How popular is the baby name Wilbur 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 Wilbur.

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Popularity of the baby name Wilbur


Posts that mention the name Wilbur

80+ Hidden gems: Rare baby boy names

gems

Want a boy name that’s not popular, but also not unheard of?

I looked through all the names at the bottom of SSA’s 2011 mega-list and found a bunch of hidden gems:

  1. Alaric (48 baby boys)
  2. Alban (12)
  3. Aldous (11)
  4. Aldric (7)
  5. Alphonse (20)
  6. Archibald (14)
  7. Astor (5)
  8. Augustin (50)
  9. Balthazar (13)
  10. Barclay (6)
  11. Barnabas (8)
  12. Bartholomew (19)
  13. Booker (22)
  14. Chadwick (34)
  15. Cyril (41)
  16. Clancy (14)
  17. Claude (44)
  18. Clement (34)
  19. Crispin (21)
  20. Darcy (15)
  21. Dirk (40)
  22. Doyle (10)
  23. Ernst (6)
  24. Ferdinand (20)
  25. Garrick (42)
  26. Giles (20)
  27. Gregor (14)
  28. Griffith (18)
  29. Grover (9)
  30. Gustaf (7); Gustav (29)
  31. Horatio (10)
  32. Hubert (46)
  33. Ignatius (49)
  34. Isidore (7)
  35. Kermit (6)
  36. Lambert (6)
  37. Laird (17)
  38. Laurence (48)
  39. Laurent (9)
  40. Leander (48)
  41. Leith (7)
  42. Lemuel (50)
  43. Lowell (29)
  44. Maxfield (22)
  45. Newton (14)
  46. Nicanor (8)
  47. Norbert (9)
  48. Norris (21)
  49. Ogden (13)
  50. Orson (33)
  51. Osborn (5); Osborne (7)
  52. Oswald (18)
  53. Pascal (25)
  54. Percival (13)
  55. Peregrine (9)
  56. Piers (16)
  57. Regis (10)
  58. Remis (11)
  59. Roscoe (47)
  60. Rudolph (44)
  61. Rufus (39)
  62. Rupert (8)
  63. Sanford (6)
  64. Seymour (6)
  65. Sherman (40)
  66. Sinclair (8)
  67. Tavish (16)
  68. Thane (48)
  69. Tobiah (14)
  70. Walton (14)
  71. Warner (48)
  72. Watson (42)
  73. Webster (8)
  74. Weldon (27)
  75. Werner (11)
  76. Wilbert (42)
  77. Wilbur (20)
  78. Winfield (7)
  79. Winfred (7)
  80. Winslow (10)
  81. York (5)
  82. Zebulon (25)
  83. Zeno (13)

(In some cases, a different spelling of the name is more popular than what’s shown here. For instance, Laurence is rare, but Lawrence is moderately popular.)

Like any of these?

Spot any other good names at the end of the list?

P.S. Here’s the girls’ list.

Image: Adapted from Birmanian rock crystals by Mauro Cateb under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Gale Storm named her baby after a TV character

Gale Storm

Actress and singer Gale Storm wasn’t born with that name — she was born Josephine Owaissa Cottle in Texas in 1922. (Her four older siblings were named Lois, Wilbur, Minnie, and Joel.)

Her first name came from her paternal grandmother, and her unusual middle was chosen by her older sister Lois. Here’s how she explained it:

Owaissa means bluebird in Indian. They let my sister name me and she was going through an Indian period then.

Lois had likely encountered the name in school, via Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1855 poem “The Song of Hiawatha” — a fictional account of an Ojibwe warrior named Hiawatha. The name is indeed defined as “bluebird” in the poem, though the Ojibwe word for “bluebird” is actually more along the lines of ozahwunoo.

In her late teens, Josephine became a contestant on a radio talent show called Gateway to Hollywood. She ended up winning, and was awarded not only a contract with a movie studio, but a brand new name: Gale Storm. The male winner, Lee Bonnell, who was given the stage name Terry Belmont, later became Gale’s real-life husband.

Gale and Terry went on to have four children. Their three sons were named after the Biblical figures of Philip, Peter and Paul. But their daughter, born in 1956, was not named with a Biblical figure in mind. Instead, she was named after fictional cruise director Susanna Pomeroy — the character Gale Storm portrayed on The Gale Storm Show: Oh! Susanna from 1956 to 1960.

Sources:

Baby names for aviation enthusiasts (Namestorm #5)

airplane

Love to fly the friendly skies? Then this list may be for you. Here are some names from early 20th-century aviation history:

Wilbur and Orville
American brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright built and flew the world’s first airplane in December of 1903.

Louis
French aviator Louis Blériot was the first to fly a plane across the English Channel (from France to England) in July of 1909.

Elise
French aviatrix Elise Raymonde Deroche was the first woman to receive a pilot’s license, in March of 1910.

Henri
French aviator and inventor Henri Fabre designed and flew the world’s first seaplane, also in March of 1910.

Harriet
American aviatrix Harriet Quimby was the first woman to fly across the English Channel (from England to France) in April of 1912 — one day after the sinking of the Titanic. Harriet was also the first U.S. woman to receive a pilot’s license.

