How popular is the baby name Yuri 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 Yuri.
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.
That post on Yuri Gagarin reminded me of something. In 1982, Soviet newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that the most popular baby names in U.S.S.R. were Yelena* and Sergei. Other names registered that year (and translated into English) included:
*Yelena happens to be the name of Yuri Gagarin’s firstborn daughter. His younger daughter is Galina.
Source: Camilli, Doug. “Names in the News.” Montreal Gazette 18 Dec. 1982: C-3.
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the first manned space flight.
The person who took that first flight was 27-year-old Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (pronounced guh-GAH-rin). He completed an orbit of the Earth in his Vostok 1 capsule on April 12, 1961.
The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. may have been in the middle of a Cold War/Space Race at the time, but that didn’t prevent Yuri’s flight — and instant, international fame — from having a slight impact on U.S. baby names. Yuri, which is a Russian form of George, debuted in the SSA’s baby name data as a boy name in 1961:
(It had popped up as a girl name in the 1920s; Yuri also happens to be a Japanese female name meaning “lily.”)
Usage of the male version of name first hit double-digits in 1966, after the movie Doctor Zhivago came out. The increase in 1968 could be due to the sad news of the death of Yuri Gagarin, who was killed in a jet crash on March 27th.
…And the name has been in use in the U.S. ever since. A total of 59 baby boys were named either Yuri or Yuriy in 2009.
In 1982, 10-year-old American schoolgirl Samantha Smith wrote a letter to the head of the USSR, Yuri Andropov, asking him about the possibility of a nuclear war between the U.S. and the USSR.
Andropov wrote back. In his letter, he invited her to visit the USSR.
So, in July of 1983, Samantha and her parents spent two weeks visiting Russia. The trip was widely publicized in both countries.
Just two years later, Samantha was killed (along with her father) in a plane crash in her home state of Maine.
Several months after the crash, Moscow newspaper Trud reported that a baby girl born in Petrozavodsk, the capital of Karelia, had been named Samantha — “a name virtually unknown for Soviet girls” — in honor of Samantha Smith.
Source: “Soviet Baby Named for Samantha Smith.” Gadsden Times 13 Jan. 1986: C2.
Captivated by the cosmos? You might enjoy this list of space-inspired baby names:
Robert (and Nell)
American physicist Robert Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket (nicknamed Nell) in Auburn, Massachusetts on March 16, 1926.
Yuri
Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to enter space and return safely on April 12, 1961.
Alan
Astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space on May 5, 1961.
Valentina
Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space on June 16, 1963.
Alexey (and Eva)
Cosmonaut Alexey Leonov carried out the first EVA (extra-vehicular activity–in this case, a spacewalk) on March 18, 1965.
Edwin and Neil
Astronauts Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Neil Armstrong become the first men to walk on the moon on July 20, 1969.
Vladimir
Czechoslovak cosmonaut Vladimír Remek became the first Non-American, non-Soviet in space on March 2, 1978.
Sally
Astronaut Sally Ride became the first American woman in space on June 18, 1983.
Svetlana
Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to perform a spacewalk on July 25, 1984.
Anna
Astronaut Anna Fisher became the first mother in space* on November 8, 1984.
Helen
British cosmonaut Helen Sharman became the first non-American, non-Soviet female in space on May 18, 1991.
Peggy
American biochemist Peggy Whitson became the first resident scientist of the International Space Station in 2002.
And now, a couple of questions:
*By “the first mother in space,” I mean the first woman with children to go into space, not the first woman to give birth in space.
Sources: Key Milestones in Space Exploration, Space Exploration Timeline, Wikipedia, Women in Space