How popular is the baby name Tony 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 Tony.

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Popularity of the baby name Tony


Posts that mention the name Tony

Baby name story: Kelce Taylor-Grace

Taylor Swift watching a Chiefs game (in 2023)
Taylor Swift watching a Chiefs game

On July 24, Kansas City couple Haley Richardson and Robert Dillon welcomed a baby girl named Kelce Taylor-Grace.

The baby’s first name was inspired by Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce, and the first part of her middle name came from singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, who has been romantically linked to Travis Kelce for several years.

Swift and Kelce took their relationship public in September of 2023, when Swift attended a Chiefs game at Arrowhead Stadium; the hospital took the baby’s name public the day after she was born, with a Facebook post that said, in part, “Kelce Taylor is officially in her newborn era.”

The name also contains an Easter egg (in “true Swift fashion”): the initials of the hyphenated middle, Taylor-Grace, are a nod to former Chiefs player Tony Gonzalez.

Source: Ellis, Maddie. “Parents of Newborn Named After Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift Share How They Came up With the Name.” Today.com 27 Jul. 2025.

Image: Adapted from Taylor Swift, Brittany Mahomes & daughter – Arrowhead Stadium for Chiefs vs Chargers 10-22-2023 by Larry Koester under CC BY 2.0.

What gave the baby name Candida a boost in 1971?

Tony Orlando and Dawn's album "Candida" (1970)
Dawn album

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Candida — which comes from the Latin word candidus, meaning “shining white” — saw a jump in usage (and entered the top 1,000 for the first time) in 1971:

  • 1973: 163 baby girls named Candida [rank: 802nd]
  • 1972: 170 baby girls named Candida [rank: 798th]
  • 1971: 222 baby girls named Candida [rank: 687th]
  • 1970: 95 baby girls named Candida
  • 1969: 30 baby girls named Candida

What gave it a boost that year?

The song “Candida” (pronounced kan-DEE-dah), which was sung by Tony Orlando…but credited to a non-existent group called Dawn.

(Orlando, an executive at Columbia Records, recorded the song for a competitor, Bell Records. Not wanting to jeopardize his career, he asked that Bell not reveal his name. “Dawn” was chosen because it was the name of the daughter of Bell executive Steve Wax.)

“Candida” was released in July of 1970. It peaked at #3 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in early October.

Here’s what it sounds like:

In an interview, one of the co-writers of the song, Toni Wine, explained how she came up with the name Candida:

We knew we wanted a Spanish girl’s name. Rosita had been taken. Juanita was a hit. Maria had happened. We knew we wanted to write a Latin-flavored song […] We needed a three-syllable word, and all those girls were gone. So Candida had been a name that I had toyed with, and there she became a reality.

The name of the fictitious group also influenced expectant parents: Dawn, already a top-100 girl name, entered the girls’ top 20 for the first time in 1970.

Speaking of Dawn…after it scored a second #1 hit, “Knock Three Times,” Tony Orlando decided to give up his day job and make Dawn a reality. He recruited a pair of backup singers, Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson, and the three of them started touring.

Telma Hopkins, Tony Orlando, and Joyce Vincent Wilson on the "Tony Orlando and Dawn Show" (1975)
Telma Hopkins, Tony Orlando, and Joyce Vincent Wilson

Together, the trio scored two more #1 hits:

  • “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree” (1973), as Dawn featuring Tony Orlando, and
  • “He Don’t Love You (Like I Love You)” (1975), as Tony Orlando and Dawn.

They also hosted a musical variety series, The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show, which was broadcast on CBS from mid-1974 until late 1976. The New York Times described the series as “mildly hip, in a safe middle-of-the-road sort of way. It’s slick. It’s disarmingly hokey. Imagine, if you will, Sonny & Cher filtered through Lawrence Welk.”

While the show was on the air, the baby names Tony, Orlando, Telma, and Candida all saw discernible (if slight) upticks in usage.

What are your thoughts on the name Candida? Would you use it?

P.S. The name Telma saw another uptick while Telma Hopkins, who went on to become an actress, was starring on the sitcom Getting By (1993-1994).

Sources:

Second image: Screenshot of The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show (episode from 1975)

What gave the baby name Ezekiel a boost in 2017?

Football player Ezekiel Elliott
Ezekiel Elliott

The baby name Ezekiel, which has been on the rise since the late 1980s, saw higher-than-expected usage in 2017 specifically:

Boys named Ezekiel (USA)Boys named Ezekiel (Texas)
20194,932 [rank: 71st]697 (14.1%)
20184,363 [rank: 87th]594 (13.6%)
20174,773 [rank: 82nd]754 (15.8%)
20163,401 [rank: 121st]444 (13.1%)
20152,811 [rank: 146th]287 (10.2%)

What caused the uptick?

My guess is football player Ezekiel “Zeke” Elliott, who was chosen fourth overall by the Dallas Cowboys in the 2016 NFL draft.

During his rookie season (2016-17), the running back was the top rusher in the league with 1,631 yards. (Before this, the only Cowboy to rush for more than 1,000 yards as a rookie was Tony Dorsett in the late 1970s.) He also scored 15 touchdowns.

In January of 2017, Elliott was selected to participate in his first Pro Bowl alongside teammate (and fellow rookie) Dak Prescott.

Ezekiel Elijah Elliott was born in Illinois in 1995. How did he come to have his name? Here’s how his father, Stacy Elliott, told the story:

[Ezekiel’s mother Dawn] had a vision of the Mother Plane, and when she described what she saw I went to the Book of Ezekiel and what she described fit what the book said. So she named him Ezekiel after that great prophet and Elijah after Elijah Muhammad.

What are your thoughts on the name Ezekiel?

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Ezekiel Elliott 2016 by Keith Allison under CC BY-SA 2.0.

What gave the baby name Valencia a boost in 1927?

The character Valencia from the movie "Valencia" (1926)
Valencia from “Valencia“

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Valencia saw a spike in usage in 1927:

  • 1929: 11 baby girls named Valencia
  • 1928: 22 baby girls named Valencia
  • 1927: 65 baby girls named Valencia [rank: 934th]
  • 1926: 18 baby girls named Valencia
  • 1925: 5 baby girls named Valencia

It reached the girls’ top 1,000 for the first time that year, in fact.

What gave it a boost?

Both a song and a film.

The song, “Valencia,” was originally composed by José Padilla for the 1924 Spanish operetta La bien amada.

A couple of years later, the song — with lyrics translated into English — was introduced to Americans in the musical The Great Temptations, which ran on Broadway from May to November, 1926.

Sheet music for the song "Valencia (A Song of Spain)" (1926)
“Valencia” sheet music

“Valencia” became very popular in the U.S. that year. Various orchestras made recordings of the song, but it was the version [vid] by Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra (featuring vocalist Franklyn Baur) that became the top single of 1926, reaching the #1 spot in early July and staying put for over 2 months.

In December of the same year, a silent film called Valencia was released. One reviewer, unimpressed, stated:

The popularity of the song seems to have been a sufficient excuse for M-G-M’s picture, which adopts the name but is not so fortunate in the story that purports to be “Valencia.”

The movie’s main character, Valencia (played by actress Mae Murray), was a Spanish dancer in love with a sailor named Felipe. But she was also being pursued by Don Fernando, the local governor, who threw Felipe in jail. Valencia made “the usual sacrifice to secure Felipe’s freedom.”

While the movie wasn’t a box office hit, it contributed to the trendiness of the baby name Valencia in 1927.

What are your thoughts on the name Valencia?

P.S. In 1950, the name — which was just starting to rise again, perhaps due to the baby boom — got another nudge from “Valencia,” sung this time by crooner Tony Martin. His rendition peaked at #18 on the charts that year.

Sources:

Top image: Film still of Valencia