How popular is the baby name Russell 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 Russell.
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According to the U.S. baby name data, the curious name Airrion both debuted and hit peak usage in 1973:
1975: 7 baby boys named Airrion
1974: 11 baby boys named Airrion
1973: 19 baby boys named Airrion (debut & peak usage)
1972: unlisted
1971: unlisted
Where did the name come from?
Singer Airrion (pronounced AIR-ee-un) Love, a member of the soul group The Stylistics.
The group was founded in Philadelphia in the late ’60s and saw its greatest success during the first half of the ’70s.
From 1971 to 1974, twelve consecutive Stylistics singles reached the top 10 on Billboard‘s R&B chart. Five of those songs — “You Are Everything,” “Betcha by Golly, Wow,” “I’m Stone in Love with You,” “Break Up to Make Up,” and “You Make Me Feel Brand New” — also reached the top 10 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart.
So, if the group achieved fame in 1971, why did Airrion’s name pop up in the data in 1973 — a year (or two) later than expected?
At first I thought he must have been profiled in print somewhere. (How else would so many parents have known to spell his name correctly?) But I couldn’t find anything in the newspapers or the popular magazines of the day.
So my next-best guess is album covers.
On the reverse of The Stylistics’ first record, only lead vocalist Russell Thompkins, Jr., is mentioned by name. On the back of the group’s second and third records, however, the names of all five members — Russell Thompkins, Airrion Love, James Smith, Herb Murrell, and James Dunn — are listed.
From the reverse of “Round 2” (1972)
If Airrion’s name had been included on the back of the first record, I think it’s likely that his name would have debuted earlier in the baby name data.
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Looking for baby names that are associated with the color red — including baby names that mean “red”?
If so, you’ve come to the right place! I’ve collected dozens of options for you in this post.
Before we get to the names, though, let’s take a quick look at what red represents…
Symbolism of red
What does the color red signify?
In Western cultures in particular, red can be symbolic of:
Love
Passion
Strength
Power
Danger
Excitement
Energy
The link between the color red and emotionally-charged situations may be attributable to the fact that we blush involuntarily when we experience intense feelings (such as anger, lust, or embarrassment).
Baby names associated with red
All of the names below have an association with the color red. The names range from traditional to unusual, and their associations range from strong to slight.
Those that have been popular enough to appear in the U.S. baby name data are linked to their corresponding popularity graphs.
Ahmar Ahmar is an Arabic masculine name meaning “red.” Here’s the popularity graph for Ahmar.
Akane Akane is a Japanese feminine name that — depending upon the kanji being used to write the name — can refer to the madder plant (genus Rubia), the dye made from the root of the madder plant, or the purplish-red color of that dye. Here’s the popularity graph for Akane.
Amaranth Amaranth flowers are frequently red. The genus name Amaranthus is derived from a combination of the Ancient Greek words amarantos, meaning “unfading,” and anthos, meaning “flower.” Here’s the popularity graph for Amaranth.
Amaryllis Amaryllis flowers are often red. The genus name Amaryllis is derived from the Ancient Greek word amarysso, meaning “to sparkle.” Here’s the popularity graph for Amaryllis.
Anara Anara is a Kazakh and Kyrgyz feminine name based on the word anar, meaning “pomegranate.” Here’s the popularity graph for Anara.
Azalea Azalea (pronounced uh-ZAY-lee-uh) flowers are sometimes red. The (obsolete) genus name Azalea is derived from the Ancient Greek word azaleos, meaning “dry.” Here’s the popularity graph for Azalea.
Berry Berry fruits are frequently red. The Old English word for “berry” was berie. Here’s the popularity graph for Berry.
Brick Brick is commonly red. In fact, the term “brick red” refers to the brownish-red color of red clay bricks. Here’s the popularity graph for Brick.
Burgundy Burgundy is a purplish-red color. The name of the shade was inspired by red wine from the region of Burgundy in France. Here’s the popularity graph for Burgundy.
Camellia Camellia flowers are often red. The genus Camellia is was named in honor of Moravian botanist Georg Joseph Kamel. Here’s the popularity graph for Camellia.
Canna Canna flowers are sometimes red. The genus name Canna is derived from the Latin word canna, meaning “reed.” Here’s the popularity graph for Canna.
Cardinal Cardinal is a type of bird, the males of which have red plumage. Cardinals (birds of the genus Cardinalis) were named with the red robes of Roman Catholic cardinals in mind. The common name is ultimately derived from the Latin word cardinalis, meaning “principal, chief.” Here’s the popularity graph for Cardinal.
