Where did the baby name Callahan come from in 1983?

From the opening credits of the TV show "Callahan" (1982).

The surname-name Callahan, which became trendy during the 2010s, first appeared in the U.S. baby name data back in 1983:

  • 1986: 13 baby boys named Callahan
  • 1985: 5 baby boys named Callahan
  • 1984: unlisted
  • 1983: 5 baby boys named Callahan [debut]
  • 1982: unlisted
  • 1981: unlisted

Why?

Because of the single-episode TV show Callahan, which aired on September 9, 1982. (Though modern sources refer to it as a TV “movie,” it was actually just the half-hour pilot for a TV series that was never picked up.)

An Indiana Jones spoof, Callahan starred Hart Bochner as the adventurous researcher Callahan (whose first name never revealed). In the pilot episode, Callahan and his brand-new research assistant (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) “travel to Burma to recover a sacred relic stolen by Marcus Vex, a notorious scientific faker.”

What are your thoughts on Callahan as a first name? Would you use it?

Sources: Callahan (TV Movie 1982) – IMDb, Callahan (1982) – TCM

[Latest update: Jan. 2022]

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