How popular is the baby name Louise 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 Louise.

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Popularity of the baby name Louise


Posts that mention the name Louise

Where did the baby name Jovon come from in 1960?

baby name, jovon, actress, 1960s
Jovon Monteil

When I first noticed the name Jovon popping up in the U.S. baby name data, I thought of Jovan Musk. But the Musk was from the ’70s, and the name first appeared a decade earlier:

  • 1962: unlisted
  • 1961: 5 baby girls named Jovon
  • 1960: 10 baby girls named Jovon [debut]
  • 1959: unlisted
  • 1958: unlisted

So, what put it on the map?

An actress named Jovon Monteil, who was making guest appearances on TV in the late 1950s and early 1960s. (The image is from Sea Hunt.) She was also in one movie: Born Reckless (1959).

Jovon’s real name was Louise Davis and she was originally from Albuquerque. The Albuquerque Journal noted in late 1957 that “Jovon Monteil” was “her newly chosen professional name.”

By the end of 1960 she was married and had a baby (named Michelle), which is likely why she stopped pursuing a career in entertainment.

The names Jovon and Jovan both saw a steep rise in usage in the ’70s thanks to Jovan Musk, put out by the Chicago-based Jovan company. (Here’s a long list of perfume-inspired baby names.)

Sources:

  • “Jovon Monteil Completes Part in ‘Born Reckless’.” Albuquerque Journal 22 Dec. 1957: 15.
  • “Beauty Contest Winner.” Albuquerque Journal 21 Jan. 1962: 15.

Name quotes #79

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From an article about Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen:

…Gisele has become a brand in itself. That monicker is fortunate – it’s easy to equate “Gisele” with “gazelle”, which is exactly what comes to mind when you see her strutting down the catwalk…

From a 2013 article about Oklahoma baby names in The Tulsa World:

Jeremiah and Carrie Rosson of Kellyville chose the name Elijah Gust for their 17-month-old because of its biblical roots and because the weather-influenced middle name paired well with their four-year-old son Josiah Thunder’s name.

“There is a verse in the 2 Kings that says Elijah was swept up in a gust,” Jeremiah Rosson said of the inspiration for their younger son’s name.

(Hundreds of baby boys in the U.S. have been named Thunder, btw.)

From the book Radio Shangri-La: What I Discovered on my Accidental Journey to the Happiest Kingdom on Earth (2010) by Lisa Napoli:

If you walked into any village in all of Bhutan and shouted “Karma,” a quarter of the heads would turn. There are only about fifty names in the whole country … There are no familial surnames, and most names are unisex. So it is entirely possible that a family could be made up of a mother named Karma Wangdi and a father named Karma Lhamo, a child named Karma Choden, and another named Lhamo Wangdi.

From a 2013 article in the San Jose Mercury News featuring various name stories:

I was born during the Great Depression. In those hardscrabble days, men like my dad, a college graduate, worked wherever they could find a job. His was digging ditches for the WPA. Needless to say, he was very tired after a day’s work.

In the meantime, Hollywood was doing its part to lift people’s spirits. The movies, according to my mother, changed every day in Niagara Falls, N.Y. Mom cajoled and cried and convinced Dad that they needed to go to the movies to keep up their (her) spirits.

At that time, there were two movie stars named Constance: Constance Moore and Constance Bennett. I was named after them. In those days, most people were named for relatives, usually wealthy ones. So my middle name is Louise, which was my paternal grandmother’s middle name as well. It was that grandmother who took me to church to be baptized as Agnes Louise Mooney (her name). No Hollywood movie star’s name for her granddaughter.

-Constance Louise Langford, 80, San Jose

Popular baby names in France, 2018

Flag of France
Flag of France

According to INSEE (Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques), the most popular baby names in France in 2018 were Emma and Gabriel.

Here are France’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2018:

Girl Names

  1. Emma, 4,369 baby girls
  2. Jade, 3,977
  3. Louise, 3,766
  4. Alice, 3,313
  5. Chloé, 3126
  6. Lina, 2,908
  7. Léa, 2798
  8. Rose, 2,720
  9. Anna, 2,603
  10. Mila, 2,581

Boy Names

  1. Gabriel, 5,419 baby boys
  2. Raphaël, 4591
  3. Léo, 4446
  4. Louis, 4415
  5. Lucas, 3979
  6. Adam, 3897
  7. Arthur, 3755
  8. Jules, 3698
  9. Hugo, 3686
  10. Maël, 3259

Two baby names that are trendy in France right now are Kylian and Aya — Kylian because of French soccer player Kylian Mbappé, and Aya because of French-Malian pop singer Aya Nakamura.

Strangely, I’ve never covered the French rankings before. I have posted about Paris a couple of times, though.

Sources: Classement des prénoms en France depuis 1900 – Insee, The ‘foreign’ baby name that’s still top of the charts in France

Image: Adapted from Flag of France (public domain)

What’s in a name, Ethyl?

A few weeks ago, on a Facebook post about Ethel and other e-names, Angel Brave left a comment about an Ethyl Corporation promotional booklet from the 1940s. Playing off the fact that Ethyl is a human name as well as a brand name, the booklet was full of names and definitions.

Her comment reminded me that I’d actually seen advertisements for that very booklet in old magazines. In fact, I was able find four full-page examples in Life.

The earliest ad (click to enlarge) featured the names Henry, Valerie, Caesar, and Jason:

Ethyl Corporation advertisement 1942

The next one had Edgar, Conrad, Hortense, and Moses:

Ethyl Corporation advertisement 1943

The third featured Vivian, Maxwell, Brian, and Albert:

Ethyl Corporation advertisement 1943

And the final ad had Clementine, Dexter, Jasper, and Louise:

Ethyl Corporation advertisement 1943

Which of these sets of names do you prefer? Why?

Sources:

  • Advertisement for Ethyl Corporation. Life 19 Oct. 1942: 9.
  • Advertisement for Ethyl Corporation. Life 7 Jun. 1943: 3.
  • Advertisement for Ethyl Corporation. Life 19 Jul. 1943: 1.
  • Advertisement for Ethyl Corporation. Life 30 Aug. 1943: 1.
  • Ethyl Corporation Records – Smithsonian