How popular is the baby name Philip 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 Philip.

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Popularity of the baby name Philip


Posts that mention the name Philip

The decline of the baby name Mary

Sociology professor Philip Cohen wrote about the decline of the baby name Mary recently in The Atlantic. Here’s how the article begins:

Each year I mark the continued calamitous decline of Mary as a girls’ name in the United States. Not to be over-dramatic, but in the recorded history of names, nothing this catastrophic has ever happened before.

Ouch.

He’s right, though. Usage of Mary — the dominant girl in the nation from the 1880s to the 1950s — plummeted during the 1960s:

Graph of the usage of the baby name Mary
Usage of the baby name Mary

At one time, Mary was regularly given to more than 70,000 baby girls per year. It’s now given to fewer than 3,000. (And the population is much higher today that it was back then, so that difference is even more extreme than it seems.)

We’re well aware that Mary is on its way out, so let’s get right to Cohen’s two-part explanation of what the “Mary trend” means:

First, it’s the growing cultural value of individuality, which leads to increasing diversity. People value names that are uncommon. When Mary last held the number-one spot, in 1961, there were 47,655 girls given that name. Now, out of about the same number of total births, the number-one name (Sophia) was given only 21,695 times. Conformity to tradition has been replaced by conformity to individuality. Being number one for so long ruined Mary for this era.

The decreasing dominance of the top names is something we’ve discussed before.

Second, America’s Christian family standard-bearers are not standing up for Mary anymore. It’s not just that there may be fewer devout Christians, it’s that even they don’t want to sacrifice individuality for a (sorry, it’s not my opinion) boring name like Mary. In 2011 there were more than twice as many Nevaehs (“Heaven” spelled backwards) born as there were Marys. (If there is anything more specific going on within Christianity, please fill me in.)

This one is interesting. It might also explain the rise of religious word-names like
Blessing, Cross, Eden, Hallelujah, Trinity, even the ridiculous Nevaehtnes.

He says there’s still hope for a resurgence, similar to the one Emma experienced, “as long as Christianity keeps hanging around.”

What do you think — will Mary make a comeback one day like Emma did?

If so, when? How many years from now: 20, 50, 100, more?

Source: Why Don’t Parents Name Their Daughters Mary Anymore? (via A Mitchell)

Baby names typed by the right hand: Better?

computer keyboard

Years ago, I came up with a list of one-handed baby names — that is, names that are typed with either the left hand or the right hand on a QWERTY keyboard.

Turns out there may be a slight advantage to right-hand names.

According to a study published recently in Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, “the QWERTY keyboard may gradually attach more positive meanings to words with more letters located on the right side of the layout (everything to the right of T, G and B).”

Why?

It has to do with fluency.

We tend to like simplicity over complexity, and the harder-to-type letter pairs are on a QWERTY keyboard’s left side — these two facts together may lead people to prefer words (and names) that are typed on the right.

Which names are typed by the right hand only? My original list:

  • Holly
  • Io
  • Jill, Jim, Jimi, Jimmy, Jin, Jo, John, Johnny, Jon, Joni, Joy, Juho, Juli, Julio, Jun, Juno
  • Kiki, Kim, Kimi, Kimiko, Kimmy, Kimo, Kip, Kiyoko, Kojo, Kollin, Kumiko, Kyou
  • Lili, Lilly, Lilou, Lily, Lin, Lino, Loni, Lonny, Lou, Lulu, Lyn, Lynn
  • Miki, Mikki, Mikko, Milly, Milo, Mimi, Min, Minh, Miyu, Molly, Momoko
  • Nik, Nikhil, Niki, Nikki, Niko, Nikol, Nikon, Nuno
  • Olli, Olujimi, Om
  • Phil, Philip, Phillip, Pio, Polly, Poppy
  • Yoko, Yuko, Yumi, Yumiko

Can you think of any others?

Source: Mosher, Dave. “The QWERTY Effect: How Typing May Shape the Meaning of Words.” Wired 7 Mar. 2012. (h/t Anthony Mitchell, @aem76us)

Image: Adapted from Apple Macintosh Plus Extended Keyboard by MagicTom13 under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Where did the baby name Cobina come from in 1939?

Cobina Wright, Jr. (1921-2011)
Cobina Wright, Jr.

Esther Cobb (1887-1970) was an ambitious gossip columnist known professionally, and later legally, as Cobina Wright.

She had her only child, Cobina Carolyn Wright, in 1921.

Cobina Sr. made sure to groom Cobina Jr. “for a film career capped by a spectacular marriage.”

Cobina Jr. ended up becoming one of the glamour girls of her era:

By 1938, [Cobina Jr.] was already under contract with 20th Century Fox while also modelling and singing in nightclubs. The next year, she won the title of Miss Manhattan and was named “most attractive and talented New York girl of the 1939 season.”

She was even wooed by Prince Philip (the eventual husband of Queen Elizabeth II) in the late 1930s.

In the early 1940s, she appeared in several films (e.g., Week-End in Havana) and made the cover of Life Magazine (in February of 1941).

While Cobina was at the height of her fame, her name appeared in the U.S. baby name data twice:

  • 1942: unlisted
  • 1941: 7 baby girls named Cobina
  • 1940: unlisted
  • 1939: 8 baby girls named Cobina [debut]
  • 1938: unlisted

In late 1941, at the age of 19, she got married. Several years after that, Cobina Jr. retired from acting.

Update, 6/1/2018: Just discovered something! In the early 1940s, Bob Hope “hired two ladies, Blanche Steward and Elvia Allman, to do parodies of two well-known debutantes of the period, Brenda Frazier and Cobina Wright, Jr.” The characters Brenda and Cobina appeared in several films together from 1940 to 1942. But Bob had to get rid of the characters when the real-life Cobina initiated a lawsuit. This might be a better explanation for the return of the name in ’41. It also might relate to Robin’s comment…

Sources:

Image: Clipping from the cover of Life magazine (17 Feb. 1941)

Where did the baby name Thurley come from in 1911?

Thurley Ruxton
Thurley Ruxton

In 1911, the baby name Thurley debuted in the U.S. baby name data. It was the top female name debut of 1911, in fact.

  • 1913: 8 baby girls named Thurley
  • 1912: 14 baby girls named Thurley
  • 1911: 12 baby girls named Thurley [debut]
  • 1910: unlisted
  • 1909: unlisted

The SSA says that a dozen baby girls were named Thurley that year, but the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) reveals that the number could in fact be 31, or higher.

Why the Thurley spike?

A book called Thurley Ruxton, written by Philip Verrill Mighels, was published in 1911. The story was also serialized in several newspapers. Here’s how a reviewer at LibriVox describes it:

This is a rags to riches romance about an exceedingly beautiful, poor, young girl (Thurley Ruxton) who is mentored by one of New York’s elite hostesses. In order to draw them into her social circle, she allows all the famous and moneyed populous of Gotham to believe that Thurley is the princess Thurvinia hiding in New York to escape an arranged marriage.

I haven’t yet managed to find anyone named Thurvinia, though I did discover a Thurley Ruxton Matthews Zabor (1912-2009) in Ohio. Her obituary states that she was “named for the title character in a contemporary novel, “Thurley Ruxton.””

If you’d like to give the book a read/listen, here’s the text and here’s the audio.