How popular is the baby name Dobie 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 Dobie.

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Popularity of the baby name Dobie


Posts that mention the name Dobie

Where did the baby name Jymme come from in 1955?

Actress Roberta Shore (formerly Jymme Shore)
Roberta (Jymme) Shore

The rare name Jymme has appeared in the U.S. baby name data just twice: first in 1955, last in 1963.

  • 1964: unlisted
  • 1963: 10 baby girls named Jymme
  • 1962: unlisted
  • […]
  • 1956: unlisted
  • 1955: 5 baby girls named Jymme [debut]
  • 1954: unlisted

Where did it come from? A singer/actress who started her career with one name, then switched to another.

She was born Roberta Jymme Schourup in 1943, but kicked off her career as Jymme Shore. (Jymme is pronounced “Jimmy.”)

As a youngster in the mid-1950s she appeared on 2 televised programs, The Tex Williams Show and The Pinky Lee Show, and also became associated with the Mouseketeers (she was too tall to become an official member of the group). It was around this time that the name Jymme debuted in the data.

While she worked for Disney, though, she changed her professional name:

“When the studio would send out information without a picture, ‘Jymme Shore’ ended up referred to as a he,” she explained. “Walt Disney actually was the one who suggested I use the name Roberta.”

(She continued to go by Jymme in her personal life.)

She worked for Disney a little longer — appearing on The Mickey Mouse Club, voicing animated characters, even yodeling the Switzerland part of the song It’s a Small World. Then she became an independent actor, appearing in TV shows and movies such as Maverick, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, and even the infamous Lolita (1962).

Also in 1962, Roberta landed the role of Betsy Garth on the series The Virginian, which would go on to become one of TV’s most successful Westerns. Media coverage of the new show must have mentioned her former stage name, as this is the year “Jymme” returns for an encore in the data.

Roberta Shore played Betsy for three seasons. Then she got married and retired from show business altogether.

What are your thoughts on the name Jymme?

Sources:

Where did the baby name Hoby come from in 1958?

The character Hoby Gilman from the TV series "Trackdown" (1957-1959)
Hoby Gilman from “Trackdown

Westerns were the hottest thing on television in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and we can see it in the baby name data. Here’s yet another Western-inspired debut, Hoby:

  • 1960: 6 baby boys named Hoby
  • 1959: 14 baby boys named Hoby
  • 1958: 30 baby boys named Hoby [debut]
  • 1957: unlisted
  • 1956: unlisted

Hoby (which rhymes with Toby and Dobie) was the top debut of the year for boys in 1958. In fact, one of the biggest boy name debuts ever.

The inspiration? Hoby Gilman, the main character of the TV western Trackdown (1957-1959).

Hoby, played by actor Robert Culp, was a Texas Ranger who spent his days tracking down bad guys in post-Civil War Texas. “[Culp’s] Hoby Gilman was a cooler character than other deadpan Western cowboys. Culp…imbued Hoby with a hipness that was ahead of the time but which presaged the Sixties yet to come.”

Notably, Trackdown “was given official approval from the (modern day) Rangers and the state of Texas.”

The character originated on an episode of Zane Grey Theatre in May of 1957. A mere five months later, a whole series based on Hoby had emerged. (A whopping five episodes of Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theatre were developed into subsequent TV shows. Impressive.)

Robert Culp went on to co-star with Bill Cosby in I Spy from 1965 to 1968. His character, named Kelly, gave a temporary boost to the male usage of Kelly, which peaked for boys in 1967/1968.

What are your thoughts on the name Hoby?

Sources:

How did “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis” influence baby names?

The character Dobie Gillis of the TV series "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" (1959-1963).
Dobie Gillis from “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis

Girl-crazy teenager Dobie Gillis was a character created by writer Max Shulman in the 1940s. He was first brought to life in the movie The Affairs of Dobie Gillis in 1953, but the most memorable portrayal of Dobie was by Dwayne Hickman in the four-season TV sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, which premiered in September of 1959.

Dobie Gillis is notable for being “the first prime-time series to consistently privilege teenage characters, activities, and spaces over those associated with family shows.”

