How popular is the baby name Martin 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 Martin.

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Popularity of the baby name Martin


Posts that mention the name Martin

Popular baby names in Bulgaria, 2023

Flag of Bulgaria
Flag of Bulgaria

The country of Bulgaria, home to over 6.4 million people, is located in Southeastern Europe. It shares a border with five other countries: Romania, Turkey, Greece, Serbia, and North Macedonia.

Bulgaria welcomes tens of thousands of babies every year. Last year, the most popular names among Bulgaria’s babies were Viktoria and Aleksandar.

Here are Bulgaria’s top 3 girl names and top 3 boy names of 2023:

Girl names

  1. Viktoria, 589 baby girls
  2. Maria, 537
  3. Sofia, 480

Boy names

  1. Aleksandar, 828 baby boys
  2. Georgi, 822
  3. Kaloyan, 611

What other names have topped the rankings within the last few years? Below are Bulgaria’s most popular baby names of 2022, 2021, 2020, and 2019.

2022

In 2022, a total of 56,917 babies (27,813 girls and 29,104 boys) were born in Bulgaria.

Girl names, 2022Boy names, 2022
1. Viktoria, 605 baby girls
2. Maria, 554
3. Nikol, 518
4. Sofia, 493
5. Raya, 400
6. Aleksandra, 336
7. Yoana, 332
8. Daria, 326
9. Gabriela, 313
10. Elena, 290		1. Aleksandar, 873 baby boys
2. Georgi, 820
3. Martin, 735
4. Kaloyan, 644
5. Boris, 625
6. Nikola, 614
7. Daniel, 588
8. Dimitar, 565
9. Viktor, 557
10. Ivan, 543

2021

In 2021, a total of 59,069 babies (28,796 girls and 30,273 boys) were born in Bulgaria.

Girl names, 2021Boy names, 2021
1. Viktoria, 645 baby girls
2. Maria, 596
3. Nikol, 537
4. Raya, 463
5. Sofia, 458
6. Yoana, 373
7. Daria, 362
8. Gabriela, 353
9. Aleksandra, 343
10. Simona, 285		1. Aleksandar, 938 baby boys
2. Georgi, 832
3. Martin, 783
4. Kaloyan, 658
5. Boris, 637
6. Dimitar, 609
7. Teodor, 563
8. Daniel, 550
9. Ivan, 548 [tie]
10. Nikola, 548 [tie]

2020

In 2020, a total of 59,440 babies (28,896 girls and 30,544 boys) were born in Bulgaria.

Girl names, 2020Boy names, 2020
1. Viktoria, 722 baby girls
2. Maria, 612
3. Nikol, 564
4. Sofia, 506
5. Raya, 471
6. Daria, 388
7. Aleksandra, 377
8. Gabriela, 371
9. Yoana, 338
10. Elena, 337		1. Aleksandar, 1106 baby boys
2. Georgi, 958
3. Martin, 810
4. Dimitar, 668
5. Nikola, 666
6. Boris, 660
7. Kaloyan, 640
8. Daniel, 615
9. Ivan, 596
10. Teodor, 516

2019

In 2019, a total of 61,882 babies (30,209 girls and 31,673 boys) were born in Bulgaria.

Girl names, 2019Boy names, 2019
1. Viktoria, 732 baby girls
2. Maria, 680
3. Nikol, 596
4. Aleksandra, 489
5. Sofia, 475
6. Raya, 458
7. Gabriela, 377
8. Daria, 370
9. Yoana, 351
10. Mihaela, 318 [tie]
11. Simona, 318 [tie]		1. Aleksandar, 1,036 baby boys
2. Georgi, 969
3. Martin, 811
4. Dimitar, 665
5. Nikola, 662
6. Boris, 636
7. Ivan, 614
8. Viktor, 601
9. Daniel, 597
10. Kaloyan, 581

If you’d like to go back even further, here are Bulgaria’s 2018 rankings.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Flag of Bulgaria (public domain)

What gave the baby name Madonna a boost in the mid-1980s?

Madonna in the music video for "Material Girl" (1985)
Madonna in a music video

From the early 1900s to the late 1960s, Madonna was one of the top 1,000 girl names in the United States. In terms of rankings, it was most popular in the 1930s; in terms of raw numbers of births, it was most popular in the ’50s and ’60s.

The name has been in decline ever since, but it did see a sudden spike in usage in 1985:

  • 1987: 61 baby girls named Madonna
  • 1986: 70 baby girls named Madonna
  • 1985: 146 baby girls named Madonna
  • 1984: 63 baby girls named Madonna
  • 1983: 23 baby girls named Madonna

In fact, it almost landed back inside the top 1,000 that year. (It ranked 1,033rd, just seven babies shy of 1,000th place.)

