What gave the baby name Tiana a boost in 2010?

The character Tiana from the movie "The Princess and the Frog" (2009)
Tiana from “The Princess and the Frog“

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Tiana came close to doubling in usage in 2010:

  • 2012: 712 baby girls named Tiana [rank: 440th]
  • 2011: 822 baby girls named Tiana [rank: 386th]
  • 2010: 970 baby girls named Tiana [rank: 331st]
  • 2009: 504 baby girls named Tiana [rank: 598th]
  • 2008: 480 baby girls named Tiana [rank: 642nd]

What accounts for that sudden spike?

The very first African-American Disney Princess.

Tiana (pronounced tee-ah-nah) was the protagonist of the animated movie The Princess and the Frog, which came out in December of 2009.

The movie, a modern adaptation of the German fairy tale “The Frog Prince,” was set in New Orleans in the 1920s.

Tiana was a hardworking waitress who dreamed of opening her own restaurant. After being persuaded to kiss a frog who was actually a prince, though, Tiana was unexpectedly turned into a frog as well. So the two frogs set off on a journey through the bayou in search of the voodoo priestess who might be able to restore them both to human form.

Tiana and her parents from the movie "The Princess and the Frog" (2009)
Tiana and her parents from “The Princess and the Frog“

The Princess and the Frog was a success at the box office — though it might have been an even bigger success had the record-breaking sci-fi film Avatar not been released one week later.

So, how did the character come to be called Tiana?

She was initially named Maddy (a diminutive of the French name Madeleine) in the film’s treatment, which was written by co-directors Ron Clements and John Musker in early 2006.

A year later, Disney revealed her name in a movie announcement:

A musical set in the legendary birthplace of jazz — New Orleans — “The Frog Princess” will introduce the newest Disney princess, Maddy, a young African-American girl living amid the charming elegance and grandeur of the fabled French Quarter.

The project drew criticism, though — particularly from the African-American community. Some people thought, for instance, that “Maddy” sounded too much like “Mammy.”

In response, Disney made some changes. And among those changes was a new name for the main character.

Clements claimed that Tiana meant “princess” in Greek, but this isn’t the case. (The princess association may have arisen from the name’s similarity to that of Princess Diana.) Rather, Tiana can be considered a short form of names that end with -tiana, like Tatiana and Christiana, or else an elaborated form of Tia.

What are your thoughts on the name Tiana?

P.S. Ron Clements also came up with the name Ariel for The Little Mermaid…

Sources:

Images: Screenshots of The Princess and the Frog

Popular baby names in Latvia, 2018-2022

Flag of Latvia
Flag of Latvia

From 2018 to 2022, the European country of Latvia — which shares land borders with Estonia and Lithuania (the other two Baltic states) as well as Russia and Belarus — welcomed more than 89,000 babies.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Sofija and Olivers.

Here are Latvia’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names for the five-year period (2018-2022):

Girl names

  1. Sofija
  2. Emilija*
  3. Alise
  4. Anna
  5. Marta
  6. Amelija*
  7. Paula
  8. Emma
  9. Elizabete
  10. Darta* – the Latvian form of Dorothea
  11. Estere
  12. Elza
  13. Mia
  14. Viktorija
  15. Marija
  16. Katrina*
  17. Gabriela
  18. Keita – the Latvian form of Kate
  19. Melanija*
  20. Eva
  21. Alisa
  22. Evelina*
  23. Odrija – the Latvian form of Audrey
  24. Milana
  25. Nora
  26. Madara – the Latvian word for bedstraw (i.e., plants in the genus Galium)
  27. Patricija*
  28. Nikola
  29. Hanna
  30. Luize*
  31. Eliza*
  32. Maija
  33. Olivija*
  34. Laura
  35. Anastasija
  36. Amanda
  37. Kate
  38. Melisa
  39. Enija – the Latvian form of Annie
  40. Aleksandra
  41. Veronika
  42. Adelina*
  43. Sara*
  44. Karlina*
  45. Rebeka
  46. Šarlote – the Latvian form of Charlotte
  47. Arina
  48. Kira
  49. Adele
  50. Ieva – the Latvian word for bird cherry (Prunus padus)