Carmine The vocabulary word carmine (pronounced KAHR-mien) refers to the pigment made from the cochineal insect, which lives on prickly pear cacti. By extension, it also refers to the purplish-red color of this pigment. Spanish explorers, who learned of the pigment through the Nahuas (Aztecs), began exporting it to Europe in the early 16th century. Its name (in Europe) is based on the Medieval Latin word carminium — a form of the Arabic word qirmiz, meaning “crimson,” influenced by the Latin word minium, meaning “cinnabar.” The word also happens to be a homograph of the personal name Carmine (pronounced KAHR-mee-neh), which is the Italian masculine form of Carmen. Here’s the popularity graph for Carmine.
Carnelian Carnelian, a variety of the mineral chalcedony, is often red. The name of the stone ultimately comes from the Latin word cornus, which refers to a type of berry, altered by the influence of the Latin word carneus, meaning “flesh-colored.”
Cerise Cerise (pronounced su-reez) is the French word for “cherry.” Here’s the popularity graph for Cerise.
Cherry Cherry fruits are typically red. Cherry trees are part of the genus Prunus. Here’s the popularity graph for Cherry.
Chrysanthemum Chrysanthemum flowers are sometimes red. The genus name Chrysanthemum is derived from a combination of the Ancient Greek words khrysos, meaning “gold,” and anthemon, meaning “blossom, flower.” Here’s the popularity graph for Chrysanthemum.
Coral Coral is a pink-orange shade of red. The name of the shade refers to the color of precious coral, which was first discovered in the Mediterranean Sea. Here’s the popularity graph for Coral.
Crimson Crimson is a deep shade of red. Crimson pigment was originally made from the kermes insect, which lives on evergreen oaks. (The pigment fell out of favor in Europe after the introduction of carmine from the New World in the early 1500s.) Here’s the popularity graph for Crimson.
Dahlia Dahlia flowers are sometimes red. The genus Dahlia was named in honor of Swedish botanist Anders Dahl. Here’s the popularity graph for Dahlia.
Delima Delima is an Indonesian feminine name meaning “pomegranate.” Here’s the popularity graph for Delima.
Edom Edom is a Biblical masculine name based on the Hebrew word ‘adom, meaning “red.” Here’s the popularity graph for Edom.
Erythia Erythia, based on the Ancient Greek word eruthrós, meaning “red,” was the name of several figures in Greek mythology.
Eztli Eztli is the Nahuatl word for blood. (Fun fact: The red pigment made from cochineal that Europeans called carmine was called nocheztli, or “prickly pear blood,” by the Nahuas.) Here’s the popularity graph for Eztli.
Flann Flann is an Irish masculine name meaning “blood red.”
Flannán Flannán is a diminutive form of Flann.
Garnet Garnet is a gemstone that is typically dark red. The name of the stone ultimately comes from the Latin word granatum, meaning “pomegranate” (literally, “having many seeds”) — a reference to the resemblance between garnets and pomegranate seeds. Here’s the popularity graph for Garnet.
Garance Garance is a French feminine name that refers to the madder plant (genus Rubia), the dye made from the root of the madder plant, or the purplish-red color of that dye.
Gladiola Gladiola refers to Gladiolus, a genus of plants with flowers that are sometimes red. The genus name, meaning “little sword” (a diminutive of the Latin word gladius, “sword”) refers to the shape of the leaves. Here’s the popularity graph for Gladiola.
Gül Gül (pronounced gool) is a Turkish feminine name meaning “rose.” Here’s the popularity graph for Gül.
Helen Helen is part of Helenium, a genus of plants with flowers that are sometimes red. The genus was named in honor of Helen of Troy. Here’s the popularity graph for Helen.
Jagoda Jagoda (pronounced YAH-goh-dah) is a feminine name meaning “strawberry” in Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian, Slovene, and other South Slavic languages.
Jasper Jasper, an opaque type of microcrystalline quartz, is commonly red. The name of the stone ultimately comes from the Ancient Greek word iaspis. Here’s the popularity graph for Jasper.
Kamala Kamala is a Hindi feminine name based on the Sanskrit word kamala, meaning “pale red.” Here’s the popularity graph for Kamala.
Kimmernaq Kimmernaq is a Greenlandic feminine name meaning “lingonberry.”
Kiraz Kiraz is the Turkish word for “cherry.”
Kirsikka Kirsikka is the Finnish word for “cherry.”
Lali Lali is a Georgian feminine name meaning “ruby.” Here’s the popularity graph for Lali.
Lohit Lohit is a Hindi masculine name based on the Sanskrit word lóhita, meaning “red.”
Mars The pronoun Mars initially referred to the Roman god of war. Later, when the Ancient Romans chose names for the five visible planets of the solar system, they named the one with the reddish color — which is reminiscent of blood — after the god of war. (The surface of Mars appears reddish due to the presence of iron oxide in the planet’s soil.) Here’s the popularity graph for Mars.
