How popular is the baby name Shem 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 Shem.

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Popularity of the baby name Shem


Posts that mention the name Shem

Popular baby names in the Netherlands, 2015

Flag of the Netherlands
Flag of the Netherlands

According to data from Sociale Verzekeringsbank (SVB), the most popular baby names in the Netherlands in 2015 were Emma and Liam.

Here are the Netherlands’ top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2015:

Baby Girl NamesBaby Boy Names
1. Emma
2. Julia
3. Sophie
4. Anna
5. Mila
6. Eva
7. Tess
8. Lotte
9. Sara
10. Zoë		1. Liam
2. Sem (a form of Shem)
3. Lucas
4. Luuk
5. Noah
6. Milan
7. Daan
8. Levi
9. Finn
10. Jesse

On the girls’ list, Lotte replaced Isa (which fell from 6th place to 20th).

On the boys’ list, Jesse replaced Bram (which fell from 2nd place to 13th).

Another significant mover of the boys’ list was Liam itself. Liam ranked 17th in 2013, then 9th in 2014, and finally 1st in 2015.

Other names bestowed last year in the Netherlands include Goodluck, Dikshit, Lovelace, Genius, Narbys-Lenay, Rooney, Amen, Islam, Jood, Godmother, Eh, and You.

The top names in 2014 were Sophie and Daan. In 2013, they were Tess and Sem.

Sources: Kindernamen top 20 – SVB, Emma and Liam are most popular Dutch kids names, but what about little Eh?

UPDATE, Nov. 2016: According to Amsterdam University researchers, who took combined spellings into account, the top names of 2015 were Sarah and Luuk. My source didn’t offer the researchers’ full top 10 lists, but here’s what I took from the article:

1. Sarah/Sara/Zara
2. Sophie/Sofie
3. Anne/Anna
4. Lisa/Lize/Lise/Liza

1. Luuk/Luc/Luke
2. Lucas/Lukas
[…]
10. Mohamed/Mohammed/Muhammed/Mohammad

Source: Sarah and Luuk are the most popular Dutch baby names, say university researchers

Image: Adapted from Flag of the Netherlands (public domain)

Names that mean “name”

I love coming across personal names that refer to names in their definitions. Some examples:

  • Behnam, meaning “good name” in Persian.
  • Hieronymus, meaning “sacred name,” based on the Greek words hieros, “sacred,” and onoma, “name.”
    • Jerome, the English form of Hieronymus.
    • Jerónimo, the Spanish form of Jerome.
  • Kainoa, meaning “the namesake,” based on the Hawaiian words ka, “the” (singular), and inoa, “name.”
    • Kainoakupuna, “the namesake of one’s ancestor,” with kupuna meaning “ancestor.”
  • N?inoa, which means “the namesakes,” based on the Hawaiian words na, “the” (plural), and inoa, “name.”
  • Nergüi, meaning “no name” in Mongolian.
  • Shem, meaning “name” in Hebrew. (Sem, a variant, is popular in The Netherlands right now.)

Do you know of any others?

Popular baby names in the Netherlands, 2011

Flag of the Netherlands
Flag of the Netherlands

Last year, over 92,000 baby boys and nearly 88,000 baby girls were born in the Netherlands. The top baby names were…

Girl Names

  1. Emma
  2. Julia
  3. Sophie (2010’s #1)
  4. Lotte
  5. Isa
  6. Lisa
  7. Sara
  8. Lieke
  9. Eva
  10. Anna

Boy Names

  1. Daan
  2. Sem* (2010’s #1)
  3. Milan
  4. Levi
  5. Luuk
  6. Lucas
  7. Jayden
  8. Thomas
  9. Stijn
  10. Jesse

*Sem is a form of Shem, a biblical name meaning “name,” “fame,” or “renown” in Hebrew. Shem, Noah’s eldest son, was the ancestor of the Semitic peoples — hence the words “semite” and “semitic.”

Sources: Top 10 populairste kindernamen – De Telegraaf, Daan and Emma most popular Dutch baby names in 2011

Image: Adapted from Flag of the Netherlands (public domain)

Where did the baby name Jubal come from in 1956?

The title character from the movie "Jubal" (1956).
Jubal from “Jubal“

The Biblical name Jubal jumped into the U.S. baby name data for the first time in 1956:

  • 1958: 9 baby boys named Jubal
  • 1957: 9 baby boys named Jubal
  • 1956: 13 baby boys named Jubal [debut]
  • 1955: unlisted
  • 1954: unlisted

What put it there?

The biggest influence was probably the Western film Jubal, which was released in April that year.

The protagonist, a drifter named Jubal Troop, took a job on a ranch and ended up being “caught in the middle of the frustrated desires and desperate deceptions” of the rancher’s wife and other ranch hands.

Jubal was played by actor Glenn Ford (born Gwyllyn Ford). Other Western-tinged character names included Shep, Shem, Pinky, and Reb.

The movie was based on the 1939 book Jubal Troop by Paul Wellman. Wellman also wrote the book that became the movie The Iron Mistress (1952), which gave rise to the one-hit wonder baby name Judalon.

Another influence on the name might have been the short-lived TV Western Frontier (1955-1956), which featured a character named Jubal Dolan (played by Jack Kelly, who went on to star in Maverick) in a single episode (“The Return of Jubal Dolan”) that aired in August of 1956.

The name Jubal comes from the ancient Hebrew root-verb yabal, which means “to flow, run, go forth.” Many sources say the name means “stream” specifically.

Do you like the name Jubal?

Sources: Jubal (1956) – Turner Classic Movies, Genesis 4:22 Commentaries – Bible Hub