How popular is the baby name Rue 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 Rue.

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Popularity of the baby name Rue


Posts that mention the name Rue

Pop culture baby name game results, 2011 (part 2)

Britney Spears album

In part 2 of the Pop culture baby name game, we tried to predict which baby names would see increased usage in 2011, thanks to popular culture.

Here’s how we did. The numbers are all from 2010 and 2011, respectively. (Check out Harper & Bentley!)

  • Adele – yes, rose from 286 to 453 baby girls
  • Atlantis – nope, fell from 16 to 7 baby girls
  • Alaina – yes, rose from 1,490 to 1,985 baby girls
  • Alaric – yes, rose from 40 to 48 baby boys
  • Amy – nope, fell from 2,275 to 2,177 baby girls
  • Arya – yes, rose from 273 to 386 baby girls (& from 87 to 110 baby boys)
  • Arabella – yes, rose from 826 to 934 baby girls
  • Aria – yes, rose from 898 to 1,964 baby girls
  • Arthur – yes, rose from 725 to 888 baby boys
  • Bear – yes, rose from 53 to 85 baby boys
  • Bentley – yes rose from 3761 to 5535 baby boys (& from 231 to 285 baby girls)
  • Betty – yes, rose from 130 to 163 baby girls
  • Bran – yes, rose from 5 to 7 baby boys
  • Cairo – yes, rose from 45 to 91 baby boys, and 5 to 12 baby girls
  • Casey – nope, fell from 483 to 463 baby girls (& from 705 to 635 baby boys)
  • Caylee – yes, rose from 565 to 692 baby girls
  • Charlie (girl name) – yes, rose from 664 to 848 (pop culture reference: Disney’s Good Luck Charlie)
  • Crosby – yes, rose from 180 to 301 baby boys
  • Edith – yes, rose from 325 to 350 baby girls
  • Egypt – yes, rose from 100 to 112 baby girls, and 5 to 11 baby boys
  • Ezra – yes, rose from 1439 to 1735 baby boys (& from 88 to 101 baby girls)
  • Florence – nope, fell from 75 to 73 baby girls (I’m surprised by this!)
  • Flynn – yes, rose from 81 to 208 baby boys
  • Gabrielle – nope, fell from 3,128 to 2,601 baby girls
  • Harper – yes, Harper rose from 2,624 to 4,636 baby girls (& from 339 to 399 baby boys)
  • Harvey – yes, rose 184 to 243 baby boys
  • Hattie – yes, from 157 to 253 baby girls
  • Haven – yes, rose from 447 to 504 baby girls (but fell from 164 to 133 baby boys)
  • Jace – yes, rose from 2,669 to 3,689 baby boys
  • Kate – yes, rose from 1,485 to 1,774 baby girls
  • Kez – nope, off the list both years
  • Khal – nope, off the list both years
  • Libya – yes, rose from off-the-list (fewer than 5) to 7 baby girls
  • Maci – yes, rose from 1,351 to 1,725 baby girls
  • Mars – yes, rose from 14 to 23 baby boys
  • Maxton – yes, 193 to 208 baby boys
  • Mobley – nope, off the list both years
  • Monroe – yes, rose from 93 to 141 baby girls
  • Mylo – yes, rose from 33 to 57 baby boys
  • Nicki – yes, rose from 9 to 21 baby girls
  • Octavia – no, fell from 88 to 72
  • Perry – yes, rose from 32 to 40 baby girls, and 129 to 146 baby boys
  • Pippa – yes, Pippa rose from 16 to 69 baby girls (& Philippa from 25 to 53)
  • Raylan – yes, rose from 132 to 326 baby boys
  • Rue – yes, rose from 9 to 13 baby girls
  • Siri – nope, Siri fell from 111 to 103 baby girls
  • Sparrow – yes, rose from 5 to 11 baby boys (but fell from 32 to 31 baby girls)
  • Spring – yes, rose from 11 to 16 baby girls
  • Steve – yes, rose from 279 to 324 baby boys
  • Tim – nope, fell from 65 to 48 baby boys
  • Tunisia – nope, off the list both years
  • William – yes, rose from 16,979 to 17,151 baby boys

I know I missed a few, but we’ll discuss them all eventually I’m sure. :)

Here are the results to PCBNG #1.

Babies named after Katniss from “Hunger Games”?

"The Hunger Games" (2008)
“The Hunger Games“

The Hunger Games is a young adult science-fiction trilogy by Suzanne Collins. The last of the three books, Mockingjay, was released a few weeks ago.

At the moment, Mockingjay is #5 on the Amazon.com Bestseller List. Catching Fire, the second book, is #13. Hunger Games, the first, is #16.

Movies based on the books are in the works.

What interests me about the series is that most of the Hunger Games characters have odd names. The young female protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, was named after an edible plant called katniss. She has a younger sister named Primrose, a male friend named Peeta, and lives in a world where people are named anything from Glimmer to Plutarch.

We all know that popular books and movies have the potential to affect baby name trends–even create brand new baby names. Babies have been named Renesmee thanks to Twilight, Neytiri thanks to Avatar, Galadriel thanks to The Lord of the Rings…the list goes on.

Could you see Katniss crossing over into the real world as a baby name? How about any of the other Hunger Games names?

(I first learned about these books in a video by Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn, which is a great blog/site/podcast for writers.)

Update, March 26, 2012: As you know, the trilogy is now a movie. And, last weekend, Hunger Games (the film) had the 3rd-best opening weekend of all time (after The Dark Knight and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2). So…Katniss is pretty much a sure thing at this point. If it doesn’t debut in 2011 for the books, it’s bound to debut in 2012 for the movie.

