Tag: cattina

The baby name Cotina was a top debut name in 1972, coming out of nowhere to be given to an impressive 109 baby girls that year:

• 1978: unlisted
• 1977: 6 baby girls named Cotina
• 1976: 5 baby girls named Cotina
• 1975: 13 baby girls named Cotina
• 1974: 33 baby girls named Cotina
• 1973: 65 baby girls named Cotina
• 1972: 109 baby girls named Cotina [debut]
• 1971: unlisted

But that’s not all. The popularity of similar names — most notably Katina — spiked in ’72 as well:

Name	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975
Katina	96	2,747	2,469	766	506
Catina	15	1,370	1,236	329	174
Contina	–	209	124	36	27
Cotina	–	109	65	33	13
Katena	–	27	28	–	–
Kateena	–	22	13	5	–
Cantina	–	17	15	7	–
Catena	–	15	8	5	–
Kattina	–	15	–	–	–
Kotina	–	12	8	–	–
Katyna	–	11	–	–	–
Cateena	–	10	9	–	–
Kontina	–	10	–	–	–
Kantina	–	9	6	5	–
Katinna	–	7	6	–	–
Cattina	–	6	9	–	–
Catinna	–	–	11	–	–

Why?

It took me a while to come up with a decent theory for this one, as the only person the search engines kept directing me to was Greek actress Katina Paxinou (1900-1973).

I was stuck until, in a decades-old Village Voice article, I spotted a reference to a fictional soap-opera baby named Katina. She was “born” in early 1972 on the CBS soap Where the Heart Is (1969-1973).

Expectant parents tend to pay particular attention to TV babies, and soap operas have historically influenced baby name rankings quite a bit, so the double-whammy of a baby born on a soap opera must have had some sort of impact.

Then again, I can’t explain why the variant “Contina” jumped so much higher than, say, “Katena” or “Kateena,” which are much more Katina-like. So perhaps I’m missing something.

Does anyone out there remember Where the Heart Is? Do you think the soap was popular enough to have started a short-lived Katina craze in the early ’70s?