How popular is the baby name Renaud 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 Renaud.

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Popularity of the baby name Renaud


Posts that mention the name Renaud

Which boy names are the most Canadian?

Maligne Lake, Canada

Yesterday we came up with some girl names that were either particularly Canadian or particularly American. So today let’s do the same thing for boy names.

Again, here are the two different methods:

First, we’ll look at the most popular names that appeared in only one set of data (either Canada or the U.S.) in 2022.

Second, we’ll look at the names that appeared in both sets of data, focusing on how proportionally popular each name was in each place. For the boy names below, I calculated the proportions by dividing each name’s U.S. usage by the total number of boys born in the U.S. last year (1,863,582) and each name’s Canadian usage by the total number of boys born Canada last year (180,763).

Top Canada-only boy names

The 2022 Canadian data included 261 boy names that were not in the U.S. data. Below are the 10 most popular Canada-only boy names.

Number of boys (Can.)Rank (Can.)
1. Edouard49249th
2. Arnaud35285th
3. Florent73394th
4. Laurier60460th
5. Loik57485th
6. Ludovick45588th
7. Renaud42627th
8. Gregoire30831st
9. Charles-Edouard27 (tie)902nd (tie)
10. Gurniwaz27 (tie)902nd (tie)

Nine out of ten are French names used primarily in Quebec:

  • Edouard: 482 of 492 born in Quebec
  • Arnaud: 349 of 352
  • Florent: 71 of 73
  • Laurier: 60 of 60 (all)
  • Loik: 47 of 57
  • Ludovick: 45 of 45 (all)
  • Renaud: 40 of 42
  • Gregoire: 30 of 30 (all)
  • Charles-Edouard: 25 of 27

The Sikh name Gurniwaz, however, was not used in Quebec at all.

Boy names particularly popular in Canada

Now let’s look at the more than 2,950 boy names that appeared in both sets of data. Of the boy names used more frequently in Canada than in the U.S., the 10 below had the largest pro-Canada differentials. (I added the rankings for both countries as well.)

Differential (Pro-Can.)Rank (Can.)Rank (U.S.)
1. Leo0.3578%4th22nd
2. Adam0.3460%16th97th
3. Felix0.3408%23rd192nd
4. Theo0.3217%17th99th
5. Thomas0.3197%8th45th
6. Arthur0.3030%22nd140th
7. Nathan0.2830%13th57th
8. Muhammad0.2675%35th297th
9. Louis0.2576%34th246th
10. Emile0.2473%60th2,076th

Top U.S.-only boy names

The 2022 U.S. data included 11,297 boy names that were not in the Canadian data. Below are the 10 most popular U.S.-only boy names.

Number of boys (U.S.)Rank (U.S.)
1. Jesus2,247165th
2. Iker830385th
3. Jaziel779412th
4. Baker709433rd
5. Major701441st
6. Marcos614491st
7. Roberto607498th
8. Jamari577512th
9. Tadeo567519th
10. Jamir555534th

Many of these are used primarily by Spanish speakers.

Boy names particularly popular in the U.S.

Now, back to the names that both countries had in common. Of the boy names used more frequently in the U.S. than in Canada, the 10 below had the largest pro-U.S. differentials.

Differential (Pro-U.S.)Rank (U.S.)Rank (Can.)
1. Elijah0.3147%5th37th
2. Mateo0.2833%11th50th
3. Santiago0.2620%48th285th
4. Sebastian0.2584%13th62nd
5. Angel0.2474%62nd603rd
6. Julian0.2467%35th125th
7. John0.2219%26th80th
8. Josiah0.2152%51st199th
9. Michael0.2143%16th52nd
10. Christopher0.1936%56th179th

What are your thoughts on the names above?

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Sunrise at Maligne lake 2 by Sergey Pesterev under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Where did the baby name Renault come from in 1959?

The Renault Dauphine (from a late 1950s TV commercial)
Renault Dauphine

We all know that Renault is a French automaker. But did you know that it’s also an American baby name?

In 1959, the name Renault (pronounced ruh-noh) appeared for the first time in the U.S. baby name data:

  • 1961: 6 baby boys named Renault
  • 1960: unlisted
  • 1959: 8 baby boys named Renault [debut]
  • 1958: unlisted
  • 1957: unlisted

The name Dauphine (pronounced doh-feen), which was last on the charts since the 1920s, also saw a boost in usage around this time:

  • 1961: unlisted
  • 1960: 8 baby girls named Dauphine
  • 1959: 10 baby girls named Dauphine
  • 1958: unlisted
  • 1957: unlisted

The cause? The Renault Dauphine, a “frisky, thrifty family car” introduced to U.S. consumers in 1957.

The car was widely praised (at first) and sales rose impressively during the late ’50s, peaking in 1959.

I even found a baby girl born in Texas in 1959 with the name Renault Dauphine Sanders. None of her four sisters — Netha, Andra, Elizabeth, and Tina — were named for cars.

Here’s a TV commercial for the Renault Dauphine. Notice how the American voice-over actor pronounces company name ruh-nawlt.

But the rise of the Renault Dauphine was cut short when problems began to emerge. The Dauphine was quick to rust, for instance, and it took more than 30 seconds to reach 60 mph. Sales started falling in 1960 and never recovered. Renault stopped producing new Dauphines altogether in the late ’60s.

Another name that may have been influenced by Renault? Ondine:

  • 1963: unlisted
  • 1962: unlisted
  • 1961: 5 baby girls named Ondine [debut]
  • 1960: unlisted
  • 1959: unlisted

The Renault Ondine was a variant of the Renault Dauphine produced from 1960 to 1962. It came to America in 1961, and while it was typically called the “Deluxe” here, the name “Ondine” was mentioned here and there (like in Car Life).

So what do all these names mean? Ondine is the French form of Undine, Dauphine refers to the wife of the Dauphin (the heir apparent to the French throne), and Renault is a variant of the French surname Renaud, which has the same Germanic root as the English name Reynold.

(Ironically, a name very similar to Dauphine, Delphine, saw peak usage in 1958 thanks to a TV character. It’s possible that the character name helped the car name seem even trendier right around that time.)

Sources: