Here’s something curious. In 1977, 12 baby boys in the U.S. were named Ebay. The name Ebay doesn’t appear on the SSA’s list any other year. Not even in the late 90s, when auction site eBay was taking off.
Why were there suddenly a dozen baby Ebays in 1977? I have no idea. A few names I know of (e.g. Adebayo) include the e-b-a-y sequence of letters, but Ebay doesn’t seem like a logical nickname for any of them, so that’s probably not the source. And the online sleuthing I usually do isn’t working in this case, as all searches for Ebay just lead me to eBay.
Any guesses?
Update: Commenter Robin quickly figured it out! Ebay is a variant spelling of Ibe — also a one-hit wonder in 1977. Both were popularized by a character named Ibe Wubila who appeared on two episodes of Good Times (“Thelma’s African Romance”, parts 1 and 2) in January of that year. Thank you, Robin!