How popular is the baby name Fancy 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 Fancy.

The graph will take a few moments to load. (Don't worry, it shouldn't take 9 months!) If it's taking too long, try reloading the page.


Popularity of the baby name Fancy


Posts that mention the name Fancy

Where did the baby name Lalena come from in the late 1960s?

Donovan's single "Lalena" (1968)
Donovan single

The name Lalena debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1968. The following year, it saw a sizeable increase in usage.

  • 1971: 48 baby girls named Lalena
  • 1970: 49 baby girls named Lalena
  • 1969: 37 baby girls named Lalena
  • 1968: 5 baby girls named Lalena [debut]
  • 1967: unlisted
  • 1966: unlisted

Why?

Because of music!

In October of 1968, Scottish singer/songwriter Donovan released the song “Laléna.” It was about a prostitute whose name was Laléna, pronounced lah-LAY-nya — as if the “n” had a tilde (as in señor).

The song peaked at #33 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in November of 1968.

Here’s what it sounds like:

Donovan said he was inspired to write the song after seeing the 1931 German film The Threepenny Opera, which featured actress/singer Lotte Lenya as a prostitute named Jenny. The character in his song — whose name was based on the actress’ surname — was “a composite character of women who are outcasts on the edge of society.”

The singer was born Donovan Philips Leitch in Glasgow in 1946. Thanks to his influence, usage of the name Donovan also increased in the late 1960s.

P.S. Two other songs with the names of prostitutes in the titles are “Roxanne” by The Police and “Fancy” by Bobbie Gentry (later covered by Reba McEntire).

Sources: Laleña – Donovan Unofficial, Donovan – Billboard, SSA

Where did the baby name Fancy come from in 1952?

woman called fancy, frank yerby, 1951

In 1952, the word-name Fancy appeared in the U.S. baby name data for the very first time:

  • 1954: unlisted
  • 1953: unlisted
  • 1952: 7 baby girls named Fancy [debut]
  • 1951: unlisted
  • 1950: unlisted

What was the cause?

Frank Yerby’s book A Woman Called Fancy, which was the 5th best-selling book of 1951.

Set in the state of Georgia in the late 19th century, the historical romance follows Fancy Williamson, a woman from out of town, who rises “from poverty to prominence” among well-to-do Augustans. “Like all Yerby’s novels, A Woman Called Fancy presents a protagonist who is an outcast but achieves success in an alien culture.”

(A secondary influence could have been the romantic comedy film Goodbye, My Fancy, released in mid-1951 and starring Joan Crawford.)

About twenty years later, the name was given a second boost on the charts by Bobbie Gentry’s Fancy (1969). Here’s a bit of the song:

You know I mighta been born just plain white trash,
but Fancy was my name.

And about twenty years after that, Reba McEntire’s 1990 cover of Fancy gave the name yet another boost. The name saw its highest usage ever (36 baby girls) in 1991.

Interesting fact: Frank Yerby’s novel The Foxes of Harrow (1946) — another historical romance set in the South — was the first novel by an African-American to sell more than a million copies.

Sources: A Woman Called Fancy – Oxford Reference, Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels in the United States in the 1950s