Orchid Orchid flowers are sometimes red. Orchids are all members of the Orchidaceae family of plants. Here’s the popularity graph for Orchid.
Phoenix Phoenix refers to the mythical bird, but the name of that bird was based on the Ancient Greek word phoinix, meaning “purple” or “crimson.” Here’s the popularity graph for Phoenix.
Poinsettia Poinsettia bracts are usually red. “Poinsettia” is the common name of the plant species Euphorbia pulcherrima. The common name commemorates U.S. politician Joel Roberts Poinsett, who introduced the plant to the U.S. (from Mexico) in the 1820s.
Poppy Poppy flowers are commonly red. The Old English word for “poppy” was popig. Here’s the popularity graph for Poppy.
Raktima Raktima is the Sanskrit word for “redness.”
Red Red, of course, refers to the color red. :) Here’s the popularity graph for Red.
Reed and Reid Reed, also spelled Reid, comes from an English and Scottish surname that can be traced back to the Middle English word for “red.” Here are the popularity graphs for Reed and Reid.
Rimmon Rimmon is a Hebrew gender-neutral name meaning “pomegranate.”
Rohit Rohit is a Hindi masculine name based on the Sanskrit word róhita, meaning “red.” Here’s the popularity graph for Rohit.
Rose The word rose refers to any flowering plant of the genus Rosa, the name of which ultimately derives from the Greek word for the plant, rhodon. Roses come in various colors, but shades of red have long been favored — so much so that the word rose, by extension, has also referred to a pinkish-red or purplish-red color since the early 16th century. Here’s the popularity graph for Rose.
Roth Roth comes from a German surname that can be traced back to the Middle High German word rot, meaning “red.” It was originally a nickname for a red-haired person. Here’s the popularity graph for Roth.
Rowan Rowan is an Anglicized form of Ruadhán. Here’s the popularity graph for Rowan.
Roy Roy is an Anglicized form of Ruadh. Here’s the popularity graph for Roy.
Ruadh Ruadh (pronounced roo-ah) means “red” or “red-haired” in Irish and Scottish Gaelic.
Ruadhán Ruadhán is a diminutive form of Ruadh.
Rubina Rubina is a Portuguese and Italian and feminine name meaning “ruby.” Here’s the popularity graph for Rubina.
Ruby The word ruby refers to the red variety of the mineral corundum. By extension, it also refers to the red color of these crystals. The name of the stone can be traced back to the Medieval Latin term lapis rubinus, meaning “red stone” (from rubeus, meaning “red,” and lapis, meaning “stone”). Here’s the popularity graph for Ruby.
Rufus Rufus derives from the Latin word rufus, meaning “red” or “red-haired.” Here’s the popularity graph for Rufus.
Rufina and Rufino Rufina (feminine) and Rufino (masculine) are the modern Spanish forms of the Roman family name Rufinus, which was based on Rufus. Here are the popularity graphs for Rufina and Rufino.
Russell Russell comes from a surname that can be traced back to the Old French word rous, meaning “red.” Here’s the popularity graph for Russell.
Scarlet and Scarlett Scarlet is a bright shade of red. The name of the color comes from the Medieval Latin word scarlata (or scarlatum), which referred to a type of woolen cloth that was often, though not always, dyed red. The more popular spelling of the name, Scarlett, represents transferred usage of the English surname. The surname Scarlett originally referred to a person who sold or worked with the cloth. Here are the popularity graphs for Scarlet and Scarlett.
Shani Shani is a Hebrew gender-neutral name meaning “scarlet, red.” Here’s the popularity graph for Shani.
Strawberry Strawberry fruits are red. Strawberry plants are part of the genus Fragaria. Here’s the popularity graph for Strawberry.
Tulip Tulip flowers are often red. The name of the flower can be traced back to the Ottoman Turkish word tülbent, meaning “turban.” Here’s the popularity graph for Tulip.
Ulaan Ulaan is a Mongolian gender-neutral name meaning “red.”
Vadelma Vadelma is a Finnish feminine name meaning “raspberry.”
Vardan Vardan is an Albanian masculine name meaning “rose.” Here’s the popularity graph for Vardan.
Verbena Verbena flowers are sometimes red. The genus name Verbena is derived from the Latin word verbena, which referred to the leaves, twigs, and branches of specific plants (like laurel, olive, and myrtle) that were used during religious ceremonies. Here’s the popularity graph for Verbena.
Vered Vered is a Hebrew feminine name meaning “rose.” Here’s the popularity graph for Vered.
