How popular is the baby name Ronald in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Find out using the graph below! Plus, check out all the blog posts that mention the name Ronald.

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 Ronald


Posts that Mention the Name Ronald

Name quotes #118: Meeno, Ronaldo, Crusoe

double quotation mark

April is here, so it’s time for another batch of name quotes!

From a 2011 interview with former child actor Meeno Peluce:

My parents split the country when I was conceived. They traveled across Europe looking for the perfect place to have their perfect child. It was 1969, a voice had spoken to my mom. It said, “Go to India.” Then a short time later it said, “You’re pregnant.” They had been married 10 years and my mom was not supposed to be able to have kids. But the voice spoke and so they left America behind and headed for the world. They made great friends in Yugoslavia, one had the perfect name. Miroslav, Man of Peace. So I was named after him, but not in Yugoslavia.

[…]

My folks pulled into Amsterdam on a snowy night with all the lights glistening and my mom knew it was the perfect place and that’s where I was born, their little man of peace, Miro.

A couple years later we were in Katmandu at the foot of Swayambhunath where Buddha had come to make his last speeches. A monk came over, picked me up, and asked my name. “Miro,” my mother told him. “No,” I corrected her. “No more Miro, only Meeno, only Meeno.” And I wouldn’t answer to anything else.

(Meeno, the half-brother of Soleil Moon Frye, co-starred with Jon-Erik Hexum in the early ’80s sci-fi TV show Voyagers!)

From a 2009 NPR interview with jazz singer and pianist Blossom Dearie (1924-2009):

It is my real name, and everybody asks me that, but I don’t mind answering that question. […] I was born in the springtime, and my father gave me the name Blossom cause I was born in April and my bothers brought blossoms in the house.

(TV character Blossom Russo was named after Blossom Dearie.)

From an article about the first spoken dialogue system used in space:

Since Clarissa’s developers planned to set her up on the International Space Station (ISS), the team “went looking for names that had ‘ISS’ in them,” said [John] Dowding. “There aren’t many of those. Clarissa won out,” [Manny] Rayner told Space.com, adding that the team thought a woman’s name would make the system sound friendly.

(The system was first used aboard the ISS in 2005 — about a decade after Clarissa Explains it All was on the air.)

From an Instagram post by Irish television presenter Lisa Cannon:

I always feel oddly yet loosely connected to [the late Lisa Marie Presley] as I was an only child too and was named after her… Lisa Sara Marie Cannon – Lisa Marie because my father like the rest of the world was an Elvis fan and my middle name Sara after Bob Dylan’s Wife. My father at the time was a budding Rock Journalist for Hot Press Magazine & the NME in London so music of all genres was always playing in our home. When people ask you the origin of your name or who your named after it was always “Elvis’ daughter & Bob Dylan’s Wife” which always got a smile.

From a recent article about YouTube influencers The Newbys:

Tiny traveller Crusoe Newby is less than two years old — but has already tottered his way around 24 different countries.

[…]

Named after fictional castaway Robinson Crusoe, the hero of the 18th century novel by Daniel Defoe, he had travelled to 11 countries while still in the womb. But his official tally of 24 have all been racked up since his birth. His adventure started when Tara and John decided to sell their Bristol home and convert a £3,000 van to travel the globe in May 2020.

[…]

“Robinson Crusoe is John’s favourite book of all time because it inspired him as a young boy to think of a life of adventure.”

From a 2016 article about Portuguese soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo:

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro was named, in part, after Ronald Reagan, president of the United States at the time of his birth [in 1985] and his father’s favorite actor. “My parents named me after him because they both liked this name and thought it sounded strong,” he tells me. “I know that my father admired him.”

For more quotes about names, check out the name quotes category.

The Jackson 5…and their five other siblings

Seven of the Jackson siblings: Jackie, Michael, Tito, Marlon, Randy, La Toya, Rebbie, and Janet (in 1976)
Seven of the Jackson siblings

We’ve all heard of the Jackson 5, but did you know that there were actually ten siblings in the Jackson family?

