How popular is the baby name Moon in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Find out using the graph below! Plus, check out all the blog posts that mention the name Moon.

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Popularity of the Baby Name Moon


Posts that Mention the Name Moon

What gave the baby name Soleil a boost in 1985?

The character Punky Brewster (played by Soleil Moon Frye) from the TV series "Punky Brewster" (1984-1988)
Soleil Moon Frye as Punky Brewster

In 1985, the usage of the baby name Soleil — which is pronounced soh-lay, roughly — nearly quintupled:

  • 1987: 18 baby girls named Soleil
  • 1986: 19 baby girls named Soleil
  • 1985: 29 baby girls named Soleil
  • 1984: 6 baby girls named Soleil
  • 1983: unlisted

Why?

Because of young actress Soleil Moon Frye.

She was the star of the memorable children’s TV series Punky Brewster, which began airing on NBC in September of 1984.

The show was about a feisty, colorfully-dressed young girl named Penelope “Punky” Brewster. After being abandoned by her parents, Punky was begrudgingly taken in by a cranky widower named Henry Warnimont (played by George Gaynes). Henry eventually warmed to Punky and, in the penultimate* episode of the second season, he legally adopted her.

In mid-1985, the Washington Post called Soleil Moon Frye’s name “peculiar” and offered this explanation:

Soleil’s mother said her daughter was scheduled for a July birthday. When she showed up in August, Frye said she picked “Soleil” (French for “sun”) because “August was the month of the sun” and “Moon” because she liked the lyrics from a song in “Annie Get Your Gun”: “I’ve got the sun in the morning and the moon at night.”

Recently, Frye was quoted as saying: “I love having a unique name.”

Indeed, she’s continued the tradition with her own four children: daughters Poet and Jagger, and sons Lyric and Story.

What are your thoughts on the name Soleil?

*The final episode of Punky Brewster‘s second season dealt with the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, which had occurred fewer than six weeks earlier. The episode featured astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin (as himself).

Sources:

P.S. Punky Brewster’s dog Brandon was named after Brandon Tartikoff, who was the president of NBC’s entertainment division during the 1980s.

Baby names with OO: Cooper, Brooklyn, Rooney

raccoon

Looking for baby names that feature the letter-pair OO?

I’ve collected oodles of OO names for you in this post!

Before we get to the names, though, let’s get one big question out of the way…

What sound does OO make?

In today’s English, OO commonly makes the sound you hear in the words boot, food, and moon. But it can also make other sounds, such as the ones you hear in the words blood, or door, or good.

Why all this diversity?

A lot of it has to do with the Great Vowel Shift, which lasted from the late 14th century until about 1700. The GVS was a major factor in the transition from Middle English to Modern English.

In Middle English, OO tended to make a “long o” sound. (As one of my sources explained, “scribes often indicated a long vowel sound by doubling the vowel letter.”) So, in Middle English, the words boot, food, and moon sounded more like “boat,” “foad,” and “moan.”

During the Great Vowel Shift, the pronunciation of most long vowel sounds inexplicably shifted “upward” in the mouth, and the words boot, food, and moon acquired their present-day pronunciations.

But it’s not quite as simple as that. Because some words underwent multiple pronunciation changes during the GVS, while others didn’t undergo any change at all.

And this resulted in OO having a variety of pronunciations in Modern English.

Now, back to the names!

Top baby names with OO

Let’s begin with the most popular names with OO:

Top girl names with OOTop boy names with OO
Brooklyn
Brooke
Brooklynn
Noor
Cooper
Oona
Rooney
Brooks
Hoorain
Moon
Cooper
Brooks
Boone
Kooper
Booker
Woodrow
Haroon
Woods
Brooklyn
Elwood

Now here are the same names again, but this time around I’ve added some details (including definitions, rankings, and popularity graphs).

Booker

The English surname Booker, which is derived from the Middle English word bokere, originally referred to someone who worked with books (such as a scribe, or a book binder).