Vermilion Vermilion is an orange-red color. Vermilion pigment was originally made from the mineral cinnabar.
Warda Warda is an Arabic feminine name meaning “rose.” Here’s the popularity graph for Warda.
Zinnia Zinnia flowers are sometimes red. The genus Zinnia was named in honor of German botanist Johann Gottfried Zinn. Here’s the popularity graph for Zinnia.
Can you think of any other names that have a connection to the color red?
P.S. Want to see more color-related baby names? Here are lists of orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple names.
From an early 2023 Anaheim Ducks video in which former football player Troy Aikman addresses his namesake, hockey player Troy Terry (b. 1997):
How cool are we to have the name Troy, first of all. Now I know why your parents named you Troy, so it makes me feel really proud. But what makes me feel even prouder is the fact that the Ducks organization has given me the honor to let you know that, for the second consecutive year, you my friend are an NHL All-Star.
If you really, really know me, and you want to get under my skin a little bit, you go with Wardell. So there’s three options there. There’s Stephen, which is — I kind of know what the relationship is. If you go Wardell, that means we go way back.
The pitch meeting, according to Steph’s father Dell, who was present, kicked off with one Nike official accidentally addressing Stephen as “Steph-on” […] “I heard some people pronounce his name wrong before,” says Dell Curry. “I wasn’t surprised. I was surprised that I didn’t get a correction.”
It got worse from there. A PowerPoint slide featured Kevin Durant’s name, presumably left on by accident, presumably residue from repurposed materials. “I stopped paying attention after that,” Dell says. Though Dell resolved to “keep a poker face,” throughout the entirety of the pitch, the decision to leave Nike was in the works.
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.”
From a 2013 ESPN interview with football player Frostee Rucker:
How did you get the name Frostee?
“My pop [Len] was a DJ while he was in the military and they called him DJ Frost because they said he was cold on the spins. [They called him] Frost, Frostee all that. No matter what he named me they were going to call me Little Frost anyway, so they named me Frostee.”
[…]
What was it like growing up named Frostee?
“It sucked growing up really because kids at Christmas time and teachers, and me being African American, it just didn’t all come together but about [the] time I came to high school it became a household name in Orange County (Calif.).
“It’s just benefited [me] from then. It’s always caught peoples’ eye in the paper and they wanted to know more. So I don’t know if I’ll name my kid that if I ever have one but at the same time being unique isn’t bad either.”
“We’re always going to be compared, but we’re the Black sisters not the Williams sisters,” [mom Gayal Black] said.
[…]
“Alicia got her name ‘Tornado’ when she was 3 and playing out of her mind,” she said. “We couldn’t believe how amazing she was and we knew then we had a champion. When the next one was born, we knew she could do it, too, and so her [legal] name is Tyra Hurricane.”
But raising champions was only a part of the strategy.
“I have a marketing degree . . . and I knew I needed to do something for them to stand out, and we thought it was cute,” Gayal said. “[Tornado didn’t like her name] a few years ago. Kids tease you. But now they understand it’s marketing and it’s very big to say a storm blew through the US Open.
“Ivan Ivan Ivan” (typo)
From a 2022 article in Sporting News about young Czech hockey player Ivan Ivan:
Ivan Ivan, a Czechia forward who has the same first and last name, took the hockey world by storm last December when he was on the team’s roster at the canceled World Juniors. While a graphic from December stating that his name was Ivan Ivan Ivan caused a stir, it’s unfortunately just Ivan Ivan.
From the 2015 essay “Why I converted to Islam” by basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Ferdinand Lewis “Lew” Alcindor):
The transition from Lew to Kareem was not merely a change in celebrity brand name — like Sean Combs to Puff Daddy to Diddy to P. Diddy — but a transformation of heart, mind and soul. I used to be Lew Alcindor, the pale reflection of what white America expected of me. Now I’m Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the manifestation of my African history, culture and beliefs.
[…]
The adoption of a new name was an extension of my rejection of all things in my life that related to the enslavement of my family and people. Alcindor was a French planter in the West Indies who owned my ancestors. My forebears were Yoruba people, from present day Nigeria. Keeping the name of my family’s slave master seemed somehow to dishonor them. His name felt like a branded scar of shame.
[…]
Some fans still call me Lew, then seem annoyed when I ignore them. They don’t understand that their lack of respect for my spiritual choice is insulting. It’s as if they see me as a toy action figure, existing solely to decorate their world as they see fit, rather than as an individual with his own life.
From a 2014 11 Freunde tweet about World Cup-winning German soccer player Mario Götze:
Dieser Moment, in dem du dachtest: Wenn er den macht, nenne ich meinen Sohn Mario.
