How popular is the baby name Priyanka 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 Priyanka.

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Popularity of the baby name Priyanka


Posts that mention the name Priyanka

Where did the baby name Yukta come from in the year 2000?

Yukta Mookhey, Miss World 1999
Yukta Mookhey

The rare name Yukta first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in the year 2000:

  • 2002: unlisted
  • 2001: unlisted
  • 2000: 5 baby girls named Yukta [debut]
  • 1999: unlisted
  • 1998: unlisted

Why?

Because of Indian beauty queen Yukta (pronounced yook-tah) Mookhey, who was crowned Miss World in London, England, in December of 1999.

Yukta’s first name derives from a Sanskrit word that has various definitions, including “joined, united” and “fastened, yoked.”

What are your thoughts on the name Yukta?

P.S. Did you know that four delegates from India claimed the Miss World title within a seven-year time span? Aishwarya Rai won in 1994, Diana Hayden in 1997, Yukta in 1999, and Priyanka Chopra in 2000.

Sources: Miss World 1999 – Wikipedia, Yukta – Wisdom Library, List of Miss World titleholders – Wikipedia, SSA

Image: Screenshot of the TV broadcast of the 49th Miss World pageant

Baby name stories: Tsunami

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, which occurred in late December, triggered a deadly tsunami that reached a number of countries.

  • In Kerala, India, a couple named Kutten and Priyanka managed to escape the waves. Their newborn baby girl was rescued by a relative. They named their daughter Tsunami to commemorate the event, and their survival.
  • In the village of Baan Nam Khem in Thailand, a pregnant woman named Od Judet was swept up by the wave. “There were nine pregnant women in the village then. Only my baby survived. So we called her Tsunami.”
  • On Little Andaman island, Lakshmi Narain Roy and his pregnant wife Namita escaped the tsunami with the help of a cycle-rickshaw. Soon after, Namita gave birth to a baby boy, but suffered from complications. They made the 7-hour journey to a hospital in Port Blair, where doctors suggested that they name the baby Tsunami. So they did.

Parents in the U.S. started naming their babies Tsunami that year as well. The name debuted in the SSA’s data in 2004 and showed up again in 2005:

  • 2006: unlisted
  • 2005: 7 baby girls named Tsunami
  • 2004: 5 baby girls named Tsunami [debut]
  • 2003: unlisted

The Japanese word tsunami means “harbor wave.”

Interesting contrast: Hurricane Katrina (2005), which destroyed much of New Orleans eight months later, ultimately caused the popularity of the baby name Katrina to plummet in the U.S.

Update: Several years later, in 2009, a tsunami struck the Samoa Islands. In the village of Saleapaga, the two-day old son of Fineaso and Terri Agaalenuu was carried to safety by a relative. Originally named Narineaso, the baby was re-named Tsunami following his lucky escape.

Sources:

Image: The Great Wave off Kanagawa (1831) by Hokusai

[Latest update: Nov. 2023]