How popular is the baby name Richard 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 Richard.

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Popularity of the baby name Richard


Posts that mention the name Richard

Popular baby names in the Czech Republic, 2024

Flag of the Czech Republic
Flag of the Czech Republic

Last year, the central European country of the Czech Republic welcomed about 84,000 babies.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Eliška (for the 13th year in a row) and Jakub (for the 14th year in a row).

Here are Czechia’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2024:

Girl names

  1. Eliška
  2. Viktorie
  3. Sofie
  4. Anna
  5. Natálie
  6. Amálie
  7. Ema
  8. Tereza
  9. Laura
  10. Adéla
  11. Julie
  12. Rozálie
  13. Nela
  14. Mia
  15. Emma
  16. Karolína
  17. Barbora
  18. Sára
  19. Stella
  20. Anežka – the Czech form of Agnes.
  21. Veronika
  22. Marie
  23. Kristýna
  24. Meda
  25. Valerie
  26. Ella
  27. Klára
  28. Jasmína
  29. Štepánka
  30. Josefína
  31. Lucie
  32. Aneta
  33. Nina
  34. Magdaléna
  35. Zuzana (3-way tie)
  36. Ester (3-way tie)
  37. Beáta (3-way tie)
  38. Alžbeta (tie) – the Slovak form of Elizabeth.
  39. Elena (tie)
  40. Rozárie – the Czech form of Rosaria.
  41. Katerina
  42. Sofia
  43. Leontýna
  44. Liliana
  45. Gabriela
  46. Emily
  47. Amélie
  48. Adriana (3-way tie)
  49. Michaela (3-way tie)
  50. Stela (3-way tie)

Boy names

  1. Jakub
  2. Matyáš
  3. Jan
  4. Adam
  5. Matej
  6. David
  7. Vojtech
  8. Filip
  9. Dominik
  10. Tomáš
  11. Daniel
  12. Tobiáš
  13. Oliver
  14. Štepán
  15. Antonín
  16. Sebastian
  17. Lukáš
  18. Martin
  19. Ondrej
  20. Mikuláš
  21. Šimon (tie)
  22. Marek (tie)
  23. Samuel
  24. Jonáš
  25. Václav
  26. Petr (tie)
  27. Teodor (tie)
  28. Patrik
  29. Jirí – the Czech form of George.
  30. Tadeáš
  31. Kryštof
  32. Michal
  33. Viktor
  34. Vilém – the Czech form of William.
  35. Jáchym
  36. Eliáš
  37. Josef
  38. Richard
  39. Eduard
  40. František
  41. Albert
  42. Tobias
  43. Theodor
  44. Alex
  45. Pavel
  46. Kristián (tie)
  47. Damián (tie)
  48. Vincent
  49. Jindrich – the Czech form of Heinrich.
  50. Michael

The girls’ top 100 included Markéta (57th), Klaudie (68th), Nella (76th), and Bára (97th).

The boys’ top 100 included Vít (55th), Robin (60th), Hynek (66th), and Kevin (81st).

Speaking of Kevin…Czech journalist Michal Kašpárek (who helped build an app based on Czechia’s baby name data) mentioned Kevin and several other non-Czech names during an interview with Radio Prague International last year. Some quotes:

  • Amélie: “Before the movie Amélie came out in 2001 about one girl a year in the Czech Republic was named Amélie. The year after there [were] 13, out of nowhere, and then the number doubled each year until reaching today’s 180 or so Amélies every year.”
  • Kevin: “Kevin became really popular after Home Alone came out, which was in the ’90s, when American names in general got more popular in the Czech Republic.”
  • Bob: “[O]ur data also shows that the first Bobs were showing up in the 1960s, possibly due to Bob Dylan.”
  • Amy: “There was also a big increase in the name Amy around that time that Amy Winehouse hit it big. That was a trend that didn’t stop after she passed away. Amy is still a really common name, and it hadn’t been before.”

I didn’t post about Czechia’s top baby names of 2023, but here are Czechia’s 2016 rankings.

P.S. Several Czech letters, such as R-with-caron and E-with-caron, don’t render properly on my site. So please imagine that they exist in several of the names above: the girl names Alžbeta, Katerina, and Štepánka, and the boy names Jindrich, Jirí, Matej, Ondrej, Štepán, and Vojtech.

Sources: Detským jménum loni opet kralovali Jakub a Eliška – Ceský statistický úrad, Eliška and Jakub remain most popular baby names in Czechia – Radio Prague International, Jakub, Eliška… Kevin: App spotlights first names in Czechia – Radio Prague International, Behind the Name

Image: Adapted from Flag of the Czech Republic (public domain)

Babies named for the Battle of Trafalgar

Battle of Trafalgar (1805)
Battle of Trafalgar

The Battle of Trafalgar — during which an outnumbered Royal Navy fleet (under Horatio Nelson) soundly defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet (under Napoleon Bonaparte) — took place off the south-western coast of Spain, near Cape Trafalgar, on October 21, 1805.

