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 born in England, named after entire soccer team (1992)

soccer game

In 1992, Leeds United F.C. superfans Jeanne and Andrew Cazaux welcomed a baby boy. They named him “Dominic Andrew Lukic Newsome Fairclough Whyte Dorigo McAllister Batty Strachan Speed Chapman Cantona Cazaux” after the following Leeds players:

  • John Lukic
  • Jon Newsome
  • Chris Fairclough
  • Chris Whyte
  • Tony Dorigo
  • Gary McAllister
  • David Batty
  • Gordon Strachan
  • Gary Speed
  • Lee Chapman
  • Eric Cantona

So which team does Dominic root for these days? Arsenal. “I think I chose Arsenal mainly to rebel,” he said. “I was only about eight years old and it was just one of those things you do to go against your parents. They were disappointed but said that it was my choice.”

Dominic isn’t the only person out there named after a soccer team, believe it or not. There are several others, including Jensen Jay Alexander Bikey Carlisle Duff Elliot Fox Iwelumo Marney Mears Paterson Thompson Wallace Preston, who was named after 14 Burnley F.C. players.

Source: So what would you do if your parents named you after the entire Leeds United team?

Image: Adapted from Portugal 2-3 Denmark, Football by José Goulão under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Sierra Leonean babies named after Tony Blair

Kosovo isn’t the only place in the world where babies have been named after Tony Blair. There’s also the West African country of Sierra Leone:

[Blair’s] decision [in 2000] to send in British troops at the height of a brutal civil war is widely seen by Sierra Leoneans themselves as the critical moment in their country’s salvation. It turned the tide in the conflict and helped bring an end to an 11-year nightmare.

In 2010, The Guardian noted that “nine and ten year-old boys called Tony Blair are not uncommon now in Sierra Leone.”

One of these babies, Tony-Blair Kamara, was born in 2001 in the capital city of Freetown. His father said that he “would not be here speaking to you [if not for] all these risks Tony Blair took, because it was a political risk intervening where you know some of your troops will die.”

Sources:

The Kosovar Albanian babies named Tonibler

Tony Blair in Kosovo with some of the boys who were named after him (July 2010)
Tony Blair and some of his namesakes

During the Kosovo conflict of the late 1990s, Yugoslav and Serbian forces under Slobodan Miloševic persecuted ethnic Albanians — killing thousands and driving out hundreds of thousands.

After NATO became involved in 1999, thanks in large part to pressure from UK prime minister Tony Blair, the conflict was eventually resolved.

More than a few thankful Kosovan Albanian parents proceeded to named their sons “Tonibler,” “Toni,” and “Bler” in honor of Mr. Blair. Some examples:

  • Tonibler Dajaku
  • Tonibler Gashi (born in 2001)
  • Bler Podrimaj
  • Tonibler Sahiti (born in May of 1999)
  • Bler Thaqi (born in August of 1999)

When Blair visited Kosovo in 2010, he was “told that his name was ‘quite common’ in the country” and got a chance to meet nine of his namesakes.

Sources:

Image: Tony Blair in Kosovo with children named after him

Baby name story: Yardley

Baltimore couple Colleen and Tony Serra are obsessed with baseball.

They’ve attended every Orioles home opener since 2010. They got engaged at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. And they held their wedding reception at the Camden Club, located inside the Baltimore & Ohio railroad warehouse at Camden Yards.

Their first child, a son, was named Camden.

And their second child, a daughter born this past June, was named Yardley Ruth — Yardley for Camden Yards, and Ruth for Baltimore-born Babe Ruth.

(If the baby had been a boy, he would have been named Cole after the University of Maryland’s Cole Field House.)

Source: Allen, Scott. “O’s fans name their kids Camden and Yardley.” Washington Post 20 Jul. 2015.