I've just finished the strange and wonderful task of updating the international name rankings in Namipedia. Not every country tracks name popularity, and those that do provide wildly different levels of information. Some just report a top 10 or 20 -- or in the case of Armenia, precisely 48. Others issue no official report, but a census officer reveals the top names of the year in a newspaper interview. And then there are the countries that record every single name given to a child all year in an enormous, strangely formatted pdf file. In Cyrillic.
Gather enough rankings, though, and you have a fascinating window on a name's place in the world. For instance, look at the pages for Sofia or Alexander (scroll down on the right to "Global Popularity") to see a portrait of universal style. In contrast, some names are specific to a single culture. In fact, over 1500 names from the global ranking lists are not found in Namipedia (yet). Here's a sampling of some of the most distinctive local color among top-50 names.
Armenia
Astghik (F, #41)
Gohar (F, #13)
Hasmik (F, #12)
Gagik (M, #18)
Tigran (M, #8)
Belgium
Fien (F, #46)
Kato (F, #50)
Seppe (M, #42)
Wout (M, #21)
Canada (Quebec)
Laurence (F, #4)
Maika (F, #10)
Chile
Ignacia (F, #18)
Maite (F, #28)
Czech Republic
Anezka (F, #31)
Vendula (F, #26)
Vojtech (M, #6)
Zdenek (M, #44)
Denmark
Malou (F, #26)
Naja (F, #47)
Jeppe (M, #34)
Villads (M, #37)
Finland
Helmi (F, #6)
Ilmari (M, #8)
Olavi (M, #5)
Onni (M, #6)
Hungary
Boglarka (F, #2)
Enikő (F, #32)
Virag (F, #17)
Szabolcs (M, #32)
Zsolt (M, #29)
Iceland
Bryndís (F, #42)
Hekla (F, #22)
Hrafnhildur (F, #40)
Bjarki (M, #24)
Sigurður (M, #13)
Lithuania
Austeja (F, #5)
Gabija (F, #2)
Ugnė (F, #6)
Kajus (M, #5)
Rokas (M, #6)
Poland
Bartosz (M, #5)
Maciej (M, #11)
Mikolaj (M, #14)
Georgia
Lizi (F, #4)
Nino (F, #3)
Bachana (M, #15)
Tato (M, #14)
Tsotne (M, #6)
Serbia (Belgrade)
Andela (F, #2)
Dusan (M, #15)
Uros (M, #12)
Vuk (M, #14)
Slovenia
Neža (F, #9)
Zoja (F, #22)
Aljaž (M, #9)
Nejc (M, #4)
Žiga (M, #6)
Spain
Ainhoa (F, #27)
Aroa (F, #46)
Iker (M, #13)
Izan (M, #33)
Pau (M, #44)
Sweden
Lova (F, #47)
Olle (M, #37)
Comments
Hmm, if they want a *good* path, then I think I retract my Odysseus suggestion. lol.
I know a man named Lane.
My niece's name, FARIN, means "adventurer" in Old English. A lot of people comment on what a great name it is, and what a great meaning.
Anne with an E, it's a pity you can't search by name meaning on Namipedia! However, you can search by meaning at this website:
http://www.behindthename.com/
I found these on there:
FARAMOND
Gender: Masculine
Usage: History
Derived from the Germanic elements fara "journey" and mund "protection". This was the name of a semi-legendary 5th-century king of the Franks.
BEATRIX
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, German, Dutch
Pronounced: BEE-ə-triks (English), BAY-ah-triks (Dutch) [key]
From Viatrix, a feminine form of the Late Latin name Viator which meant "voyager, traveller". This was the name of a 4th-century saint who was strangled to death during the persecutions of Diocletian. It was a common name amongst early Christians, and the spelling was altered by association with Latin beatus "blessed". In England it became rare after the Middle Ages, but it was revived in the 19th century. A famous bearer was the British author and illustrator Beatrix Potter (1866-1943), the creator of Peter Rabbit.
PEREGRINE
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English (Rare)
Pronounced: PER-ə-grin, PER-ə-green [key]
From the Late Latin name Peregrinus, which meant "traveller". This was the name of several early saints.
PIPPIN (2)
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Literature
Pronounced: PIP-in (English) [key]
The name of a hobbit in 'The Lord of the Rings' (1954) by J. R. R. Tolkien. His full first name was Peregrin, a semi-translation into English of his true hobbit name Razanur meaning "traveller".
SAIRA
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Arabic
Possibly means "traveller" in Arabic.
