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

Popular baby names in Arizona, 2024

Flag of Arizona
Flag of Arizona

The state of Arizona will likely welcome more than 77,000 babies in 2024.

What will the top baby names of the year be? Olivia and Liam, according to provisional data released in late December, 2024, by the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Here are Arizona’s projected top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2024:

Girl names

  1. Olivia
  2. Emma
  3. Isabella
  4. Sophia
  5. Amelia
  6. Mia
  7. Camila
  8. Charlotte
  9. Sofia
  10. Luna
  11. Evelyn
  12. Aurora
  13. Aria
  14. Violet
  15. Ava
  16. Gianna
  17. Penelope
  18. Eliana
  19. Elena
  20. Ellie
  21. Valentina
  22. Hazel
  23. Layla
  24. Mila
  25. Lily
  26. Emily
  27. Harper
  28. Ivy
  29. Scarlett
  30. Chloe
  31. Emilia
  32. Leilani
  33. Delilah
  34. Eleanor
  35. Elizabeth
  36. Victoria
  37. Nora
  38. Avery
  39. Maria
  40. Abigail
  41. Nova
  42. Ella
  43. Madison
  44. Liliana
  45. Grace
  46. Daisy
  47. Natalia
  48. Genesis
  49. Athena
  50. Maya

Boy names

  1. Liam
  2. Noah
  3. Mateo
  4. Sebastian
  5. Oliver
  6. Elijah
  7. Alexander
  8. Benjamin
  9. Daniel
  10. Julian
  11. Santiago
  12. Michael
  13. James
  14. Ethan
  15. Aiden
  16. David
  17. Angel
  18. Logan
  19. Mason
  20. Jacob
  21. Ezra
  22. Gabriel
  23. William
  24. Adrian
  25. Isaac
  26. Levi
  27. Anthony
  28. Lucas
  29. Joseph
  30. Ezekiel
  31. Wyatt
  32. Elias
  33. Luke
  34. Samuel
  35. Jose
  36. Henry
  37. Isaiah
  38. Jackson
  39. Matthew
  40. Jayden
  41. Jesus
  42. Luis
  43. Jack
  44. Theodore
  45. Dylan
  46. Carter
  47. Owen
  48. Andrew
  49. Lincoln
  50. Grayson

In the girls’ top 10, Sofia replaced Evelyn.

In the boys’ top 10, Alexander, Daniel, and Julian replaced Santiago, Ezra, and Levi.

And Juniper, which was the #1 girl name in Arizona’s Coconino County in 2022, only managed to rank 90th state-wide in 2024.

If you’d like to see Arizona’s projected rankings for 2023, you can find them in this post.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Flag of Arizona (public domain)

Popular baby names in Italy, 2023

Flag of Italy
Flag of Italy

In 2023, the Southern European country of Italy welcomed 379,890 babies — 184,514 girls and 195,376 boys.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Sofia and Leonardo, yet again.

Here are Italy’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2023:

Girl names

  1. Sofia, 4,971 baby girls
  2. Aurora, 4,648
  3. Ginevra, 4,274
  4. Vittoria, 4,194
  5. Giulia, 3,732
  6. Beatrice, 3,425 – pronounced beh-a-TREE-cheh
  7. Ludovica, 3,157
  8. Alice, 3,014 – pronounced a-LEE-cheh
  9. Emma, 2,529
  10. Matilde, 2,465
  11. Anna, 2,128
  12. Camilla, 2,091
  13. Bianca, 1,992
  14. Azzurra, 1,922
  15. Chiara, 1,914 – pronounced KYAH-rah
  16. Nicole, 1,792
  17. Giorgia, 1,780
  18. Isabel, 1,667
  19. Greta, 1,635
  20. Noemi, 1,439
  21. Martina, 1,392
  22. Arianna, 1,389
  23. Gaia, 1,370
  24. Sara, 1,368
  25. Rebecca, 1,328
  26. Viola, 1,325
  27. Elena, 1,270
  28. Ambra, 1,257
  29. Chloe, 1,196 (tie)
  30. Diana, 1,196 (tie)
  31. Adele, 1,194
  32. Mia, 1,192
  33. Margherita, 1,095
  34. Sole, 1,088 – pronounced SOH-leh
  35. Francesca, 1,082
  36. Cecilia, 1,060
  37. Gioia, 1,018
  38. Emily, 1,017
  39. Marta, 964
  40. Elisa, 953
  41. Nina, 929
  42. Lavinia, 912
  43. Anita, 875
  44. Amelia, 870
  45. Eleonora, 853
  46. Carlotta, 833
  47. Maria, 803
  48. Celeste, 788
  49. Eva, 751
  50. Giada, 735

Boy names

  1. Leonardo, 7,096 baby boys
  2. Edoardo, 5,603
  3. Tommaso, 4,687
  4. Francesco, 4,534
  5. Alessandro, 4,383
  6. Mattia, 4,349
  7. Lorenzo, 4,006
  8. Gabriele, 3,954
  9. Riccardo, 3,600
  10. Andrea, 3,333
  11. Diego, 2,722
  12. Giuseppe, 2,661
  13. Matteo, 2,648
  14. Enea, 2,564
  15. Nicolò, 2,444
  16. Antonio, 2,424
  17. Federico, 2,313
  18. Giovanni, 2,093
  19. Filippo, 2,046
  20. Samuele, 2,041
  21. Pietro, 1,993
  22. Giulio, 1,749
  23. Gioele, 1,641 – pronounced jo-EH-leh
  24. Davide, 1,597
  25. Michele, 1,590
  26. Christian, 1,541
  27. Elia, 1,522
  28. Gabriel, 1,497
  29. Noah, 1,386
  30. Marco, 1,353
  31. Salvatore, 1,324
  32. Liam, 1,236
  33. Luca, 1,230
  34. Vincenzo, 1,211
  35. Thomas, 1,146
  36. Emanuele, 1,100
  37. Alessio, 1,056
  38. Nathan, 1,007
  39. Giorgio, 1,006
  40. Samuel, 1,005
  41. Jacopo, 1,002
  42. Giacomo, 1,000
  43. Ettore, 970
  44. Raffael, 900
  45. Daniele, 899
  46. Simone, 892
  47. Luigi, 886
  48. Damiano, 830
  49. Domenico, 818
  50. Santiago, 798

The girls’ top 100 included Anastasia (57th), Sveva (75th), Mariasole (83rd), and Letizia (97th).

