How popular is the baby name Marley 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 Marley.

The graph will take a few moments to load. (Don't worry, it shouldn't take 9 months!) If it's taking too long, try reloading the page.


Popularity of the baby name Marley


Posts that mention the name Marley

Arrr! Baby names for “Talk Like a Pirate Day”

Avast! Did you know that today, September 19th, is Talk Like a Pirate Day?

“Arrr” itself doesn’t make a great name — even for pirates — but here’s the next best thing: over 130 names that feature the “arrr” sound.

Girl Names with “Arrr”

  • Araminta
  • Arcadia
  • Arden
  • Aretha
  • Aria
  • Ariana, Arianna
  • Arlene
  • Arlette
  • Arlynne
  • Artemis
  • Barbara
  • Barbie
  • Carla
  • Carlene
  • Carley
  • Carmel
  • Carmella
  • Carmen
  • Charlene
  • Charlotte
  • Charmaine
  • Darcy
  • Daria
  • Darla
  • Darlene
  • Gardenia
  • Harbor
  • Harlow
  • Harmony
  • Hildegarde
  • Karla
  • Katarina
  • Larisa, Larissa
  • Mara
  • Marcella
  • Marcia
  • Margaret
  • Margot, Margaux
  • Maria
  • Mariah
  • Mariana
  • Marie
  • Marina
  • Mariska
  • Marissa
  • Marjorie
  • Marla
  • Marlena
  • Marlene
  • Marley
  • Marnie
  • Marta
  • Martha
  • Marva
  • Martina
  • Narcissa
  • Parthenia (…Parthenope?)
  • Pilar
  • Rosario
  • Scarlett
  • Skylar
  • Starla

Boy Names with “Arrr”

  • Arcadio
  • Archer
  • Archibald
  • Archie
  • Ari
  • Arlo
  • Arnold
  • Arsenio
  • Arthur
  • Balthazar
  • Barnaby
  • Barton
  • Bernard (…Bernarr?)
  • Carl
  • Carlisle
  • Carlton
  • Carson
  • Carter
  • Carver
  • Charles
  • Clark
  • Dario
  • Darius
  • Darwin
  • Edgar
  • Edward
  • Finbar
  • Garfield
  • Gerard
  • Gunnar
  • Hardy
  • Harley
  • Harper
  • Harvey
  • Howard
  • Karl
  • Lars
  • Larson
  • Lazarus
  • Leonard
  • Marcel
  • Marcellus
  • Mario
  • Marius
  • Marc, Mark
  • Marcus, Markus
  • Marlow
  • Marshall
  • Martin, Marty
  • Marvin
  • Nazario
  • Oscar
  • Parker
  • Richard
  • Stewart, Stuart
  • Ward
  • Warner
  • Warren
  • Warrick
  • Willard
  • Yardley

Which of the Arrr-names above do you like best? Did I miss any good ones?

Update, 9/20: A few additions…

Source: How To… – International Talk Like a Pirate Day
Image: Adapted from Flag of Edward England by WarX under CC BY-SA 3.0.

[Latest update: July 2023]

Another celebrity baby name from a dream

twilight

Actress Elisabeth Rohm dreamed up the name Easton for her daughter in 2008. Singer Fergie dreamed up the name Axl for her son in 2013. Between 2008 and 2013, though, there was a third dreamed-of celebrity baby name that I missed.

Actress Marley Shelton (who played Wendy Peffercorn in The Sandlot) and film producer Beau Flynn welcomed a baby girl in 2009 and named her West, thanks to a dream:

“My husband actually dreamed seven years ago that we had a daughter, and he was calling her West,” Marley recalls. “I immediately said, ‘If we ever have a daughter, we’re definitely naming her that.'”

Their second daughter, Ruby, was born in 2012.

Do you know of any other dreamed-of celebrity baby names?

Source: “Marley Shelton: Being a mom is the best role I’ve ever had!” Life & Style Weekly 11 Nov. 2009.

Image: Adapted from Twilight crescent Moon by ESO/G. Brammer under CC BY 4.0.

What popularized the baby name Nevaeh in the early 2000s?

Sonny Sandoval and baby daughter Nevaeh on an episode of the TV series "MTV Cribs" in 2000.
Sonny Sandoval and baby Nevaeh

The name Nevaeh was virtually unheard of before the year 2000. The earliest Nevaeh I’ve spotted in the records was born in 1904, and only a handful were born between that point and the mid-1990s.

