There may be more baby girls named Simone in the aftermath of the success of two American athletes in the 2016 Olympics being held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, according to baby experts. Simone Biles and Simone Manuel have proven their world-class abilities in gymnastics and in swimming, respectively, winning gold medals in their respective events in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
"With a pair of athletes who are not only successful but seen as great role models, combined with a softer sound, it is like hitting the jackpot," said Baby Name Wizard author Laura Wattenberg in a telephone interview, as per a report in USA TODAY Sports. The report said that baby naming trends have favored softer sounding names over names that had harder sounds.
Baby name experts expect Simone to get a huge bump with new parents. https://t.co/vfBHdFFrCR
— Alex Ptachick (@acptachi) August 13, 2016
Julia Wang, head of digital content for pregnancy and parenting site The Bump, was quoted in the report as saying that parents are subconsciously affected by "cultural phenomenons (sic) that affect the world stage." Biles was the first African-American world gymnastics champion in 2013 while Manuel has become the first African-American female gold medalist in swimming in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Manuel has two gold medals in the 2016 Rio Olympics. The top swimmer won one for the women's 100m freestyle and another for the women's 4x100m medley relay. She also won silver medals for the women's 50m freestyle and the women's 4x100m freestyle relay. Biles has three gold medals in gymnastics for the women's individual all-around, women's team all-around and women's vault.
Yahoo Sports reported that several Twitter users have posted about naming their baby girls Simone as a result of the 2016 Rio Olympics. The report said that the name Simone means "one who hears" and that as per the Social Security baby name database, the name Simone was ranked 810th most popular name for girls last year. This reportedly meant that only 0.018 of all baby girls were named Simone.
Meanwhile, an article from baby name site Nameberry.com by Pamela Redmond Satran posted in Today Parents lists names from Rio 2016 Olympians that may possibly gain more popularity for baby names. Besides Simone, the top picks for girl names are Ellia, English, Ki, Flavia and Vashti. For boys, the top picks were Carlin, Kohei, Lazaro, Madison, Neymar and Steele.
