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Unusual baby name: Treb

"Balloon guy" Treb Heining (in late 2024)
Treb Heining

Since the early 1990s, the annual New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square has featured a confetti drop at midnight. The man behind the confetti? Treb Heining.

A self-described “balloon guy,” Treb has also designed balloon décor for major events such as the Super Bowl, the Academy Awards, and the Olympics.

Treb was born in 1954 to Bert and Joan Heining of California. His first name is simply his father’s name, spelled backwards.

The curious name Treb has never popped up in the U.S. baby name data, likely because most of the people called “Treb” are actually named Trebor, the reverse of Robert. More than 500 baby boys named Trebor are accounted for in the data.

Many of these Trebors were no doubt named after various Roberts. Dozens of the Trebors I found in the records, for instance, had fathers named Robert. Two examples…

Similarly, dozens of the females I found named Treba had fathers with -bert names (like Robert, Albert, Elbert, and Herbert). Two more examples…

What are your thoughts on the names Treb, Trebor, and Treba?

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of a 2025 NBC New York news video

What popularized the baby name Elle in 2002?

The character Elle Woods from the movie "Legally Blonde" (2001)
Elle Woods from “Legally Blonde“

The baby name Elle, which had been rising slowly since the mid-1990s, more than doubled in usage in 2002:

  • 2004: 596 baby girls named Elle [rank: 494th]
  • 2003: 497 baby girls named Elle [rank: 556th]
  • 2002: 418 baby girls named Elle [rank: 612th]
  • 2001: 197 baby girls named Elle
  • 2000: 181 baby girls named Elle

What gave Elle a boost that year?

My guess is the bubbly main character of the movie Legally Blonde, which came out in July of 2001.

At the beginning of the film, Elle Woods (played by Reese Witherspoon) — a sorority girl obsessed with the color pink — got dumped by her blue-blooded boyfriend, Warner. (“Elle, If I’m going to be a senator, well, I need to marry a Jackie, not a Marilyn.”)

Elle decided to win Warner back by following him to Harvard Law School. She managed to gain admission, but struggled to fit in once she arrived. Eventually — thanks to her positivity and determination — Elle made friends, found success, and forgot all about Warner.

Legally Blonde was a surprise hit at the box office, and its main character proved so memorable that, twenty years later, the New York Times stated: “She remains an emblem for challenging stereotypes and embracing female empowerment in the face of misogyny.”

The movie was based on the 2001 novel of the same name by Amanda Brown, who attended Stanford Law School for two years in the mid-1990s. While there, she “spent her class time thumbing through Elle magazine and lampooning her classmates in letters home.” Those letters were the basis of Legally Blonde, the protagonist of which was named after the French fashion magazine. (The French pronoun elle means “she.”)

What are your thoughts on the name Elle?

P.S. The acceleration of the rise of Ella in 2002 may have been spurred by the movie as well.

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of Legally Blonde

Popular baby names in San Diego (California), 2023

Flag of California
Flag of California

Two years ago, the California county of San Diego welcomed 35,713 babies — 17,289 girls and 18,424 boys.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Emma and Noah.

Here are San Diego’s top 10+ girl names and top 10 boy names of 2023:

Girl names

  1. Emma, 199 baby girls
  2. Mia, 184
  3. Olivia, 170
  4. Camila, 151
  5. Sophia, 147
  6. Sofia, 144
  7. Isabella, 138
  8. Luna, 125
  9. Amelia, 124
  10. Charlotte, 95 (tie)
  11. Penelope, 95 (tie)

Boy names

  1. Noah, 224 baby boys
  2. Liam, 198
  3. Mateo, 195
  4. Sebastian, 165
  5. Oliver, 154
  6. Elijah, 134
  7. Luca, 127
  8. Julian, 124
  9. Benjamin, 122 (tie)
  10. Santiago, 122 (tie)

A year earlier, in 2022, the top names were Olivia and Mateo.

P.S. I’ve also posted 2023 rankings for the California county of Sonoma.

Source: Data on Children – SanDiegoCounty.gov

Image: Adapted from Flag of California (public domain)

What brought the baby name Devoe back in 1990?

American singer/rapper Ronnie DeVoe
Ronnie DeVoe of Bell Biv DeVoe

The rare name Devoe re-emerged in the U.S. baby name data in 1990:

  • 1992: unlisted
  • 1991: unlisted
  • 1990: 9 baby boys named Devoe
  • 1989: unlisted
  • 1988: unlisted

What brought it back that year?

The R&B/hip hop trio Bell Biv DeVoe, made up of Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, and Ronnie DeVoe — three former members of the ’80s boy band New Edition.

BBD’s two most successful singles, “Poison” and “Do Me,” both peaked at #3 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in 1990 (in June and September, respectively).

The group described its sound — and, in a sense, new jack swing itself — in the music video for “Poison”:

Our music is mentally hip-hop smoothed out on the R&B tip with a pop appeal to it.

The surname DeVoe has several possible derivations. In many cases, it can be traced back to the French surname DeVaux, which originally referred to someone from one of the various locations in France called Vaux, meaning “valleys.”

What are your thoughts on Devoe as a first name?

P.S. Michael Bivins went on to discover and manage both Boyz II Men (which included Wanyá Morris) and Another Bad Creation (whose biggest hit was “Iesha“).

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of the music video for “Poison”