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

Booker is currently the 1,204th most popular boy name in the nation.

Boone

The Anglo-Norman surname Boone has several potential origins, one of which is the Old French word bon, meaning “good.”

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

Boone is currently the 573rd most popular boy name in the U.S.

Brooke + Brooks

The English surname Brooke is a variant of the surname Brook, which originally referred to someone who lived either near a brook or a stream, or in one of the various English villages called Brook/Brooke.

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

Brooks is also a variant of the surname Brook.

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

Brooks is currently the 77th most popular boy name in the nation, whereas Brooke ranks 259th for girls.

The name Brooks is also sometimes spelled Brookes or Broox.

Brooklyn + Brooklynn

The name Brooklyn comes from the name of the New York City borough, which was founded by Dutch settlers in the 17th century and named after the Dutch town of Breukelen. The town name (originally “Broecklede”) can be traced back to the Middle Dutch words broec, meaning “marshland,” and lede, which referred to a dug watercourse (as opposed to a natural one).

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

Brooklynn is a variant of Brooklyn (likely influenced by the name Lynn).

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

Brooklyn is currently the 63rd most popular girl name in the U.S., and Brooklynn ranks 314th. Brooklyn is also the 2,515th most popular name for boys.

Other spellings of the name include Brooklynne, Brookelyn/Brookelynn/Brookelynne, Brooklin/Brooklinn, and Brooklen/Brooklenn.

Cooper + Kooper

The English surname Cooper, which is derived from the Middle English word couper, originally referred to someone who made or repaired wooden vessels (such as casks, tubs, and buckets).

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

Kooper is a variant of Cooper.

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

Cooper is currently the 68th most popular boy name in the nation, and Kooper ranks 1,090th. Cooper is also the 1,597th most popular name for girls.

Elwood

The English surname Elwood is ultimately derived from the Anglo-Saxon personal name Ælfweald, which was comprised of the Old English words ælf, meaning “elf,” and weald, meaning “rule.”

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

Elwood is currently the 2,582nd most popular boy name in the U.S.

The name is also sometimes spelled Ellwood.

Haroon

The name Haroon is the Urdu form of the Arabic name Harun, which is derived from the Biblical name Aaron (of unknown origin).

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

Haroon is currently the 2,033rd most popular boy name in the nation.

Hoorain

The name Hoorain seems to be an Urdu name based on the Quranic phrase hoorun’een, which refers to maidens with beautiful eyes.

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

Hoorain is currently the 3,396th most popular girl name in the U.S.

Moon

The name Moon refers, of course, to the moon — the round object that circles the Earth once a month and shines at night (because it reflects light from the sun). The English word moon can be traced back to the Old English word mona.

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

Moon is currently the 3,455th most popular girl name in the nation.

Noor

The name Noor is a transcription of the Arabic word meaning “light.”

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

Noor is currently the 857th most popular girl name in the U.S.

Oona

The name Oona is an Anglicized form of the Irish name Úna, which may be derived from the Old Irish word úan, meaning “lamb.”

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

Oona is currently the 2,288th most popular girl name nation.

The name is also sometimes spelled Oonagh.

Rooney

The Irish surname Rooney is ultimately derived from the Irish word ruanaidh, meaning “champion, hero.”

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

Rooney is currently the 2,552nd most popular girl name in the U.S.

Woodrow

The English surname Woodrow originally referred to someone who lived either by a row of trees, by a row of houses in a wood, or in one of the various English villages called Woodrow/Wood Row.

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

Woodrow is currently the 1,752nd most popular boy name in the nation.

Woods

The English surname Woods, a variant of Wood, originally referred to someone who lived in or near a wood. It’s ultimately based on the Middle English word wode, meaning “wood.”

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

Woods is currently the 2,205th most popular boy name in the U.S.

More names with OO

So, what other names have OO in them?