Katherine and Joe Jackson of Gary, Indiana, welcomed ten children — seven boys and three girls — over the course of 16 years. Here are the names of all ten, in order:

  1. Maureen Reillette, “Rebbie” (b. 1950)
  2. Sigmund Esco, “Jackie” (b. 1951)
  3. Tariano Adaryll, “Tito” (b. 1953)
  4. Jermaine LaJuane (b. 1954)
  5. La Toya Yvonne (b. 1956)
  6. Brandon (twin, b. 1957) — he died soon after birth
  7. Marlon David (twin, b. 1957)
  8. Michael Joe (b. 1958)
  9. Steven Randall, “Randy” (b. 1961)
  10. Janet Damita Jo (b. 1966)

Here are Jermaine’s thoughts on some of the Jackson family names, from his memoir:

I have often wondered how many names my parents went through before agreeing on the final nine. Not that it mattered in the end, because the choice of “Sigmund Esco” for their first son morphed into “Jackie” when Papa Samuel thought it easy to refer to him as “Jackson boy,” then laziness shortened it some more. And “Tariano Adaryl” [sic] became “Tito” because it was easier for us all. I was forever curious as a child about how two people’s taste could go from the exotic-sounding “Jermaine LaJuane” to “Michael Joe.” From somewhere, and especially after Michael’s death, a rumor began that his middle name was Joseph. Maybe this myth prefers the echo with our father’s name because the crossover reads better about a father and son who struggled to see eye to eye. “Joe” was his middle name, as recorded on his birth certificate. His first name was almost “Ronald,” at the suggestion of Mama Martha, but Mother quickly quashed that one.

(Papa Samuel was Jermaine’s paternal grandfather; Mama Martha was his maternal grandmother.)

Which Jackson sibling name do you like best?

Sources:

Babies named for Alla Nazimova

Actress Alla Nazimova in the movie "A Doll's House" (1922).
Alla Nazimova in “A Doll’s House“

Russian-American silent film actress Alla Nazimova (pronounced nah-ZEE-moh-vah) was most popular in the U.S. in the late 1910s and early 1920s.

After becoming a theater star in Russia in the early 1900s, she moved to New York and made her Broadway debut in 1906. Then she successfully transitioned from stage to screen:

In the 1910s Nazimova became one of the first Broadway actresses to match and even surpass her stage success when she became a screen star, reportedly drawing the highest salary in Hollywood from Metro, and creating the type of European exotic with which Pola Negri and, in a different way, Garbo and Deitrich would later become identified.

She was often credited simply as “Nazimova.” Her film company, founded in 1917, was also named Nazimova:

"A Nazimova Production"

The name Nazimova has never surfaced in the U.S. baby name data, but I’ve found several dozen U.S. females named Nazimova. Most were born around the time the actress was at the height of her fame. Some examples…

  • Nazimova Ratleff (née Bordenave), b. 1917 in Louisiana
  • Nazimova Marvine Gatwood (née Edwards), b. 1919 in Ohio
  • Nazimova McKinley (née Hastings), b. 1920 in Indiana
  • Nazimova Goodale (née Hatcher), b. 1920 in Iowa
  • Nazimova Smith, b. circa 1920 in Louisiana
  • Nazimova Davis (née Ebright), b. circa 1920 in Louisiana
  • Nazimova Williams (née Tolbert), b. 1921 in Mississippi
  • Nazimova Dean (née Moore), b. 1921 in Oklahoma
  • Nazimova Sweeney (née Brunson), b. 1921 in Indiana
  • Nazimova Perry, b. 1922 in Pennsylvania
  • Dorothy Nazimova Shaffer (née Montgomery), b. 1922 in Texas
  • Nazimova Regina Fleming (née Jeanfreau), b. 1922 in Louisiana
  • Nazimova Cathrine Naleilehua Katz, b. 1922 in Hawaii
  • Nazimova Brunious (née Santiago), b. 1923 in Louisiana
  • Nazimova Lee (née Holland), b. 1923 in Georgia
  • Nazimova Mae Niedermeyer (née Beckett), b. 1924 in Iowa
  • Nazimova Anderson, b. 1925 in Texas

Alla Nazimova was born in Yalta in the late 1870s. Her birth name was Mariam Edez Adelaida “Alla” Leventon. Her stage surname, Nazimova, is said to have been inspired by the character Nadezhda Nazimova from a Russian novel called Children of the Streets.

What are your thoughts on Nazimova as a given name?

P.S. Nazimova’s goddaughter, Anne Frances “Nancy” Robbins, also became an actress — under the name Nancy Davis. Nancy married fellow actor Ronald Reagan in 1952, and went on to serve as First Lady of the United States during most of the 1980s.

Sources:

Triplets named for Dodgers pitchers

On October 6, 1963, the Los Angeles Dodgers won the fourth and final game of the 1963 World Series against the New York Yankees. They swept the series with the help of their pitchers — Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Johnny Podres, and reliever Ron Perranoski — who collectively gave up only four runs in all four games combined.

The same day, Mr. and Mrs. Eddie A. Turner of Compton, California, welcomed triplets — two boys and one girl. Several days later, they announced that they’d named the babies after Dodgers pitchers:

  • Donald Scott – for Donald Scott “Don” Drysdale
  • Ronald Peter – for Ronald Peter “Ron” Perranoski
  • Sandy (the girl) – for Sanford “Sandy” Koufax

Sources: