It Turns Out Saint Is Not That Unusual Of A Baby Name

U.S. parents have been naming their babies Saint for well over a century.
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin via Getty Images

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West announced on Monday that they named their newborn son Saint West.

Predictably, the Internet is abuzz with Twitter reactions, personality quizzes and articles about the origin of the baby name choice.

As many have pointed out, Saint West is not the first celebrity baby with this "holy" name. In 2014, Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz and his girlfriend Meagan Camper named their son Saint Laszlo Wentz. Actress Selma Blair has a 4-year-old son named Arthur Saint Bleick, and rocker Dave Grohl's youngest daughter is Ophelia Saint Grohl.

But beyond the entertainment world, how widespread is the name Saint?

According to the Social Security Administration, 32 boys born in the U.S. in 2014 were named Saint, up from the 22 in 2013 but down from the 33 in 2012.

Between 2000 and 2014, at least 259 newborn boys were named Saint. The SSA's annual baby name list includes names that were given to at least five baby boys or girls in born a single calendar year. Saint appears on the list dating all the way back to the 1890s.

Though the overwhelming majority of the babies named Saint have reportedly been boys, the name was given to at least 5 girls in 1891, 1914, 1915, 1916, 1935 and 1939.

With Kimye's influence on pop culture (and pop culture's influence on baby names), it seems likely that Saint may start appearing on even more birth certificates in the years to come.

Though their first baby's name North hasn't risen substantially, her nickname Nori has seen big increases in popularity. According to SSA data, the number of baby girls named Nori more than tripled from 29 in 2013 to 101 in 2014.

While Saint West's December birth date means the name won't likely influence the overall 2015 data, we're staying tuned for 2016.

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