How popular is the baby name Michelle 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 Michelle.
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When I first noticed the name Jovon popping up in the U.S. baby name data, I thought of Jovan Musk. But the Musk was from the ’70s, and the name first appeared a decade earlier:
1962: unlisted
1961: 5 baby girls named Jovon
1960: 10 baby girls named Jovon [debut]
1959: unlisted
1958: unlisted
So, what put it on the map?
An actress named Jovon Monteil, who was making guest appearances on TV in the late 1950s and early 1960s. (The image is from Sea Hunt.) She was also in one movie: Born Reckless (1959).
Jovon’s real name was Louise Davis and she was originally from Albuquerque. The Albuquerque Journal noted in late 1957 that “Jovon Monteil” was “her newly chosen professional name.”
By the end of 1960 she was married and had a baby (named Michelle), which is likely why she stopped pursuing a career in entertainment.
The names Jovon and Jovan both saw a steep rise in usage in the ’70s thanks to Jovan Musk, put out by the Chicago-based Jovan company. (Here’s a long list of perfume-inspired baby names.)
Sources:
“Jovon Monteil Completes Part in ‘Born Reckless’.” Albuquerque Journal 22 Dec. 1957: 15.
An unedited tweet from Cardi B, whose sister’s name is Hennessy:
Fun fact :Always wanted a daughter and I always used to say imma name her HennyLynn. It’s a cute mix of my sisters name but then I started calling my sister HennyLynn then it became one of the nicknames I gave my sister so it woulda been weird naming my daughter that .
From an article about a Georgia man whose name, Neal, came from a POW bracelet:
His father, the late John Carpenter, was an aircraft mechanic in the Navy and was deployed overseas at the time. He arrived home in time for his son’s birth. When it became necessary to scramble and find a boy’s name, John Carpenter looked down at the POW/MIA bracelet he was wearing.
The engraved name was Neal Clinton Ward Jr. He had been listed as Missing in Action since June 13, 1969. An airman, his plane had been shot down over Laos in the jungles of Southeast Asia, nine days before his 24th birthday.
The Carpenters named their son Neal Ward Carpenter.
(Neal’s mom had been convinced the baby would be a girl. Neal said: “I was going to be April Michelle, and that’s all there was to it.”)
If you’re on the hunt for baby names with a numerological value of 4, you’re in luck! Because today’s post features hundreds of 4-names.
Before we get to the names, though — how do we know that they’re “fours” 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 Willow correspond to the numbers 23, 9, 12, 12, 15, and 23. The sum of these numbers is 94. The digits of 94 added together equal 13, and the digits of 13 added together equal 4 — the numerological value of Willow.
Baby names with a value of 4
Below you’ll find the most popular 4-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.
4 via 13
The letters in the following baby names add up to 13, which reduces to four (1+3=4).
Girl names (4 via 13)
Boy names (4 via 13)
Cai, Eh, Cia, Gea, Aabha
Cade, Cai, Cj, Eh, Jc
4 via 22
The letters in the following baby names add up to 22, which reduces to four (2+2=4).
Girl names (4 via 22)
Boy names (4 via 22)
Kaia, Lia, Ila, Giada, Ali, Aicha
Ali, Lee, Dale, Akai, Hadi, Mace, Dael, Bane
4 via 31
The letters in the following baby names add up to 31, which reduces to four (3+1=4).
Morrison, Courtney, Kristofer, Christofer, Quintus
Number 4: Significance and associations
What does the number four mean in numerology?
There’s no definitive answer, unfortunately, because various numerological systems exist, and each one has its own interpretation of the number four. That said, if we look at a couple of modern numerology/astrology websites, we see 4 being described as “hardworking,” “practical,” “stable,” “trustworthy,” and “detail-oriented.”
We can also look at associations, which are a bit more concrete. Here are some things that are associated with the number 4:
Seasons (spring, summer, autumn, winter)
Cardinal directions (north, south, east, west)
States of matter (solid, liquid, gas, plasma)
Original Greek classical elements (water, earth, air, fire)
Just remember that the SSA data doesn’t become very accurate until the mid-to-late 20th century, so many of the numbers below don’t reflect reality all that well.
Same format as usual: Girl names on the left, boy names on the right. Numbers represent single-year decreases in usage. From 1880 to 1881, for instance, usage of the girl name Mary dropped by 146 babies and usage of the boy name William dropped by 1,008 babies.
I’ve already written about some of the names above (click the links to see the posts) and will write about others in the future. In the meanwhile, feel free to beat me to it! Comment below with the backstory on the fall of Shirley in the late ’30s, Linda in the early ’50s, etc.
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