…Translation:
This moment, in which you thought: If he makes it, I call my son Mario.
You’re not a real Mets fan unless you name your kid Shea.
Over the weekend, David Wright and his wife, Molly, had a baby girl. Her name: Olivia Shea Wright. Clearly, Wright has a fondness for the stadium where his Mets career began. So much so that he made his daughter part of a decades-old trend that seems to ebb and flow along with the success of the team.
(Shea Stadium was the home of the New York Mets from 1964 to 2008.)
Some other things we noticed: 10 percent of the list falls into the “Tech & Geek” category, which includes names inspired by Computing (“Paige Not Found,” “Syntax Terror,” “Ctrl Alt Defeat”) fonts (“Crimes New Roman,” “Give ‘Em Hell Vetica”); Chemistry (“Carmen Die Oxide,” “ChLauraform”); and Philosophy (“Blockem’s Razor”).
There seemed to be a bit of destiny attached. Her middle name, Ka-polioka’ehukai, means Heart of the Sea.
“Most Hawaiian grandparents name you before you’re born,” she says. “They have a dream or something that tells them what the name will be.” Hawaiians also have a knack for giving people rhythmic, dead-on nicknames, and for young Rell they had a beauty: Rella Propella.
“My godmother called me that because I was always moving so fast,” says Rell. “To this day, people think my real name is Rella. Actually I was born Roella, a combination of my parents’ names: Roen and Elbert. But I hated it, and no one used it, so I changed it to Rell.”
From a 2017 interview [vid] with professional basketball player Isaiah Thomas (who was, at that time, a star player for the Boston Celtics):
My dad is from Los Angeles, California. He’s a big Laker fan. And he made a wager that if the Detroit Pistons beat the Lakers [in the 1989 Finals] he’d name his son Isiah Thomas. […] My mom, she grew up in church, and she liked the name but she wanted it spelled the biblical way, that’s why my name is spelled slightly different than the older Isiah Thomas.
(Thomas was born in February, but the Finals weren’t until June. Sports Illustratedclarifies that the bet was made before the birth — and well before the Finals — but that, by the time the baby arrived, Thomas’ father had “had warmed to the idea of his very own Isiah.”)
From the same interview [vid], former Detroit Pistons player Isiah Thomas getting a kick out hearing his own name being chanted at the Boston Garden:
It’s so beautiful [laughs]. I love it. I love it that, you know, and even though they’re not chanting my name, to hear them chant “MVP” and they’re talking about Isaiah Thomas in the Boston Garden — it’s just awesome.
From a recent article in the Akron Beacon Journal about rookie football player Isaiah Thomas:
Thomas, 6-foot-5 and 266 pounds, was named after the Hall of Fame basketball player Isiah Thomas. The Detroit Pistons star was his father’s favorite player and his mother loved the name because of what it represents in the Bible.
His dad wanted Thomas to be a basketball player, and Thomas said he won two state championships at Memorial High School in Tulsa. But there was never any debate over which sport Thomas would play.
With a first name as iconic as Kobe Bryant’s, who needs a middle name with an interesting story? Well, Kobe Bryant does. His middle name — Bean — is a touching tribute to his father, Joe Bryant. Because of his high energy and ability to jump (guess Kobe must have inherited that particular skill), his father was nicknamed “Jellybean.” Luckily, Kobe’s parents didn’t go for the full candy-coated name and instead just dubbed him Kobe Bean Bryant.
From a late 2021 article about college football by AP journalist Stephen Hawkins:
Cincinnati cornerback Coby Bryant […] changed his number for the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Cotton Bowl against No. 1 Alabama on Friday.
Yes, Bryant is named after the late NBA great, even with the different spelling of the first name.
For the playoff game, Bryant switched from the No. 7 he had worn throughout his Cincinnati career to No. 8, one of the two numbers the basketball Hall of Fame player wore while winning five NBA titles over his 20 seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers.
“My parents loved Kobe Bryant and my brother does too,” the Bearcats cornerback said. “So I was named for Kobe Bryant. It’s just spelled differently”
From an article about the name of Olympic swimmer Leisel Jones:
“Leisel was a very rare name when I was born in 1985… When I was born actually, my doctor said to my mum ‘you cannot call her Leisel because that’s not a name… You’re going to regret that one day,'” the Olympic swimmer said.
“And they absolutely did.”
The 32-year-old also went on to say having a unique name isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, especially when no one can spell it right.
“The only problem with my name is it’s spelt L-E-I-S-E-L — and everyone spells it wrong. Everyone spells it as L-I-E-S-E-L,” she said.
“So that is a bit painful, it’s a bit annoying. But I do love my name and I love that it’s different.”