SOMERLED
Gender: Masculine
Usage: Scottish
Anglicized form of the Old Norse name Somarliðr meaning "summer traveller". This was the name of a 12th-century Scottish warlord who created a kingdom on the Scottish islands.
ISRA
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Arabic
Other Scripts: إسراء (Arabic)
Means "nocturnal journey", derived from Arabic سرى (sara) "to travel at night".
CERES
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Roman Mythology
Derived from the Indo-European root *ker meaning "to grow". In Roman mythology Ceres was the goddess of agriculture, equivalent to the Greek goddess Demeter.
emilyrae,
You are right about the conceivable mispronunciation of Declan. When I say that I see it as easy to pronounce I don't necessarily mean I expect everybody to get it right the very first time they encounter the name. There is certainly some wriggle-room in English orthography, and [dee-klan] is a reasonable guess. But I do expect people to remember it once they have been corrected once "oh, it's [deck-lan] not [dee-klan]" because the [deck-lan] pronunciation is also in perfect agreement with the spelling. The difference between [dee-klan] and [deck-lan] is a minor adjustment (long vs short syllable) and it is a lot easier to remember a sound-to-spelling adjustment than the opposite. I mean, how often do you hear Chicago read aloud as [shikka-go] and Phoenix as [fow-ee-nix]?!
I am not truly worried about pronunciation (in English) unless the names belongs to one of these categories:
a) Names with a spelling that is significantly different from English. Such as our Irish name-du-jour, Aoibheann.
b) Names that contain a sound/phoneme that does not exist in English. E.g. the French g/j as in gentil or jour.
c) Names with a counterintuitive spelling. E.g. Anna pronounced [ah-nah]. These are probably the worst, because every single time you see the spelling it "suggest" the opposite of how you are supposed to say it.
Of course, I am surprised over and over again by what "real" people can't seem to get right...
Mme. G,
Laurence probably didn't make the list because LW found the name odd, but rather because its popularity is unique in one single country/culture right now.
Similarly, I *know* the Scandinavian names on the list and they are definitely not all odd within Scandinavia. E.g. the Swedish Olle: it's a variant of Ole/Ola, know throughout Scandinavia, and also used in the very common patronymics Olsson/Olsen (eg Mary-Kate Olsen). However, Lova (Swedish) is unique to Sweden and doesn't have a counterpart in the other Scandinavian countries. Another non-odd name is the Danish Malou: it is a contraction of the very popular hyphenation Marie-Louise. And Bryndís (Iceland) is also just a "regular" name without a popular international counterpart.
I feel like I've been catching up for weeks.
Kristin, forgive repeats. I'm just reiterating favorites...
William--I don't care for Liam so much, and it may prove awfully hard to keep the 3 "L" names straight (lie/lah/lee), but Willem, as a diminutive/contraction sort of a nn, might work w/ your girls' nns .
Henry--try pushing Harry for a while. Dh may be thrilled to return to the comfort of Henry. Also, read him some glowing quotes on Henry from this board.
Frederick *love*
Graham
Archer
Sebastian
Edmund *love love* Can you forgo the nn till baby turns 6 and decides to be Ned on his own?
Leo--I like this name, but not sure the style works as well w/ your girls... also the triple "L" problem again. But, like Henry, if you want to push it, mention Leopold and Leonard, and he may run back to old familiar Leo.
Another thought on Robert, I'm awfully fond of the male name Robin, but don't suppose dh would go for that?
On Raphael/Rafael, I give a slight edge to the
"ph" version in this case. As a set,
Felix/Xavier/Raphael, I like the repeated f/ph sound with different letters. It is a nice compliment to the 2 x's w/ different sounds. Also, the the "fel" in [Fel]ix and Ra[fael] feel a bit matchy to me, but not a deal-breaker. I also like that Raphael is a little longer and gives more variety to name length in the set. That being said, I do like the trim-ness of Rafael as a stand alone name.
Interesting sib set in line at outpatient lab:
Callum and a sister of the Kaylie/Kylie variety.
anna,
no, i completely agree. certainly once you hear declan, you should remember it, as it's definitely a simple spelling and not in the least counter-intuitive. once you correct someone, i would expect (or at least hope!) they would remember.
i also enjoyed your list of three points--i absolutely agree. particularly your example of anna pronounced ah-na. i know everyone here can relate to that! (kattie = katie? kylia = kyla? etc) so many ridiculous examples.
