How popular is the baby name Wilma 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 Wilma.

The graph will take a few moments to load. (Don't worry, it shouldn't take 9 months!) If it's taking too long, try reloading the page.


Popularity of the baby name Wilma


Posts that mention the name Wilma

Popular baby names in Sweden, 2017

Flag of Sweden
Flag of Sweden

According to Statistics Sweden, the most popular baby names in the country in 2017 were Alice and William.

Here are Sweden’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2017:

Girl Names
1. Alice, 888 baby girls
2. Alicia, 675
3. Olivia, 634
4. Ella, 607
5. Ebba, 594
6. Lilly, 577
7. Astrid, 572
8. Saga, 569
9. Freja, 568
10. Wilma, 556

Boy Names
1. William, 941 baby boys
2. Oscar, 896
3. Liam, 823
4. Lucas, 793
5. Oliver, 765
6. Alexander, 701
7. Elias, 681
8. Hugo, 670
9. Noah, 654
10. Adam, 613

In the girls’ top 10, Astrid, Freja and Saga replaced Maja, Elsa, and Julia.

In the boys’ top 10, Adam replaced Charlie.

“Maryam and Matteo have risen the most in 2017.”

In 2016, the top two names were Alice and Oscar.

Source: Name Statistics – Statistics Sweden

Image: Adapted from Flag of Sweden (public domain)

Popular baby names in Sweden, 2016

Flag of Sweden
Flag of Sweden

According to data released by Statistics Sweden on January 31st, the most popular baby names in Sweden in 2016 were Alice and Oscar.

Here are Sweden’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2016:

Girl Names
1. Alice, 910 baby girls
2. Lilly, 690
3. Maja, 664
4. Elsa, 643
5. Ella, 635
6. Alicia, 627
7. Olivia, 601
8. Julia, 597
9. Ebba, 596
10. Wilma, 587

Boy Names
1. Oscar, 879 baby boys
2. Lucas, 864
3. William, 850
4. Liam, 790
5. Oliver, 700
6. Hugo, 688
7. Alexander, 668
8. Elias, 664
9. Charlie, 650
10. Noah, 627

On the girls’ list, Alice replaced Elsa as the #1 name.

In the top 10, Alicia replaced Saga. Alicia’s rise from 21st in 2015 to 6th last year was inspired by Swedish actress Alicia Vikander, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in early 2016 for her role in The Danish Girl (2015).

Overall, the girl name that saw the sharpest increase in usage was Chloe. The girl name that saw the sharpest drop in usage was Elsa.

On the boys’ side, Oscar replaced William as the #1 name.

In the top 10, Alexander and Noah replaced Axel and Vincent.

Overall, that boy name that saw the sharpest rise in usage was Nicolas (followed by Frans, boosted by Swedish singer-songwriter Frans, who represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016). The boy name that saw the steepest decrease in usage was Anton.

It should be noted that Sweden does combine spelling variants to come up with national rankings, though I don’t know to what degree. The single example that Statistics Sweden offered was Vilma (159 baby girls) being counted with Wilma (421 baby girls). For that 10th-place total of 587, though, there would need to be at least one more variant in the mix. (I did notice “Whilma” in the database.)

Sources: Namnstatistik – Statistics Sweden, These were Sweden’s most popular baby names in 2016

Image: Adapted from Flag of Sweden (public domain)

Round-up of multiples from 1944

Badgett quadruplets, born Galveston, Texas, in 1939
Jeraldine, Joan, Jean, and Janet Badgett

Oodles of multiples — eight sets of twins, one set of triplets, six sets of quadruplets, and one set of quintuplets — were featured in an early 1944 issue of LIFE magazine. Most of these multiples had been born in the 1920s and 1930s.

Curious about the names? I knew you would be! Here they are, along with ages and other details.

Twins:

  • Marjorie and Mary Vaughan, 19.
  • Lois and Lucille Barnes, 21.
  • Betty and Lenore Wade, early 20s.
  • Robert “Bobby” and William “Billy” Mauch, 22.
    • They had starred in the 1937 movie The Prince and the Pauper.
  • Blaine and Wayne Rideout, 27.
    • They had been track stars at the University of North Texas in the late 1930s along with another set of twins, Elmer and Delmer Brown.
  • Charles and Horace Hildreth, 41.
    • Horace was elected Governor of Maine later the same year.
  • Ivan and Malvin Albright, 47.
  • Auguste and Jean Piccard, 60.
    • “Honors as the world’s most distinguished pair of twins must go to Jean and Auguste Piccard, stratosphere balloonists, who are so identical that not everyone realizes there are two of them.”