The name managed to see enough usage in 1997 to debut in the U.S. baby name data with 5 baby girls (which is the minimum number required for inclusion in the publicly available version of the dataset, for safety reasons).

Nevaeh didn’t become the Next Big Thing, however, until it was spotlighted by MTV.

The documentary series MTV Cribs, which featured tours of the private homes of various celebrities, premiered in September of 2000.

In October of 2000 — just a few episodes in — the California-based Christian metal band P.O.D. appeared on the show. When P.O.D.’s vocalist Paul Joshua “Sonny” Sandoval — who, along with this wife, had welcomed a baby girl named Nevaeh Aurelia Sandoval in March of that year — introduced his daughter to the world via MTV Cribs, he succinctly explained the origin of her first name:

This is Nevaeh right here, that’s heaven spelled backwards. She’s my first, she’s 6 months old.

(Her middle name was likely chosen in honor of Sonny’s late mother, Aurelia.)

The following year, usage of the baby name Nevaeh exploded:

  • 2005: 4,558 baby girls named Nevaeh [rank: 69th]
  • 2004: 3,181 baby girls named Nevaeh [rank: 104th]
  • 2003: 2,300 baby girls named Nevaeh [rank: 145th]
  • 2002: 1,699 baby girls named Nevaeh [rank: 189th]
  • 2001: 1,199 baby girls named Nevaeh [rank: 266th]
  • 2000: 99 baby girls named Nevaeh
  • 1999: 8 baby girls named Nevaeh

The name didn’t merely break into the top 1,000 — it shot straight into the top 300. And it kept climbing, cracking the top 100 just four years later.

Nevaeh’s sudden trendiness gave rise to all sorts of spelling variants. The following graph shows how many baby girls in the U.S. have been given the name Navaeh or a variant since the late 1990s:

Variants of the baby name Nevaeh

(Spelling-specific popularity graphs: Nevaeh, Neveah, Navaeh, Nevaeha, Naveah, Neviah, Niveah, Navaya, Nevayah, Nevah, Nevaya, Naviah, Naveyah, Neaveh, Navayah, Naveya, Navea, Navah, Nevae, Nevea, Naviyah, Neveyah, Navae, Neviyah, Naevia, Naviya, Neveaha, Nivaeh, Nivaya, Niviah, Nyveah, Nevaiah, Neveya, Niveyah, Niveya, Navaiah, Neavah, Nyvaeh, Nevaha, Navaeha, and Nevaehia.)

And that’s not all. Hundreds of other babies were given names with that unorthodox “-aeh” ending:

Baby names ending with -vaeh like Nevaeh

(Name-specific popularity graphs: Lavaeh, Javaeh, Devaeh, Jevaeh, Levaeh, Sevaeh, Anevaeh, Avaeh, Davaeh, Savaeh, Kevaeh, Tyvaeh, Evaeh and Zevaeh. Navaeh, Nivaeh and Nyvaeh were listed above.)

Upward trends can’t last forever, though.

In terms of raw usage, Nevaeh’s best year on record was 2007. In terms of rank, it peaked at 25th in 2010 — a decade after that fateful MTV Cribs episode aired. Since then, though, the name has been losing steam.

YearGirls named NevaehRanking of Nevaeh
20125,40239th
20116,11233rd
20106,42925th
20096,11834th
20086,10934th
20076,81231st
20065,95143rd
20054,55869th

And this makes me wonder…now that it’s no longer on the rise, now that we’ve had a few years to get used to it, is Nevaeh less reviled today than it once was?

If you were a Nevaeh-hater in the beginning, are you still as adamantly against the name today? Or do you find it more tolerable now?

Sources:

P.S. Sandoval and his wife went on to have two more children: a daughter named Marley, and a son named Justice.

Popular baby names in Prince Edward Island (Canada), 2013

Prince Edward Island’s top baby names of 2013 were announced recently.

According to provisional data from PEI’s vital statistics office, the most popular baby names in the province are Brooklyn and Liam.

