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Missouri quadruplets: Adam, Benjamin, Christopher, Dylan

quadruplets and stork

In December of 1999, Susan and Rick Hellebusch of Missouri welcomed quadruplets, all boys.

The babies were born at 30 weeks gestation and weighed less than three pounds each.

What were they named?

Adam, Benjamin, Christopher, and Dylan.

Why? Because Susan and Rick had noticed that the babies were labeled A, B, C, and D on the sonogram. They’d already chosen the name Dylan, so they “decided to start at the top of the alphabet to select the remaining three” names.

The couple went on to have two more babies, daughters named Elizabeth and Maria.

P.S. As a nursing student in the early 2020s, Ben Hellebusch happened to meet one of the neonatal nurses who’d cared for him and his brothers. The nurse still remembered the quads’ alphabetical names, saying: “I thought it was the cutest thing that [their mom] did that.”

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Multiplication (1905) by Gordon Ross

Where did the baby name Syriana come from in 2005?

Movie poster for "Syriana" (2005)
“Syriana” poster

The name Syriana first appeared in the U.S. baby named data in 2005:

  • 2007 62 baby girls named Syriana
  • 2006 119 baby girls named Syriana [peak usage]
  • 2005 16 baby girls named Syriana [debut]
  • 2004: unlisted
  • 2003: unlisted

A year later, Syriana reach peak usage and the spellings Syrianna and Cyriana both debuted in the data.

What was inspiring parents to name their daughters Syriana in the mid-aughts?

The geopolitical thriller Syriana, which came out in theaters in November of 2005.

The movie’s complicated plot wove together numerous storylines and characters, “from the players brokering back-room deals in Washington to the men toiling in the oil fields of the Persian Gulf.” Film critic Roger Ebert described Syriana as being “about oil and money, America and China, traders and spies, the Gulf States and Texas, reform and revenge, bribery and betrayal.”

The ensemble cast included actors George Clooney (who played a veteran CIA officer) and Matt Damon (who played an energy analyst based in Switzerland).

How did the movie come to be named Syriana? Here’s how writer and director Stephen Gaghan explained it:

While ‘Syriana’ is a very real term used by Washington think-tanks to describe a hypothetical reshaping of the Middle East, as our title it is used more abstractly. ‘Syriana,’ the concept – the fallacious dream that you can successfully remake nation-states in your own image – is a mirage. Syriana is a fitting title for a film that could exist at any time and be about any set of circumstances that deal with man’s unchecked ambition, hubris, and the fantasy of empire.

What are your thoughts on Syriana as a baby name?

Sources:

Image: Movie poster for Syriana

Popular baby names in Argentina, 2023

Flag of Argentina
Flag of Argentina

Two years ago, the South American country of Argentina welcomed 552,664 babies — 269,614 (48.8%) girls and 283,050 (51.2%) boys.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Olivia and Felipe, according to data from Argentina’s Registro Nacional de las Personas (RENAPER).

Here are Argentina’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2023:

Girl names

  1. Olivia, 2,432 baby girls
  2. Emilia, 2,298
  3. Isabella, 1,838
  4. Catalina, 1,764
  5. Emma, 1,560
  6. Martina, 1,545
  7. Sofía, 1,395
  8. Delfina, 1,275
  9. Valentina, 1,118
  10. Renata, 892

Boy names

  1. Felipe, 1,862 baby boys
  2. Mateo, 1,747
  3. Benjamín, 1,685
  4. Valentino, 1,456
  5. Bautista, 1,364
  6. Julián, 1,300
  7. Benicio, 1,194
  8. Lorenzo, 1,147
  9. Joaquín, 1,119
  10. Tomás, 1,074

My source article noted that Julián leapt into the boys’ top 10 after being ranked 25th in 2022, 38th in 2021, and 36th in 2020.

Source: Giambartolomei, Mauricio. “¿Cómo se llaman tus hijos? Estos son los diez nombres más elegidos en la Argentina.” La Nacion 18 Mar. 2024.

Image: Adapted from Flag of Argentina (public domain)

Where did the baby name Trindon come from in 2008?

Football player Trindon Holliday
Trindon Holliday

The uncommon name Trindon first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 2008. It remained in the data for exactly one decade, then dropped back below the SSA’s 5-baby threshold.

  • 2010: 15 baby boys named Trindon
  • 2009: 10 baby boys named Trindon
  • 2008: 11 baby boys named Trindon [debut]
    • 5 born in Louisiana
  • 2007: unlisted
  • 2006: unlisted

What was influencing this name?

Diminutive football player Trindon Holliday, who was a wide receiver and kick returner in the NFL during the first half of the 2010s. At 5’5″, he was one of the shortest players in NFL history.

His name debuted in the data the year his college football team, the Louisiana State University Tigers, won the national championship.*

He was selected by the Houston Texans in the 2010 NFL draft, and played with the Texans until being claimed off waivers by the Denver Broncos in October of 2012.

Described as “tiny and speedy” by the Denver Post, Trindon played his two most successful professional seasons, 2012 and 2013, with the Broncos (and quarterback Peyton Manning). Correspondingly, the usage of his name peaked at 20 baby boys in both 2013 and 2014. Five of the babies named Trindon in 2013 were born in Colorado specifically.

What are your thoughts on the name Trindon?

*Among the various awards won by the LSU Tigers that season was the Grantland Rice Trophy…

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Trindon Holliday Broncos 2013 by Jeffrey Beall under CC BY-SA 3.0.