Here’s a visual:

Graph of the usage of the baby name Madonna in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Madonna

What gave it a boost?

Mononymous pop superstar Madonna (birth name: Madonna Louise Ciccone).

The singer was born into a Catholic family in Michigan in 1958. She was named after her mother. (Her five siblings are named Anthony, Martin, Paula, Christopher, and Melanie.)

Madonna rose to fame in the mid-1980s with a string of catchy hits:

  • “Holiday,” which peaked at #16 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in January of 1984
  • “Borderline,” which peaked at #10 in June of 1984
  • “Lucky Star,” which peaked at #4 in October of 1984
  • “Like a Virgin,” which peaked at #1 for six weeks starting in December of 1984
  • “Material Girl,” which peaked at #2 in March of 1985
  • “Crazy for You,” which peaked at #1 in May of 1985
    • It was written for the movie Vision Quest, in which Madonna had a cameo.
  • “Angel,” which peaked at #5 in June of 1985
  • “Into the Groove,” which was never technically released as a single
    • It was featured in the movie Desperately Seeking Susan, in which Madonna had a leading role.
  • “Dress You Up,” which peaked at #5 in October of 1985

She also got a lot of exposure on MTV. One of her most memorable MTV moments was the suggestive “Like a Virgin” performance at the very first Video Music Awards (in September of 1984):

In 1991, during a Vanity Fair interview, Madonna posed the question: “How could I be anything else but what I am having been named Madonna?”

Her name is based on the word madonna (which meant “my lady” in Old Italian). Today it’s associated with the Virgin Mary — hence its usage as a given name in Catholic families — but, centuries ago, it was simply a polite form of address similar to madame or milady. (Madonna’s first child, a daughter born in 1996, was also given a Virgin Mary-associated name: Lourdes.)

What are your thoughts on the name Madonna? Would you use it?

P.S. Coincidentally, the primary male characters in two of Madonna’s early movies — Vision Quest and Who’s That Girl — had nearly the same (rather uncommon) first name: Louden/Loudon.

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of the music video for “Material Girl” (1985)

Popular baby names in Spain, 2022

Flag of Spain
Flag of Spain

The country of Spain, which makes up most of Europe’s Iberian Peninsula, shares land borders with France, Andorra, and Portugal.

Last year, Spain welcomed 159,649 baby girls and 169,602 baby boys.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Lucia and Martin (again).

Here are Spain’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2022:

Girl names

  1. Lucia, 3,539 baby girls
  2. Sofia, 2,899
  3. Martina, 2,651
  4. Valeria, 2,580
  5. Maria, 2,443
  6. Julia, 2,240
  7. Paula, 1,912
  8. Emma, 1,864
  9. Olivia, 1,862
  10. Daniela, 1,661
  11. Carla, 1,655
  12. Alma, 1,619
  13. Mia, 1,614
  14. Carmen, 1,613
  15. Vega, 1,544
  16. Lola, 1,542
  17. Lara, 1,537
  18. Sara, 1,453
  19. Alba, 1,440
  20. Jimena, 1,410
  21. Noa, 1,397
  22. Chloe, 1,391
  23. Valentina, 1,365
  24. Claudia, 1,272
  25. Aitana, 1,110
  26. Ana, 1,042 (tie)
  27. Gala, 1,042 (tie)
  28. Vera, 1,029
  29. Abril, 1,028
  30. Alejandra, 1,024
  31. Triana, 997
  32. Manuela, 985
  33. Candela, 974
  34. Laia, 970
  35. Zoe, 908
  36. Ines, 901
  37. Adriana, 895
  38. Victoria, 873
  39. Elena, 868
  40. Blanca, 859
  41. Marina, 839
  42. Carlota, 798
  43. Marta, 708
  44. Clara, 705
  45. Luna, 703
  46. Nora, 699
  47. Lia, 683
  48. Rocio, 676
  49. Ariadna, 641
  50. Irene, 618

