How popular is the baby name Westley 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 Westley.

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Popularity of the baby name Westley


Posts that mention the name Westley

Baby name needed: Boy name for Hudson’s brother

A reader named Tamela wrote to me yesterday. She has one son named Hudson and is expecting her second son in a couple of months. She’d like some name suggestions for baby boy #2.

Hudson comes from a surname, so the first place I’d look is other surnames. Here are a few ideas:

Archer
Baxter
Bennett
Blake
Carlisle
Carter
Everett
Fletcher
Marlow
Mitchell
Maxwell
Norris
Parker
Ramsey
Reeve
Ridley
Roscoe
Sawyer
Spencer
Tate
Tanner
Thatcher
Travis
Westley

(At first I was only going to omit names ending with -son. Then I decided to cut all names with n-endings, just to get a good range of sounds in there.)

Do you like any of the above with Hudson? What other names would you suggest to Tamela?

Update (3/14): Tamela has to get some adoption paperwork squared away, so she needs to select a name within the next few days.

Here are a few more facts:

  • The baby’s surname will be a Spanish name that starts with an S. Think Silva, or Santos. (Neither of these is the actual surname.)
  • Because the baby is coming from Russia, Tamela would really like something that’s “at least a little Russian.”
  • Current favorites include Maxwell, Luis (nn Louie) and George (Tamela’s father’s name). She also mentioned Matteo in this comment.

I really like both George and Maxwell with Hudson. I think either one would sound great as a first name.

Matteo doesn’t strike me as being a great match to Hudson, in terms of style. (Fits perfectly with the surname, though.)

I’m undecided on Luis. I don’t think it’s a terrible match, but I don’t think it would fit as well with Hudson as Maxwell or George would.

As for Russian names, let’s see…Maksim or Maksimilian are both similar to Maxwell. Yuri is a version of George. (Also a cosmonaut!)

Or perhaps one of these Russian names would work as a middle:

Aleksandr
Benedikt
Eduard
Filipp
Isaak
Luka
Nikolai
Viktor

(I picked these because they’re so close to their English equivalents. Almost like they’re just English names with a Russian twist.)

As far as combinations go, I’m partial to George Maksim and George Maksimilian. Both are similar to George Maxwell, which Tamela mentioned in her comment, but they look and sound a bit more Russian.

What other thoughts/ideas do you have for Tamela?

Update (12/1): The baby’s name has been chosen! Scroll down to the last comment to see what it is.

Baby names from ’80s movies: Bastien, Ferris, Inigo, Westley

I recently realized that many of the bands I listen to were named in honor of various 80s movies.

Ludo, Atreyu, and McFly were named for characters in The Labyrinth (1986), The Neverending Story (1984), and Back to the Future (1985). Save Ferris and Rooney both refer to Ferris Beuller’s Day Off (1986). And, logically, Say Anything comes from Say Anything… (1989).

This made me wonder how many other bands were named for 80s flicks. Turns out, quite a few:

Artax
As You Wish
Auryn
Bavmorda
Biff Tannen
Bog of Eternal Stench
Childlike Empress
Cobra Kai
Daniel LaRusso
Dread Pirate Roberts
The Dykeenies
Emmett Brown
Falkor
Fezzik
Flux Capacitor
George McFly
Inigo Montoya
Jareth
Joe Lies
Lloyd Dobler
Madmartigan
Miracle Max
Morla
Mr. Miyagi
Rockbiter
Rodents of Unusual Size
The Fratellis
The Nothing
Truffle Shuffle
Wax On Wax Off

(The above names came from the movies I already mentioned, plus The Goonies (1985), The Karate Kid (1984), The Princess Bride (1987), and Willow (1988).)

If these decades-old films are now inspiring dozens of band names, do you think they could be (belatedly) inspiring baby names as well?

For example, a childhood friend of mine had a life-sized poster of Ralph Macchio hanging above her bed for years. If she had a son, would she name him Daniel?

Will any of the lads who once had a crush on brainy Diane Court decide to name their daughters Diane?

Did bookish Bastian help catapult the name Sebastian (now ranked 72nd in the U.S.) into the spotlight, one generation later?

And don’t forget Cameron, Ferris, Inigo, Lloyd, Marty, Sloane, Sorsha, Westley…and hundreds more from other movies, like Andie from Pretty in Pink (1986), Elliott from E.T. (1982), Josh from Big (1988), Lisa from Weird Science (1985), Maverick from Top Gun (1986)…

For those of you who grew up during the 1980s: Can you trace any of your favorite baby names back to a specific 80s movie?