Here are some less-common choices (that are still seeing usage in the U.S. these days):

  • Ajooni
  • Alanood
  • Anoop
  • Aroosh
  • Avnoor
  • Aynoor
  • Batool
  • Bloom
  • Boomer
  • Booth
  • Brooker
  • Brooklee, Brookley, Brookleigh
  • Brookson
  • Brookston
  • Cooke
  • Dawood
  • Eastwood
  • Eknoor
  • Farooq
  • Goodness
  • Gurnoor
  • Ha-Joon
  • Harnoor
  • Haywood
  • Hooper
  • Hoor
  • Hooria, Hooriya
  • Htoo
  • Japnoor
  • Jasnoor
  • Ji-Hoo
  • Ji-Soo
  • Jood
  • Joon
  • Joory
  • Kohinoor
  • Kulsoom
  • Leeloo
  • Linwood
  • Lynwood
  • Mahmood
  • Mahnoor
  • Manroop
  • Mansoor
  • Masooma
  • Maysoon
  • Moo
  • Moosa
  • Nooh
  • Noomi
  • Noora, Noorah
  • Nooreh
  • Noori
  • Nooria, Nooriyah
  • Noorseen
  • Noorulain
  • Prabhnoor
  • Poorna
  • Roo
  • Roohi
  • Rook
  • Roop
  • Roosevelt
  • Rooster
  • Sherwood
  • Shooter
  • Sookie
  • Sun-Woo
  • Taimoor
  • Tooba
  • Trooper
  • Wood
  • Woodensley
  • Woodland
  • Woodley
  • Woodlyn
  • Woodson
  • Woody, Woodie
  • Woo-Jin
  • Yaqoob
  • Yaqoot
  • Yoona
  • Zaroon
  • Zooey

So far we’ve seen two presidential names: Woodrow and Roosevelt. Did you know that a total of five U.S. presidents had OO names, and that all five served during the first half of the 20th century?

  • Theodore Roosevelt (in office from 1901 to 1909)
  • Woodrow Wilson (1913 to 1921)
  • Calvin Coolidge (1923 to 1929)
  • Herbert Hoover (1929 to 1933)
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933 to 1945)

(The surnames Coolidge and Hoover have been used as first names as well — just not recently.)

We’ve also seen a number of names that include the English words “wood,” “good,” and “brook.” So I combed through the earlier SSA data to find more names with these words:

  • Atwood, Brentwood, Delwood, Derwood/Durwood, Fleetwood, Garwood, Glenwood/Glennwood, Greenwood, Harwood, Heywood, Kenwood, Kirkwood, Lenwood, Lindwood, Lynnwood, Lockwood, Marwood, Maywood, Norwood, Raywood, Stanwood, Underwood, Woodard, Woodfin, Woodford, Woodruff, Woodward
  • Goodluck, Goodman, Goodwin, Hagood, Osgood, Thurgood
  • Brookelle, Brookie, Brooksie, Brooksley, Seabrooke, Westbrook

Finally, if you’d like something even more uncommon (in the U.S.) than the names above, you can look to any of the various languages around the world known to feature the letter-pair OO in personal names. Examples include:

  • Dutch (e.g., Noortje, Joost)
  • Finnish (e.g., Auroora, Roope)
  • Estonian (e.g., Loore, Toomas)
  • Arabic (e.g., Hooda, Maqsood)
  • Persian (e.g., Afsoon, Behrooz)
  • Hindi (e.g., Poornima, Saroo)
  • Korean (e.g., Kyung-Sook, Sung-Hoon)

(The Middle Eastern and Asian names — because they’re being transcribed from non-Latin scripts — can also be spelled other ways, such as “Behrouz” and “Purnima.”)


Which of the OO names above to do you like most? (Can you think of any that I missed?) Let me know in the comments!