Triplets:

  • Diane Carol, Elizabeth Ann, and Karen Lynn Quist, 11 months.

Quadruplets:

  • Claire (boy), Cleo (boy), Clayton (boy), and Connie (girl) Brown, 3.
  • Janet, Jean, Jeraldine, and Joan Badgett, 5.
    • “The customary alliteration in multiple names accounts for the “J” in Jeraldine.”
  • Felix (boy), Ferdinand (boy), Frances (girl), and Frank (boy) Kasper, 7.
  • James (boy), Jay (boy), Jean (girl), and Joan (girl) Schense, 13.
  • Edna, Wilma, Sarah, and Helen Morlok — the Morlok Quads — 13.
  • Anthony, Bernard, Carl, and Donald Perricone, 14.
    • “Their Beaumont neighbors call them “A,” “B,” “C” and “D” for short.”

Quintuplets:

  • Annette, Cecile, Emilie, Marie, and Yvonne Dionne — the Dionne Quints — 9.

Which of these sets of names do you like best? Why?

Source: “Twins: Accident of Their Birth Sets Them Apart from Other People.” Life 6 Mar. 1944: 91-99.

Image: Clipping from Life magazine (6 Mar. 1944)

Glitch alert: Essfa in Vermont?

glitch

This might not be a glitch. It might just be my imagination running away with me. But I’ll put it out there anyway.

We all know there are flaws with the SSA data. I’ve blogged about the baby name glitch of 1989 and the Korea-Kansas mis-codes, for instance. And data scientist David Taylor made a slide deck illustrating several issues with the SSA data a few years ago.

So my question is this: Could Essfa, a one-hit wonder from 1921, be another flaw?

According to the SSA data, the name Essfa was given to 6 babies in 1921, and all 6 of these babies were born in Vermont.

But when we look for these Essfas in the Social Security Death Index (SSDI), we get…nothing. Not a single Essfa from anywhere, born in any year.

This doesn’t prove anything, but it is very curious.

Then there’s the fact that all these Essfas were born in Vermont, a relatively small state not known for adventurous baby-naming. The SSA’s Vermont-specific data from 1921 puts oddball Essfa on par with classics like Emma and Julia:

All baby names given to 6 babies in Vermont in 1921, according to SSA
VT,F,1921,Emma,6
VT,F,1921,Essfa,6
VT,F,1921,Germaine,6
VT,F,1921,Glenna,6
VT,F,1921,Gloria,6
VT,F,1921,Harriett,6
VT,F,1921,Julia,6
VT,F,1921,Kathryn,6
VT,F,1921,Mae,6
VT,F,1921,Margery,6
VT,F,1921,Wilma,6

Again, very curious.

After doing more research, I was only able to find a single person named Essfa who was born in Vermont in 1921. The intriguing part? She had multiple identities:

  • She was born Essfa Estella Bickford Vermont on May 7, 1921.
  • She became Essfa E. Davis upon marrying William Earl Davis in Vermont in 1937.
  • She became Essfa E. Millette upon marrying Rupert Frank Millette in New Hampshire in 1941.
  • She became Essfa E. Walker upon marrying Howard C. Walker in New Hampshire in 1953.
  • She became Essfa E. Davis (again) upon marrying Arthur I. Davis in Connecticut in 1964, and passed away in 1976 as a Davis.

And I found a sixth alias — in Billboard magazine, oddly enough. For decades Billboard operated a mail-forwarding service for traveling performers. The name “Essfa E. White” appeared regularly on their Letter List from 1945 until 1948. (She was also listed under the surname Millette once, in 1946.)

So we know for sure that one Essfa was born in Vermont in 1921, and that this Essfa used at least six different names (if you count Davis twice) throughout her lifetime.

At this point, I can’t help but wonder whether this particular Essfa was counted 6 different times in the SSA data somehow.

What do you think?

Source: Billboard – Wikipedia

Image: Adapted from Data loss of image file (public domain)