How popular is the baby name Maria 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 Maria.
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Sixteenth-century Dutch nobleman William the Silent — founder of the House of Orange-Nassau, the reigning house of the Netherlands — was the leader of the Dutch revolt against Spanish rule that set off the Eighty Years’ War (1568-1648).
William had a total of 16 children with five different women (four wives, one mistress). All 16 received traditional first names, but four of his daughters were given location-inspired middle names — symbols of the political alliances between William and “the lands for which he fought.”
Here are the names of all 16:
Maria (born in 1553)
Philip William, (b. 1554)
Maria (b. 1556)
Justinus (b. 1559)
Anna (b. 1562)
Anna (b. 1563)
Maurice August Philip (b. 1564)
Maurice (b. 1567)
Emilia (b. 1569)
Louise Juliana (b. 1576)
Elisabeth (b. 1577)
Catharina Belgica (b. 1578)
Charlotte Flandrina (b. 1579)
Charlotte Brabantina (b. 1580)
Emilia Antwerpiana (b. 1581)
Frederick Henry (b. 1584)
Each of the regions/locations honored with a name responded by “bestow[ing] pensions upon the children”:
Catharina Belgica was provided with an annuity of 3,000 florins by the States General of the Dutch Republic.
Charlotte Flandrina was provided with 2,000 florins by the States of Flanders.
Emilia Antwerpiana was provided with 2,000 florins by the city of Antwerp.
This inspired other parents with connections to the House of Orange-Nassau to adopt similar naming practices. For instance, Ernst Casimir I — the Stadtholder of Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe — named his daughter Elisabeth Friso (b. 1620). And Henri Charles de Le Trémoille — a direct descendant of William the Silent via Charlotte Brabantina — named his son Charles BelgiqueHollande (b. 1655).
Sources:
Broomhall, Susan and Jacqueline Van Gent. Gender, Power and Identity in the Early Modern House of Orange-Nassau. London: Routledge, 2016.
Steen, Jasper van der. Memory Wars in the Low Countries, 1566-1700. Leiden: Brill, 2015.
In the 1960s, comic books were on their way out in the United States. But they were still going strong in Latin America.
In fact, one of Latin America’s best-selling comic books, Lágrimas, risas y amor (transl. Tears, Laughter and Love), was introduced in Mexico in late 1962.
Lágrimas, risas y amor was created by Yolanda Vargas Dulché. It featured romantic stories, each of which had its own unique set of characters. And, believe it or not, some of these stories ended up influencing U.S. baby names, particularly in states with large Spanish-speaking populations (like California and Texas). Here are some examples:
Yesenia
“Yesenia” (1965-1966) told the love story of Yesenia, a gypsy, and Osvaldo, a Mexican soldier. In 1966, we see the name Yesenia appear for the first time in the U.S. baby name data:
1968: 13 baby girls named Yesenia
1967: 12 baby girls named Yesenia
1966: 17 baby girls named Yesenia [debut]
1965: unlisted
1964: unlisted
Geisha
I don’t know anything about the plot of “Geisha” (1967), but the baby name Geisha first appeared in the U.S. data the same year:
1969: unlisted
1968: unlisted
1967: 8 baby girls named Geisha [debut]
1966: unlisted
1965: unlisted
One of the “Geisha” covers
Analuisa
“El atardecer de Ana Luisa” (transl. “Ana Luisa’s Middle Years”) (1971) told the story of Ana Luisa, who lost her boyfriend to another woman when she was young, but got him back years later. There’s a gap between the publication and the debut of the compound name Analuisa, but I still think it’s likely that the two events are connected.
