How popular is the baby name Cyd 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 Cyd.

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Popularity of the baby name Cyd


Posts that mention the name Cyd

How did Pier Angeli influence baby names in the 1950s?

Actress Pier Angeli on the cover of LIFE magazine in July of 1956.
Pier Angeli

While dancer Cyd Charisse was behind the debut of both her first name and her last name in the U.S. baby name data, those debuts didn’t happen in the same year.

In the case of Italian-born television and film actress Pier Angeli, though, both Pier and Angeli appeared in the data — as girl names — simultaneously, in 1953:

Girls named PierGirls named Angeli
195525.
19548.
195311*14*
1952..
1951..
*Debut

The debut of Angeli, in fact, was the 3rd-highest of the year overall, after Trenace (f) and Caster (m).

Pier Angeli was born Anna Maria Pierangeli in Sardinia, Italy, in 1932. Before she launched her U.S. film career, her name was changed:

The movie moguls decided that her name Anna Maria Pierangeli was too long for the lights over a marquee, so it was abridged to Pier Angeli simply by dividing her surname. She didn’t like it, complaining that it was “a boy’s name” which of course it was in Italy, and never used it in private life. Her friends always called her Anna.

(“Pier” is the Italian form of Peter.)

Pier Angeli’s first American film Teresa (1951). Her performance impressed critics; she won a Golden Globe Award in 1952 for “Most Promising Newcomer.” And the year after that, her names double-debuted in the U.S. baby name data.

Nowadays, dozens of baby girls are named Angeli every year. Pier is still used as well, but mostly as a boy name. Which name do you prefer?

Source: Allen, Jane. Pier Angeli: A Fragile Life. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2002.
Image: © 1956 LIFE

P.S. Speaking of dividing a surname to create a stage name…two people who divided a first name to come up with a professional name were actor Kal Penn (born Kalpen Modi) and lyricist Kal Mann (born Kalman Cohen).

How did Cyd Charisse influence baby names?

Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly in the movie "Singin' in the Rain" (1952).
Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly in “Singin’ in the Rain

As far as I can tell, the very first person to boost both a first name and a last name into the baby name data was dancer and movie star Cyd Charisse. Charisse debuted in 1946, and Cyd followed a year later:

Girls named CydGirls named Charisse
19501417
19492014
1948619
19478*10
1946.5*
1945..
*Debut

Singin’ in the Rain (1952) was what propelled Charisse to stardom, but in the late ’40s she had minor dancing parts in various musicals, and these appearances must have given her name enough exposure to influence expectant parents.

But she wasn’t born with the name Cyd Charisse. Her birth name was Tula Ellice (pronounced ee-leese) Finklea. Here’s how one name morphed into the other:

My real name was Tula Ellice, it was not Cyd. But my brother was only a year older than myself and he couldn’t pronounce Tula Ellice, so he started calling me Sid as a nickname, for sister. And it stuck with me and all my life I’ve been called Sid. But when I went to MGM, Arthur Freed did not like the spelling of S-i-d, which is a boys’ name. And he changed the spelling to C-y-d — a little more glamorous.

And of course Charisse was my first husband’s name, Nico Charisse. So actually Cyd Charisse you could say is my real name.

But there’s actually more to the story, as she went through several stage names before settling on “Cyd Charisse”:

Before I went to MGM, I had danced with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. And, of course, joining a Russian ballet company in those days, you were supposed to have a Russian name. So Colonel de Basil, who was the regisseur of the ballet at that time, he first named me Felia Siderova. And after a couple of months he decided he would change it to Maria Istomina. Two names.

Then when I wound up back in California, before I went to MGM, I met another Russian director. And he decided that my name should be Lily Norwood.

So finally, when I got to MGM, and Arthur Freed said “We have to change your name,” I said “No please, I’ve had my name changed so many times. Let me just be Sid Charisse.” And that’s when he changed the spelling to C-y-d. And finally I had my own name.

These days, American parents still bestow the name Charisse occasionally, but they rarely go for Cyd. Which name do you prefer?

Sources: SSA, Cyd Charisse Interview [vid]
Image from Singin’ in the Rain (1952).

Hollywood dance duo named sons after playwright and film director

American dancers Gower and Marge Champion
Gower and Marge Champion

In the 1950s, Marge and Gower Champion were a famous husband-and-wife dance team. They appeared in a string of musical films (including Show Boat, Give a Girl a Break, and Three for the Show) and performed on a number of TV variety shows. The pair even had their own sitcom, The Marge and Gower Champion Show, during the summer of 1957.

The couple had two sons. The first, born in late 1956, was named Gregg Ernest.

His first name honored the couple’s friend Jess Gregg, an author and playwright.

His middle name honored Marge’s father, Hollywood dance teacher Ernest Belcher, whose students included Shirley Temple, Cyd Charisse, Ramon Navarro, Nanette Fabray, and Fay Wray.

(Belcher had founded the Celeste School of Dance in Los Angeles in 1916. Three years later, he and his wife welcomed a baby girl named Marjorie Celeste, or “Marge,” whose middle name may have come from the name of the school…)

The Champions’ second son, born in the early ’60s, was named Blake Gower.

His first name honored film director and family friend Blake Edwards, while his middle name was (of course) passed down from his father.

P.S. Did you know that Marge Champion (née Belcher) was hired by the Walt Disney Studio as a teenager to be the real-life model for the heroine of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the company’s first feature film? Today, Marge is a Disney Legend.

Sources:

Image: Marge and Gower Champion 1957