Yesterday I took an “ebb day,” a day to relax and do nothing but self-care. I slept in until noon. When I woke up, I poked around on the computer a little bit. As I was playing on Pinterest, I saw a list of 51 Disney Baby Names for Girls. For some reason, as I looked at some of the names, I became incensed…I mean sure, you expect Elsa, Ariel, and Aurora…but Maleficent, really? Silvermist? Vanellope? And while most of them were from animated feature films, two were from Enchanted (which was mostly live action) and one was from a Disney Jr. show (Sofia the First). I don’t know why this hodge-podge bothered me so much, but it did. So for some reason, I spent the rest of the day compiling my own list.
I kept it to three classic Disney characters, and the rest were from animated feature films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios or Pixar. Some were popular names in obscure films (like Olivia from the Great Mouse Detective or Amelia from Treasure Planet) and some are obscure names from the most treasured movies (like Dory in Finding Nemo and Ursula in The Little Mermaid). There are old-fashioned names (Edna, The Incredibles) and blatantly modern ones (Riley, In and Out).
They’re all (in my unimaginative opinion) real names. I found along the way that I’m not the only one that has a traditional view of names. In 2016, of all girls born in the U.S., 67% shared names from the list of the 1000 most popular that year. So only 23% had one of the tens of thousands of other names chosen that year. Of course I really shouldn’t make any judgements on that count. Hey, my kids are named Elizabeth, #9 from her birth year (2000) and James, #17 in 2004.
I did take a more creative approach when it came to who belonged to the name, besides people and animals, I’ve included a tree, a car, and a couple of robots.
I’ve always been fascinated by names. As a kid, I would read baby name books for fun and make lists. I’m still not completely sure why I’m sharing this list of 53 baby names (or grown-up names for that matter), but here it is in chronological order…
Starting with Disney’s classic stock characters:
Minnie, Daisy, and Clarabelle
Minnie Mouse (first appeared in Steamboat Willie in 1928), Daisy Duck (first appeared in Mr. Duck Steps Out in 1940) , and Clarabelle Cow (first appeared in Steamboat Willie in 1928)
Then 50 characters from animated feature films:
Anastasia
Anastasia Tremain (Cinderella, 1950)
Alice
Alice (Alice in Wonderland,1951)
Wendy
Wendy Darling (Peter Pan,1953)
Aurora and Flora
Princess Aurora and Flora (Sleeping Beauty,1959)
Marie
Marie (The Aristocats,1970)
Marian
Maid Marian (Robin Hood,1973)
Bianca
Miss Bianca (The Rescuers,1977)
Penny
Penny (The Rescuers, 1977), Penny (Bolt, 2008)
Olivia
Olivia Flaversham (The Great Mouse Detective, 1986)
Rita
Rita (Oliver and Company, 1988)
Ariel and Ursula
Ariel and Ursula the Sea Witch (The LIttle Mermaid, 1989)
Belle
Belle (Beauty and the Beast, 1991)
Jasmine
Princess Jasmine (Aladdin, 1992)
Nala
Nala (The Lion King, 1994)
Willow
Grandmother Willow (Pocahontas, 1995)
Esmeralda
Esmeralda (The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1996)
Meg
Meg/Megara (Hercules, 1997)
Jane and Kala
Jand and Kala (Tarzan, 1999)
Jessie
Jessie (Toy Story 2, 1999 and Toy Story 3, 2010)
Audrey
Audrey Rocio Ramirez (Atlantis: The Lost Empire, 2001)
Celia and Roz
Celia Mae and Roz (Monsters, Inc., 2001)
Amelia
Captain Amelia (Treasure Planet, 2002)
Lilo
Lilo (Lilo & Stitch, 2002)
Dory
Dory (Finding Nemo, 2003 and Finding Dory, 2016)
Maggie
Maggie (Home on the Range, 2004)
Edna, Helen, and Violet
Edna E. Mode, Helen Parr/Elastigirl, Violet Parr (The Incredibles, 2004)
Sally
Sally Carrera (Cars, 2006, Cars 2, 2001 and Cars 3, 2007)
Doris
Doris (Meet the Robinsons, 2007)
Colette
Colette (Ratatouille, 2007)
Eve
E.V.E (WALL-E, 2008)
Tiana and Charlotte
Tiana and Charlotte La Bouff (The Princess and the Frog, 2009)
Ellie
Ellie (Up, 2009)
Bonnie
Bonnie (Toy Story 3, 2010)
Merida and Elinor
Merida and Elinor (Brave, 2012)
Anna and Elsa
Anna and Elsa (Frozen, 2013)
Honey
Honey Lemon (Big Hero 6, 2014)
‘
Joy and Riley
Joy and Riley (Inside Out, 2015)
Judy
Judy Hopps (Zootopia, 2016)
Destiny
Destiny (Finding Dory, 2016)
Moana
Moana (Moana, 2016)
And just to prove that yes, I’m just that much of a name geek, here is the list in order by popularity for girls born in the U.S. in 2016:
Olivia (#2) Charlotte (#7) Amelia (#11) Riley (#22) Audrey (#39) Ellie (#43) Violet (#47) Anna (#51) Aurora (#66) Alice (#76) Willow (#96) Jasmine (#122) Ariel (#140) Daisy (#190) Anastasia (#193) Destiny (#203) Maggie (#242) Jane (#280) Joy (#351) Bianca (#386) Helen (#408) Eve (#456) Colette (#469) Marie (#583) Elsa (#623) Tiana (#628) Jessie (#643) Penny (#693) Nala (#783) Celia (#838) Wendy (#854) Bonnie (#896) Belle (#934) Sally (#1178) Rita (#1184) Marian (#1215) Flora (#1261) Elinor (#1370) Judy (#1537) Doris (#1762) Merida (#1966) Edna (#2335) Minnie (#2662) Moana (#2973) Honey (#3234) Clarabelle (#4265) Ursula (#4764) Kala (#4888) Lilo (#4888) Esmeralda (#5495) Roz (#6009) Meg (#6486) Dory (# 15,174)
While there weren’t too many surprises for me right at the top, I was surprised at how high Jane came in. And while they weren’t the most popular, I didn’t expect other old-fashioned names like Doris and Edna too do so well. Even though it’s a nickname, I would have guessed that Meg would rank higher than Clarabelle and Moana. Even so, it was still listed ahead of Dory at the bottom of the list.
And OMG! Maleficent came in at 15, 499 in 2015 (couldn’t find any stats from 2016), just behind Fauna (another character from Sleeping Beauty) at 15, 354. Vanellope was at #3282 (that came in ahead of Ursula and Esmerelda – names I had actually heard of) in 2016. Sorry, no Silvermist