Angeline

Angeline has a long history of usage in the United States dating back to at least the late 19th century (which is when the U.S. government first began tracking naming trends in 1880). Her peak popularity was achieved during the 19-teens and 20s when she reached as high as position #183 on the Top 1000 list (1915). For whatever reason, Angeline dropped from popularity between the 1960s and 1990s when, for the most part, she fell into the shadows. Recently resurrected in 2006, Angeline is still the least popular of all the Angel names for baby girls in America. Parents are opting for the four-syllable fancy Angelina over all the others thanks to the ϋber-celebrity status of Angelina Jolie (Angelina is almost a Top 100 favorite nationwide). Angela and Angel still do quite well, followed by Angelica, Angelique and Angie. Collectively the female Angel names are bestowed upon over 8,500 baby girls per year putting them on par with trendy names like Lily and Grace. From an overall trend perspective, American parents are getting more flowery and fancy with their daughter’s names now as they replace many French forms with Latinate versions. Just consider: Adrienne –> Adriana, Amelie –> Amelia, Camille –> Camila, Danielle –> Daniella, Gabrielle –> Gabriella, Julie –> Julia, Marie –> Maria, and Sophie –> Sophia. Everyone is going mad over that one extra syllable! Yet there’s something to be said about the more understated and elegant French forms of such names in our opinion.