Boy names

  1. Martin, 3,224 baby boys
  2. Mateo, 3,132
  3. Hugo, 3,074
  4. Leo, 2,752
  5. Lucas, 2,537
  6. Manuel, 2,491
  7. Alejandro, 2,281
  8. Pablo, 2,238
  9. Daniel, 2,237
  10. Alvaro, 1,938
  11. Enzo, 1,838
  12. Adrian, 1,683
  13. Luca, 1,677
  14. Diego, 1,540
  15. Thiago, 1,529
  16. Mario, 1,497
  17. Bruno, 1,471
  18. David, 1,389
  19. Oliver, 1,380
  20. Alex, 1,317
  21. Marcos, 1,274
  22. Gonzalo, 1,272
  23. Liam, 1,256
  24. Marco, 1,230
  25. Miguel, 1,226
  26. Izan, 1,220
  27. Antonio, 1,188
  28. Javier, 1,151
  29. Nicolas, 1,150
  30. Gael, 1,109
  31. Marc, 1,040
  32. Juan, 1,036
  33. Dario, 1,009
  34. Angel, 988
  35. Carlos, 977
  36. Jose, 956
  37. Gabriel, 945
  38. Dylan, 883
  39. Rodrigo, 865
  40. Adam, 796
  41. Samuel, 791
  42. Jorge, 775
  43. Jaime, 752
  44. Eric, 741 (tie)
  45. Sergio, 741 (tie)
  46. Pau, 685
  47. Guillermo, 684
  48. Francisco, 674
  49. Hector, 668
  50. Noah, 651

Home to more than 47 million people, Spain is divided into 17 autonomous communities (including two island groups) and two autonomous cities (both in North Africa).

Map of the 17 autonomous communities of Spain
Spain’s 17 autonomous communities

The most popular baby names within each of Spain’s 17 autonomous communities last year were…

Top Girl NameTop Boy Name
Andalusia
(17.8% of the population)		MariaManuel
Catalonia
(16.4% of pop.)		JuliaLeo
Madrid (community)
(14.3% of pop.)		LuciaMateo
Valencia (community)
(10.9% of pop.)		LuciaMateo
Galicia
(5.6% of pop.)		NoaMartin
Castile and León
(5.0% of pop.)		LuciaMartin
Basque Country
(4.6% of pop.)		AneMartin
Canary Islands
(4.6% of pop.)		ValeriaMateo
Castilla-La Mancha
(4.3% of pop.)		Lucia & Valeria (tie)Hugo
Murcia
(3.2% of pop.)		LuciaHugo
Aragon
(2.8% of pop.)		LuciaMartin
Balearic Islands
(2.5% of pop.)		MartinaMarc
Extremadura
(2.2% of pop.)		LuciaManuel
Asturias
(2.1% of pop.)		SofiaMartin
Navarre
(1.4% of pop.)		LuciaMateo
Cantabria
(1.2% of pop.)		LuciaMartin & Mateo (tie)
La Rioja
(0.7% of pop.)		LuciaMateo

And the #1 baby names within each of Spain’s two autonomous cities were…

Top Girl NameTop Boy Name
Melilla
(0.2% of pop.)		SaraMohamed & Rayan (tie)
Ceuta
(0.2% of pop.)		MariamMohamed

Finally, here’s a link to Spain’s 2021 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.

Sources: Apellidos y nombres más frecuentes – INEbase, Estadística de nacimientos – INEbase, Population of Spain in 2023 by autonomous community – Statista, Spain – Wikipedia

Image: Adapted from Flag of Spain (public domain)
Map: Adapted from Autonomous communities of Spain no names by Habbit under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Chicago quadruplets: Sheena, Shawna, Sherry, Shannon

Dolores Harris holding quadruplet Sheena
Delores holding baby Sheena

On June 30, 1963, rare identical quadruplets were born to Delores and Bernard Harris of Chicago, Illinois.

The four baby girls were named:

  • Sheena Alice
  • Shawna Denyce
  • Sherry Julienne
  • Shannon Nellie

Delores gave them first names starting with “Sh” because she and Bernard already had a 15-month-old son named Shawn.

The first three middle names (Alice, Denyce, and Julienne) honored of staff members at Michael Reese Hospital, where the quadruplets were born. The fourth (Nellie) honored Delores’ mother.

The Harris quadruplets with mother Delores Harris and maternal grandmother Nellie Smith
Delores and Nellie holding the quads

The quads made headlines across the country as soon as they were born. The Harris family was also featured in a long article (and over a dozen photographs) in the November 1963 issue* of Ebony magazine.

All this attention may have influenced the usage of their first names, though it’s hard to tell. Here’s the data:

Girls named
Sheena		Girls named
Shawna		Girls named
Sherry		Girls named
Shannon
1965775527,3832,569
19641005898,4922,299
19631014589,0642,052
1962852959,229†1,394
1961722808,3561,235
†Peak usage

The name Sherry had just begun declining in usage in 1963, and Shawna and Shannon were already on the rise (though it does look like they rose a bit faster the year the quads were born…?). I think the strongest case can be made for Sheena, which saw a discernible uptick in 1963-1964.

What are your thoughts on these names? Which one do you like best?

*Incidentally, the same issue covered the late August civil rights demonstration during which Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his renowned “I Have a Dream” speech.

Sources:

Images: Clippings from Ebony magazine (Nov. 1963)