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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Popularity of the baby name Maria


Posts that mention the name Maria

Named Shirley? Join the club.

chairs

Seriously — join the Shirley Club.

The Shirley Club, exclusively for people named Shirley, was created in Australia in 1996 by a woman named Shirley Brown.

More than 120 Shirleys showed up at the inaugural Shirley convention in Alice Springs in 2001, establishing a Guinness World Record for the most people with the same name in one place. (The record was soon broken by a Maria gathering Spain, then by a Mohammed gathering in Dubai.)

Here’s the website for original Shirley Club, and here’s the link to Shirley Club USA, founded in 2009 by Shirley Rose.

According to the Shirley Club USA FAQ, people with alternative spellings of the name are also eligible for membership: “Even if you spell it Shirlee, Shirlie or some other unique way, if you look up when someone calls out “Shirley”, then you qualify!”

Image: Adapted from Chaises-saint-denis (public domain) by Thierry Caro

Nicolae Ceausescu & his brother, Nicolae Ceausescu

Romanian politician Nicolae Ceausescu (1918-1989)
Nicolae Ceausescu

Nicolae Ceausescu (pronounced chow-SHES-koo) was Romania’s head of state for more than two decades, from 1967 to 1989.

The notorious communist leader was one of nine surviving siblings:

  1. Niculina Ceausescu
  2. Marin Ceausescu
  3. Nicolae Ceausescu
  4. Florea Ceausescu
  5. Nicolae Ceausescu
  6. Ilie Ceausescu
  7. Maria Ceausescu
  8. Elena Ceausescu
  9. Ion Ceausescu

Did you catch it? “Nicolae” is listed twice. The first one is the dictator, the second one is his younger brother, born when the first Nicolae was about 6.

Ceausescu biographer John Sweeney writes off the repetition: “His parents had more children than they knew names.”

But here’s how Alice Miller, psychologist and child abuse expert, explains it:

To my question as to how a brother could also be christened Nicolae, I repeatedly received the reply that the father was drunk “as usual” at the time the child was named. By all accounts, he had simply forgotten that he already had a son named Nicolae — though no one could explain to me how Ceausescu’s mother could also forget that fact. This information seemed to arouse little surprise in Bucharest.

She also says the situation “throws light on the dictator’s obsessive desire for revenge,” which must have come from his “insatiable determination to gain at last the recognition completely denied him as a child.”

I haven’t found anything to verify Alice’s version of the story but, if true, it’s rather depressing. Naming and drinking do not mix. (Robert could have told you that.)

Sources:

  • Miller, Alice. Breaking Down the Wall of Silence: The Liberating Experience of Facing Painful Truth. New York: Dutton, 1991.
  • Sweeney, John. The Life and Evil Times of Nicolae Ceausescu. London: Hutchinson, 1991.
  • Nicolae Ceausescu – Wikipedia

Image: Adapted from Ceausescu Anul Nou 1976-77 (photo #LA380, 380/1976, Fototeca online a comunismului românesc, accessed 16 Mar. 2025)

The 10 children of Lady Charlotte Guest

Lady Charlotte Guest (1812-1895)
Charlotte Guest

A couple of days ago, in my post about Rhiannon, I mentioned the Mabinogion.

The first person to translate this collection of medieval tales into English was Lady Charlotte Guest (1812-1885). She wasn’t a native Welsh speaker, but learned the language after marrying Welsh businessman John Josiah Guest at the age of 21 and moving to Wales.

That marriage produced 10 children. Here are the names:

  1. Charlotte Maria (b. 1834)
  2. Ivor Bertie (b. 1835)
  3. Katherine Gwladys (b. 1837)
  4. Thomas Merthyr (b. 1838)
  5. Montague John (b. 1839)
  6. Augustus Frederick (b. 1840)
  7. Arthur Edward (b. 1841)
  8. Mary Enid Evelyn (b. 1843)
  9. Constance Rhiannon (b. 1844)
  10. Blanche Vere (b. 1847)

Many of the above, including Bertie, Montagu (without the e) and Vere, are family names on Charlotte’s side. Charlotte’s father Albemarle got another interesting family name.

Here are definitions for the four Welsh names:

  • Gwladys – A form of the old Welsh name Gwladus. It might be based on the Welsh word gwlad, meaning “country.”
  • Merthyr – From the Welsh word merthyr, which means “martyr.” Records show that Thomas was born in the town of Merthyr Tydfil.
  • Enid – Found in the Welsh legend of Geraint and Enid. It might be based on the Welsh word enaid, meaning “soul.”
  • Rhiannon – Found in the Mabinogion. It might mean “divine goddess” or “maid of Annwfn.”

If you could add an 11th name (first + middle) to this set, what combination would you choose and why? Gender is up to you.

Source: Lady Charlotte Guest – Wikipedia

Image: Portrait of Lady Charlotte Guest

Popular baby names in Spain, 2013

Flag of Spain
Flag of Spain

What are the top baby names in Spain?

According to data from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística, the most popular baby names last year were Lucia and Hugo.

Here are Spain’s top 20 girl names and top 20 boy names of 2013:

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Lucia
2. Maria
3. Paula
4. Daniela
5. Martina
6. Carla
7. Sara
8. Sofia
9. Valeria
10. Julia
11. Alba
12. Claudia
13. Noa
14. Marta
15. Irene
16. Emma
17. Carmen
18. Laura
19. Ana
20. Ainhoa		1. Hugo
2. Daniel
3. Pablo
4. Alejandro
5. Alvaro
6. Adrian
7. David
8. Mario
9. Diego
10. Javier
11. Lucas
12. Nicolas
13. Manuel
14. Marcos
15. Iker
16. Sergio
17. Izan
18. Jorge
19. Carlos
20. Martin

I found this list via Name News by Clare, who said:

So many names I’d never have guessed (and, in some cases, have never heard of) here, like Alvaro, Ainhoa, Aitana, Leire, Nerea, and Ainara.

I agree. I also didn’t expect to see the boy names Aitor (35th), Asier (58th) or Unai (60th). Or the girl name Africa, which was 68th — way more common in Spain than here.

(Aitana, Leire, Nerea, and Ainara ranked 26th, 28th, 31st and 29th for girls, respectively.)

I haven’t blogged about the top names in Spain before, but I did have a post about the top names in Catalonia last year. Weirdly, I looked up Unai for that post — it’s Basque and means “cowherd.”

Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística (via Name News, via Nomes e mais nomes)

Image: Adapted from Flag of Spain (public domain)