Between January 1 and December 6, a total of 1,255 babies were born on the island and 746 different baby names were registered. Here are several hundred of those names, grouped by usage:

Girl names

  1. Brooklyn, 9 baby girls
  2. Olivia, 8
  3. Ellie and Madison, 7 each [tie]
  4. Claire, Ella, Emma, Lydia, and Sophia, 6 each [5-way tie]
  5. Alexis, Callie, Julia, Lauren, Mackenzie, and Sophie, 5 each [6-way tie]
  6. Abigail, Amelia, Ava, Charlotte, Layla, Lily, Sadie, Summer, and Victoria, 4 each [9-way tie]
  7. Alexa, Anna, Annie, Aria, Aubree, Danica, Elizabeth, Felicity, Grace, Hannah, Harper, Jessica, Jordyn, Keira, Kinsley, Lexi, Lucy, Madelyn, Molly, Mya, Paisley, Peyton, Piper, Quinn, Sarah, Scarlett, Stella, Tessa, and Violet, 3 each [29-way tie]
  8. Aaralyn, Adalyn, Aleah, Alice, Alyson, Amy, Anabelle, Averie, Avery, Ayla, Brooke, Brooklynn, Casey, Charlie, Elle, Elly, Emersyn, Evelyn, Fiona, Georgia, Gracie, Hailey, Isabella, Isla, Izabella, Jaelyn, Kate, Katherine, Kathryn, Kayla, Kyleigh, Leah, Lylah, Macie, Maggie, Marley, Mary, Meredith, Mila, Nevaeh, Paige, Rebekah, Ruby, Ryleigh, Samantha, Savannah, Selena, Serena, Serenity, Taylor, and Zoey, 2 each [51-way tie]
  9. Adalay, Aislinn, Arista, Avalon, Avurri, Bonnie, Brae-Lynn, Brantley, Breagh, Brenya, Carling, Daelynn, Dawsyn, Ellavine, Elliet, Ellowyn, Erda, Felix, Georgie, Iola, Iona, Ivy, Jayla, Jozee, Keiannah, Khloey, Lewyn, Maeryn, Mataya, Meah, Merleah, Misk, Myrissa, Nahala, Naiomee, Penny, Primrose, Reenie, Rilynn, Ronnie, Rora, Soraya, Theia, and Zadie, 1 each (a small selection)

Boy names

  1. Liam, 11 baby boys
  2. Hunter, 10
  3. Connor and Jack, 9 each [tie]
  4. Cohen, Jaxon, and John, 8 each [3-way tie]
  5. Landon, Owen, and William, 7 each [3-way tie]
  6. Benjamin, Caleb, Henry, Lucas, Mason, and Noah, 6 each [6-way tie]
  7. Alex, Alexander, Carter, Charlie, David, Jackson, James, Jase, Joseph, and Wyatt, 5 each [10-way tie]
  8. Austin, Camden, Cameron, Emmett, Griffin, Harrison, Hudson, Jace, Jonah, Kingston, Lincoln, Marcus, Nash, Nathan, Oliver, Parker, Ryan, Ryder, Seth, and Xavier, 4 each [20-way tie]
  9. Charles, Clark, Cooper, Daniel, Drake, Dylan, Edward, Eli, Elijah, Emerson, Evan, Felix, Gabriel, Gavin, Gus, Isaac, Isaiah, Jacob, Jax, Jonathan, Joshua, Kai, Kaiden, Malcolm, Michael, Nathaniel, Riley, Sawyer, Thomas, and Tristan, 3 each [30-way tie]
  10. Antonio, Beau, Beckett, Brayden, Caden, Casey, Cash, Clarke, Dawson, Declan, Dominic, Drew, Elliot, Elliott, Ethan, Ezra, Gage, Grayson, Hayden, Jaxson, Jayden, Kole, Levi, Logan, Luke, Matthew, Morgan, Nate, Nicholas, Nolan, Peter, Ryker, Rylan, Sebastian, Simon, Tanner, Taylor, Theo, Turner, Ty, and Tye, 2 each [41-way tie]
  11. Abel, Aeros, Attwood, Blaiz, Boe, Canaan, Clive, Davud, Draeson, Fynn, Hadwin, Haitao, Jaece, Jedrek, Kessel, Montgomery, Neeko, Odell, Reethym, Rigon, Sudta, Toffer, Tylan, Wesdon, and Zyler, 1 each (a small selection)

I’m not sure when the finalized version of PEI’s 2013 list will be released, but I’ll be on the lookout for it.

Update, Jan. 2015: The 2014 list for PEI just came out, and it included a link to the 2013 data…which is exactly the same as the above. So it looks like PEI doesn’t release finalized lists.

Sources: