I posted about Patrice Lumumba the other day. One thing I forgot to mention was that his surname has been used as a first (and middle) name in this U.S. on occasion.
Lumumba’s assassination was in ’61, but it wasn’t until the early ’70s that the name Lumumba was used frequently enough to make the SSA’s baby name list:
- 1977: unlisted
- 1976: 6 baby boys named Lumumba
- 1975: 10 baby boys named Lumumba
- 1974: 7 baby boys named Lumumba
- 1973: 7 baby boys named Lumumba
- 1972: 11 baby boys named Lumumba
- 1971: 8 baby boys named Lumumba [debut]
- 1970: unlisted
- 1969: unlisted
This usage corresponds to the period after the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.
(Also, one of Malcolm X’s six daughters, Gamilah, born in 1964, was given the middle name Lumumba.)
Image: Patrice Lumumba (public domain)
One thing that may have helped boost Lumumba onto the charts in 1971 specifically was the 1970 Miriam Makeba song “Lumumba,” which was written (by her daughter) about the naming of Miriam’s grandson, Lumumba. Some lyrics: “I named him after the great man / Who fought for the liberty of the Congo / Patrice Lumumba.”