Hmm. I agree that there is a big difference between names that you might need to be taught to pronounce the first time you see them, and names which are sufficiently complex or counter-intuitive that you always struggle to get it right. I'm surprised to hear you put Anna in the latter category, though. What is it about the name Anna that makes you assume it's pronounced Ann-ah and not Ahn-ah? To me the two pronunciations seem equally intuitive based on the spelling. Of course living in the US I tend to assume Ann-ah unless told otherwise, but I assumed that was an issue of frequency rather than intuitiveness. And isn't Ahn-ah the more common pronunciation in most of the rest of the world, even with that spelling?
sarah smile,
i agree: anna isn't as bad as some of the others that you might encounter, and i bet you're also right that it is partially a matter of frequency here in the u.s.; however, to me, a vowel before a double consonent is always a short vowel (such as matter, potter, rally, silly, william, etc). i think i would expect ah-na to be spelled ana, maybe? or else to have some sort of accent mark over the first a (i knew a girl who spelled it that way...i think the mark is called an umlaut (like a colon turned sideways)).
On Declan "Nobody knows how to pronounce it besides [the Irish]
I laughed when I saw this - it's such a mainstream name in the UK because of the celebrity Declan Donnelly, one half of Ant and Dec who (among many other things) present Britain's Got Talent.
Sarah smile, emilyrae - true, Anna was maybe not the best example. I was alluding to the long-vowel vs short-vowel situation as emilyrae described. Double consonant means the preceding vowel is short, single consonant means the preceding vowel is long:
Anna = [AN-ə]
Ana = [AH-nə]
This is a standard rule (not rulle) of pronunciation. As far as I know it is valid (not vallid) in Germanic, Slavic and Latin (not Lattin) languages, and possibly more - certainly not just English. And you use it all the time, as I just tried to point out; that's why it is one of those things I really expect people to get right.
If interested in 'hardcore' Irish names, why not consult a primary source: see the Irish Central Statistics Office: http://www.cso.ie/statistics/top_babies_names.htm
and then there's always www.babynamesofireland.com
I find this discussion of the pronunciation of Irish names very interesting (I've posted at length on this board on the same subject) but it's helpful to remember that the Irish and English alphabets are not the same, so naturally the pronunciations are different. So a name like Declan, which looks like it's easier for someone to guess wrong, might be ways be harder than Aoibheann, which a non-Irish person would have to learn from scratch (and therefore be more likely to remember?).
Anna and emilyrae, thanks for the explanation. That's interesting about the double letter rule - I'd never heard of that before, but now that you mention it I can see how it mostly holds true, at least in English. Still thinking about the other languages, though. In Spanish I definitely think of Ana as the traditional spelling, with the long A. There are a bunch of Russian tennis players named Anna, but that may just be a choice to use the more common English spelling when transliterating from the Cyrillic alphabet even though I believe the correct pronunciation is the short A. In French, though, I do feel like I mostly see Annas (usually hypenated, Anna-Louise, Anna-Claire, etc) with short A sounds. And doesn't German use names like Anneke with the short A but double N?
Then again, I'm just going by my memories of what I've heard - perhaps I'm remembering wrong, or the people I've met chose unusual spellings/pronunciations, or I've just been saying the names wrong all these years :)
Great site! "Mikolaj", by the way, is the Polish version of "Nicholas" rather than a strictly Polish name (and, true to form, Santa Claus is named Mikolaj too).
My fiance's mother is Hungarian, and they are very much tied to the Old World. My favorite Hungarian name is Rozsa -- so much better than Rosa (it's pronounced with a sort of French "j" sound, like the end of "ambrosia"). I think that is just a very pretty consonant to be included in a girl's name, and I wish I could find more names that contain it, because imagine having to spell out Rozsa for people your whole life!
@ Birgitte: I love Anne (with an E, withought I thought old fashioned, mom old fashioned, not (great) grandma old fashioned, which I usually like). But on the middle name note, almost everyone in my family goes by a middle name. Both of my grandmothers, one has the popular fn (Shirley) but uses the mn, and the other's fn isn't that common, but goes by Dorothy (well, Dot or Dottie) her mn. My dad, his brother, a cousin on my dad's side, and MANY of my dad's cousins go by their mn's. Although I don't think this is for how common the name is, my cousin doesn't go by Catherine, but by Elizabeth (Lizzie) and I can't imagine that they're that different in how common they are.
@ KimB: My dad's neighbor growing upnwas named Lincoln. But he was called Link (or Linc, but probably with a k) and I love that name and nn.