Boy names

  1. Olivers
  2. Roberts
  3. Marks
  4. Gustavs
  5. Emils*
    • The usage of Emils rose steeply during the 1990s (and likely earlier) thanks to the 1985 TV movie Emila nedarbi, which was so popular (and aired so frequently) in Latvia “that many of the lines of the leading character Emils and his parents have become part of the national lexicon.” The program was based on the children’s novel Emil i Lönneberga by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren.
  6. Markuss
  7. Daniels
  8. Karlis*
  9. Adrians
  10. Jekabs*
  11. Aleksandrs
  12. Ernests
  13. Ralfs
  14. Dominiks
  15. Alekss
  16. Tomass
    • The rise of Tomass during the 2000s may be attributable to skeleton racer Tomass Dukurs, who began racing professionally in 1998.
  17. Arturs*
  18. Ricards (the “c” should have a caron)
  19. Toms
  20. Maksims
  21. Teodors
  22. Janis*
    • The pre-Christian name Janis, which was adopted as the Latvian equivalent of Johannes/John, “has been at or near the top of the list for popular names given to baby boys in Latvia for centuries.”
  23. Artjoms – the Latvian form of the Russian name Artyom
  24. Reinis
  25. Kristers – the Latvian form of the Swedish name Christer
  26. Lukass*
  27. Martins
    • The rise of Martins during the 2000s may be attributable to skeleton racer Martins Dukurs, who, like his older brother Tomass, began racing professionally in 1998. Martins was a silver medalist at both the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
  28. Gabriels
  29. Timurs – the Latvian form of the Russian name Timur
  30. Valters – the Latvian form of Walter
  31. Kristofers
  32. Everts
  33. Hugo
  34. Davids*
  35. Mihails
  36. Matvejs – the Latvian form of the Russian name Matvey
  37. Renars* – the Latvian form of the German name Reinhard
  38. Edvards
  39. Rudolfs*
  40. Oskars
  41. Henrijs
  42. Leo
  43. Rihards
  44. Rodrigo
  45. Pauls
  46. Kristaps – the Latvian form of Christopher
  47. Alberts
  48. Matiss* – the Latvian form of Matthew
  49. Patriks
  50. Daniils

The girl’s top 100 included Lauma (69th), the name of a woodland spirit in Latvian mythology.

The boys’ top 100 included Viesturs (94th), which is based on the Latvian word viesturis, meaning “hospitable.”

And two of the names that dropped out of the top 100 recently are Kristine* and Lasma*:

  • Kristine, the #1 girl name in Latvia throughout the 1980s, was originally popularized by the 1966 Soviet-Latvian film Purva bridejs, which featured a character named Kristine.
  • Lasma, a top-50 girl name from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, was influenced by the 1981 Soviet-Latvian film Limuzins Janu nakts krasa, which featured a character named Lasma.

During the previous five-year period, from 2013 to 2017, the top names in Latvia were Sofija and Roberts.

*Letters with macrons don’t render properly on my site, so please imagine they exist in the names marked with an asterisk.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Flag of Latvia (public domain)

Where did the baby name Riggan come from in 2016?

The character Riggan Thomson from the movie "Birdman" (2014)
Riggan Thomson from “Birdman“

The rare name Riggan has appeared in the U.S. baby name data just once so far, in 2016:

  • 2018: unlisted
  • 2017: unlisted
  • 2016: 7 baby boys named Riggan [debut]
  • 2015: unlisted
  • 2014: unlisted

Where did it come from?

My guess is the dark comedy/drama Birdman, which was released in October of 2014.

The movie’s main character, Riggan Thomson (played by Michael Keaton), was a washed-up Hollywood actor who’d become famous for portraying the winged superhero Birdman in a trilogy of blockbuster films 20 years earlier. He was now trying to revive his career by starring in a self-written, self-directed Broadway adaptation of the Raymond Carver story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.”

Birdman went on to win four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, in early 2015.

What are your thoughts on the baby name Riggan?

Sources: Birdman – Wikipedia, Birdman (review) – RogerEbert.com, SSA

Image: Screenshot of Birdman

What popularized the baby name Ally in the late 1990s?

The character Ally McBeal (played by Calista Flockhart) from the TV series "Ally McBeal" (1997-2002)
Calista Flockhart as Ally McBeal

The offbeat comedy-drama series Ally McBeal premiered on television in September of 1997.

The show was set largely in a fictional Boston law firm (with a unisex bathroom), and its main character was a young lawyer named Allison “Ally” McBeal (played by Calista Flockhart), whose inner world was frequently depicted on-screen “in quick, comic surrealisms.”

Ally McBeal was an immediate hit and, as a result, the baby names Ally and Calista both saw steep rises in usage in the late 1990s:

Girls named AllyGirls named Calista
2000418 [rank: 605th]401 [rank: 627th]
1999540 [rank: 480th]490† [rank: 519th]
1998636† [rank: 417th]323 [rank: 697th]
199718543
19967926
19957323
†Peak usage

The name Allie also saw discernible uptick in usage in 1998, and the names Kalista and Callista both reached peak popularity in 1999.

Flockhart, who was born in Illinois in 1964, was “given her first name, Calista, in honor of her great-grandmother, who the family believes was named after an Irish Catholic nun who became a saint.”

The name Calista derives from the Roman name Callistus, which is based on the Ancient Greek word kallistos, meaning “most beautiful.” (Kallistos is the superlative form of the word kalos, meaning “beautiful.”)

What are your thoughts on the names Ally and Calista? (Which one would you be more likely to use in real life?)

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of Ally McBeal