How popular is the baby name Aleeta in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Aleeta.
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In early 1967, newspapers reported that TV actor Vince Edwards was going to take his ex-wife, actress Kathy Kersh, to court because she “[made] it inconvenient for him to visit their 14-month-old daughter, Devara.”
This relatively minor item landed on the front page of certain (smaller) newspapers.
In 1933, the relatively rare baby name Aleeta saw an isolated spike in usage:
1935: unlisted
1934: unlisted
1933: 17 baby girls named Aleeta [peak]
1932: unlisted
1931: unlisted
What gave it a boost that year?
Aleeta Fleming, a 28-year-old “farm wife” from northeastern Ohio who was in the news starting on August 6th. A physician had recently determined that her 4-month-old son, Mertis, Jr., had died of strangulation. Following that revelation, Aleeta “glibly” confessed to the murder of not just Mertis, Jr., but also to the murder of an earlier son, Willis, who she’d poisoned as a baby in January of 1932.
The next day, she repudiated her confession and instead blamed her 55-year-old husband Mertis, who “disliked boy babies,” for the deaths:
Mrs. Fleming said her husband gave all his affection to their 3-year-old daughter, Beatrice, and complained to her that the boys fretted too much…[She] was quoted by the sheriff as asserting her husband threatened to kill her unless she made away with the boy babies.
Both parents ended up pleading guilty to second degree murder. In early November, both were sentenced to life in prison.
Interestingly, the spelling “Aleeta” seems to be a newspaper typo. In all the records I’ve seen (e.g., Willis’s death certificate, Mertis’s death certificate, the 1930 U.S. Census, the 1940 U.S. Census) the name is spelled “Alleta.”
Do you like the name Aleeta?
P.S. Beatrice, who spent her childhood in an orphanage, “worked as a foster parent with Indian children out west” as an adult.
Sources:
“Admits the Killing of her Infant Sons.” Lincoln Star 6 Aug. 1933: 17.
“Held in Slaying of two Children.” Evening Independent [Massillon, Ohio] 7 Aug. 1933: 1.
“Mother Admits Poisoning Babies.” Defiance Crescent 7 Aug. 1933: 1.
“Parents Who Killed 2 Children Sentenced.” Nevada State Journal 3 Nov. 1933: 4.
The relatively rare name Aletta has been in the U.S. baby name data since the 1890s, but it saw a distinct spike in usage in 1935:
1937: 13 baby girls named Aletta
1936: 28 baby girls named Aletta
1935: 37 baby girls named Aletta [peak usage]
1934: 5 baby girls named Aletta
1933: 10 baby girls named Aletta
In fact, Aletta’s sudden increase made it the second-highest relative rise of 1935, after Norita.
So what gave it a nudge?
The Barbara Webb story Aletta Laird, which was both serialized in the newspapers and released as a book in 1935.
I haven’t had a chance to read Aletta Laird — a “[r]omantic historical fiction” set in “old Bermuda, at the time of the American Revolution” — but here’s a description of how it begins:
Aletta Laird came to St. George’s in the Spring of 1775 to rejoin her father. Almost immediately after stepping ashore, she incurred the wrath of the tyrannical Governor, bought and Indian slave to save him from death by flogging, and learned that her father had died in prison as a traitor to his King. She also met the two men who were to lay siege to her heart, one the nephew of the Governor, the other a rebel American captain.
“In the Public Eye.” Royal Gazette and Colonist Daily [Bermuda] 15 Mar. 1935: 8.
SSA
Image: “Aletta Laird” in the Philadelphia Inquirer Public Ledger on June 2, 1935
P.S. Interestingly, the very similar name Aleeta saw peak usage just a couple of years earlier…
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