How popular is the baby name Virginia 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 Virginia.

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Popularity of the baby name Virginia


Posts that mention the name Virginia

Where did the baby name Shireen come from in 1923?

The characters Omar and Shireen from the movie "Omar the Tentmaker" (1922)
Omar and Shireen from “Omar the Tentmaker“

The baby name Shireen first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1923:

  • 1925: unlisted
  • 1924: unlisted
  • 1923: 5 baby girls named Shireen [debut]
  • 1922: unlisted
  • 1921: unlisted

A similar uptick can be seen in the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) data the same year:

  • 1925: 3 people named Shireen
  • 1924: 2 people named Shireen
  • 1923: 4 people named Shireen
  • 1922: no one named Shireen
  • 1921: 1 person named Shireen

What was drawing attention to the name Shireen around that time?

Two different characters in the silent film Omar the Tentmaker, which was released in December of 1922.

The movie was loosely based on the life of medieval Iranian polymath Omar Khayyam. Here’s how it was described in an advertisement:

Omar, most daring poet of ancient Persia, secretly wooed the beautiful, the forbidden Shireen, destined to be the bride of the Shah. Fleeing in the night, the Shah’s slaves tear them apart. Follows thrill, romance and conflict before the lovers are reunited in a most spectacular and smashing climax.

The plot, which spans a number of years, actually features two romances: the primary one between Omar (played by Guy Bates Post) and Shireen (Virginia Brown Faire), and a secondary one between the couple’s grown daughter “little Shireen” (Patsy Ruth Miller) and a Christian crusader.

The film was adapted from the 1914 play of the same name by playwright Richard Walton Tully.

The Persian name Shireen (also spelled Shirin) is transliteration of a Persian word meaning “sweet.” What are your thoughts on the name?

Sources:

Image: Clipping from Shadowland magazine (Oct. 1922)

Money for V-names in South Africa

springboks

Do you live in South Africa? Do you have a baby with a v-name who was (or will be) born between December 25, 2024, and January 1, 2025 (inclusive)?

If so, you may want to get in touch with Vodacom. For a limited time, the South African mobile communications company is giving away thousands of rand to parents whose newborns have v-names.

Just send your information — full name, province, baby’s birth date, and baby’s v-name — to the company via WhatsApp by January 1.

All who qualify will receive at least R15,000 (about $814 U.S.); parents who happen to be Vodacom customers will receive R25,000 (about $1,357 U.S.).

Though any v-name is acceptable, Vodacom did offer the following list of suggestions:

  • Vuyisile
  • Vuyani
  • Vumani
  • Vuyelwa
  • Vaughn
  • Vincent
  • Virgil
  • Veronica
  • Valeria
  • Venus
  • Virginia
  • Violet
  • Vivienne
  • Valentina
  • Vanessa
  • Vuyo
  • Vusumuzi
  • Vihaan
  • Vaishnavi
  • Vikram

Which of the above do you like most?

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Springbok, Madikwe (52635759990) by flowcomm under CC BY 2.0.

Minnesota family with 22 children

kinderfest

In the mid-20th century, Alvin Joseph Miller and Lucille Rose Miller (née Kahnke) of Waseca, Minnesota, had 22 children — 15 girls and 7 boys.

Here are the names of all 22 siblings:

  1. Ramona Mary (born in 1940), who became a Franciscan nun
  2. Alvin Joseph, Jr. (b. 1942)
  3. Rose Ann (b. 1943)
  4. Kathleen Edith (b. 1945)
  5. Robert Vincent (b. 1946)
  6. Patricia Jean (b. 1947)
  7. Mary Lucille (b. 1948), nicknamed “Marylu”
  8. Diane Margaret (b. 1949)
  9. John Charles (b. 1950)
  10. Janet Irene (b. 1951)
  11. Linda Louise (b. 1953)
  12. Virginia Therese (b. 1954)
  13. Helen Rita (b. 1955), who wrote a book about growing up in a large family
  14. Arthur Lawrence (b. 1956)
  15. Dolores Maria (b. 1957)
  16. Martin Peter (b. 1959)
  17. Pauline Carmel (b. 1960)
  18. Alice Callista (b. 1961)
  19. Angela Mary (b. 1962)
  20. Marcia Marie (b. 1963)
  21. Gregory Eugene (b. 1964)
  22. Damien Francis (b. 1966)

Eight of the children had been born by April of 1950, when the Miller family was interviewed for the U.S. Census:

The Miller family on the 1950 U.S. Census
The Miller family (1950 U.S. Census)

Alvin and Lucille raised their children on a 300-acre farm that included a seven-bedroom farmhouse. Here’s how Diane (#8) described her childhood:

I remember a lot of rides in the wheelbarrow from the granary to the barn. I remember a lot of grinding feed, a lot of egg washing and packing, a lot of sitting by the wood stove in the basement, singing songs as we candled eggs.

Which of the names above do you like most?

P.S. Thank you to Destiny for letting me know about the Miller family a few months ago! (Destiny also told me about the Jones family of West Virginia.)

Sources:

Image: Ein Kinderfest (1868) by Ludwig Knaus

Baby born in Providence, named Providence

"The Banishment of Roger Williams" by Peter F. Rothermel
Roger Williams

English clergyman Roger Williams and his wife, Mary, migrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1631.

Williams was pious and good-natured, but also outspoken about his unorthodox views. He believed, for instance, that church and state should be separate, and that Native Americans should be compensated for their land. These and other “dangerous opinions” led to Williams being banished from the colony in October of 1635.

To evade punishment (i.e., being sent back to England and imprisoned), Williams fled the colony — alone, on foot, during a blizzard in January of 1636. It was a particularly harsh winter, but he was able to survive with the help of the Native Americans.

That spring, after making his way southward, Williams acquired land from the Narragansett and established his own settlement. He wrote:

…having made covenant of peaceable neighborhood with all the sachems and natives round about us, and having, in a sense of God’s merciful providence unto me in my distress, called the place PROVIDENCE, I desired it might be for a shelter for persons distressed for conscience;

In September of 1638, he and his wife welcomed their third child (and first boy). They named him Providence, after his birthplace.

Williams went on to establish the colony of Rhode Island in the mid-1640s. By then, all six of his children (Mary, Freeborn, Providence, Mercy, Daniel, and Joseph) had been born.

P.S. Virginia and Bermuda are two other New World babies named after their birthplaces.

Sources:

Image: The Banishment of Roger Williams (c. 1850) by Peter F. Rothermel