How popular is the baby name Machiavelli 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 Machiavelli.

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Popularity of the baby name Machiavelli


Posts that mention the name Machiavelli

How did Tupac Shakur influence baby names in the 1990s?

Tupac's last studio album, "All Eyez on Me" (1996).
Tupac album

Though we remember him today as a West Coast rapper — one of his biggest hits was “California Love,” after all — Tupac Shakur was actually raised on the East Coast.

Tupac Shakur (pronounced TOO-pahk shah-KOOR) was born into a politically active family in New York City in 1971.

At birth, his given names were “Lesane Parish.” But his mother, Afeni, decided to change them to “Tupac Amaru” when he was one year old. The new names honored Túpac Amaru II, an indigenous man who led a rebellion against Spanish rule in Peru in the 1780s. (The names Tupac and Amaru are based on the Quechua words thupa, meaning “royal” or “resplendent,” and amaru, meaning “snake.”)

Tupac moved to California until the late 1980s. His first studio album, 2Pacalypse Now (1991), was a commercial success. It was followed by several more successful albums, including All Eyez on Me, which was rap’s first double album. Tupac also had a career as an actor, starring in films like Juice (1992), Poetic Justice (1993), and Above the Rim (1994).

Sadly, his life was cut short by a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996.

His years of fame, and his sudden death, resulted in all three of his names — Tupac, Amaru, and Shakur — seeing higher usage (as boy names) during the 1990s. Tupac debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1993, and Amaru debuted in 1996. Shakur (which comes from the Arabic word for “thankful”) saw a 5-fold increase in usage from 1992 to 1993, followed by peak usage in 1997.

TupacAmaruShakur
199953149
1998102481
19971031119†
199697*87
1995..46
1994..79
19937*.66
1992..11
1991...
*Debut, †Peak usage

But it doesn’t end there.

Tupac Shakur spent most of 1995 in prison. One of the books he read while there was the infamous 1513 political treatise The Prince (“…it is much safer to be feared than loved…”) by Florentine statesman and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli (pronounced mah-kee-ah-VEH-lee).

The Prince inspired Tupac to create a new stage name: Makaveli. He only had a chance to use the alias once, though — for his fifth studio album, released two months after his murder. The following year, the unlikely name Makaveli popped up in the baby name data:

  • 1999: unlisted
  • 1998: unlisted
  • 1997: 11 baby boys named Makaveli [debut]
  • 1996: unlisted
  • 1995: unlisted

(Interestingly, the original spelling of the name, Machiavelli, started appearing in the data in 2013 — exactly 500 years after The Prince was written.)

Sources:

The top boy-name debuts of 2013

lotus bud

Jaceyon, a variant of the suddenly trendy Jayceon, was the top debut name of 2013.

Of all the boy names appearing for the very first time on a Social Security Administration baby name list in 2013, the following were the most popular:

1. Jaceyon, 89 baby boys
2. Jceon, 50
3. Jaeceon, 39
4. Jayceion, 37
5. Jaecion, 23
6. Jcion, 23
7. Jayseon, 17
8. Kitai, 16
9. Yetzael, 16
10. Jaycean, 12
11. Goku, 11
12. Hridaan, 11
13. Jaiceion, 11
14. Jru, 11
15. Nikson, 11
16. Oaks, 11

And a selection from the 10-and-under group: Gurfateh, Benzino, Zorawar, Alo, Dah, Prometheus, Brodix, Charger, Kingelijah, Lotanna, Mascud, Power, Samyog, Warrior, Beric, Chambers, Gospel, Hudhayfah, Jaxper, Khattab, Machiavelli, Motoki, Obsidian, Parx, Quill, Relic, Subaru, Treble, Uyiosa.

Where do the names above come from? Here are some explanations:

  • Jaceyon, Jceon, Jaeceon, Jayceion, Jaecion, Jcion, Jayseon, Jaycean, etc. – from Jayceon Taylor (a.k.a. The Game) of the VH1 reality TV show “Marrying The Game.”
  • Kitai – from Kitai Raige, a character in the movie After Earth (2013).
  • Goku – from the Dragon Ball manga character Goku?
  • Beric – from Game of Thrones character Beric Dondarrion.

Can you come up with explanations for any of the others?

P.S. Here are the boy name debuts for 2012, 2011 and 2010.

U.S. Baby Names 2013: Most popular names, Top girl-name debuts, Top boy-name debuts, Biggest girl-name changes, Biggest boy-name changes, Top first letters, Top lengths, Top girl names by letter, Top boy names by letter

Source: SSA

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