How popular is the baby name Mark 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 Mark.

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Popularity of the baby name Mark


Posts that mention the name Mark

Baby born in taxi, named for driver (1930)

taxis

On December 4, 1930, a baby boy was born in a taxi cab en route to the hospital in Ogden, Utah.

The baby’s parents, Osako and Clarence Uno, both originally from Japan, decided to name him Raymond Sonji Uno — first name in honor of the cab driver, Raymond Harris.

Three days after Raymond’s 11th birthday, Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor. Tens of thousands of Japanese-Americans were promptly rounded up and sent to internment camps for the remainder of WWII. (The Uno family was imprisoned at Heart Mountain in Wyoming.)

Despite this experience, Raymond Uno joined the U.S. Army and served in the Korean War. He attended both college and law school at the University of Utah. And, in 1976, he became the very first ethnic minority judge in the state of Utah.

P.S. Raymond and his wife Yoshiko had five sons: Tab (b. 1955), Kai, Mark, Sean, and Lance. Tab’s name may have been inspired by Tab Hunter, and Lance’s could have been influenced by the TV show Lancer.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Cinema Shooting by Alex Proimos under CC BY 2.0.

Baseball fan makes bet, names baby after Mookie Betts

Baseball player Mookie Betts
Mookie Betts

In August of 2023, baseball player Mookie Betts of the Los Angeles Dodgers was getting ready to go up to bat when a fan said, “Mook, if you hit a home run I’ll name my daughter, her middle name, Mookie.”

Here’s more of their short conversation (according to a video that Betts posted to Twitter):

And I heard this, and I laughed, and he said he was serious.

So I turned around and said, “Nah, don’t do that bro. Don’t do that.”

He said, “No, I’m going to do it.”

I said, “Your wife wouldn’t like, bro, don’t do that.”

Betts proceeded to “hit a 436-foot blast to left field, his longest home run as a Dodger.”

He circled the bases and, when he returned, he fist-bumped the fan, Giuseppe Mancuso.

And then, like a couple weeks later, I see on Twitter the birth certificate for Francesca Mookie Mancuso. Shout out to you Giuseppe. I can’t wait to meet Francesca.

Mookie Betts’ nickname, which was chosen for him when he was a baby, was inspired by that of basketball player Daron Oshay “Mookie” Blaylock. (Blaylock’s nickname was given to him by his older sisters.)

So what’s Mookie’s real name?

Markus Lynn Betts. He was born in Tennessee in 1992 to sports-loving parents Willie Mark Betts and Diana Benedict, who “borrow[ed] from Willie’s middle name and [Diana’s] middle name” to create “what they hoped would be fortuitous initials: MLB” — the acronym for Major League Baseball, of course.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Mookie Betts (53182259916) by Erik Drost under CC BY 2.0.

Popular baby names in Ireland, 2023

Flag of Ireland
Flag of Ireland

Last year, the Republic of Ireland — which covers five-sixths of the island of Ireland — welcomed roughly 55,000 babies.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Grace and Jack.

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

Girl Names

  1. Grace, 339 baby girls
  2. Fiadh (pronounced FEE-a), 300
  3. Emily, 297
  4. Sophie, 283
  5. Lily, 270
  6. Ellie, 252
  7. Mia, 242
  8. Amelia, 241 (tie)
  9. Éabha (pronounced EY-va), 241 (tie)
  10. Ella, 231
  11. Isla, 227
  12. Hannah, 226
  13. Sophia, 218
  14. Lucy, 214
  15. Ava, 207
  16. Sadie, 200
  17. Olivia, 199
  18. Freya, 188
  19. Emma, 183
  20. Chloe, 181
  21. Robyn, 180
  22. Molly, 176
  23. Anna, 166 (tie)
  24. Croía (pronounced KREE-a), 166 (tie)
  25. Evie, 165
  26. Caoimhe (pronounced KEE-va or KWEE-va), 158
  27. Saoirse (pronounced SEER-sha or SAYR-sha), 157 (tie)
  28. Cara, 157 (tie)
  29. Sofia, 156
  30. Millie, 150
  31. Aoife (pronounced EE-fa), 148
  32. Isabelle, 132
  33. Bonnie, 130
  34. Maya, 128 (tie)
  35. Ada, 128 (tie)
  36. Róisín (pronounced ROH-sheen), 127
  37. Ruby, 126
  38. Kate, 123 (tie)
  39. Alice, 123 (tie)
  40. Holly, 120 (3-way tie)
  41. Erin, 120 (3-way tie)
  42. Sadhbh (pronounced siev; rhymes with “5”), 120 (3-way tie)
  43. Leah, 119
  44. Isabella, 118 (3-way tie)
  45. Ailbhe (pronounced AL-va), 118 (3-way tie)
  46. Méabh (pronounced mayv), 118 (3-way tie)
  47. Zoe, 115
  48. Annie, 112
  49. Ivy, 111
  50. Willow, 110

