How popular is the baby name Usnavy 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 Usnavy.

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Popularity of the baby name Usnavy


Posts that mention the name Usnavy

Mexican state bans baby names like Rambo, Robocop

banned baby names in sonora, mexico

On February 10, the Civil Registration Act went into effect in the Mexican state of Sonora (which is right across the border from Arizona).

Article 46 of the act allows local authorities to reject baby names they deem derogatory, discriminatory, defamatory, libelous and meaningless, among other things.

The state also banned 61 specific baby names, and will likely ban more names in the future. All of the banned names came directly from Sonora’s birth registries (meaning that each has been used at least once already).

After doing some digging, I finally found the full list of banned names on a Mexican news site. Here it is:

  1. Aceituno
  2. Aguinaldo
  3. All Power
  4. Aniv de la Rev (short for “anniversary of the revolution”)
  5. Batman
  6. Beneficia (meaning “benefits”)
  7. Burger King
  8. Cacerolo
  9. Calzón (meaning “panties”)
  10. Caraciola
  11. Caralampio
  12. Cesárea
  13. Cheyenne
  14. Christmas Day
  15. Circuncisión (meaning “circumcision”)
  16. Culebro
  17. Delgadina (meaning “the skinny girl.” It’s from the Mexican folk song “La Delgadina.”)
  18. Diódoro
  19. Email
  20. Escroto (meaning “scrotum”)
  21. Espinaca (meaning “spinach”)
  22. Facebook
  23. Fulanita (meaning “so-and-so” or “what’s-her-name”)
  24. Gordonia
  25. Gorgonio
  26. Harry Potter
  27. Hermione
  28. Hitler
  29. Hurraca
  30. Iluminada
  31. Indio
  32. James Bond
  33. Lady Di
  34. Marciana (meaning “martian”)
  35. Masiosare (meaning “if one should dare,” roughly. It’s from the phrase mas si osare, which is part of the Mexican National Anthem.)
  36. Micheline
  37. Panuncio
  38. Patrocinio (meaning “patronage” or “sponsorship”)
  39. Petronilo
  40. Piritipio
  41. Pocahontas
  42. Pomponio
  43. Privado (meaning “private”)
  44. Procopio
  45. Rambo
  46. Robocop
  47. Rocky
  48. Rolling Stone
  49. Sobeida
  50. Sol de Sonora
  51. Sonora Querida
  52. Telésforo
  53. Terminator
  54. Tránsito (meaning “transit”)
  55. Tremebundo (meaning “terrifying” or “terrible”)
  56. Twitter
  57. Usnavy
  58. Verulo
  59. Virgen (meaning “virgin”)
  60. Yahoo
  61. Zoila Rosa

Some thoughts:

  • Facebook is the legal first name of at least 2 human beings at this point. Amazing.
  • Robocop, I must admit, has been on my “baby names I am dying to find in the wild” list for many years. At last, proof that it exists! Exciting stuff. (Haven’t yet come across any babies named Chucknorris, however. Fingers still crossed on that one.)
  • Hermione? I can see why Sonora would object to “Harry Potter” and “James Bond,” but Hermione by itself (as opposed to “Hermione Granger”) makes no sense. Hermione is a legitimate (and lovely) name that existed long before the Potter books.

What are your thoughts? And, which name on the list above shocked you the most?

Sources:

Yesaidu, Yorkeisy: Unique Latin American names explained

Did you know that Latin American parents have created baby names out of English-language phrases and terms?

Here are some examples:

  • Yoanidis comes from “you and this”
  • Yorkeisy comes from “you are crazy”
  • Yesaidu comes from “yes I do”
  • Yesyuar comes from “yes you are”
  • Usanavy comes from “U.S. Navy”
  • Mileidi comes from “my lady”
  • Madeinusa comes from “made in U.S.A.”
  • Dalaionkin comes from “The Lion King”
  • Britnishakira is a combination of “Britney” and “Shakira”
  • Gualdisnia comes from “Walt Disney”

I found these in a News-Press article by Peruvian writer Alessia Leathers. (Unfortunately, the article — and her full list of names — is no longer online.)

No doubt names like these are spelled many different ways. I know I’ve seen several versions of “Usanavy.” For instance, in a book about Cuba (specifically, in a passage describing the influence of the United States on Cuban personal names in the mid-20th century), I spotted this sentence:

In the zones around the Guantanamo Naval Station it was not uncommon to find children named Usnavy (or Usnavito/Usnavita) after the markings of “US Navy.”

There’s also a Dominican-American character named Usnavi (pronounced oos-NAH-vee) in the musical In the Heights by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Source: Perez, Louis A. On Becoming Cuban: Identity, Nationality, and Culture. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999.

[Latest update: Jun. 2024]