How popular is the baby name Obama 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 Obama.

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Popularity of the baby name Obama


Posts that mention the name Obama

Obama refuses to choose baby’s name

President Obama's Google+ Fireside Hangout (Feb. 2013)
Obama’s Google+ Fireside Hangout

During President Obama’s Fireside Hangout yesterday, one participant asked the Obama to help choose a baby name.

At about the 44-minute mark, author John Green introduced his wife Sarah and said, “We are expecting our second child, we have a boy name picked out, but Sarah had a question for you.”

Then Sarah said, “Yes, hello Mr. President, we are wondering if you prefer the name Eleanor or Alice.”

At first, Obama thought the second option was “Alex” (perhaps reason enough to go with Eleanor?).

After being corrected, he responded:

You know, I’m gonna leave this up to you guys […] Here’s the reason: if I gave a preference, and you guys went the other way, forever this child would say “The President doesn’t like my name,” which could traumatize them.

But, the main thing is, tell either Eleanor or Alice not to forget to be awesome.

Here’s John Green’s reaction to the “awesome” comment.

After a bit more back-and-forth, Obama added: “If it’s a boy, and you want to name him Barack, that’s fine.”

Obama took the diplomatic route and stayed neutral, but if you had been in that position, which name — Eleanor or Alice — would you have chosen? Why?

Popular baby names in Jamaica, 2008

Flag of Jamaica
Flag of Jamaica

According to the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) of Jamaica, these were the island’s most popular baby names in 2008:

Girl names

  1. Brihanna
  2. Rhianna
  3. Ashley
  4. Gabrielle
  5. Abigail

Boy names

  1. Daniel
  2. Joshua
  3. Jordan
  4. Ricardo
  5. Anthony

Why am I posting rankings from 2008? Well, this is the most recent set of rankings I could track down at the Jamaican Government’s website.

But the site does contain a few interesting facts. For instance, I didn’t know that adding “Ann” to girl names was once trendy in Jamaica:

In studying the naming patterns of Jamaicans, information from the RGD’s database reveal that more families between the period 1950’s to the mid 90’s gave their children traditional Anglo-Saxon names. It should be noted however that most of these female names included the name Ann.

For instance in the United States and the UK where Lisa, Nicole, Kimberly and Carrie are names which dominated the late 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s, the Jamaican twist to these names are Nicole-Ann, Kerry Ann and Lisa Ann.

The site also mentions that…

  • At least 48 babies were named Charlie in the three months following Hurricane Charlie, which hit Jamaica in August of 1951.
  • 10 babies were named Gilbert in the nine months following Hurricane Gilbert, which hit Jamaica in September of 1988. (This includes two babies born on the day of the hurricane.)
  • At least 20 babies were named Usain following “the historic performance of Usain Bolt at the Olympics and the recently concluded World Games.”
  • Babies started being named Obama following “the historic election of the first African American President in the United States.”

Source: Naming Your Child the Jamaican Way – RGD – Government of Jamaica

Image: Adapted from Flag of Jamaica (public domain)

Pop culture baby name game, 2010

Britney Spears album

Know what today is? It’s Britney Spears’ birthday! (Come on, you didn’t already know that?)

So today is the perfect day to start playing the Pop Culture Baby Name Game.

What’s that? It’s a game in which we try to predict which pop culture-inspired baby names will appear on the SSA’s official baby name list for the first time in 2010. Danity and Daughtry made it for the first time in 2007, Obama and Palin in 2008, the infamous Renesmee in 2009…which pop culture baby names will make their debut in 2010?

Think back to notable occurrences of 2010 and late 2009. Think about movies, music, books, video games, sports, politics, products, and whatever else made headlines and/or caught your attention. What brand-new baby names might these things have inspired?

Here are some possibilities I’ve already blogged about:

Another that has since come to mind is Etsy, which looks and sounds like Betsy with the B chopped off.

What other potential names can you think of? (Remember — oddball names like Chachi and Darth have made the SSA’s list in years past, so don’t be afraid to think outside the box on this!)

American men with presidential names

Over at the New York Times photojournalism blog Lens, Patrick Witty has just finished a series of blog posts about New York-area males with presidential names. In one of his posts, he says:

Some of the presidential doppelgängers I met over the past nine months were named to honor the great men who have occupied the Oval Office; others inherited the name from their fathers. Regardless, living with such a name can be a burden.

He was able to track down 11 men and one baby with the names Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, John F. Kennedy, Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge, Ulysses Grant, Abraham Lincoln, John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. Interesting stuff. (The photos are cool as well.)

P.S. Ever wonder how many presidents were named after family members?