How popular is the baby name Susanna 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 Susanna.
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Earlier this week we talked about the original Tristram Coffyn of Nantucket, who is known to have a massive number of descendants.
He and his wife Dionis* had five children in England, then four more after relocating to the New World. Here are the names of not only all nine of their children, but also their 76 grandchildren:
Daniel, Dionis, Peter, Stephen, Judith, Susanna, Anna, Mehitable, Hepzibah, Paul
Which of the above names do you like best? Are there any you don’t like at all?
*Dionis’s name is evidently a truncated form of Dionysia, which derives from Dionysius, which originally referred to a devotee of the Greek god Dionysos. The names Dennis and Denise are also derivatives of Dionysius.
**Nantucket’s Oldest House, also called the Jethro Coffin House, was built in 1686 as a wedding gift for Jethro Coffin.
The name Fiona — coined during the 18th century by Scottish poet James Macpherson, who based it on the Irish word fionn (“white, fair”) — is relatively common in the U.S. these days. Rank-wise, it’s been hovering around 200th place for the last few years.
But — like Siobhan, Maeve, Bronwen, and many other Celtic names — it didn’t arrive with the immigrants. Instead, it was introduced to America later on, via pop culture.
Fiona first popped up in the data in 1942, and it stuck around for several years:
1944: 7 baby girls named Fiona
1943: 19 baby girls named Fiona
1942: 9 baby girls named Fiona [debut]
1941: unlisted
1940: unlisted
What boosted it onto the charts that initial time?
The movie The Gay Sisters, which came out in August of 1942. The main characters were the three Gaylord sisters/heiresses: Fiona, Evelyn, and Susanna. Fiona, the eldest sister, was played by popular actress Barbara Stanwyck (birth name Ruby Catherine Stevens). The film didn’t do well at the box office, but it clearly had an impact on expectant parents.
The movie was based on the book of the same name by Stephen Longstreet. Longstreet was also the writer behind Stallion Road, which was similarly made into a movie and introduced audiences to a woman named Rory (traditionally a male name) later in the ’40s.
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…
“Sun” names
Haru (Japanese)
Helios (ancient Greek)
Hina (Japanese)
Inti (Quechua)
Nou (Hmong)
Ra (ancient Egyptian)
Ravi (Sanskrit)
Shams (Arabic)
Sol (Spanish & Portuguese, ultimately from Latin)
Solaris (Latin)
Soleil (French)
Sunniva (Old English)
Sunny (English)
Surya (Sanskrit)
“Star” names
Aster (ancient Greek)
Astra (based on the ancient Greek word)
Citlalli (Nahuatl)
Estelle (French)
Estrella (Spanish)
Hoshi (Japanese)
Najm & Najma (Arabic)
Seren (Welsh)
Star (English)
Starla (based on the English word)
Stjarna (Icelandic)
Stella (Latin)
Tähti (Finnish)
Tara (Sanskrit)
“Moon” names
Aylin (Turkish)
Badr (Arabic)
Chandra (Sanskrit)
Dal (Korean)
Dawa (Tibetan)
Ilargi (Basque)
Luna (Latin)
Lusine (Armenian)
Mahina (Hawaiian & Tongan)
Máni (Icelandic)
Metztli (Nahuatl)
Moon (English)
Qamar (Arabic)
Selene (ancient Greek)
“Earth” names
Avani (Sanskrit)
Bhumi (Sanskrit)
Eartha (based on the English word)
Gaia (ancient Greek)
Ki (Sumerian)
Tierra (Spanish)
Tlalli (Nahuatl)
“Sky” names
Akash (Sanskrit)
Alya (Arabic)
Anu (Sumerian)
Caelus (Latin)
Céleste (French)
Ciel (French)
Cielo (Spanish)
Lani (Hawaiian)
Ortzi (Basque)
Sky (English)
Skyla (based on the English word)
Sora (Japanese)
You could even look for a name that contains more than one of these elements. I’ve come across a handful of names that happen to contain both an element meaning “sun” and an element meaning “moon,” for instance. Examples include Ravichandra (Sanskrit), Künnei (Yakut), Aygün (Turkish), and Günay (also Turkish).
