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

Fastest-rising boy names of all time in the U.S. baby name data

hot air balloons

Every year, when I get the latest batch of baby name data, one of the things I check out is popularity change. And every year, as I do that analysis, I say to myself, “I wonder what the biggest popularity jumps of all time are…”

But I kept putting off the analysis. Mainly because it involved manipulating a large amount of data, and…I’m lazy.

Finally, a few weeks ago, I took a look. And I came up with a list of the all-time biggest (raw number, single-year) popularity increases of all time.

Today we’ll look at the boys’ list, and tomorrow we’ll look at the girls’ list.

Before we get into it, though, let me tell you why these lists aren’t so great. The raw numbers (which I’ve become used to focusing on) just don’t work well in this sort of analysis. The top names, as you’ll see, are simply popular names that got a lot more popular. Not very insightful.

I’ll post the lists anyway, but I’m already planning a do-over that focuses on percentage of increase. That ought to be a lot more interesting.

So, now that that’s out of the way, here are all the boy names that jumped by more than 10,000 babies in a single year:

  1. Robert, +14,194 baby boy from 1945 to 1946
  2. John, +13,131 baby boy from 1945 to 1946
  3. James, +12,993 baby boy from 1945 to 1946
  4. Richard, +12,828 baby boy from 1945 to 1946
  5. David, +11,381 baby boy from 1946 to 1947
  6. Michael, +11,268 baby boy from 1945 to 1946
  7. John, +11,140 baby boy from 1911 to 1912
  8. Jason, +10,788 baby boy from 1969 to 1970
  9. James, +10,450 baby boy from 1941 to 1942
  10. Nicholas, +10,274 baby boy from 1977 to 1978

Notice how neatly the top six correlate to the post-WWII baby boom.

Do you have any theories about the other four?

Trivia question of the day: Only one boy name ever decreased in popularity by more than 10,000 baby boys over a one-year period. Can you guess the name?

Image: Adapted from Turkey-2036 by Dennis Jarvis under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Where did the baby name Ringo come from in 1964?

Beatles drummer Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr

In early 1964, The Beatles traveled to the U.S. for the first time.

They became immensely popular here. So popular that, in early April, the top five songs on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart were all Beatles songs: “Can’t Buy Me Love” (#1), “Twist and Shout” (#2), “She Loves You” (#3), “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (#4), and “Please Please Me” (#5).

Their influence even crept onto the baby name charts, with a dozen baby boys being named Ringo after drummer Ringo Starr that year:

  • 1966: 8 baby boys named Ringo
  • 1965: 18 baby boys named Ringo [peak usage]
  • 1964: 12 baby boys named Ringo [debut]
  • 1963: unlisted
  • 1962: unlisted

So, is Ringo’s name really “Ringo”?

Nope. It’s Richard. And his surname is Starkey, not Starr.

He adopted the stage name Ringo Starr while he was in a band called Rory Storm and the Hurricanes (before joining The Beatles).

It was during that summer [of 1960] that Ringo got his name. Up to then he had occasionally been called “Rings,” because he wore as many as four rings at once, one of them a broad gold band he got when his Grandfather Starkey died (he still wears that). Then, at Butlin’s, his surname Starkey was abbreviated to Starr so his solo drumming spot could be announced as “Starr time.” Rings became Ringo because it sounded better with Starr.

Sources:

Image: The Beatles by United Press International, via LOC

UPDATE, 4/2017: I just discovered that there was also a country song called “Ringo” by Lorne Greene (of Bonanza fame) that came out around this time. It was released as a single after Ringo Starr became famous. In fact, and it reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in late 1964.

The song has nothing to do with the drummer — it’s about the Old West outlaw Johnny Ringo — but it certainly could have given the baby name Ringo an extra nudge in the mid-1960s.

Baby name story: Antares

Antares plaque, 1971

Last month’s test launch of the Antares rocket — designed to deliver cargo to the International Space Station — was a success. The first real launch may take place this summer.

This news reminded of a baby girl named Antares, who happened to be in the news a few decades ago.

Antares June Davis was born on January 25, 1971, to Richard and June Davis of Palm Beach.

She was born a week before the start of the Apollo 14 mission, which blasted off on January 31, 1971.

Her parents were close friends with one of the mission’s three astronauts, Edgar Mitchell, who was the pilot of the Apollo 14 lunar module, Antares. So that’s what they named their daughter.

The lunar module was named after the star Antares, a red supergiant and one of the brightest stars in the nighttime sky. The name Antares probably comes from the ancient Greek word antares, meaning “anti-Ares,” or “rival of Mars,” a reference to its Mars-like reddish color. Alternatively, some believe the star was named after the Arab warrior-hero Antar.

Antares Davis is now an actress. Her IMDB page states that astronaut Edgar Mitchell is her godfather.

Do you like the name Antares?

P.S. Here are a few more Apollo-inspired names.

Sources:

Image: NASA

The baby name Cabela

While out on our road trip last week, we spotted a Cabela’s, which is a store that sells hunting gear, fishing gear, camping gear, and so forth.

I’d never been inside Cabela’s before, so we stopped in to take a look. Also, my husband wanted to buy a tackle box.

Overall, it was an interesting place. I wasn’t keen on all the gun-stuff, but I did like the creative taxidermy displays:

Cabela's taxidermy display
Cabela’s taxidermy display (zebra vs. lion)

And, of course, the trip to Cabela’s reminded me that the baby name Cabela has been on the SSA’s baby name list since 2009:

  • 2012: 10 baby girls named Cabela
  • 2011: 8 baby girls named Cabela
  • 2010: 7 baby girls named Cabela
  • 2009: 7 baby girls named Cabela [debut]
  • 2008: unlisted

Variants of Cabela have been on the charts even longer. Here’s Cabella:

  • 2012: 20 baby girls named Cabella
  • 2011: 14 baby girls named Cabella
  • 2010: 13 baby girls named Cabella
  • 2009: 9 baby girls named Cabella
  • 2008: unlisted
  • 2007: 5 baby girls named Cabella
  • 2006: 6 baby girls named Cabella [debut]
  • 2005: unlisted

And here’s Kabella:

  • 2012: 16 baby girls named Kabella
  • 2011: 9 baby girls named Kabella
  • 2010: 9 baby girls named Kabella
  • 2009: 9 baby girls named Kabella
  • 2008: 5 baby girls named Kabella [debut]
  • 2007: unlisted

I’m thinking parents prefer these “extra L” variants because they look more like traditional -bella names, e.g., Isabella, Arabella. (So far, no Kabelas on the list.)

I wonder how many of these parents are hardcore outdoorsmen/outdoorswomen vs. how many are not (but just happen to like the sound of the name).

So where does the name Cabela come from?

A surname. Cabela’s was founded in 1961 by Richard Cabela, his wife Mary, and his brother James. Dick and Jim are the sons of Albin Cabela, who was the son of James Cabela, born in 1869 in Bohemia (immigrated in 1885).

Cabela, therefore, seems to be a Czech surname. I can’t find any information about it, though, so perhaps it’s an altered/Anglicized form of the original family name.

What do you think of the baby name Cabela?

Source: Cabela’s: Company History