How popular is the baby name Tunisia 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 Tunisia.

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Popularity of the baby name Tunisia


Posts that mention the name Tunisia

Where did the baby name Rommel come from in 1943?

Movie poster for "The Desert Fox" (1951)

We’ve talked about the baby name Hitler before, but that particular Nazi-inspired name was never common enough to be included in the U.S. baby name data.

Rommel, on the other hand — a reference to German field marshal Erwin Rommel (1891–1944) — debuted in 1943, right in the middle of WWII:

  • 1945: unlisted
  • 1944: unlisted
  • 1943: 5 baby boys named Rommel [debut]
  • 1942: unlisted
  • 1941: unlisted

Erwin Rommel was put in charge of the German Africa Corps in February of 1941, during the North African Campaign (which included the Tunisian Campaign). Rommel achieved “stunning early victories there,” and the British press dubbed him the Desert Fox. But the Allies were eventually victorious in North Africa, and the Germans surrendered in May of 1943.

The baby name Rommel might have been a one-hit wonder in the data had the movie The Desert Fox (1951), a biographical film about Rommel that portrayed the German officer very sympathetically, not come out nearly a decade later.

  • 1953: 7 baby boys named Rommel
  • 1952: 8 baby boys named Rommel
  • 1951: 6 baby boys named Rommel
  • 1950: unlisted
  • 1949: unlisted

The movie was based on the Desmond Young book Rommel: The Desert Fox (1950), the first Rommel biography. It was particularly popular in Britain.

What does the German surname Rommel mean? It may have originally been a nickname for a noisy person, as it derives from the German verb rummeln, meaning “to make noise” or “to create a create a disturbance.”

What are your thoughts on the baby name Rommel?

Sources:

African nations as baby names

Africa

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.)

NameDebut yearPeak usage
Chad191413,400 baby boys in 1972
Tunisia1943 (due to WWII)39 baby girls in 1974
Rwanda19515 baby girls in both 1951 & 1973
Kenya1952894 baby girls in 1973
Sahara1964248 baby girls in both 2006 & 2007
Rhodesia196612 baby girls in 1977
Mali196765 baby girls in 2008
Tanzania196838 baby girls in 1992
Africa196976 baby girls in 1972
Biafra1969 (due to Biafra being in the news; the Biafran War lasted from 1967 to 1970)5 baby girls in 1969; one-hit wonder
Ghana19697 baby girls in 1969
Tanganyika196916 baby girls in 1972
Nubia196983 baby girls in 1969
Ashanti19702,945 baby girls in 2002 (due to the singer)
Uganda197312 baby girls in 1973
Algeria19746 baby girls in both 1993 & 1995
Libya19748 baby girls in 2011
Zaire1974316 baby boys in 2017
Egypt1975266 baby girls in 2017
Nigeria197558 baby girls in 2000
Niger19769 baby girls in both 1976 & 1977
Somalia197743 baby girls in 1993
Zimbabwe1981 (maybe inspired by the Bob Marley song “Zimbabwe“?)5 baby boys in 1981; one-hit wonder
Sudan19825 baby boys in both 1982 & 1995
Eritrea1991 (due to Eritrea being in the news; the Eritrean War of Independence ended in 1991)5 baby girls in 1991; one-hit wonder
Asmara1993 (due to Asmara being in the news; it became the capital of independent Eritrea in 1993)13 baby girls in 2013
Morocco200519 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)

Baby name story: Sam

Uncle Sam army recruitment poster

On July 9, 1943, the Allies invaded the island of Sicily. Within six weeks they had expelled the Axis entirely, opening up Mediterranean sea lanes for Allied ships and setting the stage for the invasion of mainland Italy.

But before the battle was over, in early August, two American servicemen — 1st Lt. Lawrence Taylor (who was a doctor) and Sgt. Milton Spelman — helped a Sicilian woman give birth a baby boy amid the chaos.

As a thank-you to the American doctor, she decided to name the baby Sam after Uncle Sam.

“The shells were landing all about,” Taylor recalled, “but we got through the delivery okay. The mother, who lived in New York once, told us her husband was with an Italian combat unit near Rome and believed in fascism. But she didn’t. Spelman and I became little Sam’s god-fathers.”

So how did Uncle Sam get his name? The Library of Congress says that the origin of the term “Uncle Sam” is obscure, but “[h]istorical sources attribute the name to a meat packer who supplied meat to the army during the War of 1812” — Samuel Wilson (1766-1854) of Troy, New York. According to the story, the soldiers who knew of “Uncle Sam” Wilson began to associate his nickname with the “U.S.” stamp on packaged meats, and over time the nickname simply became associated with anything marked “U.S.”

