How popular is the baby name Rita 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 Rita.

The graph will take a few moments to load. (Don't worry, it shouldn't take 9 months!) If it's taking too long, try reloading the page.


Popularity of the baby name Rita


Posts that mention the name Rita

What gave the baby name Gilda a boost in the mid-1940s?

The title character from the movie "Gilda" (1946)
Gilda from “Gilda“

The baby name Gilda achieved its highest ranking in 1927, thanks to shimmying Gilda Gray. But it didn’t reach peak numerical usage until two decades later:

  • 1948: 281 baby girls named Gilda [rank: 479th]
  • 1947: 346 baby girls named Gilda [rank: 441st]
  • 1946: 305 baby girls named Gilda [rank: 442nd]
  • 1945: 68 baby girls named Gilda [rank: 920th]
  • 1944: 61 baby girls named Gilda [rank: 994th]

Why did the usage of Gilda more than quadruple in 1946 (which, admittedly, was the first year of the baby boom)?

Because of the hit movie Gilda, which was released in April of that year.

The movie was a “dark and twisted love story” set in Buenos Aires. It involved gambler Johnny Farrell (played by Glenn Ford), who worked for casino owner Ballin Mundson (played by George Macready), whose new wife just so happened to be Johnny’s ex-lover Gilda (played by Rita Hayworth).

A classic of film noir, Gilda featured Hayworth as the quintessential “noir woman,” a duplicitous temptress and an abused victim in equal measure.

Hayworth’s portrayal of the the seductive Gilda turned the actress “into one of the cinema’s most unforgettable and enduring sex goddesses.”

Several months after the release of Gilda, the world’s fourth atomic bomb detonation (the first during peacetime) occurred above Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Servicemen had nicknamed the bomb Gilda — a nod to Hayworth’s status as a bombshell — and stenciled “Gilda” on the side of the explosive. They even affixed an image of Rita Hayworth (cut out of Esquire magazine) below the stenciled name.

This spontaneous tribute earned Miss Hayworth nearly as much international publicity as the fearsome “Gilda” got for itself by exploding on schedule. To Miss Hayworth’s studio it amounted to the most literally earth-shaking free plug in the history of the world.

Which name do you like more, Gilda or Rita?

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of Gilda

What revived the baby name Rita in the early 1940s?

Actress Rita Hayworth in the movie "Only Angels Have Wings" (1939)
Rita Hayworth in “Only Angels Have Wings“

The baby name Rita became a top-100 girl name in the U.S. in the mid-1910s.

Rita remained popular during the 1920s, but usage declined in the 1930s. The name probably would have slipped out of the top 100 if usage hadn’t started increasing again in 1940:

  • 1942: 4,706 baby girls named Rita [rank: 55th]
  • 1941: 3,879 baby girls named Rita [rank: 63rd]
  • 1940: 3,442 baby girls named Rita [rank: 70th]
  • 1939: 3,188 baby girls named Rita [rank: 78th]
  • 1938: 3,357 baby girls named Rita [rank: 74th]

Here’s a visual:

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

What revived expectant parents’ interest in the baby name Rita around 1940?

My guess is glamorous film star Rita Hayworth.

Hayworth, whose birth name was Margarita Carmen Cansino, was born into a family of dancers (the “Dancing Cansinos”) and performed professionally as a child.

She began acting in films in the mid-1930s, and found fame upon the success of Only Angels Have Wings (1939) — the first movie in which she played a prominent role (“as an unfaithful wife who tries to seduce Cary Grant”).

She went on to portray femmes fatale in melodramas like The Lady in Question (1940), Blood and Sand (1941), and The Strawberry Blonde (1941), and she exhibited her dancing skills in musicals like You’ll Never Get Rich (1941), You Were Never Lovelier (1942), and Cover Girl (1944).

Rita Hayworth in Life magazine (Aug. 1941)
Rita Hayworth in Life magazine

In August of 1941 — four months before the attack on Pearl Harbor — Life magazine published a photo of Hayworth wearing a “black-and-white nightgown,” kneeling “on her own bed in her own home.” That photo went on to become one of the most popular pin-up images of World War II.

How do you feel about the name Rita? Would you use it as-is, or do you prefer it as a nickname for Margarita?

P.S. The name Rita reached its highest-ever ranking (42nd) in 1930, no doubt thanks to the musical comedy Rio Rita (1929), which starred actress Bebe Daniels.

Sources:

Images: Screenshot of Only Angels Have Wings; clipping from Life magazine (11 Aug. 1941)

Minnesota family with 22 children

kinderfest

In the mid-20th century, Alvin Joseph Miller and Lucille Rose Miller (née Kahnke) of Waseca, Minnesota, had 22 children — 15 girls and 7 boys.

