How popular is the baby name Pier 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 Pier.

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Popularity of the baby name Pier


Posts that mention the name Pier

Popular and unique baby names in Uruguay, 2020

Flag of Uruguay
Flag of Uruguay

According to Uruguay’s Dirección Nacional de Identificación Civil (DNIC), the most popular baby names in the country in 2020 were technically Emma and Juan.

But if accented “María” and unaccented “Maria” had been counted together, María would have easily taken the #1 spot.

Uruguay’s baby name rankings consist of girl and boy names mixed together on a single list. The data mostly represents first-name usage, but does include some second-name usage as well. (This is because the rankings are created from Uruguayan identity card data, and Uruguayans are permitted to add up to two given names to their ID cards.)

That said, here are Uruguay’s top 100+ baby names of 2020:

  1. Juan, 861 babies
  2. Emma, 682
  3. Mateo, 611
  4. María, 564
  5. Julieta, 495
  6. Martina, 477
  7. Felipe, 460
  8. Lorenzo, 408
  9. Isabella, 400
  10. Catalina, 383
  11. Maria, 378
  12. Sofía, 372
  13. Emilia, 358
  14. Thiago, 354
  15. Santino, 347
  16. Lucas, 334
  17. Dante, 330
  18. Lautaro, 327
  19. Delfina, 320
  20. Benjamín, 315
  21. Bautista, 312 (tie)
  22. Santiago, 312 (tie)
  23. Olivia, 310
  24. Joaquín, 259
  25. Zoe, 249
  26. Emily, 236 (tie)
  27. Paulina, 236 (tie)
  28. Francisco, 235
  29. Renata, 233
  30. Francesca, 227
  31. Bruno, 222 (tie)
  32. Luis, 222 (tie)
  33. Carlos, 220 (tie)
  34. Clara, 220 (tie)
  35. Facundo, 215
  36. Emiliano, 211
  37. Valentino, 209
  38. Ana, 208
  39. Mía, 203
  40. Valentina, 199
  41. Josefina, 194 (3-way tie)
  42. Juana, 194 (3-way tie)
  43. Maite, 194 (3-way tie)
  44. Agustina, 192 (tie)
  45. Tomás, 192 (tie)
  46. Luciano, 188
  47. Alfonsina, 186 (tie)
  48. Bastian, 186 (tie)
  49. Enzo, 184
  50. Dylan, 182
  51. Agustín, 180
  52. Nahitan, 175
  53. Jorge, 172
  54. Bianca, 170
  55. Valentín, 167
  56. Liam, 164
  57. Mia, 161
  58. José, 160
  59. Renzo, 159
  60. Franco, 155 (tie)
  61. Manuel, 155 (tie)
  62. Benicio, 154
  63. Ian, 152
  64. Ignacio, 150
  65. Camila, 149
  66. Victoria, 148
  67. Diego, 143
  68. Oriana, 142
  69. Pedro, 140
  70. Milagros, 137
  71. Alma, 131 (tie)
  72. Pilar, 131 (tie)
  73. Camilo, 129 (3-way tie)
  74. Guillermo, 129 (3-way tie)
  75. Vicente, 129 (3-way tie)
  76. Noah, 128
  77. Ciro, 127 (tie)
  78. Julia, 127 (tie)
  79. Salvador, 126
  80. Alfonso, 125
  81. Ramiro, 124
  82. Daniel, 120
  83. Máximo, 117
  84. Faustino, 115
  85. Jose, 114
  86. Samuel, 113
  87. Faustina, 111
  88. Alejandro, 110
  89. Federico, 109
  90. Genaro, 107
  91. Maia, 106 (tie)
  92. Pablo, 106 (tie)
  93. Lara, 105
  94. Sofia, 103
  95. Guillermina, 102
  96. Ámbar, 100
  97. Eduardo, 99
  98. Lucía, 98
  99. Federica, 96 (tie)
  100. Tadeo, 96 (tie)
  101. Theo (95)
  102. Luciana, 94 (tie)
  103. Sara, 94 (tie)
  104. Tiziano, 92
  105. Alexander, 91 (tie)
  106. Rafael, 91 (tie)
  107. Julián, 90 (3-way tie)
  108. Luana, 90 (3-way tie)
  109. Nicolás, 90 (3-way tie)
  110. Benjamin, 88
  111. Aitana, 86 (3-way tie)
  112. Bruna, 86 (3-way tie)
  113. Leonardo, 86 (3-way tie)
  114. Florencia, 85
  115. Rodrigo, 84
  116. David, 83 (4-way tie)
  117. Gael, 83 (4-way tie)
  118. Joaquina, 83 (4-way tie)
  119. Matías, 83 (4-way tie)
  120. Miguel, 80
  121. Gabriel, 79 (tie)
  122. Jazmín, 79 (tie)
  123. Alex, 78 (tie)
  124. Axel, 78 (tie)

(I went down far enough to ensure that at least fifty girl names were included…and then a little farther, because that 2-way tie between the 4-letter anagram names Alex and Axel is kind of adorable. :)

I’ve never looked at rankings for Uruguay before, so I don’t have past rankings to compare these to. But here are a few of the names from lower down on the list:

  • 35 babies were named Celeste, which is the nickname (El Celeste, “the sky-blue”) of Uruguay’s national soccer team.
  • 11 were named Edinson, which is the first name of Uruguayan soccer player Edinson Cavani.
  • 8 were named Nairobi, which is a female character from the popular Spanish-language TV series La casa de papel (English title: Money Heist).
  • 2 were named Tabaré, which was the first name of Uruguayan president Tabaré Vázquez (who both left office and passed away in 2020).
    • The name comes from Uruguayan literature: The main character of the epic poem Tabaré (1888) by Juan Zorrilla de San Martín is an indigenous Charrúa man named Tabaré.