Update, July 21, 2020: The name Katniss did indeed debut in 2012, as did Finnick. Primrose made a return that year as well, as did Gale for baby boys. Two more Hunger Games names affected by subsequent movies include Everdeen (debuted in 2014) and Cressida (re-emerged in 2014). And, going back to the books, the name Rue returned in 2010.

“Golden Girl” names: Blanche & Bea, Rose & Rue

Old is new again the world of baby names, so lets take a look at the names of TV’s Golden Girls:

  • Dorothy, played by Beatrice “Bea” Arthur
  • Rose, played by Betty White
  • Blanche, played by (Eddi) Rue McClanahan
  • Sophia, played by Estelle Getty

Only three of the names above — Sophia, Rose and Beatrice — managed to make the top 1,000 in 2006. (They ranked 9th, 350th and 966th, respectively).

Are any of the others due for a comeback? What do you think?

One-syllable girl names: Kate, Sage, Wren, Maeve

single tree

Looking for a girl name that’s short and to-the-point? Something that might work particularly well as a middle name?

Check out this list of several hundred one-syllable girl names:

  • Anne/Ann, Ash/Ashe, Ayn
  • Banks/Banx, Bar, Bea, Belle/Bell, Bess, Beth, Bjork, Blair/Blaire, Blaise/Blaze/Blayze/Blaize, Blake/Blayke, Blanche, Bless, Blessed, Bliss/Blyss, Bloom, Blue/Blu, Blythe, Brave, Bray, Breck, Bree/Brie, Breeze/Brees, Brett, Bright, Britt, Bronx, Bronze, Brooke/Brook, Bryce/Brice, Brynn/Bryn/Brynne/Brin/Brinn, Burke
  • Cache, Cass, Cate/Cait, Chance, Charm, Chase, Chen, Cher, Chris, Claire/Clare/Clair, Clark/Clarke, Cloud, Clove, Coast, Cove, Cree, Cruz
  • Dale, Dare, Dash, Dawn, Deah, Dee, Deem, Del/Dell, Doll, Dor, Dove, Dream, Drew/Dru
  • Earth, Elle, Eve
  • Fair/Fayre, Faith/Fayth, Fawn/Faun, Fate, Faye/Fay/Fae, Fern/Ferne, Flame, Fleur, Flor, Flynn, Fran
  • Gail/Gayle/Gale, Gal, Gay/Gaye, Gem, Gift, Gold, Grace/Grayce, Gray/Grey, Greer, Gwen, Gwyn/Gwynn/Gwynne
  • Hayes/Haze, Hayle, Heart/Hart, Hope
  • Jace/Jayce, Jade/Jayde/Jaide, Jan, Jane/Jayne, Jaye/Jae, Jazz/Jaz, Jean/Jeanne, Jem, Jen/Jenn, Jess, Jett, Jewel, Jill, Jin/Jyn, Jo, Joan, Joss, Joy/Joye/Joi/Joie, Joyce, Jude, Jules, June, Jung
  • Kai, Kate/Kayte/Kaite, Kay/Kaye/Kae, Kayce, Kayde, Kim, Klaire/Klare/Klair, Klark/Klarke, Kree, Kris, Kyle
  • Lace, Laine/Lane/Layne, Lake, Lark, Leigh/Lee, Light, Liv, Liz, Love, Lux, Luce, Luz, Lynn/Lynne/Lyn/Lin
  • Mae/May, Madge, Maeve/Maebh/Mave, Mai, March, Marge/Marj, Maude/Maud, Maze/Maize/Mayze, Mills, Mirth, Moon
  • Nash, Naz, Nelle/Nell, Neve/Niamh, Nile, Noire/Noir, Noor/Nour, North
  • Paige/Payge/Page, Pam, Pax, Paz, Peace, Peach, Pearl/Perl, Plum, Praise, Prayer, Prim, Psalm, Psalms, Prue, Pure
  • Queen, Quinn
  • Rae/Raye, Rayne/Rain/Raine/Rainn/Reign, Reece/Reese/Rhys, Reem, Reet, Reeve, Rell, Ren, Rise, Rogue, Rome, Rose, Rue, Rune, Rut, Ruth, Ryn/Rin
  • Saint, Sage/Saige/Sayge/Saje, Scout, Shane/Shayne, Shea/Shae/Shay/Shaye, Shine, Silk, Shir, Skye/Sky, Sloane/Sloan, Snow, Sol, Soul, Star/Starr, Storm, Sue/Sioux, Swan, Sway
  • Tai, Taj, Tate, Teal, Tess, Thyme, Tris, Trish, True/Tru, Trust, Truth, Tyne
  • Vail/Vale, Val, Vaughn
  • Wing, Wren/Wrenn, Wryn, Wynn/Wynne/Winn
  • Yaz, Yen
  • Zane/Zain/Zayne, Zeal, Zell, Zen

Please note that I did include names in the gray area between one syllable and two syllables. The deciding factor on these particular names will be your own interpretation/accent, so be sure to test the names out loud before making any final decisions. (“Hayle,” for instance — would you say it like Hale, or like Hailey? Or “Rise” — is it rize, or ree-sah?)

Many of these names also happen to be unisex, so they appear on the one-syllable boy names list as well.

What’s your favorite one-syllable girl name?

Image: Adapted from 1 Drvo 06241 by Olja Simovic under CC BY-SA 4.0.

[Latest update: July 2023]