Here are the names of all 22 siblings:

  1. Ramona Mary (born in 1940), who became a Franciscan nun
  2. Alvin Joseph, Jr. (b. 1942)
  3. Rose Ann (b. 1943)
  4. Kathleen Edith (b. 1945)
  5. Robert Vincent (b. 1946)
  6. Patricia Jean (b. 1947)
  7. Mary Lucille (b. 1948), nicknamed “Marylu”
  8. Diane Margaret (b. 1949)
  9. John Charles (b. 1950)
  10. Janet Irene (b. 1951)
  11. Linda Louise (b. 1953)
  12. Virginia Therese (b. 1954)
  13. Helen Rita (b. 1955), who wrote a book about growing up in a large family
  14. Arthur Lawrence (b. 1956)
  15. Dolores Maria (b. 1957)
  16. Martin Peter (b. 1959)
  17. Pauline Carmel (b. 1960)
  18. Alice Callista (b. 1961)
  19. Angela Mary (b. 1962)
  20. Marcia Marie (b. 1963)
  21. Gregory Eugene (b. 1964)
  22. Damien Francis (b. 1966)

Eight of the children had been born by April of 1950, when the Miller family was interviewed for the U.S. Census:

The Miller family on the 1950 U.S. Census
The Miller family (1950 U.S. Census)

Alvin and Lucille raised their children on a 300-acre farm that included a seven-bedroom farmhouse. Here’s how Diane (#8) described her childhood:

I remember a lot of rides in the wheelbarrow from the granary to the barn. I remember a lot of grinding feed, a lot of egg washing and packing, a lot of sitting by the wood stove in the basement, singing songs as we candled eggs.

Which of the names above do you like most?

P.S. Thank you to Destiny for letting me know about the Miller family a few months ago! (Destiny also told me about the Jones family of West Virginia.)

Sources:

Image: Ein Kinderfest (1868) by Ludwig Knaus

Popular baby names in Croatia, 2022

Flag of Croatia
Flag of Croatia

Crescent-shaped Croatia is located on the Balkan peninsula. It shares land borders with five other countries: Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro.

Last year, Croatia welcomed 34,414 babies — 16,904 girls and 17,510 boys.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Mia and Luka (yet again).

Here are Croatia’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2022:

Girl Names

  1. Mia, 452 baby girls
  2. Lucija, 371
  3. Nika, 370
  4. Mila, 365
  5. Ema, 351
  6. Marta, 335
  7. Rita, 333
  8. Sara, 321
  9. Eva, 267
  10. Dora, 253
  11. Ana, 246 (tie)
  12. Elena, 246 (tie)
  13. Iva, 220
  14. Lea, 202
  15. Petra, 200
  16. Klara, 192 (tie)
  17. Tena, 192 (tie)
  18. Lara, 191
  19. Laura, 184
  20. Lana, 182
  21. Hana, 180
  22. Marija, 171
  23. Franka, 170
  24. Ena, 169
  25. Sofia, 159
  26. Leona, 158 (tie)
  27. Maša, 158 (tie)
  28. Una, 139
  29. Nikol, 133
  30. Emili, 130
  31. Magdalena, 128
  32. Lena, 125
  33. Vita, 124
  34. Tia, 121
  35. Tara, 120
  36. Katja, 117
  37. Nora, 110
  38. Karla, 108
  39. Helena, 103
  40. Bruna, 99
  41. Aurora, 98 (tie)
  42. Roza, 98 (tie)
  43. Iris, 96
  44. Cvita, 94 (tie) – a form of the Slovene name Cvetka, based on the Slovene word cvet, meaning “flower, blossom”
  45. Sofija, 94 (tie)
  46. Aria, 91
  47. Mara, 89
  48. Lota, 88
  49. Doris, 85 (tie)
  50. Maris, 85 (tie)

Boy Names

  1. Luka, 774 baby boys
  2. Jakov, 478
  3. David, 474
  4. Petar, 427
  5. Ivan, 408
  6. Roko, 365 – a form of Rocco
  7. Mateo, 354
  8. Fran, 347
  9. Niko, 328
  10. Matej, 318
  11. Mihael, 312
  12. Josip, 306
  13. Toma, 305
  14. Leon, 293
  15. Lovro, 286
  16. Noa, 282
  17. Filip, 263
  18. Marko, 262
  19. Karlo, 259
  20. Vito, 258
  21. Teo, 256
  22. Ivano, 253
  23. Šimun, 252
  24. Borna, 247
  25. Jan, 229
  26. Lukas, 196
  27. Leo, 187
  28. Gabriel, 184
  29. Ante, 181
  30. Viktor, 170
  31. Nikola, 159
  32. Tin, 153
  33. Adrian, 146
  34. Bruno, 145 (tie)
  35. Liam, 145 (tie)
  36. Toni, 137
  37. Marin, 136
  38. Dominik, 134
  39. Rafael, 126
  40. Oliver, 122
  41. Noel, 114
  42. Emanuel, 111 (tie)
  43. Patrik, 111 (tie)
  44. Duje, 106 – a form of the Ancient Roman name Domnius, ultimately based on the Latin word dominus, meaning “lord, master”
  45. Erik, 102
  46. Maro, 100
  47. Antonio, 98 (tie)
  48. Lovre, 98 (tie)
  49. Vid, 96
  50. Franko, 88

Here’s a link to Croatia’s 2021 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.

Sources: Statisticki prikaz – Ministarstvo pravosuda i uprave Republike Hrvatske (Document 27 [pdf] specifically), Behind the Name

Image: Adapted from Civil ensign of Croatia (public domain)