How popular is the baby name Pavel 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 Pavel.

The graph will take a few moments to load. (Don't worry, it shouldn't take 9 months!) If it's taking too long, try reloading the page.


Popularity of the baby name Pavel


Posts that mention the name Pavel

Popular baby names in the Czech Republic, 2024

Flag of the Czech Republic
Flag of the Czech Republic

Last year, the central European country of the Czech Republic welcomed about 84,000 babies.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Eliška (for the 13th year in a row) and Jakub (for the 14th year in a row).

Here are Czechia’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2024:

Girl names

  1. Eliška
  2. Viktorie
  3. Sofie
  4. Anna
  5. Natálie
  6. Amálie
  7. Ema
  8. Tereza
  9. Laura
  10. Adéla
  11. Julie
  12. Rozálie
  13. Nela
  14. Mia
  15. Emma
  16. Karolína
  17. Barbora
  18. Sára
  19. Stella
  20. Anežka – the Czech form of Agnes.
  21. Veronika
  22. Marie
  23. Kristýna
  24. Meda
  25. Valerie
  26. Ella
  27. Klára
  28. Jasmína
  29. Štepánka
  30. Josefína
  31. Lucie
  32. Aneta
  33. Nina
  34. Magdaléna
  35. Zuzana (3-way tie)
  36. Ester (3-way tie)
  37. Beáta (3-way tie)
  38. Alžbeta (tie) – the Slovak form of Elizabeth.
  39. Elena (tie)
  40. Rozárie – the Czech form of Rosaria.
  41. Katerina
  42. Sofia
  43. Leontýna
  44. Liliana
  45. Gabriela
  46. Emily
  47. Amélie
  48. Adriana (3-way tie)
  49. Michaela (3-way tie)
  50. Stela (3-way tie)

Boy names

  1. Jakub
  2. Matyáš
  3. Jan
  4. Adam
  5. Matej
  6. David
  7. Vojtech
  8. Filip
  9. Dominik
  10. Tomáš
  11. Daniel
  12. Tobiáš
  13. Oliver
  14. Štepán
  15. Antonín
  16. Sebastian
  17. Lukáš
  18. Martin
  19. Ondrej
  20. Mikuláš
  21. Šimon (tie)
  22. Marek (tie)
  23. Samuel
  24. Jonáš
  25. Václav
  26. Petr (tie)
  27. Teodor (tie)
  28. Patrik
  29. Jirí – the Czech form of George.
  30. Tadeáš
  31. Kryštof
  32. Michal
  33. Viktor
  34. Vilém – the Czech form of William.
  35. Jáchym
  36. Eliáš
  37. Josef
  38. Richard
  39. Eduard
  40. František
  41. Albert
  42. Tobias
  43. Theodor
  44. Alex
  45. Pavel
  46. Kristián (tie)
  47. Damián (tie)
  48. Vincent
  49. Jindrich – the Czech form of Heinrich.
  50. Michael

The girls’ top 100 included Markéta (57th), Klaudie (68th), Nella (76th), and Bára (97th).

The boys’ top 100 included Vít (55th), Robin (60th), Hynek (66th), and Kevin (81st).

Speaking of Kevin…Czech journalist Michal Kašpárek (who helped build an app based on Czechia’s baby name data) mentioned Kevin and several other non-Czech names during an interview with Radio Prague International last year. Some quotes:

  • Amélie: “Before the movie Amélie came out in 2001 about one girl a year in the Czech Republic was named Amélie. The year after there [were] 13, out of nowhere, and then the number doubled each year until reaching today’s 180 or so Amélies every year.”
  • Kevin: “Kevin became really popular after Home Alone came out, which was in the ’90s, when American names in general got more popular in the Czech Republic.”
  • Bob: “[O]ur data also shows that the first Bobs were showing up in the 1960s, possibly due to Bob Dylan.”
  • Amy: “There was also a big increase in the name Amy around that time that Amy Winehouse hit it big. That was a trend that didn’t stop after she passed away. Amy is still a really common name, and it hadn’t been before.”

I didn’t post about Czechia’s top baby names of 2023, but here are Czechia’s 2016 rankings.

