Because of Zaylee appearing in the top 1000 in 2015 and the comments (here and here) on my post from this morning regarding Zelie/Zaylee I looked up Zaylee, Zelie, Zellie, and Azelie, and discovered Azaylee as well!, to see how many babies were so named in 2015:
Azaylee: 9
Azelie: 17
Zaylee: 270 (rank #990)
Zelie: 50
Zellie: 12
It was interesting to compare the numbers to 2014:
Azaylee: 7
Azelie: 6
Zaylee: 182
Zelie: 25
Zellie: 9
Azaylee’s making me think (as the other Kate pointed out) that the popularity of Zaylee may indeed be influenced by St. Zelie. Fascinating!
Updated to add the numbers for Azelia, which Andrea included in her comment at the same time I was posting this! There were 24 babies named Azelia in 2014 and 25 in 2015. (She also included info for Therese and Louis, if you’re interested — there was no significant impact on either one.) Thanks Andrea!
Sancta Nomina 
There’s also Azalea, which was used 519 times!
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Ahh so Azalea is much more popular than all of the others! I’m guessing the singer Iggy Azalea is the big inspiration behind it?
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That’s what I’ve heard! I imagine some of the Azalea parents are people who wanted a flower name, also.
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Yes, so true. This gets more and more interesting!
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If I used Azalea it would be for the flower as I’ve never heard of Iggy Azalea! I’m so uncool!
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Haha! Me too Grace! I don’t know how I heard of her — probably when I was scoping out the celebrities’ babies at people.com
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You are not uncool, grace…you are fortunate.
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Hahaha yessss!!!!
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You guys are so lucky to not have heard of Iggy Azelea. I am constantly having to listen to her music because it’s what college kids are supposed to like. Though I can’t think of a single person I know who actually likes her…
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Ha! Grace, you’re awesome.
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I recently heard of a baby Zaylee in a Catholic (extended) family though can’t remember whose, so don’t know for sure the origin, but assume it is for Zelie Martin. Since ZAY-lee is the “correct” French pronunciation I do think that may be incentive for people to go with that spelling in our country, so it would be unlikely to be pronounced differently. I know two Zelies – one they pronounce Zelly, the other is ZAY-lee.
So the name popularity of Zaylee from Zelie or Azalea is likely coming from different influences — depending if you are in Catholic circles or rapper circles.
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“Catholic or rapper circles” — yes!! Haha! I’m fascinated by all the influences converging in this name!
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Interesting side note – Iggy Azalea’s real/birth name is Amethyst Amelia Kelly.
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Ohhh that’s kind of amazing!
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That’s better than Iggy Azalea!
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Guys, what if Iggy Azalea is a CATHOLIC RAPPER?! Talk about convergence! 😂😂😂
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Anyway. I just googled her and realized two things.
1. She’s definitely not Catholic.
2. I have heard of her (but maybe not her name) because I’ve seen her used as an example of cultural appropriation.
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Not surprised by #1, but I haven’t heard of #2 — how is she an example of it?
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Well, she’s white and Australian, so…
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I had to google it just to figure this out … turns out I didn’t realize rap was considered “black,” nor that Eminem and Macklemore are also accused of the same thing, nor had I made any connection to the idea that she’s tapping into a Southern heritage that she doesn’t have. So interesting!
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Stop. That would be amazing.
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For some reason, none of these names have ever particularly appealed to me. I think the sound combinations just don’t really work for my mouth/brain and they come out sounding kind of odd 😛
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I love how you own your opinions Grace!! You’re fab! 🙂
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Ahh now you have me hoping this baby is a girl, so I can name her Zelie before all the Catholics get too tired of it 😉 I’ve loved St Zelie for a long time, and we have been planning to name our next girl Zelie… Generally name popularity doesn’t bother me but then all I ever hear of lately in young Catholic circles seems to be little Cecelia’s and Lucy’s and I don’t want to be one of those people haha.
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Ahhaha! It’s such a great name!
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I have Azalea/Zelie on my list. I love botanical/flower names, love the Saint connection, and love the nickname potential. I also was shot down for the name Eliza, and Azalea has a similar sound to me with the “z”? 🙂 I live in an area where Catholic traditional names are popular, but Zelie hasn’t exploded just yet (we’ll see…. a bunch of babies are due this year).
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I also think Azalea and Eliza are similar enough that I can see people who like one also liking the other! I’ve also on occasion suggested Zelie as a possible nickname for Elizabeth!
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