How popular is the baby name Bessica 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 Bessica.

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Popularity of the baby name Bessica


Posts that mention the name Bessica

Unusual name: Bessica

American Pilot Bessica Raiche (1875-1932)
Bessica Raiche

Did you know that the first woman in the U.S. to fly a plane solo (intentionally*) was named Bessica?

Dr. Bessica “Bessie” Raiche (1875-1932) flew her homemade airplane on September 16, 1910, in Hempstead Plains, New York. It was her first time flying a plane, and during the short flight she “skimmed over the airfield a few feet off the ground.”

A month later, Aeronautical Society of America presented Bessica with a gold medal inscribed to “the first woman aviator of America.”

Bessica was a medical doctor, and she flew planes for only a short time before moving to California and resuming her medical practice.

Her mother’s name was Elizabeth, so I’m guessing “Bessica” was based on Bess, the diminutive of Elizabeth.

Do you like the name Bessica? Would you use it for a modern-day baby girl?

*Two weeks earlier, pilot Blanche Stuart Scott had unintentionally become airborne while taxiing a plane.

Sources:

How did Charles Lindbergh influence baby names in 1927?

Exactly 85 years ago today, 25-year-old Air Mail pilot Charles Lindbergh was in the middle of his non-stop, solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

His successful journey from New York City to Paris, which lasted from about 8 am on May 20 until about 10:30 pm on May 21, 1927, earned Lindbergh the $25,000 Orteig Prize and made him world-famous virtually overnight.

According to SSA data, hundreds of baby boys were named Lindbergh that year:

  • 1930: 31 baby boys named Lindbergh
  • 1929: 40 baby boys named Lindbergh
  • 1928: 71 baby boys named Lindbergh (rank: 771st)
  • 1927: 116 baby boys named Lindbergh (rank: 574th) [peak usage]
  • 1926: 12 baby boys named Lindbergh
  • 1925: 7 baby boys named Lindbergh [debut]
  • 1924: unlisted

Though the data makes it look like dozens of babies were named “Lindbergh” prior to May of 1927, that’s probably not the case. It’s much more likely that these babies simply remained nameless until the event occurred. (At that time it wasn’t uncommon for American parents to wait months, sometimes years, to settle on a name. Emancipation Proclamation Coggeshall wasn’t named until she was two and a half, for instance.)

Hundreds more got the diminutive form Lindy:

  • 1930: 64 baby boys named Lindy (rank: 813th)
  • 1929: 84 baby boys named Lindy (rank: 669th)
  • 1928: 177 baby boys named Lindy (rank: 454th)
  • 1927: 235 baby boys named Lindy (rank: 388th) [peak usage]
  • 1926: 29 baby boys named Lindy
  • 1925: 10 baby boys named Lindy
  • 1924: 6 baby boys named Lindy

I spotted a boy named Lindbergh Long in a mid-1932 issue of North Carolina Christian Advocate. His age wasn’t mentioned, but he was probably born circa 1927.

Photo of child named Lindbergh Long in the religious newspaper "North Carolina Christian Advocate" (1932).

The variant spellings Lindberg, Lindburgh and Lindburg also got a boost in 1927. The latter two debuted in the data that year, in fact.

And, of course, many babies were given the first-middle combo “Charles Lindbergh.” The following Charles Lindbergh babies made the news:

  • Charles Lindbergh, son of Mr. and Mrs. Horace E. Lindbergh of Cambridge, MA
  • Charles Lindbergh Bohannon, son of Mr. and Mrs. Bohannon of La Jolla, San Diego, CA
  • Charles Lindbergh Erickson, son of Mrs. and Mrs. Carl W. Erickson of Worcester, MA
  • Charles Lindbergh Hurley, son of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Hurley of Sea Cliff, Long Island, NY

A few years later, in 1931, a Canadian baby who made headlines for being born in an airplane was also named after Lindbergh.

Sources:

  • “3 Babies Are Given Name of Air Ace.” Painesville Telegraph 23 May 1927: 1.
  • “New Born Baby Gets Lindbergh’s Name.” Border Cities Star [Windsor, Ontario, Canada] 23 May 1927: 14.
  • “San Diego Baby Is Named for Aviator.” Prescott Evening Courier 8 Jun. 1927: 1.

Images: Lindbergh Received the Distinguished Flying Cross, North Carolina Christian Advocate

P.S. Some other aviators I’ve written about: Jack Vilas, Belvin Maynard, Lester Maitland, Bessica Raiche, Turi Widerøe.

Baby names for aviation enthusiasts (Namestorm #5)

airplane

Love to fly the friendly skies? Then this list may be for you. Here are some names from early 20th-century aviation history:

Wilbur and Orville
American brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright built and flew the world’s first airplane in December of 1903.

Louis
French aviator Louis Blériot was the first to fly a plane across the English Channel (from France to England) in July of 1909.

Elise
French aviatrix Elise Raymonde Deroche was the first woman to receive a pilot’s license, in March of 1910.

Henri
French aviator and inventor Henri Fabre designed and flew the world’s first seaplane, also in March of 1910.

Harriet
American aviatrix Harriet Quimby was the first woman to fly across the English Channel (from England to France) in April of 1912 — one day after the sinking of the Titanic. Harriet was also the first U.S. woman to receive a pilot’s license.

John and Arthur
British aviators John Alcock (pilot) and Arthur Whitten Brown (navigator) made the first nonstop transatlantic flight (from Canada to Ireland) in June of 1919.

John and Oakley
American aviators John Macready and Oakley Kelley made the first nonstop transcontinental flight (from New York to San Diego) in May of 1923.

Charles

  • American aviator Charles Lindbergh was the first American and the first solo pilot to fly across the Atlantic (from the U.S. to France) in May of 1927.
  • American aviator Charles Yeager was the first pilot to travel faster than sound, in October of 1947.

Dieudonné and Joseph
French aviators Dieudonné Costes (pilot) and Joseph Le Brix (navigator) made the first nonstop crossing of the south Atlantic (from Senegal to Brazil) in October of 1927.

Hugh and Clyde
Hugh Herndon and Clyde Pangborn made the first nonstop transpacific flight (from Japan to the U.S.) in October of 1931.

Amelia
American aviatrix Amelia Earhart was the first woman to make a solo flight across Atlantic (from Canada to Northern Ireland) in May of 1932.

Wiley (and Winnie)
American aviator Wiley Post made the first solo round-the-world flight in July of 1933. The trip took over a week to complete. (His plane, the Winnie Mae, was named after the daughter of the plane’s original owner.)

Amy
English aviatrix Amy Johnson was the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia, in May of 1930.

I concentrated on airplanes, but the history of aviation goes back hundreds of years and covers kites, gliders, balloons, blimps, airships, helicopters, and so forth. What other aviation names can you come up with (from any era, using any aircraft)?

Update, 7/2021: Here are a few more aviators to choose from: Jack Vilas, Belvin Maynard, Lester Maitland, Bessica Raiche, Turi Widerøe.

Sources: Famous Firsts in Aviation, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Wikipedia

Image: Adapted from Air Canada Boeing 777-333ER by MarcusObal under CC BY-SA 3.0.