

According to the U.S. baby name data, usage of the name Marva increased quite a bit from 1934 to 1936:

  • 1937: 342 baby girls named Marva (ranked 342nd)
  • 1936: 350 baby girls named Marva (ranked 334th)
  • 1935: 187 baby girls named Marva (ranked 466th)
  • 1934: 74 baby girls named Marva (ranked 785th)
  • 1933: 60 baby girls named Marva (ranked 873rd)

Why?

Because of Marva Trotter, who married heavyweight boxer Joe Louis on September 24, 1935.

A few hours later, Joe fought fellow heavyweight Max Baer at Yankee Stadium:

Joe Louis entered the ring last night a married man, and his radiant bride, who until ten minutes before Joe left the apartment house at 381 Edgecombe Avenue for the Yankee Stadium was simply Miss Marva Trotter, 19-year-old Chicago secretary, sat in a ringside seat and urged her man on to do his best.

Louis won the fight by knockout in the fourth round.

September 24th was also an eventful day in the lives of Beloit, Wisconsin, couple Willis and Esther Scott. That evening, they welcomed twins — one boy, one girl. What did they name the babies? Joseph Louis and Josephine Marva, after the boxer and his new bride. (On the 1940 U.S. Census, 4-year-old Joseph is listed as “Joe Louis.”)

Sources:

Image: Clipping from La Opinion (4 Oct. 1935)