It was also known for the unusual character names. Dobie (pronounced doh-bee, rhymes with Toby) had friends with names like:

  • Maynard (a beatnik played by Bob Denver, who later portrayed Gilligan)
  • Zelda (a brainiac played by Sheila James Kuehl, sister of Jeri Lou)
  • Thalia Menninger (a rich girl played by Tuesday Weld)

These “uncommon first names [were] evidently meant to seem vaguely silly in their failure to conform with ’50s norms.”

The show ended up influencing the usage of several baby names. First of all, it was behind the debut of the name Dobie in 1960:

  • 1964: 9 baby boys named Dobie
  • 1963: unlisted
  • 1962: 6 baby boys named Dobie
  • 1961: 8 baby boys named Dobie
  • 1960: 9 baby boys named Dobie [debut]
  • 1959: unlisted
  • 1958: unlisted

The name Thalia also saw a spike in usage in 1960, which makes sense because all but two of the episodes featuring Thalia Menninger were first-season (1959-1960) episodes. Dobie pronounced Thalia’s name thale-ya.

  • 1964: 46 baby girls named Thalia
  • 1963: 42 baby girls named Thalia
  • 1962: 42 baby girls named Thalia
  • 1961: 46 baby girls named Thalia
  • 1960: 90 baby girls named Thalia
  • 1959: 30 baby girls named Thalia
  • 1958: 24 baby girls named Thalia

Finally, the name Zelda saw elevated usage in the early ’60s:

  • 1964: 133 baby girls named Zelda
  • 1963: 171 baby girls named Zelda
  • 1962: 178 baby girls named Zelda
  • 1961: 168 baby girls named Zelda
  • 1960: 136 baby girls named Zelda
  • 1959: 142 baby girls named Zelda
  • 1958: 131 baby girls named Zelda

Fun fact: Zelda — who pursued Dobie as ardently as Dobie pursued all other females — once convinced a girl named Phyllis to break it off with Dobie by warning her that her married name would be “Phyllis Gillis.”

Many of the secondary and single-episode characters had unusual names as well. Here are some examples:

Aphrodite
Arabella
Aristede
Blossom
Bruno
Bubbles
Chatsworth
Clothilde
Clydene
Drusilla
Esmond
Glynis
Imogene
Jethro
Kermit
Laurabelle
Leander
Maribelle
Mignonne
Poppy
Riff

Do you like any of the above Dobie Gillis names? How about the name “Dobie” itself?

Sources:

  • Kearney, Mary C. “Teenagers and Television in the United States.” Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Television, ed. by Horace Newcomb, 2nd ed., New York: Routledge, 2013, pp. 2276-2281.
  • Sterritt, David. Mad to be Saved: The Beats, the ’50s, and Film. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1998.
  • The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (TV Series 1959–1963) – IMDb

Where did the baby name Jerilou come from in 1953?

Actress Jeri Lou James in a 1952 episode of the TV show "Racket Squad" (1951-1953).
Jeri Lou James on TV in 1952

The name Jerilou appeared for the first and only time in the U.S. baby name data in 1953:

  • 1955: unlisted
  • 1954: unlisted
  • 1953: 9 baby girls named Jerilou [debut]
  • 1952: unlisted
  • 1951: unlisted

(The SSA omits spaces, hyphens, and apostrophes, so “Jerilou” here includes Jeri Lou, Jeri-Lou, and other potential renderings.)

Where did Jerilou come from?

Child actor Jeri Lou James, who was on TV primarily during the first half of the 1950s.

She was born Jerilyn Louise Kuehl in California in 1945. (Her birth name may have been inspired by celebrity baby Jerilyn Jessel.)

Jeri Lou guest starred on various TV shows, but the one show she appeared on regularly was The Dennis Day Show, which aired on NBC from 1953 to 1954. No doubt this is what gave Jeri Lou’s name enough visibility to see a temporary rise in usage.

These days, Jeri Lou James is Hon. Jerilyn L. Borack, a family law judge on the Sacramento Superior Court.

Both her acting career and her law career were inspired by the acting and law careers of her older sister, Sheila James (b. Sheila Ann Kuehl in 1941), whose best-remembered TV role was that of Zelda on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959-1963). Today Sheila Kuehl is a politician in California.

Which name do you like better, Jerilyn or Jerilou?

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