How popular is the baby name Mercedes 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 Mercedes.
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The name Mercedes, which has featured in the U.S. baby name data since the very beginning, saw a steep rise in usage during the late 1980s and early 1990s:
1992: 1,729 baby girls named Mercedes [rank: 178th]
1991: 1,798 baby girls named Mercedes [rank: 164th]
1990: 1,654 baby girls named Mercedes [rank: 176th]
1989: 1,219 baby girls named Mercedes [rank: 224th]
1988: 609 baby girls named Mercedes [rank: 395th]
1987: 427 baby girls named Mercedes [rank: 501st]
1986: 385 baby girls named Mercedes [rank: 530th]
What triggered the increase?
I think the answer is a combination of two different things.
The initial influence was the Pebbles song “Mercedes Boy” [vid], in which the singer repeatedly asks, “Do you wanna ride in my Mercedes, boy?” The song was released as a single in March of 1988 and ranked #2 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart for two weeks in July.
Pebbles single
The second influence was a character from the teen comedy License to Drive, which came out in theaters in July of 1988. Mercedes Lane (played by Heather Graham) was the crush of main character Les Anderson (played by Corey Haim) — who wasn’t going to let the fact that he’d failed his driver’s exam stop him from taking Mercedes out on a date in his grandfather’s prized Cadillac.
The License to Drive soundtrack didn’t include “Mercedes Boy,” but viewers could hear more than a minute of the song during a scene in which Les was out driving with his father.
The name Mercedes means “mercies” in Spanish. It comes from Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, one of the many titles of the Virgin Mary.
The name came to be associated with cars in the first years of the 1900s. Austrian businessman Emil Jellinek ordered a racing car (built to his specifications) from German manufacturer Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in 1900, and he dubbed the car “Mercedes” in honor of his daughter Mercédès (b. 1889). The car became so successful that, in 1902, DMG began using “Mercedes” as the official trade name of its entire line of cars.
The baby name Shandi has been on the decline since the 1980s (when it was most popular). Despite this trend, usage of the name more than doubled in 2004:
2006: 22 baby girls named Shandi
2005: 24 baby girls named Shandi
2004: 29 baby girls named Shandi
2003: 14 baby girls named Shandi
2002: 13 baby girls named Shandi
Why?
I think there are two reasons.
First, there’s aspiring model Shandi Sullivan.
Sullivan was a contestant on the second season of reality TV competition series America’s Next Top Model, which aired during the first three months of 2004. She lasted until the final episode, but ultimately came in third (behind Yoanna and Mercedes).
Shandi Sullivan
Second, there’s beauty queen Shandi Finnessey.
In April of 2004, Finnessey was crowned Miss USA in front of a television audience of about 13 million viewers. She was the first delegate from Missouri to win the title. Several weeks later, at the Miss Universe pageant in Ecuador, she placed first runner-up (behind Jennifer Hawkins of Australia).
Which of the two Shandis do you think had more of an influence on the name?
What are your thoughts on the name itself?
P.S. The delegate representing Israel at Miss Universe 2004 was none other than future Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot.
If you’re on the hunt for baby names with a numerological value of 9, you’re in luck! Because today’s post features hundreds of 9-names.
Before we get to the names, though — how do we know that they’re “nines” in numerology?
Turning names into numbers
Here’s how to calculate the numerological value of a name.
First, for each letter, come up with a number to represent that letter’s position in the alphabet. (Letter A would be number 1, letter B would be number 2, and so forth.) Then, add all the numbers together. If the sum has two or more digits, add the digits together recursively until the result is a single digit. That single digit is the name’s numerological value.
For instance, the letters in the name Rockwell correspond to the numbers 18, 15, 3, 11, 23, 5, 12, and 12. The sum of these numbers is 99. The digits of 99 added together equal 18, and the digits of 18 added together equal 9 — the numerological value of Rockwell.
Baby names with a value of 9
Below you’ll find the most popular 9-names per gender, according to the latest U.S. baby name data. I’ve further sub-categorized them by total sums — just in case any of those larger numbers are significant to anyone.
9
The letters in the unisex baby name Ace add up to 9.
9 via 18
The letters in the following baby names add up to 18, which reduces to nine (1+8=9).
Girl names (9 via 18)
Boy names (9 via 18)
Lea, Gaia, Ela, Acacia, Addi
Can, Adal, Acie, Edi, Jag
9 via 27
The letters in the following baby names add up to 27, which reduces to nine (2+7=9).
There’s no definitive answer, unfortunately, because various numerological systems exist, and each one has its own interpretation of the number nine. That said, if we look at a couple of modern numerology/astrology websites, we see 9 being described as “humanitarian,” “tolerant,” “helpful,” “determined,” and “compassionate.”
We can also look at associations, which are a bit more concrete. Here are some things that are associated with the number 9:
Pregnancy (9 months long)
Baseball (9 players on the field; 9 innings)
K-9 (“canine”) police dog units
“Cloud nine” (expression)
“Nine lives” of a cat (expression)
“To the nines” (expression)
“The whole nine yards” (expression)
What does the number 9 mean to you? What are your strongest associations with the number?
P.S. To see names with other numerological values, check out the posts for the numbers one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight.
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