P.S. Several Czech letters, such as R-with-caron and E-with-caron, don’t render properly on my site. So please imagine that they exist in several of the names above: the girl names Alžbeta, Katerina, and Štepánka, and the boy names Jindrich, Jirí, Matej, Ondrej, Štepán, and Vojtech.

Sources: Detským jménum loni opet kralovali Jakub a Eliška – Ceský statistický úrad, Eliška and Jakub remain most popular baby names in Czechia – Radio Prague International, Jakub, Eliška… Kevin: App spotlights first names in Czechia – Radio Prague International, Behind the Name

Image: Adapted from Flag of the Czech Republic (public domain)

California family with 17 children

kinderfest

Vladimir and Zynaida Chernenko of Rancho Cordova, California, welcomed their 17th child in December of 2005.

Here are the names and ages (in 2005) of all 17:

  • Sergey, 22 years old
  • Liliya, 20
  • Andrey, 19
  • Dimitry, 18
  • Anatoliy, 17
  • Lyudmila, 16
  • Anna, 14
  • Vitaliy, 13
  • Oksana, 11
  • Svetlana, 10
  • Inna, 9
  • Vyacheslav, 8
  • Pavel, 6
  • Diana, 5
  • Alina, 3
  • Timofei, 2
  • David, newborn

The first 11 were born in the Ukraine; the last 6 were born after the family moved to the U.S.

Rancho Cordova is part of the Sacramento area, were the “the average family has 3.19 members, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics.”

The census stops counting once households reach seven or more. Those households make up about 2% of the region of the Sacramento region’s population.

Sources: California family has 17 children, Family of 19 is never bored

Image: Ein Kinderfest (1868) by Ludwig Knaus

Baby names from hockey

A reader named Elizabeth has sent me a rather cool list of hockey-inspired baby names. She writes:

I’m a name enthusiast and a hockey fanatic, and my husband and I have been tossing around the idea of naming our son after hockey players.

They haven’t seen any lists of hockey names for babies, though, so they decided to compile one themselves. It includes “both all-time greats and current players.”

I thought I’d pass it along to share with fellow rink rats who may be reading your blog and can’t think of anything other than Wayne (Gretzky), Herb (Brooks), or Patrick (Roy).

Here’s their list:

  • Andreas (Andreas Lilja, Andreas Nödl)
  • Aurèle (Aurèle Émile Joliat)
  • Bentley (Max Bentley, Doug Bentley)
  • Bourque (Ray Bourque, Rene Bourque)
  • Briere (Danny Briere)
  • Brooks (Herb Brooks, Brooks Laich)
  • Crosby (Sidney Crosby)
  • Dryden (Ken Dryden)
  • Eaves (Patrick Eaves)
  • Elias (Patrik Elias)
  • Émile (Aurèle Émile Joliat)
  • Ennis (Tyler Ennis)
  • Evgeni (Evgeni Malkin, Evgeni Nabokov)
  • Ilya (Ilya Kovalchuk, Ilya Bryzgalov)
  • Kane (Patrick Kane)
  • Lach (Elmer Lach)
  • Lemieux (Mario Lemieux)
  • Luca (Luca Caputi)
  • Malkin (Evgeni Malkin)
  • Malone (Joe Malone, Ryan Malone)
  • Marek (Marek Svatos)
  • Mario (Mario Lemieux)
  • Marleau (Patrick Marleau)
  • Michal (Michal Handzus)
  • Milan (Milan Hejduk)
  • Modano (Mike Modano)
  • Nikolai (Nikolai Khabibulin)
  • Parise (Zach Parise)
  • Pavel (Pavel Datsyuk)
  • Rene (Rene Bourque)
  • Savard (Serge Savard, Marc Savard)
  • Shore (Eddie Shore)
  • Stephane (Stephane Yelle)
  • Turco (Marty Turco)

Thanks so much for sharing, Elizabeth!

Another good source of hockey names is the Legends of Hockey website, which is affiliated with the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Which hockey names are your favorites?

Update, Feb. 2024: Since publishing this list, I’ve written a few posts featuring hockey players: Jaromír Jágr, Sidney Crosby, and P. K. Subban.