John and Arthur
British aviators John Alcock (pilot) and Arthur Whitten Brown (navigator) made the first nonstop transatlantic flight (from Canada to Ireland) in June of 1919.

John and Oakley
American aviators John Macready and Oakley Kelley made the first nonstop transcontinental flight (from New York to San Diego) in May of 1923.

Charles

  • American aviator Charles Lindbergh was the first American and the first solo pilot to fly across the Atlantic (from the U.S. to France) in May of 1927.
  • American aviator Charles Yeager was the first pilot to travel faster than sound, in October of 1947.

Dieudonné and Joseph
French aviators Dieudonné Costes (pilot) and Joseph Le Brix (navigator) made the first nonstop crossing of the south Atlantic (from Senegal to Brazil) in October of 1927.

Hugh and Clyde
Hugh Herndon and Clyde Pangborn made the first nonstop transpacific flight (from Japan to the U.S.) in October of 1931.

Amelia
American aviatrix Amelia Earhart was the first woman to make a solo flight across Atlantic (from Canada to Northern Ireland) in May of 1932.

Wiley (and Winnie)
American aviator Wiley Post made the first solo round-the-world flight in July of 1933. The trip took over a week to complete. (His plane, the Winnie Mae, was named after the daughter of the plane’s original owner.)

Amy
English aviatrix Amy Johnson was the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia, in May of 1930.

I concentrated on airplanes, but the history of aviation goes back hundreds of years and covers kites, gliders, balloons, blimps, airships, helicopters, and so forth. What other aviation names can you come up with (from any era, using any aircraft)?

Update, 7/2021: Here are a few more aviators to choose from: Jack Vilas, Belvin Maynard, Lester Maitland, Bessica Raiche, Turi Widerøe.

Sources: Famous Firsts in Aviation, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Wikipedia

Image: Adapted from Air Canada Boeing 777-333ER by MarcusObal under CC BY-SA 3.0.

First babies (and first baby names) of 2008

Here are some New Year’s babies from around the nation:

  • Dothan, AL: Adia
  • Mobile, AL: Bryce Anthony
  • Anchorage, AK: Alexander (whose mom, Donna, was the first baby born in Gary, IN in 1974)
  • Fort Wainwright, AK: Gabriel Louis
  • Mohave County, AZ: Joel Oswaldo
  • Yuma County, AZ: Yesenia
  • Bay Area, CA: Tania Guadalupe
  • Butte County, CA: Grace Claire
  • Fresno, CA: Preston Moses
  • Hanford, CA: Joslyn Marie
  • High Desert area, CA: Amzye Jeremiah
  • Inland Valley, CA: Mya Renee
  • Lodi, CA: Angel (boy)
  • Monterey County, CA: Vincent Jacob
  • Napa County, CA: Oscar
  • Sacramento, CA: Dillon
  • San Luis Obispo County, CA: Eliel (boy)
  • San Mateo County, CA: Stella Kristina
  • Santa Barbara County, CA: Everardo
  • Santa Clara County, CA: Hannah Yi
  • Santa Clarita Valley, CA: Lily
  • Santa Cruz County, CA: Annabelle Mae
  • Solano County, CA: Christopher Lee
  • Stanislaus County, CA: Kate Rebekah
  • Tulare County, CA: Isaiah Joe
  • Denver metro-area, CO: Aiden Lavon
  • Greeley, CO: Ziclaly Alonso (girl)
  • Loveland, CO: Abigail Joy
  • Southern CO: Savanna Marie
  • Stamford, CT: Nolan Matthew
  • Bay County, FL: Semaj G’ntae (boy)
  • Central FL: Avery Thomas
  • Charlotte County, FL: Amber Lynn
  • Highlands County, FL: Anabella Marie (born at 12 a.m.)
  • Jackson County, FL: Jackson Lee
  • Northwest FL: Jayden Ryder
  • Palm Beach County, FL: Hugo
  • Tallahassee, FL: JaKenya (girl)
  • Tampa, FL: Michael Daniel
  • Atlanta, GA: Austin Devon
  • Effingham County, GA: Marieli Ebelysse
  • Floyd County, GA: Jonathan William
  • Hall County, GA: Bonnie Christine
  • Macon, GA: Jacob Wilbur
  • Whitfield County, GA: Henry Javier
  • Boise, ID: Collin Patrick
  • Appanoose County, IA: Olivia
  • Cedar Rapids area, IA: Chelsey Raylynn
  • Quad Cities area, IA/IL: Angel Marie
  • Chicago area, IL: Klaudia Wiktoria
  • Madison County, IN: Mickenzie Brooke
  • Terre Haute, IN: Miley Marie
  • Lawrence, KS: Kiowa Joseph
  • Topeka, KS: Julia Elizabeth
  • Wichita, KS: David Zachariah
  • Shreveport-Bossier City area, LA: Gianna
  • Maine: Averie (girl)
  • Nanticoke Memorial Hospital, MD: Heivi (boy)
  • Massachusetts: Maisen (boy)
  • Berkshire County, MA: Jayden Emiliano
  • Boston, MA: Jackson Miller
  • Cape Cod, MA: Caspar
  • Merrimack Valley, MA: Jack Shackett
  • North Adams, MA: Natalie
  • Western MA: Meiah (girl)
  • Worcester, MA: MacKenzie
  • Cadillac, MI: Aaden Allen
  • Kent County, MI: Blake Alan
  • Midland County, MI: Meghan Marie
  • Niles, MI: Merrick William
  • Hattiesburg, MS: Kym’Mari (girl)
  • Meridian, MS: A’Mirikah Brennae (girl)
  • Central MN: Morgan Elizabeth
  • Olmsted County, MN: Tegan James
  • Twins Cities area, MN: Carter Strong
  • Boone County, MO: Bella Grace
  • Jefferson City, MO: Eden (girl)
  • Joplin, MO: Brooklyn (girl)
  • Springfield, MO: Lakyn Addlai (girl)
  • Helena, MT: Angel Love Jacqueline
  • Lincoln, NE: Emily Elizabeth
  • Churchill County, NV: James Peter
  • New Hampshire: Eleanor Louise
  • New Jersey: Grace
  • Burlington County, NJ: Katelyn Michelle
  • Cumberland County, NJ: Sa’Niyah Renee
  • Gloucester County, NJ: Quinton (boy)
  • Hudson County, NJ: Kelsea Dorothy Elizabeth (born 8 minutes past midnight and weighed 8 pounds, 8 ounces)
  • Monmouth County, NJ: Alexzander Lee
  • Northern NJ: David Stuart
  • Ocean County, NJ: Connor Christian
  • Salem County, NJ: Jeremiah Chase
  • Trenton, NJ: Marvin
  • Las Cruces, NM: Brenda Vanessa
  • Albany region, NY: Avery William
  • Bronx, NY: Ashley Nicole
  • New York City, NY: tie between Isabella Sofia and Kamiyah Alina
  • Erie County, NY: Hunter Remington
  • Long Island, NY: Jes (girl)
  • Monroe County, NY: Silver Ann
  • Rockland County, NY: Mendell Zachary
  • Beaufort County Hospital, NC: Emonie (girl)
  • Catawba County, NC: Christian Raeshon
  • Charlotte, NC: Maurice
  • Pitt County Memorial Hospital, NC: Zai-Arreyon (boy)
  • Rowan County, NC: Daniela
  • Sandhills area, NC/SC: Billy
  • Fargo-Moorhead area, ND/MN: Eli Vinh (boy; named after Eli Manning after mom refused to name him after Randy Moss)
  • Alliance, OH: Raith Alexander
  • Central OH: tie between Taven James and Olivia Mae
  • Coshocton County, OH: Caydan Mikel
  • Dayton, OH: Adreia
  • Holmes County, OH: Royce Nathaniel
  • Van Wert County, OH: Kenna Leigh (whose dad, Mike, was the first baby born there in 1983)
  • Tulsa, OK: Lathan Lee
  • Coos County, OR: Jenna Nichole
  • Marion and Polk Counties, OR: David Ivan
  • Blair County, PA: Noah
  • Crawford County, PA: Easton Lane
  • Gettysburg Hospital, PA: Faith Lynn (sister of Kaden Skye, Gettysburg Hospital’s first baby of 2007)
  • Philadelphia region, PA: Grace
  • Pittsburgh, PA: Gabriella Grace
  • Somerset County, PA: Rebecca
  • Towanda, PA: Gracelyn
  • Rhode Island: Marisol
  • Greenville County, SC: Hayden (boy)
  • Black Hills, SD: Abigayle Lorraine
  • Rapid City, SD: Fiona Jayde
  • Blount County, TN: Curtis Joe
  • Middle TN: William DeWayne
  • Abilene, TX: Skye Renee
  • Allen, TX: Anant
  • Angelina County, TX: DaKorian Windell (boy)
  • Austin, TX: Rylan Austin (boy)
  • Bell County, TX: Savannah Cheyenne
  • Dallas, TX: Maya
  • El Paso, TX: Abigail Leia
  • Fort Worth, TX: Lilly
  • Kerrville, TX: Genavieve Jaylene
  • Houston, TX: Destiny
  • Sweetwater, TX: Kalyn (girl)
  • Utah: Adrian Alexander
  • Augusta County, VA: Vincent Immanuel
  • Central VA: Rhea Noelle
  • Prince William County, VA: Anthony Paul
  • Smyth County, VA: Cheyenne Elizabeth
  • Southwest VA: Alafair Winter (girl)
  • Washington, D.C. area: Stella Inez
  • Clark County, WA: Kirsi Ryan (girl)
  • Kittitas County, WA: Elke
  • Pierce County, WA: Evelyn Rose
  • Seattle area, WA: Noah
  • Snohomish County, WA: Mademou Drammeh (girl)
  • Green Bay, WI: Preston Johnathan
  • Lafayette County, WI: Spencer Elmer
  • Marshfield, WI: Clayton James

Do you know the name of the first baby born in your region in 2008? Please leave a comment if you do!

P.S. – Here’s my list from 2007.