How popular is the baby name Nicola 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 Nicola.

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Popularity of the baby name Nicola


Posts that mention the name Nicola

Baby names from Pullman cars?

train

Years ago I posted about Livonia, a baby both born on and named after a Pullman car. Recently I wondered: What other Pullman car names would have made good baby names?

So I downloaded a big spreadsheet of over 12,000 Pullman car names from The Pullman Project and was slightly surprised to see that thousands of them could have been baby names, if we allow for the splitting of compound car names (like Fort Miley, Glen Norman, Meredith College, and West Willow).

Here are a handful of examples. On the left are relatively common/familiar names, and on the right are some unexpected choices.

Alana, Archer, ArnoldAdriatha, Arundel, Arvonia
Baxter, Becket, BradleyBantry, Bellonia, Besco
Calvin, Catalina, ClydeCadesia, Clarnie, Clymer
Dana, Deborah, DwightDarlow, Dathema, Dodona
Edith, Eileen, ElmoEdminster, Emalinda, Etherley
Finley, Flavia, FloydFithian, Flaxton, Florilla
Gary, Georgette, GraysonGavarnie, Gilia, Gloxinia
Harper, Harriet, HectorHarista, Humela, Hythe
Iona, Isabella, IvanIrvona, Isleta, Ixion
Jessica, Jordan, JuliaJacelia, Jathniel, Justitia
Kara, Keith, KennethKeinath, Kenia, Kittson
Laurel, Lewis, LindenLauveta, Leolyn, Lysander
Madison, Marco, MaudeMardonia, Mayence, Morganza
Nicola, Noel, NoraNarinda, Nasby, Norlina
Olivia, Omar, OtisOaklyn, Olanda, Oxus
Parker, Perry, PhilippaPenlyn, Pipila, Pixley
QuincyQuarren
Rebecca, Riley, RonaldRexis, Risley, Ruxton
Sarah, Scott, SusanneSalphrona, Sarver, Sibley
Thora, Tracy, TylerTascott, Tilden, Tisonia
Vanessa, Vernon, VictoriaVarick, Vinora, Vivita
Wesley, Wilson, WrenWelby, Wescott, Wexford

Which of the names above do you like best?

Popular baby names in Italy, 2015

Flag of Italy
Flag of Italy

A few weeks ago, Italy finally released baby name rankings for 2015. According to the data from Istat (Istituto nazionale di statistica), the most popular baby names in the country last year were Sofia and Francesco.

Here are Italy’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2015:

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Sofia, 7,191 baby girls
2. Aurora, 6,687
3. Giulia, 6,222
4. Giorgia, 4,099
5. Alice, 3,845
6. Martina, 3,743
7. Emma, 3,690
8. Greta, 3,676
9. Chiara, 3,516
10. Anna, 3,322
1. Francesco, 8,763 baby boys
2. Alessandro, 6,708
3. Mattia, 6,402
4. Lorenzo, 6,389
5. Leonardo, 6,144
6. Andrea, 6,047
7. Gabriele, 5,469
8. Matteo, 4,941
9. Tommaso, 4,386
10. Riccardo, 4,351

In the girls’ top 10, Anna replaced Sara, and Alice jumped from 10th to 5th.

The boys’ top 10 is essentially the same, the biggest move being Mattia rising from 6th to 3rd.

Francesco has been on top since 2001, but it became even more popular in 2013 after Pope Francis was elected.

Here are a few more names from within the top 50:

  • Girl names: Ginevra (12th), Gaia (13th), Ludovica (32nd), Ilaria (46th)
  • Boy names: Nicolò (22nd), Simone (24th), Gioele (37th), Nicola (46th)

Nicolò is pronounced nee-ko-LO, whereas Nicola is pronounced nee-KO-lah. The feminine versions of the name are Nicoletta and Nicolina.

Finally, here are the top baby names among foreigners (mainly from Romania, Morocco, Albania and China) living in Italy:

Girl NamesBoy Names
1. Sara
2. Sofia
3. Aurora
1. Adam
2. Youssef
3. Rayan

Intriguingly, Kevin was ranked 8th for boys and 1st (!) among both the Albanians and the Chinese. I mentioned Kevinism in last week’s Senga post and already it’s coming to mind again…

Sources: How many babies are named…? – Istat, These are the most popular Italian baby names, Births and fertility among the resident population: Year 2015 (PDF)

Image: Adapted from Flag of Italy (public domain)

How did Lido “Lee” Iacocca get his name?

Lee Iacocca as Ford vice president at age 39.
Lido “Lee” Iacocca

Businessman Lido Anthony “Lee” Iacocca was born in Pennsylvania in 1924 to Italian immigrants Nicola “Nick” Iacocca and Antonietta Perrotta. Lee Iacocca went on to become the president of Ford Motor Company from 1970 to 1978 and the CEO of Chrysler Corporation from 1978 to 1992.

So where did the first name Lido come from?

Before his marriage, Nick and one of Antoinette’s brothers had visited Venice, Italy, enjoying the grand and beautiful Lido Beach. To Nick, the spot was perfect. So was his new son, hence the name Lido.

“Lido Beach” refers to the Lido di Venezia. The word lido means “shore” or “beach” in Italian.

And what drove Lido Iacocca to shorten his already-short first name to “Lee”?

Early on in his career…

“As part of my job, I had to make a lot of long-distance calls. In those days, there was no direct dialing, so that you always had to go through operators. They’d ask for my name, and I’d say “Iacocca.” Of course, they had no idea how to spell it, so that was always a struggle to get that right. Then they’d ask for my first name and when I said “Lido,” they’d break out laughing. Finally I said to myself: “Who needs it?” and I started calling myself Lee.”

Which name do you prefer, Lido or Lee?

Sources:

  • Collins, David R. Lee Iacocca: Chrysler’s Good Fortune. Ada, OK: Garrett Educational Corp, 1992.
  • Iacocca, Lee and William Novak. “Iacocca: An Autobiography.” Reader’s Digest Jul. 1985: 79.
  • “Sports Car for the Masses.” Life 17 Apr. 1964: 51-52, 54.

Image: © 1964 Life

Baby name story: Sacvan

Canadian academic Sacvan Bercovitch (1933-2014)
Sacvan Bercovitch

Canadian academic Sacvan Bercovitch has an interesting first name. How did he get it? The story begins with his parents:

Bercovitch is the son of Alexander Bercovitch and Bryna Avrutik, Jews born in the Ukraine in the 1890s who grew up during a time of deep poverty, social upheaval, and periodic pogroms.

Alexander and Bryna, both “idealistic communists,” ended up having three children:

Circumstances took them to Moscow, where their first daughter, Sara (later Sylvia) was born; then to Ashkhabad, Turkestan, where their second daughter, Ninel (Lenin spelled backwards), was born. In 1926 they emigrated to Montreal with their two daughters, helped by Bryna’s brothers, who had preceded her. In October 1933 their son Sacvan (his name an amalgamation of Sacco and Vanzetti) was born.

Sacco and Vanzetti, of course, is a reference to Italian-American anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, who were convicted of murder (perhaps wrongly) and sentenced to death in the 1920s.

Thoughts on Sacvan?

(This one is reminding me of the Swedish baby named Alfred Zola Labori Dreyfus.)

Sources: