Where did the baby name Zsa Zsa come from in 1957?

zsa zsa gabor, milton berle, tv, 1950
Zsa Zsa Gabor getting a kiss from Milton Berle, 1956

This one is easy, dahling.

The distinctive name Zsazsa debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1957:

  • 1959: 12 baby girls named Zsazsa
  • 1958: 5 baby girls named Zsazsa
  • 1957: 6 baby girls named Zsazsa [debut]
  • 1956: unlisted
  • 1955: unlisted

The source, of course, is glamorous Hungarian-born Zsa Zsa (pronounced zhah zhah) Gábor.

It’s hard to know what caused the debut specifically, but it probably wasn’t the movies. More likely it was Zsa Zsa’s many TV appearances in 1956 and 1957. She was on The Milton Berle Show, The Herb Shriner Show, The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show, The Rosemary Clooney Show, and other shows.

Her birth name was Sári (pronounced SHAH-ree) Gábor. She was named after Hungarian stage actress Sári “Zsazsa” Fedak, whose nickname came from her young daughter’s mispronunciation of her first name.

What do you think of the name Zsa Zsa?

Source: Gábor, Zsa Zsa and Gerold Frank. Zsa Zsa Gábor: My Story. NY: World Publishing Company, 1960.
Image: Screenshot of The Milton Berle Show, 3/13/1956 episode

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