P.S. If you’d like to see popularity graphs for any of the more common names in this post, just check below for the long list of tags. Each tag is a name, so find the name you’re interested in and click through. The graph will take a moment to load — it’s grabbing a lot of data — but it will allow you to see at a glance the name’s current and historical U.S. usage.

Sources:

Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay

Popular and unique baby names in Scotland (UK), 2021

scotland

According to the National Records of Scotland (NRS), the most popular baby names in the country last year were Olivia and Jack.

Here are Scotland’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2021:

Girl Names

  1. Olivia, 349 baby girls
  2. Emily, 318
  3. Isla, 317
  4. Freya, 270
  5. Ella, 259
  6. Amelia, 257
  7. Ava, 241
  8. Sophie, 238
  9. Grace, 235
  10. Millie, 216
  11. Lily, 205
  12. Sophia, 200
  13. Charlotte, 196
  14. Rosie, 190
  15. Aria, 183
  16. Evie, 181
  17. Maisie, 165
  18. Lucy, 164 (tie)
  19. Mia, 164 (tie)
  20. Eilidh, 160
  21. Ellie, 159 (3-way tie)
  22. Ivy, 159 (3-way tie)
  23. Orla, 159 (3-way tie)
  24. Jessica, 150
  25. Harper, 144
  26. Maya, 134 (tie)
  27. Willow, 134 (tie)
  28. Georgia, 126
  29. Daisy, 123 (tie)
  30. Sofia, 123 (tie)
  31. Mila, 122
  32. Isabella, 121 (tie)
  33. Ruby, 121 (tie)
  34. Hannah, 119
  35. Skye, 118
  36. Sienna, 116
  37. Molly, 113
  38. Hallie, 111
  39. Bonnie, 108 (tie)
  40. Poppy, 108 (tie)
  41. Eva, 106
  42. Esme, 104
  43. Anna, 102 (3-way tie)
  44. Ayla, 102 (3-way tie)
  45. Erin, 102 (3-way tie)
  46. Callie, 98
  47. Zara, 92
  48. Layla, 91
  49. Emma, 90 (tie)
  50. Robyn, 90 (tie)

Boy Names

  1. Jack, 382 baby boys
  2. Noah, 337
  3. Leo, 289
  4. Oliver, 284
  5. Harris, 273
  6. Finlay, 255
  7. Lewis, 254
  8. James, 252
  9. Rory, 247
  10. Alexander, 240
  11. Brodie, 236
  12. Alfie, 224
  13. Charlie, 220
  14. Theo, 219
  15. Archie, 217
  16. Lucas, 214
  17. Mason, 205
  18. Finn, 197
  19. Thomas, 193
  20. Freddie, 192
  21. Max, 190
  22. Logan, 187
  23. Harry, 181
  24. Jacob, 176
  25. Blake, 159 (tie)
  26. Luca, 159 (tie)
  27. Oscar, 157
  28. Jude, 155
  29. William, 146
  30. Caleb, 140
  31. Roman, 138
  32. Cameron, 136
  33. Jaxon, 133
  34. Adam, 131
  35. Joshua, 130
  36. Ollie, 129 (tie)
  37. Tommy, 129 (tie)
  38. Daniel, 125 (tie)
  39. Ethan, 125 (tie)
  40. Harrison, 124
  41. Luke, 122
  42. Arthur, 121
  43. Muhammad, 120
  44. Jamie, 118 (tie)
  45. Liam, 118 (tie)
  46. Reuben, 112
  47. Arlo, 110
  48. Grayson, 103 (3-way tie)
  49. Hunter, 103 (3-way tie)
  50. Kai, 103 (3-way tie)

The fastest-rising names in the girls’ top 100 were Lyla, Blake, and Rowan.

The fastest-rising names in the boys’ top 100 were Carson, Struan, and Myles.

Other names that have seen higher usage recently include Maeva (influenced by Made in Chelsea actress Maeva D’Ascanio) and Connell (influenced by Normal People character Connell Waldron).

And what about the unique names?

