'Melania' Soars in Baby Name Popularity Along with Melania Trump's Favorability Rating
If imitation is the highest form of flattery, mothers all over America are flattering Melania Trump in a major way.
According to new statistics released by the Social Security Administration, the given name Melania is the fifth fastest-growing name for newborn girls in America.
In 2016, Melania was ranked at number 1650 among girls’ names. Now, it’s up to number 930 — a jump of 720 spots.
Melania only ranked behind Ensley, Oaklynn, Dream and Oaklyn (for when you don’t want to make your daughter have to write that extra n on top of her school papers, I suppose).
While Ensley was the name of “Teen Mom 2” reality star Jenelle Evans’ new daughter (a baby who tested positive for drugs at birth, it must be noted — quite the namesake you want to give your neonate in order to give them a positive role model), none of the other names seem to have any real cultural connection behind them.
That’s not so with Melania, whose popularity with the American people has been growing.
According to a new poll by CNN/SSRS, 57 percent of Americans held a favorable view of the first lady. That’s up from 47 percent in January.
Newborn naming trends often follow current events in a significant way. The names Katrina, Sandy and Andrew, for example, tanked after the hurricanes bearing those names.
Politically, Barack saw a small bump, with 52 babies named after him in 2008 and 69 in 2009. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that number fell below five (the number at which the SSA tracks a name) in 2010, the year that Obamacare passed.
Meanwhile, Monica began an as-yet unreversed slide in 1998, the year the Lewinsky scandal became public knowledge. It dropped from 79th to 101st that year, fell even further to 151st in 1999 and trended downward from there. In 2017, it was 626th on the list, with just 469 babies named Monica.
Few first ladies have seen a spike like Melania has, however. According to The Washington Post, Nancy saw brief upticks during the Reagan presidency, but it was generally on the decline before and after that. Barbara didn’t even see any spike during the four years of the George H.W. Bush presidency. Laura met the same fate as her mother-in-law did, as did Michelle during the Obama presidency.
Hillary, which was on the rise before William Jefferson Clinton first began gracing our television screens on a nightly basis, saw a massive spike in 1992, the year she became first lady. That quickly plummeted to below its original levels in 1993, to the point where Christopher Ingraham wrote in the The Washington Post that Clinton had “ruined” the name Hillary for new parents.
Hillary again saw upticks in 2008 and 2016, during her presidential campaigns. However, the name mostly continues to flatline compared to where it was during the run-up to the Clinton administration.
So, if you’re looking at Melania, be advised that it’s a name of Spanish and Greek origin meaning “black,” according to Nameberry. That makes it popular with goths, apparently. It also could be a good name for Catholics; St. Melania, who was born to wealthy Roman Christians, helped free thousands of slaves on North African estates and aided churches and monasteries in Europe.
Those are good enough reasons to name your baby Melania, but probably the best reason is the gapes you’ll get from your leftist family members. And what better way to start your child on a path of making liberals uncomfortable than naming them after a first lady they all reflexively loathe?
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