How popular is the baby name Phoebe 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 Phoebe.

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Popularity of the baby name Phoebe


Posts that mention the name Phoebe

Popular baby names in England and Wales (UK), 2011

Flag of the United Kingdom
Flag of the United Kingdom

According to the Office for National Statistics, the new top baby names in England and Wales are Harry and Amelia.

They beat out 2010’s top names, Oliver and Olivia.

Here are the current top 25 names for both boys and girls:

Girl Names

  1. Amelia
  2. Olivia
  3. Lily
  4. Jessica
  5. Emily
  6. Sophie
  7. Ruby
  8. Grace
  9. Ava
  10. Isabella
  11. Evie
  12. Chloe
  13. Mia
  14. Poppy
  15. Isla
  16. Ella
  17. Isabelle
  18. Sophia
  19. Freya
  20. Daisy
  21. Charlotte
  22. Maisie
  23. Lucy
  24. Phoebe
  25. Scarlett

Boy Names

  1. Harry
  2. Oliver
  3. Jack
  4. Alfie
  5. Charlie
  6. Thomas
  7. Jacob
  8. James
  9. Joshua
  10. William
  11. Ethan
  12. George
  13. Riley
  14. Daniel
  15. Samuel
  16. Noah
  17. Oscar
  18. Joseph
  19. Mohammed
  20. Max
  21. Dylan
  22. Muhammad
  23. Alexander
  24. Archie
  25. Benjamin

In Wales specifically, the top names were Oliver and Lily. In London, Daniel and Isabella.

A few other things I noticed…

Usage of Pippa increased in 2011, thanks to the royal wedding:

  • 2011: 250 baby girls named Pippa (rank: 204th)
  • 2010: 124 baby girls named Pippa (rank: 365th)
  • 2009: 125 baby girls named Pippa (rank: 351st)

Usage of another quirky P-name, Pixie, is also on the up thanks to English pop star Pixie Lott:

  • 2011: 99 baby girls named Pixie (rank: 432nd)
    • +6 named Pixie-Lou
    • +5 named Pixie-Leigh
  • 2010: 83 baby girls named Pixie (rank: 485th)
    • +3 named Pixie-Lou
    • +3 named Pixie-Rose
  • 2009: 33 baby girls named Pixie (rank: 982nd)

I also spotted 5 baby girls named Renesmee, 4 named Coraline and 4 named Io.

The most insightful article I’ve seen about this batch of names so far is Ed West’s “Britain’s divided nation is revealed in our baby names.” Some snippets:

  • “…the annually-published list does show that, for the first time in nine centuries, English people are easily identifiable by class solely by their name, since most names in the 2011 list have strong class biases either way.”
  • “Social mobility will be achieved only when we all give our children the same names.”

Have you spotted anything interesting or surprising on the England and Wales 2011 list?

Source: Baby names in England and Wales: 2011

Image: Adapted from Flag of the United Kingdom (public domain)

Where did the baby name Maeby come from?

The character Maeby Fünke from the TV series "Arrested Development" (2003-2006).
Maeby Fünke from “Arrested Development“

The curious name Maeby began appearing in the U.S. baby name data in the early 2000s:

  • 2008: 7 baby girls named Maeby
  • 2007: unlisted
  • 2006: 6 baby girls named Maeby [debut]
  • 2005: unlisted
  • 2004: unlisted

It debuted the last year Arrested Development was on the air, which is notable because the sitcom featured a teenage character named Maeby Fünke (played by actress Alia Shawkat).

According to Wikipedia…

Creator Mitchell Hurwitz named the character after his daughters Maisy and Phoebe. Hurwitz acknowledged the peculiar result of this blending, saying “It just seemed like crazy extra fun to think of weird names. I don’t want us to become too self-conscious about it but, yes, we do have some strange names.” Incidentally, she is often described as George Michael’s “Cousin Maeby,” a play on words making reference to the fact that they may not be related.

Maeby’s teenage counterpart/cousin on the show, George Michael Bluth, didn’t have the same impact on baby names; the compound name Georgemichael hasn’t been in the data since pop singer George Michael was popular back in the ’90s.

What about you — would you name your baby Maeby?

Acts of the Apostles…as a baby name

Here’s a story I’ve spotted a couple of times:

A couple of centuries ago, Thomas and Elizabeth Pegden of Kent, England, had four sons named Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Then they had a fifth son. They were out of evangelists, so what did they name baby #5? Acts of the Apostles, after the next book in the New Testament.

Is it a true story?

Sort of.

A man named Actsapostles Pegden was indeed born in Kent back in 1795. (He went by the nickname “Actsy.” He married in 1826, and passed away in 1865.)

And his parents were named Thomas and Elizabeth Pegden.

And he did have at least four older brothers.

But the brothers I’ve found were named Thomas (b. 1787), Philip (b. 1789), Isaac (b. 1791) and Christopher (b. 1793) — not Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

So how did he get his name?

I’m not sure.

The only two other people I’ve come across with this name — Acts of the Apostles Kennett (b. 1833), son of Richard and Phoebe Kennett, and Acts of the Apostles Tong (b. 1850), son of Henry and Mary Tong — were both born in Kent, just like Actsy. This makes me think the name has more to do with regional religious fervor than anything else.

Sources:

  • “A Curious Christian Name.” New York Times 16 Apr. 1899: 24.
  • Bardsley, Charles Wareing Endell. Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature. London: Chatto & Windus, 1897.
  • “‘Acts-Apostles’ as a Name.” Notes and Queries 3 Mar. 1866: 175.

Baby born to jockey, named after horse

horse

On February 7, 2010, with over 20,000 people watching, Irish jockey Richard Hughes won the McDowell Signature Indian Derby at Mahalaxmi Race Course in Mumbai. He was riding a filly named Jacqueline.

After the race, he was quoted as saying:

“You know what, my wife gave birth a couple of days back and I named the baby Phoebe Jacqueline. I knew she was going to win today. It’s so special. Jacqueline is now a part of my life.”

Reminds me of Bindi Sue, daughter of the late Steve Irwin, a.k.a. The Crocodile Hunter. She was named after both a crocodile (Bindi) and a dog (Sui).

Sources: Hughes win for Shroff, Jacqueline it is!, Jacqueline takes McDowell Signature Indian Derby

Image: Adapted from Dealer’s pic without lead rope by Cjambla under CC BY-SA 3.0.