During the ’60s and ’70s, a slew of Africa-inspired baby names debuted in the U.S. baby name data. These included traditional African names (e.g., Abayomi, Ayanna), names taken from African and African-American public figures (e.g., Lumumba, Levar), and — the focus of today’s post — African place names, particularly country names.
Here are all the African country/region/kingdom names I’ve spotted in the SSA data so far. (I didn’t omit Chad, even though it coincides with the English name Chad.)
| Name | Debut year | Peak usage |
| Chad | 1914 | 13,400 baby boys in 1972 |
| Tunisia | 1943 (due to WWII) | 39 baby girls in 1974 |
| Rwanda | 1951 | 5 baby girls in both 1951 & 1973 |
| Kenya | 1952 | 894 baby girls in 1973 |
| Sahara | 1964 | 248 baby girls in both 2006 & 2007 |
| Rhodesia | 1966 | 12 baby girls in 1977 |
| Mali | 1967 | 65 baby girls in 2008 |
| Tanzania | 1968 | 38 baby girls in 1992 |
| Africa | 1969 | 76 baby girls in 1972 |
| Biafra | 1969 (due to Biafra being in the news; the Biafran War lasted from 1967 to 1970) | 5 baby girls in 1969; one-hit wonder |
| Ghana | 1969 | 7 baby girls in 1969 |
| Tanganyika | 1969 | 16 baby girls in 1972 |
| Nubia | 1969 | 83 baby girls in 1969 |
| Ashanti | 1970 | 2,945 baby girls in 2002 (due to the singer) |
| Uganda | 1973 | 12 baby girls in 1973 |
| Algeria | 1974 | 6 baby girls in both 1993 & 1995 |
| Libya | 1974 | 8 baby girls in 2011 |
| Zaire | 1974 | 316 baby boys in 2017 |
| Egypt | 1975 | 266 baby girls in 2017 |
| Nigeria | 1975 | 58 baby girls in 2000 |
| Niger | 1976 | 9 baby girls in both 1976 & 1977 |
| Somalia | 1977 | 43 baby girls in 1993 |
| Zimbabwe | 1981 (maybe inspired by the Bob Marley song “Zimbabwe“?) | 5 baby boys in 1981; one-hit wonder |
| Sudan | 1982 | 5 baby boys in both 1982 & 1995 |
| Eritrea | 1991 (due to Eritrea being in the news; the Eritrean War of Independence ended in 1991) | 5 baby girls in 1991; one-hit wonder |
| Asmara | 1993 (due to Asmara being in the news; it became the capital of independent Eritrea in 1993) | 13 baby girls in 2013 |
| Morocco | 2005 | 19 baby boys in 2017 |
Only five of the above did not either debut or see peak usage during the 1960s/1970s.
Source: SSA
Image: Adapted from Africa (satellite image) (NASA)
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