How popular is the baby name Walter 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 Walter.

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Popularity of the baby name Walter


Posts that mention the name Walter

Babies named for William Leefe Robinson

William Leefe Robinson, VC (1895-1918)
William Leefe Robinson

Six months after the outbreak of of WWI, Germany began sending bomb-laden Zeppelins — which were notoriously hard to shoot down — across the North Sea to terrorize Britain.

Dozens of middle-of-the-night Zeppelin raids killed hundreds of British citizens and injured hundreds more.

Finally, in the wee hours of September 3, 1916, William Leefe Robinson became the first British pilot to shoot down a German Zeppelin over the United Kingdom.

Accounts of Robinson’s achievement — attributable to bravery, skill, and newly developed incendiary bullets — ran in newspapers and magazines across the country, along with photographs of the heroic 21-year-old airman.

On September 9, King George V presented Robinson with the Victoria Cross, the British military’s most prestigious award.

On October 22, in a letter to his parents, Robinson wrote:

As I daresay you have seen in the papers — babies, flowers and hats have been named after me also poems and prose have been dedicated to me — oh, it’s too much!

I am recognised wherever I go about Town now, whether in uniform or mufti — the city police salute me, the waiters, hall porters and pages of hotels and restaurants bow and scrape — visitors turn around and stare — oh it’s too thick!

Due to the commonness of the names William and Robinson, we may never know how many babies were named with William Leefe Robinson in mind. But here are several likely namesakes (all born in England):

  • Samuel Leefe R. Batley (b. Sept. 3, 1916)
  • George Leefe R. Smith (b. Sept. 5 1916)
  • William Leefe R. Cox (b. Sept. 9, 1916)
  • William Leefe R. Telford (b. Sept. 14, 1916)
  • William Leefe Robinson (b. Sept. 15, 1916)
  • William Leefe Robinson (b. Sept. 23, 1916)
  • William Leefe Robinson Jarrett (b. in the third quarter of 1916)
  • Leonard Leefe Robinson Martin (b. in the fourth quarter of 1916)
  • Walter Leefe Robinson Welland (b. May 18, 1917)

Soon after the first airship was shot down, others followed. (One that landed in Wigborough inspired a local family to name their baby girl Zeppelina.)

The final Zeppelin raid took place in August of 1918 — several months before the Armistice was signed and Germany was defeated.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Leefe Robinson (public domain)

[Latest update: Sept. 2024]

Which “Endurance” crew-member name do you like best?

The Endurance in 1915, during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.
The Endurance

In late 1914, polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton set off for Antarctica aboard the Endurance with a crew of 27 men. (Well, technically 26 crew plus a stowaway.)

The goal of Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition was to be the first to cross the Antarctic by land, traveling from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea via the South Poll. (Roald Amundsen had become the first to reach the South Pole several years earlier.)

The expedition didn’t go as planned, though.

The Endurance became trapped in pack ice in the Weddell Sea. It was crushed and sank in late 1915.

In April of 1916, Shackleton and five crew members set out on a daring 800-mile journey in a 22-foot lifeboat to the island South Georgia. They reached the island after an arduous 16 days, then trekked across the island to find help.

The remaining men were finally rescued in late August. Impressively, everyone survived.

The 28 men of the Endurance shared a total of 20 first names:

  • Alexander (2)
  • Alfred
  • Charles
  • Ernest (2)
  • Frank (3)
  • George
  • Henry
  • Hubert
  • James (2)
  • John
  • Leonard
  • Lewis
  • Lionel
  • Perce
  • Reginald
  • Robert
  • Timothy
  • Thomas (3)
  • Walter
  • William (2)

Which of these names do you like best? Why?

Update, March 2022: The Endurance22 Expedition has located the wreck of Endurance — sitting upright and “in a brilliant state of preservation” — on the floor of the Weddell Sea.

How to pronounce French names: Anaïs, Étienne, Guillaume, Hélène

Lavender field in France

At first glance, Guillaume always looks like gobbledygook to me. It’s the French form of William — that much I know — but it takes a few seconds for me to remember that it’s pronounced ghee-ohm, not not gwill-awm or gwee-awm.

And it’s not just Guillaume that trips me up. I find many other French names (Étienne, Edwige, Anaïs, etc.) equally tricky to pronounce.

So for those of us who struggle with French names, here are some simplified rules of French pronunciation, plus names to illustrate each rule.

This list is far from comprehensive, and my pronunciations are just approximations, but hopefully my fellow non-French speakers out there will find it helpful nonetheless.

French Pronunciation + French Names

AU: The vowel combination “AU” is pronounced like a long o.

  • Paul, in French, is pronounced pohl.
  • Margaux, a French form of Margaret, is pronounced mar-goh.

CH: The letter combination “CH” is typically pronounced sh.