The boys’ top 100 included Ludovico (56th), Niccolò (66th), Brando (73rd), and Ciro (94th).

The girl name Azzurra (which is associated with Italy’s national soccer team gli Azzurri, “the Blues”) ranked 20th in both 2022 and 2021 before jumping to 12th place last year.

Speaking of soccer…I recently learned that Italian soccer star Francesco Totti (who played for AS Roma from 1993 to 2017) influenced baby names in Italy via the names of his three children:

  • The usage of Cristian rose after his son Cristian was born in November of 2005:
    • 2006: 3,028 boys named Cristian (rank: 25th)
    • 2005: 1,619 boys named Cristian (rank: 39th)
    • 2004: 1,616 boys named Cristian (rank: 38th)
  • The usage of Chanel rose after his daughter Chanel was born in May of 2007:
    • 2008: 158 girls named Chanel (rank: 189th)
    • 2007: 63 girls named Chanel (rank: 314th)
    • 2006: fewer than five girls named Chanel
  • The usage of Isabel rose after his daughter Isabel was born in March of 2016:
    • 2017: 1,218 girls named Isabel (rank: 36th)
    • 2016: 910 girls named Isabel (rank: 50th)
    • 2015: 570 girls named Isabel (rank: 69th)

Sources: Contanomi – Quante bambine e quanti bambini si chiamano…? – Istat, Leonardo e Sofia “tengono”, risale Francesco – Istat (Jan. 2024), IstatData

Image: Adapted from Flag of Italy (public domain)

Rare baby name: Castara

The book "Castara" (1634) by William Habington
“Castara“

While searching for “star” names recently, I discovered the curious name Castara, which was given to dozens of baby girls in the U.S. during the 1800s.

Some examples…

“Castara” reminded me of both Castor, the name from Greek mythology (and also the name of a star, coincidentally), and Castoria, the name of the old-timey patent medicine.

But I think the most likely explanation for this one is literature.

A volume of poetry called Castara was published anonymously in London in 1634. Later editions of the collection included extra poems and revealed the name of the author: William Habington, who’d invented the name “Castara” as a pseudonym for his wife, Lucy Herbert.

Habington’s poems had titles like…

  • “To Castara, Softly singing to her selfe.”
  • “To Castara, Inquiring why I loved her.”
  • “To Cupid, Upon a dimple in Castara’s cheeke.”
  • “To Castara, Upon a trembling kisse at departure.”
  • “To Castara, Weeping.”
  • “To Castara, Upon an embrace.”

Many of the poems praised Castara’s innocence and purity, so I believe Habington created the pseudonym from the Latin word castus, which means “morally pure,” “chaste.” (Castus is the word from which chaste derives, in fact.)

One researcher noted that, after Habington’s poems were published, the name Castara “rapidly [became] a generic name for a woman one might be in love with” in literature. For instance, in British writer Anna Maria Porter’s novel A Sailor’s Friendship (1805), the hero (who was probably modeled after Admiral Horatio Nelson) had a love interest named Castara.

Habington’s poems could be found in anthologies published in the U.S. during the 19th century. Several are featured in Richard Henry Stoddard’s The Loves and Heroines of the Poets (1861), for example. I also spotted mentions of Castara in various American periodicals (e.g., “…eloquent lines of Habington to his Castara…” in a California newspaper in 1857).

Despite this, the name Castara never caught on like some of the other names coined by writers — names such as Lorna, Pamela, Vanessa, and Wendy.

What are your thoughts on the name Castara?

Sources:

Image: Clipping from Castara

Why did Cale debut as a girl name in 2006?

The character Cale Crane from the movie "Deamer" (2005)
Cale Crane from “Dreamer“

In the middle of the first decade of the 2000s, the name Cale — which was being given to hundreds of baby boys per year — debuted impressively in the girls’ data:

  • 2008: 14 baby girls named Cale
  • 2007: 17 baby girls named Cale
  • 2006: 34 baby girls named Cale [debut]
  • 2005: unlisted
  • 2004: unlisted

(The similar name Kale also saw higher usage for girls around that time.)

What was behind this sudden interest in Cale as a girl name?

A little girl named Cale in the family-friendly film Dreamer, which was released in October of 2005.

The movie’s main characters were Kentucky horse trainer Ben Crane (played by Kurt Russell) and his school-age daughter Cale (played by Dakota Fanning).

When Ben refused to euthanize an injured racehorse named Soñador (“Sonya”), he was given the horse — then promptly fired. While Ben tried to fix his family’s precarious financial situation, Cale developed a strong bond with the animal. Sonya went on to make a full recovery, but would she ever race again?

The film was loosely based on the recovery story of racehorse Mariah’s Storm. (I don’t know the story behind the horse’s name, but “Mariah’s Storm” is reminding me of the 1940s book Storm, which featured a cyclone whose name was spelled like Maria, but pronounced like Mariah.)

What are your thoughts on the baby name Cale? Do you prefer it as a boy name, or as a girl name?

Sources: Dreamer (2005 film) – Wikipedia, SSA

Image: Screenshot of Dreamer