How popular is the baby name Salida 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 Salida.

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Popularity of the baby name Salida


Posts that mention the name Salida

Popular baby names in Colorado, 1997

Flag of Colorado
Flag of Colorado

Back in 1997, the western U.S. state of Colorado welcomed 56,505 babies.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Hannah and Jacob, according to data from the Health Statistics Section of Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment.

The state also revealed the top names within each of its three largest racial/ethnic groups, which it defined as “White/non-Hispanic,” “White/Hispanic,” and “Black.”

Number of babiesTop girl nameTop boy name
White/non-Hispanic38,729 (69%)HannahJacob
White/Hispanic12,951 (23%)JessicaJose
Black2,582 (5%)JasmineIsaiah

Here are Colorado’s top 50 girl names (overall) and top 50 boy names (overall) of 1997:

Girl names

  1. Hannah
  2. Emily
  3. Jessica
  4. Sarah
  5. Madison
  6. Samantha
  7. Taylor
  8. Alexandra
  9. Ashley
  10. Megan
  11. Elizabeth
  12. Rachel
  13. Alyssa
  14. Alexis
  15. Lauren
  16. Emma
  17. Kayla
  18. Morgan
  19. Amanda
  20. Brianna
  21. Jennifer
  22. Jordan
  23. Abigail
  24. Victoria
  25. Nicole
  26. Brittany
  27. Rebecca
  28. Danielle
  29. Katherine
  30. Sierra
  31. Anna
  32. Mariah
  33. Olivia
  34. Amber
  35. Sydney
  36. Stephanie
  37. Jasmine
  38. Brooke
  39. Haley
  40. Maria
  41. Kaitlyn
  42. Gabrielle
  43. Savannah
  44. Allison
  45. Marissa
  46. Bailey
  47. Courtney
  48. Sara
  49. Erin
  50. Mackenzie

Boy names

  1. Jacob
  2. Michael
  3. Matthew
  4. Joshua
  5. Austin
  6. Tyler
  7. Andrew
  8. Christopher
  9. Nicholas
  10. Brandon
  11. Daniel
  12. Ryan
  13. Joseph
  14. Zachary
  15. David
  16. Alexander
  17. Anthony
  18. John
  19. James
  20. Benjamin
  21. Kyle
  22. Samuel
  23. William
  24. Justin
  25. Jonathan
  26. Dylan
  27. Christian
  28. Jordan
  29. Cody
  30. Robert
  31. Nathan
  32. Aaron
  33. Thomas
  34. Eric
  35. Connor
  36. Cameron
  37. Jose
  38. Noah
  39. Adam
  40. Logan
  41. Isaiah
  42. Sean
  43. Gabriel
  44. Caleb
  45. Jack
  46. Cole
  47. Kevin
  48. Trevor
  49. Ethan
  50. Ian

How do these rankings stack up against the U.S. Social Security Administration’s 1997 rankings for Colorado?

The boy names look similar, but there are two significant discrepancies among the girl names: Alexandra ranked 11 spots lower (19th vs. 8th) and Gabrielle ranked 33 spots lower (75th vs. 42nd) on the federal government’s list.

Other names bestowed in Colorado in 1997 included “Elway, Jamaica, and Mars for baby boys, and October, November, Paradise, and Rejoice for baby girls.”

Elway was no doubt inspired by John Elway, the longtime Denver Broncos quarterback who was about to lead the team to its first Super Bowl victory (in January of 1998).

Speaking of Colorado baby names with historical significance…here are posts about Denver (b. 1859), Colorado (b. 1859), Salida (b. 1881), and Silver Dollar (b. 1889).

Source: Birth Statistics Summary 1997 – Colorado Health and Environmental Data (pdf)

Image: Adapted from Flag of Colorado (public domain)

Baby born in British Columbia city of Kelowna, named Kelowna

Kelowna, British Columbia
Kelowna (in 1920)

So far we’ve talked about two babies named for newly formed towns — Salida and Nira — and today we have one more: Kelowna.

The Canadian city of Kelowna in British Columbia, Canada, was settled in the mid-1800s and incorporated in 1905. The name of the city means “grizzly bear” in the Okanagan language.

For several decades during the early 1900s, the residents of Kelowna’s Chinatown made up as much as 15% of the total population. But the birth rate in Chinatown was quite low, as most of the residents were men whose families remained in China due to Canada’s discriminatory Chinese head tax.

Chinatown’s first baby didn’t arrive until early 1906. Her name? Kelowna, after her Canadian birthplace.

Sources: Okanagan history not sexy, but it is ours, UBC O 2013 GREEN EDUC 417 “Kelowna’s Chinatown” (vid)

Image: Bernard Avenue, Kelowna, B.C.

For-profit baby names

California mom-to-be Natasha Hill — the woman who was supposed to be getting $5,000 for allowing strangers to name her unborn baby via the site Belly Ballot — isn’t really pregnant. She isn’t even really named “Natasha Hill.”

Her name is Natasha Lloyd, and she’s an actress who was hired by the website’s founder to help drum up publicity.

Yep — the whole thing was a hoax. The folks at Today.com were the ones to figure it out:

When TODAY Moms first reported on the contest, some readers were incredulous; they couldn’t believe a real mom would do such a thing. Now it appears they were right.

Except…they weren’t. Several “real moms” (and dads) have indeed done such a thing. Here are all the for-profit baby names (and attempts) I know of:

*I never blogged about these three, so here are the details:

  • In 2001, Jason Black and Frances Schroeder of New York tried to auction off the name of the their third child (first son) via Yahoo and eBay. They were aiming for a corporate sponsor, so the bidding started at $500,000. No one bid. They ended up naming the baby Zane Black.
  • In 2002, Bob and Tracy Armstrong from Florida tried to auction off the name of their baby (gender unknown) via eBay. After eBay pulled the auction for the third time, they decided not to try again.
  • In 2002, Heather and Steve Johnston of Washington state tried to auction off the name of their baby boy via eBay. The bidding started at $250,000. I found no follow-up stories, so I imagine the auction was either pulled or unsuccessful.

Video games on one end, $15,000 on the other…such wildly different values placed on baby names. Kinda fascinating, isn’t it?

Sources: $5,000 online baby-name contest revealed as hoax, Mom crowdsources baby name for $5,000

Image: Adapted from $20 Federal Reserve Bank Note (1929) (public domain)

[Latest update: Dec. 2024]

Baby born in Alberta town of Wainwright, named Wainwright

Welcome sign in Wainwright, Alberta

The town of Wainwright in Alberta, Canada, was established in 1908 and named in honor of William Wainwright, a vice-president of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. (The town was on the Grand Trunk line.)

The first baby born in the small community was the daughter of Martin L. Forster, proprietor of the Wainwright Hotel. She was named Wainwright Marguerite Forster, after the town.

(Wainwright was the fourth of eight children. Her siblings were named Russell, Claudine, Carl, Jessie, Doris, Eileen, and Jeanette.)

While being interviewed in 1958 — just before the town’s 50th anniversary celebration — Wainwright admitted: “It’s a strange first name for a woman and one that has caused quite a bit of confusion, believe me.”

(Other babies named after towns include Salida, Kelowna, and Nira.)

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Wainwright sign by Awmcphee under CC BY-SA 4.0.