How Many Babies Were Named After Jodeci?

We know there are people out there named after Bon Jovi, Danity Kane and Roxette. Even Starship. So how about Jodeci?

Yup. Four-man R&B group Jodeci (Jo from JoJo, de from the DeGrate brothers and ci from K-Ci) formed in 1990. The first album was released in 1991. Sure enough, that’s the year we start seeing babies named Jodeci:

• 1991 – 13 girls, 12 boys named Jodeci
• 1992 – 77 girls, 94 boys named Jodeci
• 1993 – 33 girls, 29 boys named Jodeci
• 1994 – 19 girls, 23 boys named Jodeci
• 1995 – 32 girls, 15 boys named Jodeci
• 1996 – 29 girls, 13 boys named Jodeci

The group put out a second album in 1993, a third in 1995, then went on hiatus in 1996. After they stopped releasing new material, usage of the name declined:

• 1997 – 15 girls, 9 boys named Jodeci
• 1998 – 16 girls, 8 boys named Jodeci
• 1999 – 15 girls, 10 boys named Jodeci
• 2000 – 10 girls, 6 boys named Jodeci
• 2001 – 7 girls, 5 boys named Jodeci
• 2002 – 7 girls, <5 boys named Jodeci
• 2003 – 13 girls, 7 boys named Jodeci
• 2004 – 8 girls, <5 boys named Jodeci
• 2005 – 6 boys, 6 girls named Jodeci
• 2006 – 6 girls, 9 boys named Jodeci
• 2007 – <5 girls, <5 boys named Jodeci
• 2008 – <5 girls, <5 boys named Jodeci
• 2009 – 5 girls, 7 boys named Jodeci

But the story doesn’t end there. K-Ci and JoJo went on to form K-Ci & JoJo in 1996, and this influenced the baby name charts as well:

• 1995 – 7 boys named K-Ci
• 1998 – 5 boys named K-Ci
• 1999 – 6 boys named K-Ci
• 2000 – 6 boys named K-Ci

(The name is “Kci” according to the SSA, but I’m guessing that at least some of these babies inherited the hyphen and the capital c, so I threw those in.)

Jodeci and K-Ci aren’t being given to many babies nowadays, but don’t count them out. In about a month, a reality TV show starring K-Ci and JoJo will premiere on TVOne. Also, there’s a talented high school football player out there named Jodeci Mays. (He scored seven touchdowns a couple of weeks ago.) Visibility often leads to usage, so the TV show and/or the athlete could help revive the names, you never know…