Finally, because Uruguay releases all of its baby name data, we can check out the unique names at the other end of the spectrum as well. Here’s a selection Uruguay’s single-use baby names of 2020:

Atahualpa, Brislady, Crisbely, Duckenson, Elubina, Fritznel, Garibaldi, Hartmut, Izpabelli, Juanfer, Khantuta, Leovisnel, Missber, Norquides, Olgalisy, Pierangely, Quinto, Roismerl, Szabolcs, Tonatiuh, Tonantzín, Urumana, Viorky, Wanderson, Xilianny, Yusnavi, Zolanch

Some possible explanations/associations:

  • Atahualpa – the last emperor of the Inca
  • Garibaldi – 19th-century Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi
  • Pierangely – Italian actress Pier Angeli
  • Tonatiuh – Nahua (Aztec) sun deity
  • Tonantzín – Nahuatl honorific title meaning “our mother”

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Flag of Uruguay (public domain)

[Latest update: Jul. 2023]

How did Virna Lisi influence baby names in the 1960s?

Italian actress Virna Lisi (1936-2014)
Virna Lisi

When Italian actress Virna Lisi started appearing in American films in the mid-1960s, American audiences took notice.

How do we know? Well, the baby name Lisi appeared in the U.S. baby name data for the first time in 1965, and, the same year, the baby name Virna re-emerged in the data (after a decades-long absence) with its highest-ever usage.

Girls named VirnaGirls named Lisi
196721.
1966115
196538†8*
1964..
1963..
*Debut, †Peak usage

(It should be noted, of course, that Lisa was the #1 baby name in the nation from 1962 to 1969. No doubt this made the similar — but much rarer — name Lisi sound rather stylish during that decade.)

Virna Lisi was born Virna Lisa Pieralisi in Ancona, Italy, in 1936.

Her father had wanted to call her Siria (“Syria”), but that country’s colonial ruler, France, was at loggerheads with Mussolini and the births registrar accordingly refused to accept the name. The exasperated Pieralisi then made up Virna on the spot.

She started acting as a teenager in Italy, and her success in Italian films eventually led to a brief Hollywood career. She appeared in How to Murder Your Wife (1965) with Jack Lemmon, Not With My Wife You Don’t (1966) with Tony Curtis, and Assault on a Queen (1966) with Frank Sinatra.

But Lisi disliked her “sex symbol” image in America. So she decided to leave. She turned down the lead role in Barbarella, terminated her Hollywood contract, and returned to Europe to play a wider range of characters.

What are your thoughts on the names Virna and Lisi? Which one would you be more likely to use on a modern-day baby?

P.S. Italian actress Anna Maria Pierangeli — better known as Pier Angeli — also had a surname that began with “Pier” (the Italian form of Peter).

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of How to Murder Your Wife

Where did the baby name Rydell come from in 1960?

Bobby Rydell's album "We Got Love" (1959)
Bobby Rydell album

The baby name Rydell first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1960:

  • 1962: 11 baby boys named Rydell
  • 1961: 11 baby boys named Rydell
  • 1960: 17 baby boys named Rydell [debut]
  • 1959: unlisted
  • 1958: unlisted

The influence?

Italian-American singer Bobby Rydell, who was born Robert Louis Ridarelli in South Philadelphia in 1942.

The teen idol’s first singles started coming out in 1959. His early hits included “Kissin’ Time” (1959), “Wild One” (1960), and “Swingin’ School” (1960).

Here he is lip-syncing to “We Got Love” on The Dick Clark Show in November of 1959:

The 1971 musical Grease, set in 1959, paid tribute to Rydell — one of the breakout stars of ’59 — with the name of Rydell High School.

The surname Rydell has two possible origins: Swedish (meaning “woodland clearing”) or English (based on the Norman personal name Ridel).

Sources:

P.S. “We Got Love” was co-written by Kal Mann, who I mentioned in the Pier Angeli post…

How did Kipchoge Keino influence U.S. baby names in 1972?

Kenyan distance runner Kipchoge "Kip" Keino (in 1972)
Kipchoge “Kip” Keino

Kenyan middle- and long-distance runner Kipchoge Keino (pronounced kip-CHOH-gay KAY-noh) won a total of four medals at two different Summer Olympics: the 1968 Games in Mexico City and the 1972 Games in Munich.

Kip Keino’s most memorable race was his unlikely win in the 1,500 metre in ’68, but Kipchoge Keino‘s names — both first and last — didn’t enter the U.S. baby name data until ’72:

Boys named KipchogeBoys named Keino
1974.9
1973.13
19727*19*
1971..
1970..
*Debut

He won a gold and a silver in ’72, but a more important factor (in terms of baby names) may have been the naming climate in the U.S. in the early ’70s. A growing number of African-Americans were actively looking for African baby names at that time. (Check out this “Names from Africa” post for more.)

The name Kipchoge, a one-hit wonder in the data, means “born near the store for maize” in the Nandi language.

After retiring from competition, Kip Keino — whose full name is actually Hezekiah Kipchoge Keino — continued to work in sports. In the meanwhile, he and his wife Phyllis took in more than 100 orphaned children (and had seven of their own).

Each child has been given a name in English and Nandi, Kip’s native tongue. They include Claire/Cherop (“born when it’s raining”), Angela/Chepngetrik (“born when the cows go grazing”) and Susan/Chepchirchir (“born in a big hurry”).

For this and other humanitarian work, Keino has been honored in various ways, such as by winning the (very first) Olympic Laurel in 2016.

Sources:

P.S. Two other people who have inspired dual first-and-last name debuts are Cyd Charisse and Pier Angeli.