How popular is the baby name Ray 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 Ray.

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Popularity of the baby name Ray


Posts that mention the name Ray

Where did the baby name Narada come from?

Narada Michael Walden's album "Awakening" (1979)
Narada Michael Walden album

The Hindu name Narada first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in the late ’70s:

  • 1983: 19 baby boys named Narada
  • 1982: 18 baby boys named Narada
  • 1981: 29 baby boys named Narada
  • 1980: 48 baby boys and 7 baby girls named Narada
  • 1979: 19 baby boys named Narada [debut]
  • 1978: unlisted
  • 1977: unlisted

Where did it come from?

Musician and producer Narada (pronounced NAH-ruh-duh) Michael Walden.

His most successful songs, “I Don’t Want Nobody Else (To Dance with You)” and “I Shoulda Loved Ya,” were both released in 1979. Both reached the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at 47th and 66th respectively. Both also reached the top 10 on Billboard‘s Hot Soul Singles chart, peaking at 9th and 4th.

He went on to have a successful career, being nominated for a total of eight Grammys and winning three (two in the ’80s, one in the ’90s). He produced music for people like Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Lionel Richie, Ray Charles, Al Jarreau, Gladys Knight, Shanice Wilson, Tevin Campbell, etc.

He was born Michael Walden in Michigan in 1952. In the early ’70s, he became a devotee of Indian guru Sri Chinmoy. Chinmoy gave him the spiritual name Narada, and Walden chose to use Narada as part of his stage name. (Carlos Santana, another follower, went by “Devadip Carlos Santana” for a time.)

In Hindu tradition, the character Narada is a sage and musician. He is portrayed “as both wise and mischievous, creating some of Vedic literature’s more humorous tales.”

Do you like Narada as a baby name? Would you use it?

Sources: Narada Michael Walden – Wikipedia, Narada Michael Walden – Billboard, Arunachal butterfly named after Narada, SSA

What popularized the baby name Lara in the 1960s?

Yesterday we looked at the baby name Laura, which saw a curious dip in usage from 1965 to 1967:

Graph of the usage of the baby name Laura in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Laura

You know what was happening at the very same time? A drastic increase in the usage of the very similar name Lara, which suddenly jumped into the top 1,000 in 1966:

Graph of the usage of the baby name Lara in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Lara

Here’s the data, side-by-side:

Girls named LauraGirls named Lara
196818,743 (rank: 11th)1,295 (rank: 227th)
196715,817 (rank: 15th)945 (rank: 277th)
196615,549 (rank: 19th)236 (rank: 618th)
196516,213 (rank: 18th)65 (rank: 1,376th)
196418,974 (rank: 14th)57 (rank: 1,512th)

So…what caused Lara to suddenly skyrocket (and thereby steal some of Laura’s thunder)?

Movie poster for Doctor Zhivago (1965)

The film Doctor Zhivago, which was released at the very end of 1965 and which, accounting for inflation, currently ranks as the eighth-highest-grossing film of all time in the U.S.

Doctor Zhivago, based on the 1957 Boris Pasternak novel of the same name, was a drama set in Russia during the early 1900s — primarily around the time of WWI and the Russian Revolution. The main character was married physician/poet Yuri Zhivago (played by Omar Sharif), who was having an affair with Larisa “Lara” Antipova (played by Julie Christie), the wife of a political activist.

But it was more than just the character — we can’t ignore the influence of the film’s leitmotif “Lara’s Theme.” After Doctor Zhivago came out, it was turned into a Grammy-winning pop song, “Somewhere, My Love,” that name-checked the character in the lyrics:

Lara, my own, think of me now and then
Godspeed, my love, till you are mine again

Renditions of both versions of the song ended up peaking on Billboard‘s “Hot 100” list during the summer of 1966: Ray Conniff’s “Somewhere, My Love” at #9, and Roger Williams’ “Lara’s Theme” at #65.

Ironically, the names Lara and Laura are not related. Laura comes from the Latin name Laurus, meaning “laurel,” whereas the Russian name Lara is a short form of the Greek myth name Larisa, which may have been inspired by the ancient city of Larisa.

The movie also seems to have given a boost to the name Yuri (which had debuted a few years earlier thanks to cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin). And it must be connected somehow to the 1980 debut of the one-hit wonder name Zhivago. (Perhaps it was airing on TV around that time?) “Zhivago” isn’t a Russian surname, incidentally — it’s a Church Slavonic word meaning “the living.”

Getting back to Lara…the name’s popularity declined after the 1960’s, but, so far, it has never dropped out of the top 1,000. (The uptick in usage in 2001-2002 corresponds to the release of the movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, which starred Angelina Jolie.)

Which name do you prefer, Lara or Laura? Why?

Sources: Doctor Zhivago (film) – Wikipedia, Doctor Zhivago – Orthodox England, Lara’s Theme – Wikipedia, Top 10 Highest-Grossing Films of All Time in the US, Ray Conniff – Billboard, Roger Williams – Billboard, Ray Conniff – Grammy.com, Laura – Behind the Name, Lara – Behind the Name

P.S. A woman named Lara after the Zhivago character was mentioned in Name Quotes #78.

What popularized the baby name Laura?

