How popular is the baby name Pascal 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 Pascal.

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Popularity of the baby name Pascal


Posts that mention the name Pascal

80+ Hidden gems: Rare baby boy names

gems

Want a boy name that’s not popular, but also not unheard of?

I looked through all the names at the bottom of SSA’s 2011 mega-list and found a bunch of hidden gems:

  1. Alaric (48 baby boys)
  2. Alban (12)
  3. Aldous (11)
  4. Aldric (7)
  5. Alphonse (20)
  6. Archibald (14)
  7. Astor (5)
  8. Augustin (50)
  9. Balthazar (13)
  10. Barclay (6)
  11. Barnabas (8)
  12. Bartholomew (19)
  13. Booker (22)
  14. Chadwick (34)
  15. Cyril (41)
  16. Clancy (14)
  17. Claude (44)
  18. Clement (34)
  19. Crispin (21)
  20. Darcy (15)
  21. Dirk (40)
  22. Doyle (10)
  23. Ernst (6)
  24. Ferdinand (20)
  25. Garrick (42)
  26. Giles (20)
  27. Gregor (14)
  28. Griffith (18)
  29. Grover (9)
  30. Gustaf (7); Gustav (29)
  31. Horatio (10)
  32. Hubert (46)
  33. Ignatius (49)
  34. Isidore (7)
  35. Kermit (6)
  36. Lambert (6)
  37. Laird (17)
  38. Laurence (48)
  39. Laurent (9)
  40. Leander (48)
  41. Leith (7)
  42. Lemuel (50)
  43. Lowell (29)
  44. Maxfield (22)
  45. Newton (14)
  46. Nicanor (8)
  47. Norbert (9)
  48. Norris (21)
  49. Ogden (13)
  50. Orson (33)
  51. Osborn (5); Osborne (7)
  52. Oswald (18)
  53. Pascal (25)
  54. Percival (13)
  55. Peregrine (9)
  56. Piers (16)
  57. Regis (10)
  58. Remis (11)
  59. Roscoe (47)
  60. Rudolph (44)
  61. Rufus (39)
  62. Rupert (8)
  63. Sanford (6)
  64. Seymour (6)
  65. Sherman (40)
  66. Sinclair (8)
  67. Tavish (16)
  68. Thane (48)
  69. Tobiah (14)
  70. Walton (14)
  71. Warner (48)
  72. Watson (42)
  73. Webster (8)
  74. Weldon (27)
  75. Werner (11)
  76. Wilbert (42)
  77. Wilbur (20)
  78. Winfield (7)
  79. Winfred (7)
  80. Winslow (10)
  81. York (5)
  82. Zebulon (25)
  83. Zeno (13)

(In some cases, a different spelling of the name is more popular than what’s shown here. For instance, Laurence is rare, but Lawrence is moderately popular.)

Like any of these?

Spot any other good names at the end of the list?

P.S. Here’s the girls’ list.

Image: Adapted from Birmanian rock crystals by Mauro Cateb under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Georgia family with 16 children

You guys seemed to like last week’s big family post, so I’ll try to write more posts like that one in the coming weeks.

Let’s start with the Ginn family of Georgia, circa 1931.

Bowman, Ga., July 14 (AP) – For family nomenclature Mr. and Mrs. John R. Ginn, who live near here, recommend the alphabetical system, especially for a family with 16 children.

Relative ages, they find, are easily called to mind and all element of error is practically eliminated in giving a complete enumeration.

Their children are named as follows: Brodie, Corbin, Dorcas, Elmira, Fezzan, Gregor, Hassie, Ithmar, Jessie, Kester, Lisbon, Manson, Nelson, Ornice, Pascal and Quaver.

In 1900, according to the Census, the Ginns had just one child. By 1910, they had 8. And in 1920, 14.

Which of the 16 names do you like best?

And, if you could complete the set — add 10 names, one that starts with A, the rest starting with R through Z — which names would you choose?

Source: “Alphabetical System Used to Name Children.” Reading Eagle 14 Jul. 1931: 7.

Baby born on Easter, named Pascaline

I’ve posted about plenty of babies named after the boats on which they were born (e.g. Australis, Burgess, El Nil, Jesse Roper, Numidian) so here’s something new — a baby born on a boat, but named after the holiday on which she was born:

La Champagne, like the Cedric, had a pleasant voyage and reported, as her principal contribution to the news of the day, the fact that on Easter Sunday there had been born on board the liner a little girl to Mme. Boyer, one of the cabin passengers. The baby was named Pascaline.

A much better choice than “Champagne,” certainly.

Pascaline is related to the adjective paschal, which refers to both Passover and Easter. Historically, many babies born around the time of Easter/Passover were given some form of this name.

Source: “Liners’ Good Weather.” New York Times 20 Apr. 1903: 3.

Baby names needed: “Whimsical, weird” names for quadruplets

Estelle wrote to me recently with a tall order:

I’m having quads (!!!) in 4 weeks and I need names! I’m having one boy and three girls. My 4 year old son’s name is Cosmo. My husband and I like spacey, whimsical and weird names.

In fact, they “don’t have any limits on how weird a name can be.”

One girl name they’re considering is Ione, which is a family name.

The combination of Cosmo and the adjective “spacey” made me think of star and constellation names right off the bat:

Adhara
Aldebaran
Altair
Aludra
Antares
Antlia
Aquarius
Aquila
Aries
Auriga
Azha
Carina
Corvus
Cygnus
Deneb
Denebola
Hamal
Kastra
Lacerta
Libra
Lyra
Meissa
Musca
Nashira
Norma
Orion
Pavo
Polaris
Rana
Rigel
Shaula
Sheratan
Sirius
Sirrah
Suhail
Taurus
Thuban
Vega
Vela

One nice thing about these is that several together probably wouldn’t scream “star names” to the average person. Unlike, say, a group of flower names. (Though I’m sure stargazers would catch on pretty quickly.)

And here’s what we have for non-galactic suggestions:

Allegra
Althea
Apollonia
Artemis
Aurora
Briony
Calypso
Clio
Danae
Demetria
Echo
Eulalia
Freya
Hestia
Imelda
Imogen
Isis
Lucasta
Luna
Jonquil
Minerva
Olympia
Rhea
Sapphira
Severina
Ursula
Vita
Xanthe
Zelda
Zenobia

Those were the girl names, these are the boy names:

Agni
Aldous
Barnaby
Casper
Cyril
Elan
Evander
Erasmus
Fabio
Gideon
Horatio
Ignatius
Isidore
Jethro
Leander
Loki
Magnus
Milo
Nigel
Odin
Pascal
Peregrine
Reuben
Rémy
Silas
Taliesin
Theron
Tycho
Ulysses
Zenon

What other whimsical names can you come up with for Estelle? And, can you put together any good combinations of 1 boy and 3 girl names?

Update: The babies have arrived! Scroll down to see what names Estelle selected.