Baby Name: Daddy

Not long after the start of the 21st century, two curious noun-names — Daddy and Yankee — popped up briefly in the U.S. baby name data. Daddy debuted in 2005 and stuck around for two years, while one-hit wonder Yankee appeared only in 2007:

Where did they come from?

Puerto Rican rapper Daddy Yankee (born Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez in 1977).

His most influential single, “Gasolina,” was released in October of 2004 and became an international hit. The song “irrevocably alter[ed] the business, sound and aesthetic of Latin music” by introducing reggaetón music to audiences worldwide.

Because so few Spanish-language stations played urban music at the time, “Gasolina” never rose past No. 17 on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart. But it got heavy airplay on mainstream stations — peaking at No. 32 on the Hot 100 — and its dembow beat carried over to Latin America, Europe and the Far East.

Here’s the music video:

A year later, Daddy Yankee released the single “Rompe,” which fared even better on the charts: it was the #1 Hot Latin Song for 15 consecutive weeks from late 2005 through early 2006, and it peaked at #24 on the Hot 100 in April of 2006.

So how did Daddy Yankee come up with his stage name?

He chose it at the age of 13 — before he’d even started rapping. At that time, he was a “pudgy young kid with no money” who was obsessed with rappers like Dr. Dre and Rakim. In Puerto Rican street slang, Daddy Yankee means “powerful man.”

Sources:

• Gasolina – Wikipedia
• Daddy Yankee – Billboard
• Cobo, Lella. “Daddy Yankee Remembers ‘Gasolina’ 10 Years Later: ‘I Knew It Was a Home Run’.” Billboard.com 10 Aug. 2014.
• Corbett, Sara. “The King of Reggaetón.” New York Times 5 Feb. 2006.
• SSA