Movie poster for Laura (1944)

In the early 1880s, Laura was a top-20 name in the United States. From the mid-1880s onward, though, the name slowly sank in popularity. It even slipped out of the top 100 for a decade.

But then, in 1945, Laura suddenly changed directions and started rising:

  • 1947: 5,051 baby girls named Laura [rank: 74th]
  • 1946: 4,478 baby girls named Laura [rank: 75th]
  • 1945: 3,589 baby girls named Laura [rank: 77th]
  • 1944: 2,243 baby girls named Laura [rank: 119th]
  • 1943: 2,391 baby girls named Laura [rank: 117th]

What happened in the mid-1940s to change the fate of Laura?

Graph of the usage of the baby name Laura in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Laura

The one-two punch of the 1944 film noir Laura and — probably more importantly — the 1945 hit song “Laura,” which was created from the film’s theme song.

The character Laura Hunt (played by Gene Tierney) from the movie "Laura" (1944)
Laura Hunt from “Laura”

The movie starred Gene Tierney as the title character, Laura Hunt, who was believed to have been murdered for most of the film. The police detective looking into the murder, Mark McPherson (played by Dana Andrews), slowly became obsessed with Laura over the course of the investigation.

The film’s theme song, composed by David Raksin, lent “a haunted, nostalgic, regretful cast to everything it play[ed] under,” according to Roger Ebert. Here’s what it sounds like:

After the film was released, lyricist Johnny Mercer was asked to add words to the tune. His lyrics described Laura “through a series of elusive attributes: a face in the misty light, footsteps down the hall, a floating laugh, and as a woman on a passing train.”

Once there were words, various singers began recording and releasing their own versions of “Laura.” Five of these renditions reached top-10 status on the pop charts during 1945; the one sung by Woodrow “Woody” Herman (below) ended up selling more than a million copies.

The song has since become a jazz standard.

Fifteen years later, in the summer of 1960, the teenage tragedy song “Tell Laura I Love Her” by Ray Peterson reached #7 on Billboard‘s Hot 100. This second Laura-song gave the name an extra boost from 1959 to 1960.

And did you notice that intriguing dip in usage from 1965 to 1967? There’s a reason for that, too, but I’ll save the explanation for tomorrow’s post…

Sources: Laura (1944) – TCM.com, Laura (1945) – Jazz Standards, Laura (1945 song) – Wikipedia, Laura movie review – Roger Ebert, Tell Laura I Love Her – Songfacts.com

What turned Sugar into a baby name?

The character Sugar Kane from the movie "Beach Blanket Bingo" (1965).
Sugar Kane from “Beach Blanket Bingo“

The rare baby name Sugar has an interesting pattern of usage in the U.S. data. It appeared as a boy name during the ’50s, then switched to a girl name in the ’60s—except for an interesting one-year return to the boys’ list in the ’80s.

Graph of the usage of the baby name Sugar in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Sugar

The initial appearance in 1951 was no doubt influenced by boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, who fought professionally from the ’40s to the ’60s. A number of the 1950s Sugars had “Ray” and “R.” in the middle spot, according to records.

  • 1955: 5 baby boys named Sugar
  • 1954: unlisted
  • 1953: 6 baby boys named Sugar
  • 1952: 7 baby boys named Sugar
  • 1951: 5 baby boys named Sugar [debut]
  • 1950: unlisted
  • 1949: unlisted

Interestingly, he was retired throughout 1953 and most of 1954. (He tried to launch a career as a tap-dancing entertainer during that time.)

The switcheroo in the ’60s was influenced by something a little more obscure: a character in the 1965 movie Beach Blanket Bingo. The film starred Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, but also featured a singing character named Sugar Kane (played by Linda Evans).

  • 1967: unlisted
  • 1966: unlisted
  • 1965: 6 baby girls named Sugar
  • 1964: unlisted
  • 1963: unlisted

That was the only ’60s appearance, but the name came back for all of the ’70s. Two pop culture influences that probably helped usage roll along during that decade were the 1971 song “Brown Sugar” by the Rolling Stones and the 1974 movie Sugar Hill, starring Marki Bey (who had put the name Marki on the map several years earlier) as the title character.

Finally, there’s that anomalous, single-year return to the boys’ side of the list:

  • 1982: 5 baby girls named Sugar
  • 1981: 11 baby boys named Sugar
  • 1980: 5 baby girls named Sugar

My best guess here is boxer Sugar Ray Leonard, who fought from the ’70s to the ’90s. The specific reason might have been “The Showdown” — his highly publicized fight against Thomas Hearns in September of 1981.

What are your thoughts on “Sugar” as a name? Do you think of it more as a girl name or as a boy name?

P.S. Sugar Ray Robinson was born Walker Smith. Sugar Ray Leonard was born Ray Charles Leonard — named after the singer, then nicknamed after the original Sugar Ray.

Some thought he was arrogant when [Sugar Ray Leonard] usurped the nickname Sugar Ray, after the man many consider boxing’s best fighter, pound-for-pound. But not the one person who counted.

“I’m gratified he’s using my name,” Sugar Ray Robinson said. “It’s great when kids think enough of you to use your name.”

Sources: Sugar Ray Robinson, 67, Dies – LA Times, Sugar Ray Leonard – Wikipedia, Leonard as sweet as original Sugar Ray, SSA