How popular is the baby name Pia 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 Pia.

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Popularity of the baby name Pia


Posts that mention the name Pia

The 24 children of Robert I, Duke of Parma

Maria Pia with son Elia (in 1881)
Maria Pia with son Elia

Robert I, Duke of Parma (b. 1848) — whose birth name was Roberto Carlo Luigi Maria — was the last ruler of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza, located in what is today northern Italy. (The duchy was absorbed into the Kingdom of Italy in the early 1860s.)

Robert I married twice and had a total of 24 children.

With his first wife, Princess Maria Pia of the Two Sicilies (b. 1849), he had a dozen children:

  • Marie Louise
  • Ferdinando
  • Louisa Maria
  • Enrico
  • Maria Immacolata
  • Giuseppe
  • Maria Teresa
  • Maria Pia
  • Maria Beatrice
  • Elia (male)
  • Maria Anastasia
  • Augusto

Sadly, his first wife died during childbirth in 1882.

Two years later, Robert married his second wife, Infanta Maria Antonia of Portugal (b. 1862). With her had a dozen more children:

  • Maria della Neve Adelaide
  • Sixtus (he was his father’s sixth son)
  • Javier
  • Francesca
  • Zita
  • Felix
  • Rene
  • Maria Antonia
  • Isabella
  • Luigi
  • Henrietta Anna
  • Gaetano

Which set of 12 do you like better?

Source: Robert I, Duke of Parma – Wikipedia

Image: Adapted from Maria Pia and Elias I

What gave the baby name Kady a boost in 1985?

Pia Zadora and her first husband, businessman Meshulam Riklis, welcomed a baby girl on January 1, 1985. Their New Year’s Day baby was named Kady after the character Zadora played in the movie Butterfly (1982).

(Which was an interesting decision, given the nature of the character: a nymphet planned to seduce her own father for financial gain. Anyhow…)

The year Kady was born, the number of U.S. babies named Kady increased significantly:

  • 1987: 122 baby girls named Kady
  • 1986: 108 baby girls named Kady
  • 1985: 113 baby girls named Kady
  • 1984: 24 baby girls named Kady
  • 1983: 16 baby girls named Kady
  • 1982: 21 baby girls named Kady

Pia’s second child, born in 1987, was a son named Kristofer Barzie — middle name in honor of Pia’s agent, Tino Barzie.

Sources:

The Ingrid Bergman baby name formula

Actress Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982)
Ingrid Bergman

Ingrid Bergman’s first baby, Friedel Pia, was born in Sweden in 1938.

Friedel’s first name was a diminutive of Ingrid’s mother’s name, Frieda. And here’s how she got her middle name:

Newspaper item about Pia

NAMING THE BABY: The name of Ingrid Bergman’s daughter is Pia. The P is the first initial of her father’s name which is Peter, second is from her mother’s, Ingrid, and the A is from her papa’s middle name which is Aaron. Quite an unusual method of child naming. If I had been named that way my first name would be CLM. How about you?

The details aren’t perfect — Pia’s father’s given names were actually Petter and Aron — but the formula is correct. And I do like the question.

What would your name have been if your parents had used the Ingrid Bergman formula?

Even better, if you plug your initials and your partner’s initials into that formula, what’s the result? Is it a usable baby name?

Sources:

  • Durling, E.V. “On the Side.” Toledo Blade 18 May 1946, Peach Section: 1.
  • Spoto, Donald. Notorious: the life of Ingrid Bergman. Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 2001.

[Latest update: Sept. 2023]