How popular is the baby name Washington 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 Washington.
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Tuesday’s post about the Victorian-style Tylney Hall Hotel reminded me of a list of Victorian-era names that I’ve had bookmarked forever.
The list was created by amateur genealogist G. M. Atwater as a resource for writers. It contains names and name combinations that were commonly seen in the U.S. from the 1840s to the 1890s. Below is the full list (with a few minor changes).
| Victorian Era Female Names | Victorian Era Male Names |
|---|---|
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Which female name and male name do you like best?
The first baby born in central Iowa (including Des Moines) in 2014 was Nash David Eddie, son of Lance and Christine Eddie.
The name “Nash” was chosen in honor of Nashville, Tennessee. It’s where Lance and Christine went on their first road trip together.
When the president/CEO of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp. learned about baby Nash, he sent the Eddie family a bunch of “Nashville-themed gifts, including a CD with music from the TV show “Nashville,” a guitar-shaped chocolate bar, the “Lisa Loeb’s Silly Singalong” children’s book and a four-foot-tall stuffed Gnash — the Nashville Predators hockey team mascot.”
The family will also get free passes to local attractions the next time they visit Nashville.
(Some of the other locational baby names I’ve blogged about over the years: Brighton, Endellion, Julian, Sonora, Kennedy, Aquinnah, Georgian, Washington, Boston, Newark, Florence, Cape Cod, Montana, Helsinki.)
Sources: New parents bring in first baby of 2014, Des Moines’ first baby named for Nashville
The LA Times published an interesting article on Brazilian baby names several years ago (in 1999). Here are some highlights:
Brazilian parents who like creative spellings tend to gravitate toward the letters K, W and Y because — at the time the article was written — these letters were not technically part of Brazilian Portuguese.
[In 2009, Brazil enacted spelling reforms that officially added K, W and Y to the alphabet. I’m not sure if this has made them any less desirable for baby names.]
Examples of creative spellings: Tayane (Diana), Kerolyne (Carolina).
Sometimes, parents choose names inspired by Jogo do Bicho (“the animal game” or “the animal lottery”). This is “a kind of urban numbers game based on superstitions that imbue animals and dates with good luck.”
Example of an animal lottery name: Antonio Treze de Junio de Mil Novecentos e Dezesette (June 13, 1917).
There are distinct class differences when it comes to naming:
“Brazilian law forbids names that could expose children to ridicule,” but the law is rarely enforced. For instance, the following names made it through…
Do you know anyone from Brazil with an interesting name or name story?
Sources:
Over at the New York Times photojournalism blog Lens, Patrick Witty has just finished a series of blog posts about New York-area males with presidential names. In one of his posts, he says:
Some of the presidential doppelgängers I met over the past nine months were named to honor the great men who have occupied the Oval Office; others inherited the name from their fathers. Regardless, living with such a name can be a burden.
He was able to track down 11 men and one baby with the names Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, John F. Kennedy, Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge, Ulysses Grant, Abraham Lincoln, John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. Interesting stuff. (The photos are cool as well.)
P.S. Ever wonder how many presidents were named after family members?