The name Samuel comes from the Hebrew name Shemuel/Shmuel and is typically defined as “name of God” (shem + el). Another possible definition is “heard of God” (shama + el).

P.S. More WWII baby names: Adolf Hitler, Dorie, Fifinella, Hai-Hu, Irene, Jesse Roper, Linda Ann, Linda, Roger, Tunisia, and Vee.

Sources:

Image: “I want you for U.S. Army” poster – LOC

Pop culture baby name game results, 2011 (part 2)

Britney Spears album

In part 2 of the Pop culture baby name game, we tried to predict which baby names would see increased usage in 2011, thanks to popular culture.

Here’s how we did. The numbers are all from 2010 and 2011, respectively. (Check out Harper & Bentley!)

  • Adele – yes, rose from 286 to 453 baby girls
  • Atlantis – nope, fell from 16 to 7 baby girls
  • Alaina – yes, rose from 1,490 to 1,985 baby girls
  • Alaric – yes, rose from 40 to 48 baby boys
  • Amy – nope, fell from 2,275 to 2,177 baby girls
  • Arya – yes, rose from 273 to 386 baby girls (& from 87 to 110 baby boys)
  • Arabella – yes, rose from 826 to 934 baby girls
  • Aria – yes, rose from 898 to 1,964 baby girls
  • Arthur – yes, rose from 725 to 888 baby boys
  • Bear – yes, rose from 53 to 85 baby boys
  • Bentley – yes rose from 3761 to 5535 baby boys (& from 231 to 285 baby girls)
  • Betty – yes, rose from 130 to 163 baby girls
  • Bran – yes, rose from 5 to 7 baby boys
  • Cairo – yes, rose from 45 to 91 baby boys, and 5 to 12 baby girls
  • Casey – nope, fell from 483 to 463 baby girls (& from 705 to 635 baby boys)
  • Caylee – yes, rose from 565 to 692 baby girls
  • Charlie (girl name) – yes, rose from 664 to 848 (pop culture reference: Disney’s Good Luck Charlie)
  • Crosby – yes, rose from 180 to 301 baby boys
  • Edith – yes, rose from 325 to 350 baby girls
  • Egypt – yes, rose from 100 to 112 baby girls, and 5 to 11 baby boys
  • Ezra – yes, rose from 1439 to 1735 baby boys (& from 88 to 101 baby girls)
  • Florence – nope, fell from 75 to 73 baby girls (I’m surprised by this!)
  • Flynn – yes, rose from 81 to 208 baby boys
  • Gabrielle – nope, fell from 3,128 to 2,601 baby girls
  • Harper – yes, Harper rose from 2,624 to 4,636 baby girls (& from 339 to 399 baby boys)
  • Harvey – yes, rose 184 to 243 baby boys
  • Hattie – yes, from 157 to 253 baby girls
  • Haven – yes, rose from 447 to 504 baby girls (but fell from 164 to 133 baby boys)
  • Jace – yes, rose from 2,669 to 3,689 baby boys
  • Kate – yes, rose from 1,485 to 1,774 baby girls
  • Kez – nope, off the list both years
  • Khal – nope, off the list both years
  • Libya – yes, rose from off-the-list (fewer than 5) to 7 baby girls
  • Maci – yes, rose from 1,351 to 1,725 baby girls
  • Mars – yes, rose from 14 to 23 baby boys
  • Maxton – yes, 193 to 208 baby boys
  • Mobley – nope, off the list both years
  • Monroe – yes, rose from 93 to 141 baby girls
  • Mylo – yes, rose from 33 to 57 baby boys
  • Nicki – yes, rose from 9 to 21 baby girls
  • Octavia – no, fell from 88 to 72
  • Perry – yes, rose from 32 to 40 baby girls, and 129 to 146 baby boys
  • Pippa – yes, Pippa rose from 16 to 69 baby girls (& Philippa from 25 to 53)
  • Raylan – yes, rose from 132 to 326 baby boys
  • Rue – yes, rose from 9 to 13 baby girls
  • Siri – nope, Siri fell from 111 to 103 baby girls
  • Sparrow – yes, rose from 5 to 11 baby boys (but fell from 32 to 31 baby girls)
  • Spring – yes, rose from 11 to 16 baby girls
  • Steve – yes, rose from 279 to 324 baby boys
  • Tim – nope, fell from 65 to 48 baby boys
  • Tunisia – nope, off the list both years
  • William – yes, rose from 16,979 to 17,151 baby boys

I know I missed a few, but we’ll discuss them all eventually I’m sure. :)

Here are the results to PCBNG #1.