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

Baby names with LOVE: Lovella, Lovelyn, Clover

heart

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Looking for a baby name that makes you think of love? Here’s a list of names with LOVE — that is, names that contain the letter sequence “l-o-v-e”:

  • Beloved
  • Clove
  • Clover, Klover
  • Glover
  • Love
    • Did you know that “Love” is the Swedish form of Louis?
  • Lovea, Loveah
  • Loveaya
  • Loveda
  • Lovee
  • Loveday
  • Lovelace
  • Lovel, Lovell, Lovelle
  • Loveleen
  • Loveless
  • Lovelia
  • Lovella
  • Lovely, Lovelee, Loveli
  • Lovelyn, Lovelynn
  • Lovena
  • Lovene
  • Lovenia
  • Lovensky
  • Lovera
  • Lovern, Loverne
  • Lovesta
  • Lovett, Lovette, Loveth
  • Lovetta, Loveta
  • Lovey
  • Loveya
  • Milove
  • Mylove

Do you “love” any of the above? :)

And, just to give you some extra options to choose from, here are two more sets of names. First, names that contain all the letters of LOVE (though they’re not necessarily together and/or in the correct order):

  • Avelino
  • Avonlea
  • Benvolio
  • Clevon
  • Clovie
  • Dalevon
  • Delvon
  • Delvonta
  • Delvonte, Delvontae
  • Devlon
  • Devola
  • Edvaldo
  • Elovie
  • Elvio
  • Elvon
  • Evangelos
  • Evola
  • Evolet, Evolett, Evolette, Evoleth
  • Jovel, Jovell
  • Jovelyn
  • Kelveon
  • Kelvon
  • Kelvonte, Kelvontae
  • Lavonne
  • Lavrentios
  • Leovanni, Leovani, Leovonni
  • Leovardo
  • Leovigildo
  • Levolia
  • Levon, Levonne
  • Levona, Levonna
  • Levonda
  • Levonia
  • Levonta
  • Levonte, Levontae
  • Levora
  • Levorn
  • Levoy
  • Lovice
  • Lovie
  • Lovine
  • Lovonne
  • Marvelous
  • Melvon
  • Melvonia
  • Novelia
  • Noveline
  • Novella
  • Novelle
  • Oleva
  • Olevia
  • Olive
  • Oliver
  • Olivera
  • Olivette, Olivet
  • Olivier
  • Oliviero
  • Orville
  • Ovel, Ovell
  • Ovelia
  • Oveline
  • Ovella
  • Roosevelt
  • Rovella
  • Salvatore
  • Silvestro
  • Solveig, Solvei, Solvej, Solveigh
  • Valentino
  • Valeriano
  • Valerio
  • Valero
  • Valorie, Vallorie
  • Velora
  • Veloria
  • Velouria
  • Violet, Violette
  • Violetta
  • Volena
  • Voleta
  • Vsevolod
  • Yovela

Second, names that simply contain the letter sequence “l-o-v” (without the final “e”):

  • Clova
  • Clovia
  • Clovis
  • Dilovan
  • Dilovar
  • Llovani
  • Lova
  • Lovada
  • Loval
  • Lovanda
  • Lovann
  • Lovanna
  • Lovi
  • Lovia
  • Lovic
  • Lovick
  • Lovida
  • Lovilla
  • Lovina
  • Lovinia
  • Lovis
  • Lovisa
  • Lovita
  • Lovonda
  • Lovonia
  • Lovorka
  • Maclovia
  • Maclovio
  • Milovan
  • Olov
  • Olova

Most of the names above come directly from the U.S. SSA’s baby name data.

Finally, here are two real-life Valentine’s Day babies for you: Valerie Valentine (b. 1951) & Val N. Tines (b. 1953).

Image: Adapted from Emojione1 2764 by Emoji One under CC BY-SA 4.0.

[Latest update: April 2023]

Why did Braxton debut as a girl name in 1994?

Toni Braxton's self-titled album (1993)
Toni Braxton album

The surname Braxton — which has a long history of usage as a boy name in the U.S. — started popping up in the data as a girl name in the mid-1990s:

  • 1996: 25 baby girls named Braxton
  • 1995: 27 baby girls named Braxton
  • 1994: 17 baby girls named Braxton [debut]
  • 1993: unlisted
  • 1992: unlisted

(Hundreds of baby boys were also being named Braxton during these years.)

Why?

Because of R&B singer Toni Braxton, who released her successful debut album, Toni Braxton, in mid-1993.

The album’s first single, “Another Sad Love Song”, peaked at #7 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in late 1993. The second single, “Breathe Again,” peaked at #3 in early 1994. Also in early 1994, she won her first two Grammy Awards: Best New Artist and Best R&B Vocal Performance (for her first single).

Despite Toni’s influence, the name Braxton never became as popular for girls as it was for boys:

Graph of the usage of the baby name Braxton in the U.S. since 1880.
Usage of the baby name Braxton

The year it saw peak usage as a female name — in 2004, with 53 baby girls — it was still picking up steam as a male name. Braxton’s trendiness as a boy name topped out in the mid-2010s, when the name was getting close to the top 100.