Preparing for the fall season, the offensive coordinator for University of Washington’s football team realized his team had a small problem. It went by the name Jacob.
The Pac-12 Huskies had four quarterbacks named Jacob or Jake (plus a linebacker named Jake and a tight end named Jacob).
From a 2015 article about British professional boxer Tyson Fury in The Guardian:
Yep, he is named after Mike Tyson, and yep, Tyson Fury is a perfect name for a boxer. Fury was born prematurely and only weighed one pound. “The doctors told me there was not much chance of him living,” said his father, John Fury. “I had lost two daughters in the same way who had been born prematurely. They told me there was not much hope for him. It was 1988, Mike Tyson was in his pomp as world heavyweight champion, and so I said, ‘Let’s call him Tyson’. The doctors just looked at me and smiled.”
She was named after the official island flower of Oahu — the ilima — recognizable for its delicate yellow petals.
“It was considered a flower for royalty,” Macfarlane said during an appearance on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show on Monday, “because it would take hundreds of flowers to make a lei, they’re so paper thin.”
By the turn of the century, the Bob-to-Rob transition had been essentially complete. No Major Leaguer has gone by Bob since journeyman reliever Bob Howry retired in 2010. There are dozens of Robs, Robbys and Bobbys currently in the Minors working their way up the ladder, but no Bobs to be found.
With a name like Ryder, practicing golf at a young is no accident. Ryan Carlson says, yes, his son’s name is inspired by the Ryder Cup, but he didn’t expect he’d be such a natural. Shortly after he began to walk, Ryder began swinging a plastic golf club, quickly learning how to hit balls.
From the book Becoming Something: The Story of Canada Lee (2004) by Mona Z. Smith:
Canada Lee was born in New York City on March 3, 1907, and christened with the mellifluous if somewhat daunting name of Leonard Lionel Cornelius Canegata.
[…]
The first time the leather-lunged [fight announcer Joe] Humphries got ready to introduce Lee, he looked down at his notes and saw a peculiar name: “Canegata, Lee.” Flummoxed by those alien syllables, Humphries tossed away the card with a snort and introduced the young fighter as “Canada Lee.”
Everybody liked the transmogrification, including Lee, and it stuck.
If you do a Google search for the name Bruno Banani, you will get the German underwear company of that name. But it’s also the name of the first Winter Olympian from Tonga. Born Fuahea Semi, the Tongan rugby player and luger went by Bruno Banani to court sponsorship from the company. It was part of a deal endorsed by the Tongan royal family to enable the athlete to afford training in Germany with the world’s best lugers. The company insinuated that the name was just a coincidence that led to the sponsorship, but that story unraveled quickly. It wasn’t “just” a hoax; Semi legally changed his name to Bruno Banani. The International Olympic Committee decided that even though using a sponsor’s name is in bad taste, Banani is the name on his passport, so he will be the lone athlete representing Tonga at Sochi in the luge event.
From a 2018 interview with basketball player LeBron James [vid]:
I still regret giving my 14-year-old my name […] When I was younger, obviously, I didn’t have a dad. So, my whole thing was, like, whenever I have a kid, not only is he gonna be a junior, but I’m gonna do everything that this man didn’t do. They’re gonna experience things that I didn’t experience, and the only thing I can do is give them the blueprint, and it’s up to them to take their own course.
(LeBron, Jr., is nicknamed “Bronny” — no doubt to differentiate son from father, but perhaps also to take some of the pressure off. Here’s a post about how LeBron James has affected baby names over the years.)
From a 1987 Sports Illustrated interview with basketball player Fennis Dembo:
With apologies to World B. Free, Shaquille O’Neal and, yes, even God Shammgod, when it comes to staking a claim to basketball’s alltime name, Fennis Dembo enjoys Jordanlike distance from the pretenders. “I’m always a bit stunned that people still remember me,” says Fennis, whose mother, Clarissa, selected his name, along with that of his twin sister, Fenise, as a declaration that after 11 children, her childbearing days were finis. “I tried to set up an E-mail account, but two other guys–basketball fans, I guess–were already using my name in their address.”
Maternity hospitals reported another 30 new-born babies named Diego Armando, raising the count to 140 so far.
(Maradona died in November of 2020. Soon after, the Naples city council unanimously voted to change the name of the city’s stadium from “Stadio San Paolo” to “Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.” (CBS Sports))
When St. Louisans Alyssa and Dan Hoven call out the name of their 3-year-old son in public, the heads around them instinctively turn.
“Oh my God yeah, so many times,” Alyssa said. “If we’re out to eat, we’ll be like, ‘Vladi’ or ‘Vlad,’ and people are like, ‘Did you name him after Vladimir Tarasenko?’ It starts a ton of conversations, and when we tell them ‘Yes, we did,’ they get all excited and scream, ‘Let’s go Blues!'”