@ Nora: I like Leon York best too. I LOVE nn Leo a d Leon as a whole, much better than the old man name (IMHO) Leonard. Miles works great with Aron and York. I didn't even pick up on Aron/Nora at first but just thought of Elvis Presley's mn. I do love Nora though. Good friend named that and I love mns after someone or with a story.
@ KimB: My dad's neighbor growing upnwas named Lincoln. But he was called Link (or Linc, but probably with a k) and I love that name and nn.
@ Nora: I like Leon York best too. I LOVE nn Leo a d Leon as a whole, much better than the old man name (IMHO) Leonard. Miles works great with Aron and York. I didn't even pick up on Aron/Nora at first but just thought of Elvis Presley's mn. I do love Nora though. Good friend named that and I love mns after someone or with a story.
@ KimB: My dad's neighbor growing upnwas named Lincoln. But he was called Link (or Linc, but probably with a k) and I love that name and nn.
@ Nora: I like Leon York best too. I LOVE nn Leo a d Leon as a whole, much better than the old man name (IMHO) Leonard. Miles works great with Aron and York. I didn't even pick up on Aron/Nora at first but just thought of Elvis Presley's mn. I do love Nora though. Good friend named that and I love mns after someone or with a story.
@ KimB: My dad's neighbor growing upnwas named Lincoln. But he was called Link (or Linc, but probably with a k) and I love that name and nn.
@ Nora: I like Leon York best too. I LOVE nn Leo a d Leon as a whole, much better than the old man name (IMHO) Leonard. Miles works great with Aron and York. I didn't even pick up on Aron/Nora at first but just thought of Elvis Presley's mn. I do love Nora though. Good friend named that and I love mns after someone or with a story.
@ KimB: My dad's neighbor growing upnwas named Lincoln. But he was called Link (or Linc, but probably with a k) and I love that name and nn.
@ Nora: I like Leon York best too. I LOVE nn Leo a d Leon as a whole, much better than the old man name (IMHO) Leonard. Miles works great with Aron and York. I didn't even pick up on Aron/Nora at first but just thought of Elvis Presley's mn. I do love Nora though. Good friend named that and I love mns after someone or with a story.
@ KimB: My dad's neighbor growing upnwas named Lincoln. But he was called Link (or Linc, but probably with a k) and I love that name and nn.
@ Nora: I like Leon York best too. I LOVE nn Leo a d Leon as a whole, much better than the old man name (IMHO) Leonard. Miles works great with Aron and York. I didn't even pick up on Aron/Nora at first but just thought of Elvis Presley's mn. I do love Nora though. Good friend named that and I love mns after someone or with a story.
@ KimB: My dad's neighbor growing upnwas named Lincoln. But he was called Link (or Linc, but probably with a k) and I love that name and nn.
@ Nora: I like Leon York best too. I LOVE nn Leo a d Leon as a whole, much better than the old man name (IMHO) Leonard. Miles works great with Aron and York. I didn't even pick up on Aron/Nora at first but just thought of Elvis Presley's mn. I do love Nora though. Good friend named that and I love mns after someone or with a story.
@ KimB: My dad's neighbor growing upnwas named Lincoln. But he was called Link (or Linc, but probably with a k) and I love that name and nn.
@ Nora: I like Leon York best too. I LOVE nn Leo a d Leon as a whole, much better than the old man name (IMHO) Leonard. Miles works great with Aron and York. I didn't even pick up on Aron/Nora at first but just thought of Elvis Presley's mn. I do love Nora though. Good friend named that and I love mns after someone or with a story.
So sorry about the multiple post. I did this from my iPod which spazzes all the time.
Hi, We are expecting our first baby in mid August and are stumped for names. We would love your feedback on the following:
Girl names
Piper
Skyler
Aria
Renin
Aaliyah
Boy names
Owen
Renin
Quinn
On the Hungarian names, they're not so bad, if you know how to speak (or at least pronounce) Hungarian.
Boglarka There's no helping this one.
Enikő ENeekuh
Virag VEERahg
Szabolcs SAbolch
Zsolt Jolt, pronounced like a French j/zh
A Hungarian girl's name that I love, although it would always, always be mispronounced, is Emese (EMehsha).
Theodora Violet Edith Leaf is definitely the best flowing. Lily or Rose don't quite go after Theodora.
Laurence is being used as a girl's name? REALLY? Soon there will no boy's names left....must all the good ones be stolen for girls?
I like Eniko for a boy. I think I would steal that one for the male side, since most of the stealing goes the other way.
I also like Nino and Kato for a boy, but I've heard them used before (Nino in Amelie, Kato Kaelin).
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