Almost 12% of baby girls were given a name that no other girl was registered with in 2021. Almost 9% of boys had unique names for births last year.

Baby names bestowed just once in Scotland last year include…

Unique Girl NamesUnique Boy Names
Arlo-Moon, Aquamarine, Boglarka, Bryar-Loch, Cleagh, Cocohuay, Dervla, Diadem, Ember-Willow, Estrid, Falluin, Floraidh, Ghillie, Gwenno, Hessa, Humna, Iolanthe, Ischia, Jahanara, Juaa, Ketaki, Knoxie, Linaz, Liola-Sky, Mharli-Mae, Myfanwy, Nardos, Nymeria, Ocean-Bleu, Otterly, Pannavee, Paris-Sarah, Quinnie, Ribhinn, Ruoyi, Salka, Stuti, Thyra, Tifa, Unsa, Velvetjane, Wilda, Xiylo, Ying, Zanna, ZarnishArziki, Athilan, Bligh, Bruar, Caladh, Ciurar, Domhnall, Doski, Eloim, Ezra’banx, Firth, Fury, Gilmar, Guyan, Hanzala, Harcus, Ieuan, Ivaylo, Jockie, Joris, Kairimui, Kallikrates, Linstrum, Lorenzo-Moon, Marric, Massinissa, Nakoah-Knox, Nimrod, Oputjo, Otter, Parnaj, Prokop, Quanders, Rascal, Rhue, Simanga, Somhairle, Torben, Trix, Uziah-Nova, Vakaris, Wrath, Xanthus, Yuveer, Zander-Blu, Zebedee

Here are possible explanations/associations for some of the above:

  • Diadem, a type of crown
  • Ischia, an island near Naples
  • Nymeria, a direwolf from Game of Thrones
  • Ribhinn, a Scottish-Gaelic word (rìbhinn) meaning “maiden, girl”
  • Tifa, a character from the Final Fantasy video games
  • Kallikrates, a 5th-century BC Greek architect
  • Masinissa, a 2nd-century BC Numidian king
  • Somhairle, a 12th-century Norse-Gaelic king

Finally, here are Scotland’s 2020 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.

Source: Babies’ First Names 2021 – National Records of Scotland, Trends in baby names 2021 (PDF)

Popular baby names in Sonoma County (California), 2019

Sonoma

According to the government of Sonoma, California, the most popular baby names in the county last year were (again) Camila and Mateo.

Here are Sonoma’s top 5 girl names and top 5 boy names of 2019:

Girl Names

  1. Camila, 29 baby girls
  2. Isabella, 25
  3. Olivia/Sofia (tie), 23
  4. Amelia/Sophia (tie), 22
  5. Charlotte/Mia (tie), 21

Boy Names

  1. Mateo, 32 baby boys
  2. Benjamin, 22
  3. Sebastian, 21
  4. Liam, 20
  5. William/Noah/Isaac/Wyatt/Henry (5-way tie), 19

And what about the names bestowed just once in Sonoma in 2019? Here’s a sampling of the unique baby names from the other end of the list:

Unique Girl NamesUnique Boy Names
Aura, Banjolene, Cordelia, Dalihana, Ender, Etisha, Finleigh, Grecia, Hazelle, Itabili, Junebelle, Kella, Lumena, Macabiah, Moon, Naralyn, Nizhoni, Ovette, Pemma, Ruriko, Sabine, Sonali, Tallulah, Twyla, Vianna, Waverly, Yamanik, ZalethAonyx, Birke, Caius, Dexon, Eerikki, Farrokh, Gustavo, Hekili, Hezekiah, Itzael, Javid, Juvenal, Kibou, Lylin, Montanez, Nylex, Osher, Philo, Rye, Ryuchi, Sune, Taivaleoa’ana, Talizen, Thorleif, Ventura, Wylder, Yago, Zaeryn

Source: Sonoma County Baby Names
Image by Trent Erwin on Unsplash