1975: unlisted
1974: unlisted
1973: 5 baby girls named Analuisa [debut]
1972: unlisted
1971: unlisted
…And it doesn’t end there! Many Lágrimas, risas y amor stories were later adapted for TV and film, giving them extra (and much bigger) rounds of exposure. Some examples:
Rosaisela
The comic “María Isabel” (1964) featured a character named Rosa Isela. It became a telenovela in 1966, and a year later the compound name Rosaisela first emerged in the data:
1969: unlisted
1968: 5 baby girls named Rosaisela
1967: 9 baby girls named Rosaisela [debut]
1966: unlisted
1965: unlisted
Yesenia (again)
“Yesenia” became a telenovela in 1970 and a movie in 1971. The one-two punch of both of these pieces of media, both made in Mexico, resulted in an huge increase in the usage of Yesenia in the United States:
1973: 343 baby girls named Yesenia [rank: 503rd]
1972: 471 baby girls named Yesenia [rank: 414th]
1971: 526 baby girls named Yesenia [rank: 410th]
1970: 30 baby girls named Yesenia
1969: 9 baby girls named Yesenia
Oyuki
The comic “El pecado de Oyuki” (transl. “The Sin of Oyuki”) (1975-1977) became a telenovela in 1987. It first aired in the U.S. on Univision, and the same year the name Oyuki debuted in the U.S. data:
1989: 8 baby girls named Oyuki
1988: 20 baby girls named Oyuki
1987: 6 baby girls named Oyuki [debut]
1986: unlisted
1985: unlisted
Yesenia (yet again)
“Yesenia” was made into yet another telenovela in 1987, and this resulted in the name’s highest-ever usage in the U.S. the same year:
1989: 1,303 baby girls named Yesenia [rank: 204th]
1988: 1,208 baby girls named Yesenia [rank: 215th]
1987: 2,003 baby girls named Yesenia [rank: 137th]
1986: 845 baby girls named Yesenia [rank: 293rd]
1985: 522 baby girls named Yesenia [rank: 422nd]
Alondra
The comic “Casandra” (which came out during the ’80s) was adapted as Alondra for TV in 1995. It was renamed in honor of Yolanda Vargas Dulché’s granddaughter, orchestra conductor Alondra de la Parra. The same year, the popularity of the name Alondra (the Spanish word for “lark”) rose considerably:
1997: 1,837 baby girls named Alondra [rank: 167th]
1996: 2,020 baby girls named Alondra [rank: 157th]
1995: 1,205 baby girls named Alondra [rank: 238th]
1994: 149 baby girls named Alondra
1993: 193 baby girls named Alondra [rank: 972nd]
Rosaisela (again)
“María Isabel” was made into yet another telenovela in 1997. A year later, the name saw its highest-ever U.S. usage:
2000: 20 baby girls named Rosaisela
1999: 33 baby girls named Rosaisela
1998: 51 baby girls named Rosaisela [peak]
1997: 10 baby girls named Rosaisela
1996: 10 baby girls named Rosaisela
…Do you know anyone who was named with one of these comics or telenovelas in mind? Which name did they get?
Sources:
Foster, David William. (Ed.) Handbook of Latin American Literature. New York: Routledge, 2015.
Hinds, Harold E. and Charles M. Tatum. Not Just for Children: The Mexican Comic Book in the Late 1960s and 1970s. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992.
Back when sea voyages were the only way to reach distant lands, many babies ended up being born aboard ships. And many of these ship-born babies were given names that reflected the circumstances of their birth. A good portion of them, for instance, were named after the ships upon which they were born.
I’ve gathered hundreds of these ship-inspired baby names over the years, and I think it’s finally time to post what I’ve found. You’ll find the first half of the list below. (Here’s the second half.)
A
Abergeldie:
Emma Abergeldie Walsh, born in 1884
Abernyte:
Eva Abernyte Congdon, born in 1875
Abington:
Herbert Bealie Abington Tait, born in 1884
Abyssinia:
Abyssinia Louise Juhansen, born in 1870
Abyssinia Elfkin, born in 1872
Louise Abyssinia Bellanger, born in 1874
Achilles:
John Achilles Denchey, born in 1871
Actoea:
U. Actoea Jones, born in 1868
Adriatic:
John Adriatic Gateley Collins, born in 1879
Adriatic O’Loghlin Gould, born in 1880
Agnes Adriatic Cook, born in 1880
Agamemnon:
Frederick Agamemnon Dingly, born in 1876
Alaska:
Mary Alaska Magee, born in 1884
Alcester:
Gertrude Alcester Dart, born in 1884
Alcinous:
Mary Duncan Alcinosa Greenwood, born in 1887
Aldergrove:
Aldergrove Andrew Fullarton Feathers, born in 1875
According to the Civil Registry of Moscow, the most popular baby names in the city last year were (again) Sofia and Alexander.
Here are Moscow’s top 6 girl names and top 6 boy names of 2020:
Girl Names
Sofia (Sofya), over 2,800 baby girls
Maria, 2,200 baby girls
Anna, 2,084
Alisa, 1,729
Viktoria, 1,705
Polina, 1,603
Boy Names
Alexander, over 2,500 baby boys
Mikhail, 2,427 baby boys
Maxim, 2,284
Artyom, 1,827
Mark, 1,666
Ivan, 1,617
Less commonly bestowed names include Vesna, Dionysus, Iskra (“spark”), Lucifer, Venus-Veronica, Sever, Severina, and Yermak-Alexander. (Yermak could be a reference to the Russian folk hero Yermak Timofeyevich.)
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