From a 2016 article about babies being named after Maple Leafs players in the Toronto Sun:
Leaf great Ron Ellis still exchanges Christmas cards with a man who was named Ron Ellis Lucas in his honour for his play during the 1960s.
From an interview with Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Kyle Trask at Rivals.com:
Florida quarterback Kyle Trask returns Saturday to his home state of Texas, where he will play on the field he was named after.
His parents both went to Texas A&M, so he grew up an Aggies fan.
[…]
His father, Michael Trask, and mother, Melissa Charba, both attended the school in the late 1980’s. When they welcomed their second son on March 6, 1998, his first name came from A&M’s football stadium.
“My mom and dad were Aggies, so they named me after Kyle Field,” Trask revealed Monday. “My whole family is full of Aggies.”
From a 2014 article about high school basketball player Terance Mann in the Boston Globe:
The inevitable question that the Tilton School’s 6-foot-5-inch, 190-pound shooting guard has heard countless times before: Are you named after that Terence Mann?
“Most people think it’s from the movie ‘Field of Dreams,'” which featured a character portrayed by actor James Earl Jones, explained the junior, who, when not attending the boarding school in New Hampshire, lives in Lowell with his mother, Daynia La-Force, and 15-year-old brother, Martin. “But my grandma’s name is Terancia, and they named me after her.”
From an article about professional baseball player Nick Solak in the Dallas News:
Nick Solak is named after a sports bar.
[…]
Back in the 1980s, Nick’s Sports Page sat on the triangular plot of land where Chicago Road and Lincoln Avenue intersected in Dolton, Ill., one of those working-class suburbs on the South Side of Chicago. The exterior featured shaker shingles, chocolate-stained diagonal sheathing and baseball bats for door handles. On Feb. 5, 1985, it hosted Carlton Fisk Night, where patrons could meet the White Sox catcher, whose work ethic screamed South Sider, even if he actually grew up in New England.
Nobody recalls if South Siders Mark Solak or Roseann, née Pawlak, took home Fisk’s autograph, but they did take home each other’s phone numbers. Four years later, they were married. And when they were about to start a family in 1995, Nick — OK, officially, Nicholas — was the clear choice for a boy. They both liked the name. Plus, it had sentimental value as a nod to their South Side roots.
From an interview with Brazilian soccer player Oleúde José Ribeiro (translated from Portuguese):
Q: But, after all, is your name, Oleúde, inspired by Hollywood or not?
A: No, no, it was just a brilliant idea from my parents (laughs). Like it or not, this story always helped me, it drew the attention of reporters… the late Luciano do Valle always asked listeners to guess my name, saying that it was the capital of cinema, it had a lot of impact at the time. This Hollywood thing has become a legend, but it has nothing to do with it.
From an October 2022 episode of the Merloni, Fauria & Mego podcast, Patriots quarterback Bailey Zappe (born in 1999) answering a question about whether or not his mom had a crush on Bailey Salinger from Party of Five when she chose to name him after the character:
Her and my dad I guess were together, so I can’t — I don’t think she’ll publicly say she had a crush on him. … I think she said that she liked that he was the main character, I guess she was pregnant with me at the time, so … I guess that’s how I got the name.
From a post about distance swimmer Diana Nyad at the blog Having a Word:
On August 31 2013, record-breaking long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad, aged 64, became the first person ever to swim the 110 miles of open water from Havana, Cuba, to Florida. She swam this distance in 53 hours and without the aid of a shark cage.
While this is a truly impressive feat of endurance and determination (this was her fifth attempt), what struck me was that with a name like Nyad she couldn’t have done anything else.
Nyad sounds like naiad – naiads in Greek mythology were water nymphs or spirits. That’s cute, I thought. Then I noticed that naiad is an anagram of her first name – Diana. Cue dramatic chords So, could this just be coincidence or is something else in play?
So the man named after Derek Jeter by his baseball-crazed mother — even though his father is a Red Sox fan — had never actually met Derek Jeter?
It finally happened last week in a random encounter on a road in South Florida — sort of.
“This last week, I was driving, me and my brother were driving to go to [the] train,” said Downs. “We’re in traffic. My brother sees this Range Rover pulling up. He was like, ‘Oh my God, is that Jeter?’ He honks and I wave at him.
“I’m doing training with Raul Ibanez, [Jeter’s former teammate]. I called Raul and said, ‘Tell [Derek] Jeter that the kid he was waving at was Jeter [Downs].’ So then he told him that and it was pretty cool that I met him that way.”
