How popular is the baby name Rene 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 Rene.

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Popularity of the baby name Rene


Posts that mention the name Rene

The “most unisex” baby names in the U.S.

pink and blue cupcakes

Last month, FlowingData crunched some numbers to come up with the 35 most unisex baby names in the U.S. since 1930. Here’s the list:

  1. Jessie
  2. Marion
  3. Jackie
  4. Alva
  5. Ollie
  6. Jody
  7. Cleo
  8. Kerry
  9. Frankie
  10. Guadalupe
  11. Carey
  12. Tommie
  13. Angel
  14. Hollis
  15. Sammie
  16. Jamie
  17. Kris
  18. Robbie
  19. Tracy
  20. Merrill
  21. Noel
  22. Rene
  23. Johnnie
  24. Ariel
  25. Jan
  26. Devon
  27. Cruz
  28. Michel
  29. Gale
  30. Robin
  31. Dorian
  32. Casey
  33. Dana
  34. Kim**
  35. Shannon

I’m not sure exactly what criteria were used to create the rankings, but it looks like the top unisex names on this list were the top-1,000 names that “stuck around that 50-50 split” the longest from 1930 to 2012.

The FlowingData post also mentions that, though the data is pretty noisy, there might be “a mild upward trend” over the years in the number of babies with a unisex name.

**In 1957, Johnny Carson’s 5-year-old son Kim had his name changed to Richard because he’d been having “a little trouble over his name being mistaken for a girl’s.”

Source: The most unisex names in US history

Image: Adapted from Gallery 1 by Sarah Howells under CC BY-SA 3.0.

[Latest update: Nov. 2013]

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

Celine Dion named her baby after Nelson Mandela

Singer Céline Dion and husband René Angelil (in 2012)
Céline Dion and René Angelil

Celine Dion and her husband René Angelil welcomed twin boys named Eddy and Nelson a little more than a week ago. Here are the stories behind their names:

The name “Eddy” comes from Eddy Marnay, who produced the singer’s first five records. “He was like a father to her,” says Dion’s rep. “Eddy is a major influence in both Céline and René’s lives.”

Nelson is named after Nelson Mandela, whom Dion met two years ago while kicking off her world tour in South Africa. “René said that in just the few minutes they were able to spend with him, they were impressed by the human being he is,” says the rep.

“Céline and René want their children to be inspired by their names, because they were so inspired by these men,” the rep adds.

Celine and René’s eldest son, René-Charles, was born in 2001. (Charles was the name of Dion’s paternal grandfather.)

What are your thoughts on these names?

Source: Laudadio, Marisa and Sara Hammel. “Céline Dion Names Her Twins Eddy and Nelson.” People 29 Oct. 2010.
Image: Céline Dion René Angelil 2012 by Georges Biard under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Baby names from hockey

A reader named Elizabeth has sent me a rather cool list of hockey-inspired baby names. She writes:

I’m a name enthusiast and a hockey fanatic, and my husband and I have been tossing around the idea of naming our son after hockey players.

They haven’t seen any lists of hockey names for babies, though, so they decided to compile one themselves. It includes “both all-time greats and current players.”

I thought I’d pass it along to share with fellow rink rats who may be reading your blog and can’t think of anything other than Wayne (Gretzky), Herb (Brooks), or Patrick (Roy).

Here’s their list:

  • Andreas (Andreas Lilja, Andreas Nödl)
  • Aurèle (Aurèle Émile Joliat)
  • Bentley (Max Bentley, Doug Bentley)
  • Bourque (Ray Bourque, Rene Bourque)
  • Briere (Danny Briere)
  • Brooks (Herb Brooks, Brooks Laich)
  • Crosby (Sidney Crosby)
  • Dryden (Ken Dryden)
  • Eaves (Patrick Eaves)
  • Elias (Patrik Elias)
  • Émile (Aurèle Émile Joliat)
  • Ennis (Tyler Ennis)
  • Evgeni (Evgeni Malkin, Evgeni Nabokov)
  • Ilya (Ilya Kovalchuk, Ilya Bryzgalov)
  • Kane (Patrick Kane)
  • Lach (Elmer Lach)
  • Lemieux (Mario Lemieux)
  • Luca (Luca Caputi)
  • Malkin (Evgeni Malkin)
  • Malone (Joe Malone, Ryan Malone)
  • Marek (Marek Svatos)
  • Mario (Mario Lemieux)
  • Marleau (Patrick Marleau)
  • Michal (Michal Handzus)
  • Milan (Milan Hejduk)
  • Modano (Mike Modano)
  • Nikolai (Nikolai Khabibulin)
  • Parise (Zach Parise)
  • Pavel (Pavel Datsyuk)
  • Rene (Rene Bourque)
  • Savard (Serge Savard, Marc Savard)
  • Shore (Eddie Shore)
  • Stephane (Stephane Yelle)
  • Turco (Marty Turco)

Thanks so much for sharing, Elizabeth!

Another good source of hockey names is the Legends of Hockey website, which is affiliated with the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Which hockey names are your favorites?

Update, Feb. 2024: Since publishing this list, I’ve written a few posts featuring hockey players: Jaromír Jágr, Sidney Crosby, and P. K. Subban.