  • Charles, in French, is pronounced shahrl.

D, P, S, T, X, Z: The six consonants “D,” “P,” “S,” “T,” “X” and “Z,” when at the end of a word, are typically silent.

  • Arnaud, the French form of Arnold, is pronounced ar-noh.
  • Denis, the French form of Dennis, is pronounced de-nee (remember that Blondie song?).
  • Lucas, in French, is pronounced loo-kah.
  • Louis, in French, is pronounced loo-ee (think Louis Vuitton).

…They’re not always silent, though. Here are some exceptions:

  • Alois, the French form of Aloysius, is pronounced ah-loh-ees.
  • Anaïs, a French form of Anna, is pronounced ah-nah-ees.
  • David, in French, is pronounced dah-veed.

Ë: The pronunciation of “Ë” (E with a trema) is like the e in the English word “bet.”

  • Gaël and Gaëlle are pronounced gah-el or gai-el.
  • Joël and Joëlle are pronounced zhoh-el.
  • Maël and Maëlle are pronounced mah-el or mai-el.
  • Noël and Noëlle are pronounced noh-el.

É: The pronunciation of “É” (E with an acute accent) is somewhere between the ee in “see” and the e in “bet.”

  • Noé, the French masculine form of Noah, is pronounced noh-ee.
  • Salomé, in French, is pronounced sah-loh-mee.

G: The consonant “G” is soft (zh) when followed by “E” or “I” but hard (gh) otherwise.

  • Georges, the French form of George, is pronounced zhorzh.
  • Guy, in French, is pronounced ghee.

H: The consonant “H” is silent.

  • Hélène, the French form of Helen, is pronounced eh-lehn.

I: The vowel “I,” and the forms Ï, and Î, are all pronounced ee.

  • Loïc, a French form of Louis, is pronounced loh-eek.

J: The consonant “J” is pronounced zh.

  • Jacques, the French form of Jacob, is pronounced zhahk.

LL: The letter combination “LL” is typically pronounced like an l.

  • Achille, the French form of Achilles, is pronounced ah-sheel.
  • Lucille, the French form of Lucilla, is pronounced loo-seel.

…But in some cases “LL” is pronounced like a y.

  • Guillaume, the French form of William, is pronounced ghee-yohm or ghee-ohm.

OI: The vowel combination “OI” is pronounced wah.

  • Antoine, the French form of Antony, is pronounced an-twahn.
  • Grégoire, the French form of Gregory, is pronounced gre-gwahr.

OU: The vowel combination “OU” is pronounced oo.

  • Lilou is pronounced lee-loo.

R: The consonant “R,” when at the end of a word, is typically pronounced.

  • Clair, the French masculine form of Claire, is pronounced kler.
  • Edgar, in French, is pronounced ed-gahr.

…When the “R” is preceded by an “E,” though, it is not pronounced.

  • Gauthier, the French form of Walter, is pronounced goh-tee-yay or goh-tyay (remember Gotye?).
  • Olivier, the French form of Oliver, is pronounced oh-lee-vee-yay or oh-lee-vyay (think Laurence Olivier).

TH: The letter combination “TH” is typically pronounced like a t (which makes sense, since “H” is silent).

  • Thibault, the French form of Theobald, is pronounced tee-boh.

TI: The letter combination “TI” is sometimes pronounced like an s or sy.

  • Laëtitia is pronounced lay-tee-sya.

W: The consonant “W” is pronounced like a v.

  • Edwige, the French form of Hedwig, is pronounced ed-veezh.

And finally, just a few more French names that I tend to have trouble with.

  • Anatole is pronounced ah-nah-tohl.
  • Étienne, the French form of Stephen, is pronounced eh-tyen.
  • Geoffroy, the French form of Geoffrey, is pronounced zho-fwah.
  • Ghislain and Ghislaine are pronounced either ghee-len or zheez-len.
  • Ignace, the French form of Ignatius, is pronounced ee-nyas.

*

Those aren’t too hard, right?

That’s what I tell myself…and then I come across Guillaume in the wild and my mind goes blank all over again. :)

If you know French and would like to add to the above (either another rule of pronunciation or a more precise pronunciation for a particular name) please leave a comment.

If you’re not a French speaker, here’s my question: Which French name gives you the most trouble?

P.S. Interested in seeing how popular the French names above are in the U.S.? Here are some popularity graphs: Alois, Achille, Anaïs, Anatole, Antoine, Arnaud, Clair, Denis, Edwige, Étienne, Gaël/Gaëlle, Georges, Grégoire, Guillaume, Guy, Hélène, Ignace, Jacques, Laëtitia, Lilou, Loïc, Lucille, Maël/Maëlle, Margaux, Noé, Olivier, Salomé, Thibault.