Names with “dark” associations
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. So you could use a name associated in some way with darkness, such as…
“Shadow” names
Chhaya (Sanskrit)
Shade (English)
Shadow (English)
Umbra (Latin)
Zalaph (Hebrew)
Zillah (Hebrew)
“Dark” or “Black” names
Adham (Arabic)
Blake (English surname)
Charna (Yiddish)
Ciar & Ciara (Irish)
Ciarán (Irish)
Dubhán (Irish)
Duff (Irish surname)
Jett (English)
Kara (Turkish)
Krishna (Sanskrit)
Melaina (ancient Greek)
Melania (Latin, based on melaina)
Mélanie (French form of Melania)
Raven (English)
Sullivan (Irish surname)
“Night” names
Layla (Arabic)
Nisha (Sanskrit)
Njóla (Icelandic)
Noctis (Latin)
Nox (Latin)
Nyx (ancient Greek)
Rajani (Sanskrit)
Rajnish (Sanskrit)
Tuta (Quechua)
Yoalli (Nahuatl)
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 pairings 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 Helios: “black” and “sun”
Ciarán Sol: “black” and “sun”
Mélanie 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 pairings) 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?
P.S. Did you know that Cleopatra gave her twins the middle names Selene and Helios?
Update, 5/15/2018: The baby name Eclipse debuted in the 2017 SSA data! The baby name Moon also more than tripled in usage last year.
Update, 12/31/2022: The rare Icelandic name Myrkvi can mean “eclipse” (also “darkness”).
Update, 2/28/2023: Actress Soleil Moon Frye‘s given names mean “sun” and (of course) “moon.”
Sources:
Hanks, Patrick. (Ed.) Dictionary of American Family Names. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Last month we looked at the top Providence names of 1867, so today let’s check out the rankings from the year before — 1866.
First, some stats:
1,633 babies were babies were born in Providence in 1866, by my count. (The number given by the author of the document is 1,632.)
1,457 of these babies (707 girls and 750 boys) had names that were registered with the government at the time of publication. The other 176 babies got blank spaces.
234 unique names (123 girl names and 108 boy names) were shared among these 1,457 babies.
And here’s some extra information I forgot to mention in the last post: In 1860, the city of Providence was home to 29.0% of Rhode Island’s population. In 1870, it was home to 31.7% of the population. So each of these 3 sets of rankings (1866, 1867, 1868) ought to account for roughly 30% of the residents of the state.
Now, on to the names…
Top 5
The top 5 girl names and boy names of 1866 were, unsurprisingly, very similar to the top names of 1867.
Top baby girl names
Top baby boy names
1. Mary 2. Catherine 3. Ellen 4. Margaret 5. Sarah
1. John 2. William 3. James 4. George 5. Thomas
The girls’ top 5 is identical, while the boys’ top 5 includes Thomas instead of George.
All Girl Names
As expected, Mary was the front-runner by a huge margin. And, while there were dozens of Catherines, and a single Catharine, there weren’t any Katherines.
Mary, 149 baby girls
Catherine, 43
Ellen, 40
Margaret, 37
Sarah, 36
Elizabeth, 32
Alice, 18
Annie, 15
Anna & Eliza, 14 each (2-way tie)
Clara, 13
Ann, 11
Carrie, Emma, Jane & Susan, 10 each (4-way tie)
Grace & Ida, 9 each (2-way tie)
Esther, Martha & Minnie, 7 each (3-way tie)
Anne & Julia, 6 each (2-way tie)
Agnes, Charlotte, Cora, Harriet, Jennie, Joanna, Maria & Rosanna, 5 each (8-way tie)
(I didn’t combine any variant spellings, but I did lump the abbreviated names Chas., Benj., and Fred’k in with Charles, Benjamin and Frederick.)
*Does Augustavus = Augustus + Gustav?
Twins
I counted 19 pairs of twins born in Providence in 1866. I didn’t notice any triplets this year. (All of these names have already been accounted for above.)
Girl-girl twins
Girl-boy twins
Boy-boy twins
Agnes & Anna Eldora & Ellen Eliza & Mary Elizabeth & Julia Frances & Mary Josephine & Mary Mary & Sarah Theresa & (blank)
Alice & Frederick Alice & John Annie & Stephen Catherine & (blank) Sarah & Samuel
Edgar & Oscar Edward & James Francis & James James & John John & Thomas (blank) & (blank)
I’ll try to finish/post the final set of rankings before the end of the year.
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