Boy Names

  1. Jack, 561 baby boys
  2. Noah, 473
  3. James, 369
  4. Rían (pronounced REE-an), 339
  5. Oisín (pronounced UH-sheen or OH-sheen), 330
  6. Fionn (pronounced fyun or fyoon), 306
  7. Tadhg (pronounced tieg, like the first part of “tiger”), 301
  8. Liam, 289
  9. Cillian (pronounced KIL-ee-an), 275
  10. Daniel, 256
  11. Finn, 251
  12. Conor, 244 (tie)
  13. Charlie, 244 (tie)
  14. Seán (pronounced shawn), 240
  15. Michael, 239
  16. Leo, 237
  17. Theo, 233
  18. Thomas, 227
  19. Patrick, 221
  20. Luke, 215
  21. Tommy, 214
  22. Oliver, 211
  23. Adam, 201
  24. Harry, 198
  25. Luca, 197
  26. Darragh, 195
  27. Alex, 175
  28. Bobby, 157
  29. Cian (pronounced KEE-an or keen), 156
  30. Oscar, 154
  31. John, 152 (tie)
  32. Max, 152 (tie)
  33. Ryan, 151
  34. Páidí (pronounced PAW-dee), 150
  35. Jamie, 149
  36. Ben, 147
  37. Kai, 141 (tie)
  38. Ollie, 141 (tie)
  39. Tom, 135
  40. Matthew, 134
  41. Dylan, 132
  42. Callum, 131
  43. Sonny, 130
  44. Sam, 129
  45. Ethan, 127 (tie)
  46. Alfie, 127 (tie)
  47. David, 122
  48. Alexander, 118
  49. Mason, 116
  50. Caelan, 114

New to the girls’ top 100 were Lucia, Cadhla (pronounced KIE-la) and Síofra (pronounced SHEE-fra).

New to the boys’ top 100 were Caelan, Jude, Paddy, Éanna (pronounced EY-na) and Dáithí (pronounced DAH-hee).

The fastest-rising names in the top 100 in terms of numbers of babies were:

  • Éala (increased by 41 baby girls), Ailbhe (+40), Méabh (+36), Zara (+33), Croía (+26)
  • Caelan (increased by 58 baby boys), Páidí (+41), Arlo (+35), Tommy (+30), Mark (+28)

And the fastest-rising names in terms of rank were:

  • Síofra (rose 57 spots on the girls’ list), Lucia (+43), Éala (+38), Lottie (+36), Zara (+31)
  • Caelan (rose 58 spots on the boys’ list), Mark (+46), Ruairí (+41), Eoin (+37), Arlo (+31)
Map of the four provinces of Ireland
Ireland’s four provinces

Home to more than five million people, the Republic of Ireland is divided into four provinces. (One of these provinces, Ulster, lies largely within Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK.) The top baby names within each of the four provinces last year were…

Top Girl NameTop Boy Name
Leinster
(56% of the population)		GraceJack
Munster
(27% of pop.)		GraceJack
Connacht
(11% of pop.)		FiadhJack
Ulster [ROI portion]
(6% of pop.)		LilyJack

And what about the baby names at the other end of the spectrum?

Here’s a selection of the names that were given to just 3 babies each in Ireland last year:

Rare Girl NamesRare Boy Names
Adara, Brídín, Cushla, Dottie, Eilidh, Féile, Gillian, Hezlin, Iona, Jolene, Kalina, Lorna, Maliha, Natasha, Ocean, Philomena, Ríonach, Saffie, Tuiren, Vedika, Yasmine, ZadieAlby, Bram, Conal, Douglas, Elvis, Finnian, Gerald, Igor, Jonnie, Keenan, Lughaidh, Maitiú, Nathanael, Orin, Patryk, Rylan, Séadhna, Téidí, Ultán, Viktor, Wren, Yohan, Zachariah

Finally, here are Ireland’s 2022 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.

Sources: Irish Babies’ Names – CSO (Irish Babies’ Names 2023), Births, Deaths and Marriages – CSO, Provinces of Ireland – Wikipedia

Image: Adapted from Flag of Ireland (public domain)
Map: Adapted from Provinces of Ireland location map by Ssolbergj under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Where did the baby name Tiffaniamber come from in 1993?

Actress Tiffani-Amber Thiessen in the TV series "Saved by the Bell" (1989-1993)
Tiffani-Amber Thiessen in “Saved by the Bell“

The curious compound name Tiffaniamber has appeared in the U.S. baby name data a total of four times, all during the 1990s:

  • 1998: unlisted
  • 1997: 9 baby girls named Tiffaniamber
  • 1996: unlisted
  • 1995: 7 baby girls named Tiffaniamber
  • 1994: 6 baby girls named Tiffaniamber
  • 1993: 6 baby girls named Tiffaniamber [debut]
  • 1992: unlisted
  • 1991: unlisted

Why?

Because of ’90s teen idol Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, who had starring roles on two different TV shows during the 1990s.

First, the actress played popular cheerleader Kelly Kapowski on the Saturday morning sitcom Saved by the Bell (1989–1993).

Second, she played manipulative Valerie Malone on the teen drama Beverly Hills, 90210. She joined the cast in 1994 (following the sudden departure of actress Shannen Doherty) and remained on the show until 1998.

Tiffani-Amber Thiessen was born in California in 1974. According to one source, her “filigreed first name” was created because “her parents liked Tiffani; her grandparents liked Amber.”

Saved by the Bell producer Peter Engel noted that the Los Angeles Times “made fun of Tiffani-Amber Thiessen’s name” in a negative review of the show’s very first episode.

In 2000, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen decided to drop the hyphen and shorten her professional name to Tiffani Thiessen. (Incidentally, her Saved by the Bell co-star Mark-Paul Gosselaar retains his hyphen to this day.)

What are your thoughts on the name Tiffani-Amber?

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of Saved by the Bell