How popular is the baby name Somerset 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 Somerset.

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Popularity of the baby name Somerset


Posts that mention the name Somerset

Where did the baby name Tiare come from?

Tahitian gardenia

Somerset Maugham’s novel The Moon and Sixpence (1919), which I finished reading over the weekend, introduced me to an interesting new name — Tiaré.

While in Tahiti, the narrator of the book meets a half-Tahitian, half-English woman named Tiaré Johnson. She was named for “the white, scented flower which, they tell you, if you have once smelt, will always draw you back to Tahiti in the end, however far you may have roamed” — in other words, the tiare (pronounced tee-ah-ray), or Tahitian gardenia (Gardenia taitensis).

Though tiare actually means “flower” in Tahitian, it seems to refer specifically to the Tahitian gardenia most of the time.

I’m not sure if Tiare is used as a personal name in Tahiti, but it sees regular usage in the U.S. — particularly in the states of Hawaii and California:

  • 2010: 15 baby girls named Tiare – 6 born in HI
  • 2009: 17 baby girls named Tiare – 6 born in HI, 5 in CA
  • 2008: 20 baby girls named Tiare – 10 born in HI
  • 2007: 30 baby girls named Tiare – 15 born in HI
  • 2006: 29 baby girls named Tiare – 10 born in HI, 9 in CA
  • 2005: 56 baby girls named Tiare – 18 born in HI, 16 in CA
  • 2004: 34 baby girls named Tiare – 9 born in HI, 8 in CA, 5 in TX
  • 2003: 31 baby girls named Tiare – 13 born in HI
  • 2002: 24 baby girls named Tiare – 8 born in HI, 5 in CA
  • 2001: 32 baby girls named Tiare – 14 born in HI, 7 in CA

The name first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1960. This could have been due to a character named Tiare on the TV show Adventures in Paradise that year, or to the song “Tiare” on The Surfers‘ album Tahiti (1960).

So far, the best national showing was 60 baby girls in 1992.

Source: SSA
Image: Adapted from Flower by Forest & Kim Starr under CC BY 3.0.

Baby name needed: Female L-name from literature

A reader named Lauren writes:

I’m looking for a baby name inspired by literature, that begins with an L. It is by unique happenstance that both grandmothers and myself will have names that begin with an L- this is something we all want to pass on to my first born daughter, but I am displeased in my search.

I love questions like these. :)

My first thought was actually a male name — Larry, from Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge. But Larry’s full name is Lawrence, which is already related to Lauren’s name, so there’s probably no way to twist it into a usable baby girl name. (Though I guess Lorenza could work.)

Next I thought of Leora, my favorite character from Sinclair Lewis’s Arrowsmith.

There’s also Lennie, from John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. It’s another male name, but it could be considered a short form of female names like Lena, Lenora or Lenore. (That last one could alternatively be inspired by Edgar Allan Poe‘s poem “The Raven”).

Other names I came up with represent characters I don’t particularly like, so I’m hesitant to “recommend” them…but I’ll mention a few anyway: Lenina from Brave New World, Lydia in Pride and Prejudice, Lily from The House of Mirth, and Lolita from…well, you know.

Finally, with a little help from Wikipedia, I found a few nice Shakespearean L-names: Lavinia from Titus Andronicus, Lucetta from The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Luciana from The Comedy of Errors. (I’ve never read these particular plays, so I don’t know anything about the characters.)

What other literature-inspired L-names can you guys think of?