How popular is the baby name Sol 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 Sol.
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The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health website doesn’t have baby name data for 2016, but it does have data covering 1995 to 2013, so let’s work with that.
The most popular baby names in Los Angeles County in 2013 were Sophia and Jacob. Here are L.A.’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2013:
On August 21, the United States will see its first coast-to-coast solar eclipse since 1918. If you’re planning to have (or conceive!) a baby around the time of the eclipse, you might be interested in a name that marks the event (but that perhaps isn’t as obvious as Eclipse itself).
So what are your options?
Names with “celestial” associations
A solar eclipse involves the alignment of three celestial bodies — the sun (a star), the moon, and the Earth — in the sky. You could use a name that is associated in some way with one of these elements, such as…
The main event, from an Earthling’s perspective, is the darkening of the sun thanks to the moon getting in the way and casting its shadow over us. You could use a name associated in some way with darkness, such as…
I think Blake and Sullivan are particularly intriguing choices.
The English surname Blake can come from either of two similar Middle English words that happen to have opposite definitions: blac, meaning “black,” or blac, meaning “wan, pale, white, fair.” So it manages to encapsulate the concepts of both darkness and lightness — two key elements of an eclipse.
And the Irish surname Sullivan, “descendant of Súileabhán,” is based on the Gaelic personal name Súileabhán, meaning “little dark eye” — which sounds a lot like a poetic description of an eclipse.
Name combos with both “celestial” and “dark” associations
You could combine some of the “celestial” and “dark” names above to get something more specific, like…
Layla Soleil: “night” and “sun”
Jett Samson: “black” and “sun”
Ciaran Sol: “black” and “sun”
Melanie Stella: “dark” and “star” (“Dark Star” is also a Grateful Dead song)
Luna Zillah: “moon” and “shadow” (“Moon Shadow” is also a Cat Stevens song)
Names (or name combos) featuring the letters “S” and “E”
This is as inconspicuous as it gets. Commemorate the solar eclipse simply by using the letters “S” and “E” in combination. You could choose a single name that starts with “Se-,” like…
Sela Selene (“moon” in Greek) Selma Seraphina Seren (“star” in Welsh) Serenity
Sean Sebastian Sefton Sergio Seth Severino
Or, you could use a pair of names that start with “S-” and “E-,” such as…
Sabrina Eden Sydney Elise Sarah Evangeline Susanna Elizabeth
Simon Elijah Spencer Ellis Shane Everett Samuel Edward
Which of the above names (or combos) do you like most? What other solar eclipse-themed ideas would you add to this list?
Sources:
Hanks, Patrick. (Ed.) Dictionary of American Family Names. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Which baby names are the most disproportionately popular in each U.S. state?
Name blog Republic of Names has your answer — a bunch of cool lists of the most distinctive baby names by state. Here are some highlights for about half of the states.
In Alabama:
Crimson – Crimson Tide is the University of Alabama football team.
Krimson
In Alaska:
Aurora
Denali – Denali (Mount McKinley) in Alaska is North America’s highest peak.
McKinley
In Arizona:
Ariza
Helios
Nizhoni – Nizhóní is a Navajo word meaning “it/he/she is pretty/beautiful.”
Autzen – Autzen Stadium is where the Oregon Ducks football team plays.
Avenir – Avenir is a French word meaning “future.” It’s also on the Washington state list below. In fact, nearly two-thirds of last year’s Avenirs were born on the west coast: 10 in Washington, 7 in California, 5 in Oregon. Anyone know why?
Brazos – Brazos is a Spanish word meaning “arms.” The Brazos River in Texas was originally called Rio de los Brazos de Dios, or “River of the Arms of God.”
In Utah:
Korver – Kyle Korver played pro basketball in Utah.
On February 10, the Civil Registration Act went into effect in the Mexican state of Sonora (which is right across the border from Arizona).
Article 46 of the act allows local authorities to reject baby names they deem derogatory, discriminatory, defamatory, libelous and meaningless, among other things.
The state also banned 61 specific baby names, and will likely ban more names in the future. All of the banned names came directly from Sonora’s birth registries (meaning that each has been used at least once already).
After doing some digging, I finally found the full list of banned names on a Mexican news site. Here it is:
Aceituno
Aguinaldo
All Power
Aniv de la Rev (short for “anniversary of the revolution”)
Batman
Beneficia (meaning “benefits”)
Burger King
Cacerolo
Calzón (meaning “panties”)
Caraciola
Caralampio
Cesárea
Cheyenne
Christmas Day
Circuncisión (meaning “circumcision”)
Culebro
Delgadina (meaning “the skinny girl.” It’s from the Mexican folk song “La Delgadina.”)
Diódoro
Email
Escroto (meaning “scrotum”)
Espinaca (meaning “spinach”)
Facebook
Fulanita (meaning “so-and-so” or “what’s-her-name”)
Gordonia
Gorgonio
Harry Potter
Hermione
Hitler
Hurraca
Iluminada
Indio
James Bond
Lady Di
Marciana (meaning “martian”)
Masiosare (meaning “if one should dare,” roughly. It’s from the phrase mas si osare, which is part of the Mexican National Anthem.)
Micheline
Panuncio
Patrocinio (meaning “patronage” or “sponsorship”)
Petronilo
Piritipio
Pocahontas
Pomponio
Privado (meaning “private”)
Procopio
Rambo
Robocop
Rocky
Rolling Stone
Sobeida
Sol de Sonora
Sonora Querida
Telésforo
Terminator
Tránsito (meaning “transit”)
Tremebundo (meaning “terrifying” or “terrible”)
Twitter
Usnavy
Verulo
Virgen (meaning “virgin”)
Yahoo
Zoila Rosa
Some thoughts:
Facebook is the legal first name of at least 2 human beings at this point. Amazing.
Robocop, I must admit, has been on my “baby names I am dying to find in the wild” list for many years. At last, proof that it exists! Exciting stuff. (Haven’t yet come across any babies named Chucknorris, however. Fingers still crossed on that one.)
Hermione? I can see why Sonora would object to “Harry Potter” and “James Bond,” but Hermione by itself (as opposed to “Hermione Granger”) makes no sense. Hermione is a legitimate (and lovely) name that existed long before the Potter books.
What are your thoughts? And, which name on the list above shocked you the most?
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