Prior to going solo, Toni Braxton was part of a quintet called The Braxtons with her four younger sisters, all of whom have T-names: Traci, Towanda, Trina, and Tamar.

What are your thoughts on Braxton as baby name? (Do you prefer it for girls, or for boys?)

Sources: Toni Braxton – Wikipedia, Toni Braxton – Billboard, Tamar Braxton shares Vincent Herbert love story

P.S. In 2013, Toni’s youngest sister Tamar Braxton welcomed a son in 2013 with then-husband Vincent Herbert. They named him Logan Vincent — in part for the initials “L.V.” On the talk show Bethenny, Tamar explained: “It gives me lots of reasons to buy Louis Vuitton.”

Popular baby names in Germany, 2012

Flag of Germany
Flag of Germany

The most popular baby names in Germany were announced quite a while ago, but I never noticed the news release. Oops.

According to Germany’s Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (Association for German Language), the country’s top names are Luca/Luka for boys and Sophie/Sofie for girls.

Here are the top 10 boy names and top 10 girl names of 2012:

Boy NamesGirl Names
1. Luca/Luka (1.69% of boys)
2. Maximilian (1.67%)
3. Alexander (1.56%)
4. Paul (1.55%)
5. Ben (1.29%)
6. Leon/Léon (1.29%)
7. Lukas/Lucas (1.26%)
8. Elias (1.25%)
9. Luis/Louis (1.20%)
10. Jonas (1.08%)		1. Sophie/Sofie (3.28% of girls)
2. Marie (3.22%)
3. Maria (1.58%)
4. Sophia/Sofia (1.50%)
5. Mia (1.48%)
6. Emma (1.39%)
7. Hannah/Hanna (1.27%)
8. Anna (1.23%)
9. Johanna (1.12%)
10. Luisa/Louisa (1.08%)

So, 17.2% of the baby girls and 13.8% of the baby boys born in Germany last year got a name in the top ten.

Some of the unusual names accepted by the government in 2012 were Fallion, Kirono, Meus, Katte, Ruster and Semea.

Source: GfdS

Image: Adapted from Flag of Germany (public domain)

Baby names for coffee lovers (Namestorm #16)

cup of coffee

I’m posting on Sunday instead of Monday this week. Why? Because today (September 29) is International Coffee Day, and I thought it would be fun to celebrate by brainstorming for baby names for coffee lovers.

Here are some coffee-inspired names I’ve come up with so far…

Kaldi

Legend has it that an Ethiopian goatherd named Kaldi discovered the coffee plant during the 9th century. After watching his goats become lively after eating coffee berries, he tried the berries himself, then told some local monks about the plant. The story has inspired many coffee shop owners to name their establishments “Kaldi’s Coffee” and the like.

Clement

Another legend has it that, around the year 1600, Pope Clement VIII gave coffee his official papal approval. Coffee was new to Europe, and Catholic clerics wanted it banned because they associated it with Islam. But Clement tried it and liked it, and his thumbs-up made coffee acceptable (and, soon, very popular) in Europe.

Penny

Thousands of coffeehouses opened in England during the second half of the 17th century. During the 18th century, they came to be called Penny Universities because, for the one-penny price of cup of coffee, a person could learn a great deal from the many political, commercial and philosophical discussions going on inside. Like the Kaldi legend, this story has inspired many coffee shop owners to use the name “Penny University.”

Boston; Griffin

The U.S. would have been a tea-drinking nation if not for the Boston Tea Party, which made tea drinking unpatriotic. After that historic 1773 rebellion against the King George’s tea tax, Americans switched over to coffee and never looked back. The specific location of the Tea Party was Griffin’s Wharf (which no longer exists).

Gabriel

French naval officer Gabriel de Clieu transported (maybe smuggled?) a single coffee plant from Louis XIV’s royal garden to the French colony of Martinique in 1720. The trip across the Atlantic was arduous, but both he and the plant arrived intact. Fifty years later, Martinique boasted over 18 million coffee plants — all progeny of Gabriel’s original.

Francisco

Colonel Francisco de Melo Palheta of Brazil traveled to French Guiana in 1727, ostensibly to help settle a border dispute. He ended up obtaining coffee seedlings for Brazil (the real objective of his mission, likely) in a rather sneaky way: within a bouquet of flowers. Brazil went on to become the world’s largest coffee producer.

Johann; Elisabeth/Lieschen

In the 1730s, composer Johann Sebastian Bach wrote the “Coffee Cantata,” in which a young woman, Lieschen, argues with her father about her coffee addiction. She sings lines like “Coffee, I must have coffee” while he tries to force her to break her habit. Here’s the Coffee Cantata in English. The name Lieschen is based on Lies, pronounced LEES, a diminutive of Elisabeth (the German form of Elizabeth).

What other baby names for coffee lovers can you come up with?

Update, May 2017: How about Ariosa? It was America’s first national coffee brand.

P.S. If you liked this, you might also like the namestorm for chocolate…

Sources: Coffee @ Nationalgeographic.com, History of Coffee – National Coffee Association, History of Coffee – Wikipedia

Image: Adapted from A small cup of coffee by Julius Schorzman under CC BY-SA 2.0.