The battle cost Nelson his life, but the decisive victory “cemented Britain’s reputation as ruler of the seas.”

Dozens of babies in England were given the name “Trafalgar,” typically as a middle, over the next few years. Most of them were boys, but several were girls. Some examples…

  • John Trafalgar Black, b. 1806 in England
  • John Trafalgar Cotton, b. 1807 in England
  • Joseph Trafalgar Dowding, b. circa 1806 in England
  • Jane Trafalgar Grapes, b. 1805 in England
    • Among her siblings were William Nile (b. circa 1798), Charles Wellington (b. circa 1811), and Charlotte Waterloo (b. circa 1815) — likely named for the Battle of the Nile, the Duke of Wellington, and the Battle of Waterloo.
  • William Trafalgar Hannah, b. 1806 in England
  • Richard Trafalgar Hillgrove, b. 1807 in England
  • Robert Trafalgar May, b. 1807 in England
  • Louisa Trafalgar Priske, b. 1805 in England
  • John Trafalgar Salmon, b. 1805 in England
  • Samuel Trafalgar Sparks, b. 1807 in England

A good number of these babies — including Nelson Trafalgar Black (b. 1805 in Scotland) and Horatio Trafalgar Taylor (b. 1806 in England) — were also named in honor of the late admiral.

The Spanish place-name Trafalgar can be traced back to a pair of Arabic words. The first, taraf, means “edge, extremity” (in reference to the cape itself), and the second may mean “west.”

Sources: Battle of Trafalgar – Wikipedia, Battle of Trafalgar – Britannica, Battle of Trafalgar Timeline – National Maritime Museum, Cape Trafalgar – Wikipedia, FamilySearch.org

Image: Adapted from Battle of Trafalgar (1836) by William Clarkson Stanfield

D.C. sextuplets: Emily, Richard, Octavia, Stella, Ann-Marie, Alison

Thompson sextuplets
The five surviving Thompson sextuplets

In May of 1997, Washington, D.C., couple Linden and Jacqueline “Jackie” Thompson welcomed sextuplets.

What were the names of all six babies? Here are their firsts and middles:

  • Emily Elizabeth
  • Richard Linden
  • Octavia Daniella
  • Stella Kimberly
  • Ann-Marie Amanda
  • Alison Nicole (stillborn)

Richard was named after Linden’s late brother, Octavia after Jackie’s mother, Stella after Jackie’s grandmother, and Ann-Marie after Jackie’s sister. The name of the fifth surviving sextuplet, Emily, was one that Jackie simply liked. (Emily was the #1 girl name in the nation from 1996 to 2007.)

Despite being the first black family in the U.S. to have sextuplets, the Thompsons didn’t receive much in the way of publicity or material assistance.

Six months later, the white McCaughey family of Iowa welcomed septuplets. The McCaugheys received not just media attention but “a 12-seat Chevrolet van, baby food, Pampers, clothes, car seats, strollers, milk, groceries and even funding for the children’s college education.”

Eventually — thanks to “the rage of the black community, echoing through black radio talk shows” — the mainstream media covered the Thompson family, and this “exposure forced the corporate community and others to intervene and assist the Thompsons.”

Sources:

Image: Clipping from the cover of Jet magazine (29 Dec. 1997)

Where did the baby name Shireen come from in 1923?

The characters Omar and Shireen from the movie "Omar the Tentmaker" (1922)
Omar and Shireen from “Omar the Tentmaker“

The baby name Shireen first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1923:

  • 1925: unlisted
  • 1924: unlisted
  • 1923: 5 baby girls named Shireen [debut]
  • 1922: unlisted
  • 1921: unlisted

A similar uptick can be seen in the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) data the same year:

  • 1925: 3 people named Shireen
  • 1924: 2 people named Shireen
  • 1923: 4 people named Shireen
  • 1922: no one named Shireen
  • 1921: 1 person named Shireen

What was drawing attention to the name Shireen around that time?

Two different characters in the silent film Omar the Tentmaker, which was released in December of 1922.

The movie was loosely based on the life of medieval Iranian polymath Omar Khayyam. Here’s how it was described in an advertisement:

Omar, most daring poet of ancient Persia, secretly wooed the beautiful, the forbidden Shireen, destined to be the bride of the Shah. Fleeing in the night, the Shah’s slaves tear them apart. Follows thrill, romance and conflict before the lovers are reunited in a most spectacular and smashing climax.

The plot, which spans a number of years, actually features two romances: the primary one between Omar (played by Guy Bates Post) and Shireen (Virginia Brown Faire), and a secondary one between the couple’s grown daughter “little Shireen” (Patsy Ruth Miller) and a Christian crusader.

The film was adapted from the 1914 play of the same name by playwright Richard Walton Tully.

The Persian name Shireen (also spelled Shirin) is transliteration of a Persian word meaning “sweet.” What are your thoughts on the name?

Sources:

Image: Clipping from Shadowland magazine (Oct. 1922)