Babe

Where Babe comes from

Use of the common noun babe as a (nick)name.
— Wiktionary's entry for Babe
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1890
    First appearance
    #1,338 among girls, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1895
    Babe Ruth born
    American baseball player
  3. 1901
    Babe London born
    actress
  4. 1905
    Peak, #1,298
    9 babies named Babe — more than any year before or since.
  5. 1906
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births.
  6. 1938
    Mostly boys from here
    Until now more girls than boys got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name or nickname
Namesakes
  • Babe Ruth · American baseball player, 1895–1948
  • Babe London · actress, 1901–1980
  • Babe Pratt · Canadian ice hockey player, 1916–1988
  • Babe Siebert · Canadian ice hockey player, 1904–1939
  • Babe Stovall · American Delta blues singer and songwriter, 1907–1974

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.