Due to the saint's popularity, the name came into general use in medieval Europe, especially in Spain and France. It was also borne by a 16th-century king of Portugal who died in a crusade against Morocco.
The name received a boost in popularity after it was borne by the antagonist in the horror movie The Ring (2002).
Before 1980, this was an uncommon masculine name in America. During the 1980s and 90s this name steadily increased in popularity for both boys and girls, and from 2003 onwards it has been more common for girls in the United States. Elsewhere in the English-speaking world, such as the United Kingdom and Australia, it has remained largely masculine.
As a given name for girls, it received some public attention from a character in the 1958 novel Parrish and the 1961 movie adaptation [1]. It experienced a larger surge in popularity in the 1980s, probably due to the character Paige Matheson from the American soap opera Knots Landing.
Due to the renown of the saint, this name has been widely used in the Christian world. It has been common in England since the 12th century, though it became a bit less popular after the Protestant Reformation. The name has been borne by five popes and two tsars of Russia.
As an English Christian name, Levi came into use after the Protestant Reformation.
This name died out after the Middle Ages, but was revived in the 19th century. In America and other countries it became fairly popular in the second half of the 20th century. A famous bearer of the surname is former basketball star Michael Jordan (1963-).
Inanna was later conflated with the Semitic (Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian) deity Ishtar.
This is the most common spelling of this name in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand; in the United States the spellings Haley and Hailey are more popular.
This name has been used in the English-speaking world since the Protestant Reformation. In America it received a boost in popularity after the birth of Esther Cleveland (1893-1980), the daughter of President Grover Cleveland [1].
As an English name, Caleb came into use after the Protestant Reformation. It was common among the Puritans, who introduced it to America in the 17th century.
As an English name, Barnabas came into occasional use after the 12th century. It is now rare, though the variant Barnaby is still moderately common in Britain.
Already an uncommon masculine name, it slowly grew in popularity for American girls beginning in 1978 after the start of the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati, which featured a character with this name. Though it remained more common as a feminine name, it got a boost for boys in 1994 from another television character on the drama Party of Five. In the United Kingdom and Australia it has always been more popular for boys.