From a recent Miami Herald article about high school football player Rowdy Beers:
There’s buzz about Beers at FIU [Florida International University].
The buzz started when Panthers coach Mike MacIntyre announced on Dec. 21 that FIU had signed the player with “the best name in college football.”
That would be 6-5, 225-pound tight end and Colorado native Rowdy Beers, who is from Littleton, which is nine miles south. of downtown Denver.
[…]
“As a kid,” Beers said, “any time I told my name to a new authority figure, they thought I was being disrespectful.”
[…]
Beers, who was named after three-time Olympic gold-medalist swimmer Rowdy Gaines, had right shoulder surgery on Dec. 29 but is expected to be ready by mid-May.
(Rowdy Beers also has three R-named siblings: Rocky, Raegan, and Rylie. Rowdy Gaines, however, is only nicknamed “Rowdy.” He was born Ambrose Gaines IV in 1959 — the year the baby name Rowdy debuted in the U.S. baby name data thanks to Rawhide.)
Cale was named after Cale Hulse, who played for the Calgary Flames when [their father] Gary was doing some business with the team. Taylor is named after Colonel George Taylor of the Planet of the Apes movies, a take charge guy, portrayed by Charlton Heston, who was thrust into a leadership role. (Just for the record, Heston’s politics and ardent support of the National Rifle Association are not shared by the Makar family. “Oh my god, that’s the opposite of us,” Gary said.)
[Another source clarifies that Cale’s first name is short for Caleb. Cale noted in this interview [vid] that he was nearly named “Kurt Russell Makar, after the actor. […] I dodged a bullet there, I think.”]
From the book Why Soccer Matters (2015) by late soccer legend Pelé (born Edson Arantes do Nascimento):
When Dondinho met my mother, Celeste, he was still performing his mandatory military service. She was in school at the time. They married when she was just fifteen; by sixteen she was pregnant with me. They gave me the name “Edson” — after Thomas Edison, because when I was born in 1940, the electric lightbulb had only recently come to their town. They were so impressed that they wanted to pay homage to its inventor. It turned out they missed a letter — but I’ve always loved the name anyway.
(“Dondinho” was the nickname of Pelé’s father, João Ramos do Nascimento.)
…and, regarding the nickname Pelé:
Growing up, I hated that damn nickname. After all, it was a garbage word that meant nothing. Plus, I was really proud of the name Edson, believing it was an honor to be named after such an important inventor.
(The nickname did come in handy, though. He “started thinking of “Pelé” almost as a separate identity” in order to cope with his sudden celebrity. “Having Pelé around helped keep Edson sane,” he said.)
From an interview with Australian surfer Kyuss King in Stab Magazine:
Yeah, music is definitely a massive part of my life, from listening to it to playing it! And metal is 100% at the top of my genre — there’s nothing like headbanging to some chunky riffs. Yeah, I was named after the band Kyuss. It was my dad’s favorite band through the ’90s. Funny story, my dad actually had the song Green Machine blasting in the hospital while my mum was in labor with me haha. I guess I kinda came into the world to that kind of music.
From a 2022 article about baseball player Zebulon Vermillion in the New York Post:
Zebulon Vermillion, as he has to explain to just about everyone he meets, was born in Vail, Colo., not too far from the Rocky Mountains and a summit known as Pikes Peak. His parents, the outdoorsy type, read that the apex was named after Zebulon Pike, and it stuck with them.
Vermillion’s last name is Nordic and middle name — Cassis — French, after a fishing port in Southern France. His mother, who is trilingual, loves the city.
From an article about Dutch soccer player Denzel Dumfries, who helped the Netherlands knock the U.S. out of the 2022 FIFA World Cup tournament:
[Denzel Dumfries] was named after none other than no-nonsense movie icon Denzel Washington, star of films such as “Remember The Titans,” “Training Day” and “Courage Under Fire.”
“I don’t have [any] connection with the United States, but, yes, I was named after Denzel Washington,” Dumfries said. “My parents gave me that name. I am incredibly proud of it, because Denzel Washington is a really strong personality who voices his views on certain issues, and I am incredibly proud to be named after someone like that.”
And finally, a bevy of B-names from basketball player Bradley Beal’s “About Brad” page:
Born on June 28, 1993, and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, by Bobby and Besta Beal, there was little doubt that Brad would eventually be an athlete. Both parents played sports for Kentucky State — Bobby was a football player, Besta a basketball player.
[…]
There were four other people in Brad’s family who were instrumental in his development as an athlete, and ultimately, as a young man. His two older brothers, Bruce and Brandon, and his younger brothers, the twins Byron and Bryon.
[Latest update: Oct. 2023]
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