Sources: Beginning French Pronunciation, French e, è, é, ê, ë – what’s the difference?, Google Translate

Image: Adapted from Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque, 2022 by Chris Down under CC BY 4.0.

[Latest update: July 2023]

Quotes about place names

Stairs to Wat Phnom (Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
Wat Phnom (in Phnom Penh)

From a 2008 article called “Khmer Legends” in The Cambodia Daily:

[T]he municipality has recently erected a statue of the fabled Yeay Penh, the woman who is credited with giving Phnom Penh its landmark hill.

As the story goes, in the 1370s, Yeay Penh asked her neighbors to raise the mound in front of her home so as to build on top of it a sanctuary to house the four statues of Buddha she had found inside a floating tree trunk. That mound, or phnom, is credited with giving Phnom Penh its name.

[…]

“The problem is we have no proof,” said Ros Chantrabot, a Cambodian historian and vice president of the Royal Academy of Cambodia.

“In all likelihood she did exist or, at the very least, the tale is based on an actual person, since Penh’s hill, or Phnom Penh, is there for all to see,” he said.

[“Yeah Penh” is the equivalent of “Grandmother Penh.” The word yeay in Cambodian is a title used to refer to and/or address an older female.]

From the book From Red Hot to Monkey’s Eyebrow: Unusual Kentucky Place Names (1997) by Robert M. Rennick:

Kentucky’s Mousie, still a post office serving many families in the Jones Fork area of northern Knott County, wasn’t named for a mouse at all but for a young woman — named Mousie. She was then (1916) the twenty-year-old daughter of Clay Martin, a large landowner in that area.

Why would a girl be named Mousie? Why not? Mousie is not at all an unusual given name in eastern Kentucky. Since the Civil War, scores of young Mousies throughout the region have borne this name. Mousie Martin, who later became Mrs. Mart Gibson, used to tell us that she was so named at the suggestion of her grandfather, for she had an older sister named Kitty and he rather liked the idea of having two little varmints in the family.

From a 2016 CTV News article about the Ontario town of Kitchener (formerly known as Berlin):

Meanwhile, 100 years after it was nixed, the Berlin name is enjoying a bit of a minor renaissance in Kitchener.

Two businesses prominently featuring the name have opened in recent months: The Berlin restaurant and the Berlin Bicycle Café.

Andrea Hennige, the restaurant manager at The Berlin, says the name was chosen with an eye toward the area’s history.

“It’s a nod to the people who settled the area, who probably laid the bricks in this building,” she said in an interview.

[Town residents voted to drop the name Berlin in 1916, during WWI. The name change ballot included the following options: Adanac (Canada spelled backwards), Benton, Brock, Corona, Keowana, and Kitchener.]

From a U.S. Forest Service webpage explaining the origin of the name of Lolo National Forest in western Montana:

“Lolo” probably evolved from “Lou-Lou”, a pronunciation of “Lawrence,” a French-Canadian fur trapper killed by a grizzly bear and buried at Grave Creek.

The first written evidence of the name “Lolo” appears in 1831 when fur trader John Work refers in his journal to Lolo Creek as “Lou Lou.”

In an 1853 railroad survey and map, Lieutenant John Mullan spelled the creek and trail “Lou Lou.” However, by 1865 the name was shortened to Lolo and is currently the name of a national forest, town, creek, mountain peak, mountain pass and historic trail in west central Montana.

From a 2020 article about the most common town names in America:

Many of the 18 places in the United States called Waverly are named after Sir Walter Scott’s 1814 novel, Waverley. Not only is Waverly, Nebraska […] named after the novel, but many of the city’s street names were also taken from characters within it.

[Here are more of the places named Waverly.]

From a 2019 Summit Daily article about the town of Dillon, Colorado:

[Dillon] was not named after a prospector named Tom Dillon who got lost in the woods, as has been a common oral tradition. Rather, the town was named after Sidney Dillon, a powerful railroad executive who became president of the Union Pacific railroad four months before the town was established. The entire point of naming the town Dillon was to somehow appeal to Sidney Dillon’s vanity and persuade him to build a railroad through the town.

But as it turned out, the railroad didn’t wind up going through Dillon or winding along the Snake River. Instead, it went through Tenmile Canyon and the town of Frisco — also named to flatter a railroad company, the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Co., in a bid to get them to build their next line through town.

From a 2019 article about the Louisiana town of Westwego:

[Lori] Guin runs the Westwego Historical Museum, which is actually housed in the city’s first general store. She likes to tell the story about how the city got its name.

“Actually we had a train depot station. The conductor would bring his passengers to the west, so he would say,” West we go!” That’s how Westwego got its name,” Guin said.

Image: Adapted from 02-Wat Phnom-nX-1 by PsamatheM under CC BY-SA 4.0.

[Latest update: Oct. 2023]