How popular is the baby name Victoria 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 Victoria.

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Popularity of the baby name Victoria


Posts that mention the name Victoria

Older siblings vote for baby’s name

In early 1965, Marius and Anne Spada of Towaco, New Jersey, welcomed a baby boy — their 16th child. They didn’t give him a name, though. They had their older children vote on his name, pursuant to family tradition.

Of the 15 older children, 13 took part in the election. They were Anselm (19), Marie (18), Lucille (16), James (15), Jennifer (14), Victoria (13), twins Larry and Laurie (12), Patrick (9), Nicholas (8), Annette (7), Teresa (5) and Christopher (4). The two not taking part were Joseph (17) and Marius Jr. (2). Joseph was away on Army duty, and Marius Jr. was considered too young.

The parents had no say in the balloting. “We leave it entirely up to them,” Marius Sr. (44) told the papers. “I used to be able to sway the election, but I guess I’m too old now politically to carry much weight.”

The winning name was Dominick, with 11 votes. Marius Sr. explained that the name was inspired by “a priest, Father Dominick, who’s a friend of the family.” Runners-up were John and Anthony, with 1 vote each.

Source: “‘Decision of Lifetime’ Made by Youngsters.” Spokane Daily Chronicle 20 Jan. 1965: 27.

Celebrity baby name story: Victoria

Betty Grable (1916-1973)
Betty Grable

Actress and pin-up model Betty Grable and her second husband, bandleader Harry James, welcomed a baby girl in early 1944.

The couple met while filming the movie Springtime in the Rockies (1942), in which Grable played a Broadway dancer named Victoria “Vicky” Lane. So they named their daughter Victoria, after the character.

Source: “Daughter Born to Betty Grable.” St. Petersburg Times 4 Mar. 1944: 6.

Image: Adapted from Betty Grable, 20th Century Fox (public domain)

Popular baby names in Sweden, 2010

Flag of Sweden
Flag of Sweden

Sweden’s top baby names have been released!

The winners last year were Oscar and Maja (which is pronounced like Maya).

Here are Sweden’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2010:

Girl names

  1. Maja, 895 baby girls (1.6% of all baby girls)
  2. Alice, 867
  3. Julia, 823
  4. Linnéa, 750
  5. Wilma, 742
  6. Ella, 737
  7. Elsa, 724
  8. Emma, 722
  9. Alva, 711
  10. Olivia, 703
  11. Molly, 677
  12. Ebba, 661
  13. Klara, 638
  14. Nellie, 592
  15. Agnes, 588
  16. Isabelle, 583
  17. Ida, 577
  18. Elin, 570
  19. Ellen, 545
  20. Moa, 542
  21. Emilia, 522
  22. Nova, 515
  23. Alma, 506
  24. Saga, 490
  25. Amanda, 475
  26. Isabella, 467
  27. Lilly, 460
  28. Alicia, 456
  29. Astrid, 441
  30. Matilda, 433
  31. Tilde, 431 (tie)
  32. Tuva, 431 (tie)
  33. Stella, 416
  34. Elvira, 412 (tie)
  35. Felicia, 412 (tie)
  36. Tyra, 409
  37. Hanna, 408
  38. Sara, 404
  39. Vera, 399
  40. Thea, 380
  41. Freja, 378
  42. Lova, 372
  43. Meja, 359 (tie)
  44. Selma, 359 (tie)
  45. Signe, 352
  46. Ester, 339
  47. Lovisa, 336
  48. Ellie, 328
  49. Lea, 308 (tie)
  50. Tilda, 308 (tie)

Boy names

  1. Oscar, 1,108 baby boys (nearly 1.9% of all baby boys)
  2. William, 1,032
  3. Lucas, 1,026
  4. Elias, 888
  5. Alexander, 887
  6. Hugo, 873
  7. Oliver, 810
  8. Theo, 804
  9. Liam, 782
  10. Leo, 764
  11. Erik, 741 (tie)
  12. Viktor, 741 (tie)
  13. Emil, 729
  14. Isak, 712
  15. Axel, 692
  16. Filip, 685
  17. Anton, 627
  18. Gustav, 617
  19. Edvin, 609
  20. Vincent, 598
  21. Arvid, 596
  22. Albin, 581
  23. Ludvig, 580
  24. Melvin, 562
  25. Noah, 554
  26. Charlie, 531
  27. Max, 529
  28. Elliot, 509
  29. Viggo, 499
  30. Alvin, 488
  31. Alfred, 480
  32. Adam, 474 (tie)
  33. Theodor, 474 (tie)
  34. Olle, 464
  35. Wilmer, 458
  36. Benjamin, 457
  37. Simon, 453
  38. Nils, 431
  39. Noel, 417
  40. Jacob, 414
  41. Leon, 411
  42. Rasmus, 405
  43. Kevin, 400
  44. Linus, 394
  45. Casper, 380 (tie)
  46. Gabriel, 380 (tie)
  47. Jonathan, 377
  48. Milo, 373
  49. Melker, 369
  50. Felix, 367

In the girls’ top 10, Olivia replaced Ebba.

In the boys’ top 10, Theo, Liam and Leo replaced Erik, Victor, and Axel.

Newbies to the girls’ top 100 were Tove, Minna, Majken, Annie, Juni, Hedvig and Novalie. Drop-outs were Malva, Victoria, Fanny, Alexandra, Rut, Miranda and Johanna.

Newbies to the boys’ top 100 were Frank, Ebbe, Elvin, Julian and Ivar. Drop-outs were Dante, Mattias, Jesper, Dennis and Ruben.

The girl names that made the biggest jumps from 2009 to 2010 were Tove, Minna and Novalie. Those that dropped the furthest were Kajsa, Emelie and Cornelia.

The boy names that made the biggest jumps from 2009 to 2010 were Frank, Elvin and Milo. Those that dropped the furthest were Carl, Marcus and Jonathan.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Flag of Sweden (public domain)

[Latest update: Dec. 2024]

Canadian baby names sorted by postal code

If you live in Ottawa, Hamilton-Niagara, or the Greater Toronto Area, and you want to see maps of the most popular baby names in your city sorted by postal code, when definitely check out The Baby File over at Canadian news site OpenFile.

At OpenFile’s request, Ontario’s Registrar General crunched five years of birth registration data, covering 823,000 children born between 2005 and mid-December 2009. The data provided shows the top five baby names for boys and girls by postal forward sortation area — or FSA, the first three characters of a postal code—so long as the total number of babies with that name was ten or more.

Looks like many of the neighborhoods have similar name preferences, though a handful are wildly different from the norm. (An example would be FSA M6K in Toronto, where the Tibetan name Tenzin is the top baby name for both boys and girls.)

And don’t forget to scroll down to the user-submitted name stories below the maps. I spotted several interesting pop culture references, but this was the story I liked best:

My husband and I met at Victoria College, U of T, in a Victorian literature class, and married on Victoria Day. Naturally, our daughter’s name is…Victoria.

For those who live in one of the featured neighborhoods/postal codes: Are the top baby names in your area what you expected them to be, or did they surprise you?

Update: OpenFile went offline in early 2013, so the maps are no longer available, unfortunately. The links above will take you to Internet Archive captures of the original website.