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Navy: Baby Name of the Day

March 13, 2019 By appellationmountain 7 Comments

Navy: Baby Name of the DayCould Navy be the newest color name to capture parents’ imagination?

Our Baby Name of the Day was inspired by Jason Aldean’s new daughter.

Navy: Fleet

Back in the day, this word referred to a fleet of ships, from the Latin navis, ship. Navis gives us navigate and navigator, too. Eventually, the term was applied to a nation’s ships and personnel and sea power, in the broadest sense.

So that makes this name thoroughly nautical.

Navy: Blue

British sailors wore it first. I’ve read that they adopted blue because the color was associated with trust. Or maybe it was simply the color of the sea. In any case, they started wearing it in the 1700s. By the 1800s, they’d lent the color its name: navy blue.

The blue worn by sailors has darkened over the years, to the color we think of today, an inky, near-black.

Navy: Name

Some color names filtered into use as surnames. That’s true for Green and Pink and White and Brown, but even some you might not expect, like Scarlett. Add in foreign color names, and the number skyrockets. Many of those surnames made their way into general use as given names, at least some of the time.

But you won’t find Navy among them.

It first surfaces in the US name data in 1985, which makes this among the newest of names.

A handful do appear in US Census data beforehand. It might be short for a longer Nav- name (Navarro? Naveed?) or a typo. While it’s difficult to say, at least some men and women probably did have the name.

But for the most part, you could find a Blue in 1969, or a Pinkie way back in the 1910s. But Navy? Not so much.

Navy: 1985

What explains the transition from word to name?

In some cases, it’s clearly short for a longer name. Actor Navi Rawat was born Navlata. But despite her 1977 birth, Rawat’s first big role was in The O.C. in 2003.

Instead, I think it’s down to our cautious embrace of new color names. Blue and Indigo both debuted in the US data during the 1970s. Sky and Skye, nature names with a colorful vibe, rose dramatically in use during the same period. Amber found new heights in the 1980s, as did Jade and Sage. Perhaps this was simply the moment parents first cautiously considered color names.

Navy: In the Spotlight

Of course, pop culture might deserve some credit, too. Blockbuster Top Gun starred Tom Cruise as a naval aviator in 1986. Gap spin-off Old Navy opened its first stores in 1994. In 1995, the long-running legal drama J.A.G. premiered, set in the offices of the US Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s office. (Harmon, the name of J.A.G.’s main character, spiked in use during the shows’ run.)

It’s not as if we discovered the branch of the armed services anew. But perhaps it showed in a particularly appealing light during the era. (Or not. The Tailhook sexual harassment scandal hit in 1991.)

Navy: On the Rise

What’s certain is that Navy name slowly caught on. In 2000, nine girls were given the name. By 2010, that number had reached 21. And in 2017, an astonishing 170 girls (and 35 boys) were named Navy.

Jason Aldean’s daughter is the most recent celebrity birth announcement, but by no means the first.

Rapper and singer-songwriter The Dream and singer Nivea welcomed daughter Navy Talia back in 2005. In this case, it might have been inspired by mom’s similar name.

Navi and Navie have gained in use, too.

Navy: Ava, Ivy

More than anything, this name almost certainly owes its success to the chart-topping Ava. Other names, like Olivia, Evelyn, Ivy, and Avery, are powered by that middle-V, too.

It’s worth noting that Saylor is also trending for girls, entering the US Top 1000 in 2013.

And so it’s a little bit of everything that pushed this name from the fringes ever closer to the mainstream: an appealing sound, our embrace of color names, a handful of high profile birth announcements, and some pop culture nudges all made Navy an unlikely name on the rise.

Do you like Navy better for a boy or a girl? Would you consider it for a child?

Navy: Baby Name of the Day

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Comments

  1. KM says

    December 20, 2020 at 3:27 AM

    Before Hamilton, Lin Manuel Miranda’s first musical, In the Heights, had a lead named Usnavy. I absolutely loved it and the sound of it, was read to save it for a future child… and then another song reveals that the origins of his name come from a US Navy ship. So while at first Navy doesn’t seem like a name to me… I can definitely see myself getting on board (awful pun not intended!)

    Reply
  2. Janet says

    June 3, 2020 at 3:20 PM

    Well just to say the very first child actually named Navy was very purposefully so.
    I should know I am the Grandmother of
    Navy Jay born October 5,2004!
    Given his name after two Grandfathers who passed before his birth.
    Meaning was two blues Deep Blue Blue
    and that would mean the color Navy.
    Jay also for the blue that a blue Jay is and his Mother’s Father’s middle name Jay.
    Also in honor of our great Country’s Military.
    First SS# given to a child named Navy
    Would be our Navy Jay Rankin
    Also everyone knows the color blue stands for boys not girls.
    Again a great name belonging to the male taken by female to tuffin up femininity
    Weird what if people start naming boys after the color pink.
    Oh well no lost Navy’s named not destroyed by girls being named after him
    It’s kinda like what they did with the Handsome name Kyle naming girls Kylie.
    Believe me blue has stood for boys longer than I’ve been alive so it probably won’t be changing anytime soon. Name your child with a meaning behind it.
    It will be so sweet

    Reply
    • appellationmountain says

      June 3, 2020 at 6:07 PM

      That’s a great name for your son – and a great story, too!

      Just a point of clarification: pink was traditionally a boys’ color – well into the twentieth century. And while the name Pink is occasionally given to girls, it was relatively familiar for boys through the first half of the twentieth century, too. In fact, the name Pink was consistently more common for boys than girls.

      So while it seems like pink has always been for girls and blue for boys, that’s not the case at all! And who knows what will happen next? Life is ever surprising …

      Reply
  3. Tawney says

    November 24, 2019 at 4:18 PM

    My daughter, born June 30, 2018, is named Navy Jade. Yes… 2 colors? What were you thinking? Well… my name is a color so it’s acceptable. That’s what I tell people, anyway

    Reply
  4. Clark says

    October 24, 2019 at 8:35 AM

    My friends baby girl is being born today and she going to be named: Navey Coraline-She put a e in there!

    Reply
  5. The Mrs. says

    March 13, 2019 at 3:59 PM

    Here’s the thing: navy feels like a masculine color to me. But Navy sounds more feminine… despite rhyming with Davey. It sounds adorable, but the US Navy is not an entity that I would describe as “adorable”. Perhaps this moniker is one juxtaposition after another.

    The first time I heard it was in the late 90s on my friend’s Bernese mountain dog puppy. She said she chose it because it would work on either gender.

    I like Navy but could never use it because of the reasons above.

    Reply
  6. Emma says

    March 13, 2019 at 1:23 PM

    Probably not one I’d ever consider myself, but I actually think it’s cute. And I agree that it’s right on trend for a girl (or boy) born today.

    Reply

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