How popular is the baby name Kizzy 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 Kizzy.
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In late 1976, Alex Haley’s best-selling novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family was published.
The book — which tells a sweeping, multi-generational tale that lasts from the mid-1700s to the mid-1800 — begins with the story of Kunta Kinte, a Mandinka teenager who was captured in Africa, transported via slave ship to North America, and sold to a Virginia plantation owner.
In January of 1977, an 8-episode miniseries based on the novel aired on television for 8 consecutive nights (on ABC).
The televised version of Roots was wildly popular, earning 9 Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe, a Peabody, and some of the highest Nielsen ratings of all time.
It also had an unprecedented influence on baby names, inspiring thousands African-American parents to name their babies after Roots characters and actors. Below are some examples.
Kizzy, Levar, Kunta & Kinte
According to the U.S. baby name data, the top debut names of 1977 were Kizzy and Levar.
Kizzy came from the character Kizzy, daughter of Kunta Kinte, who was featured during the middle episodes of the series.
1979: 269 baby girls named Kizzy [rank: 648th]
1978: 456 baby girls named Kizzy [rank: 439th]
1977: 1,115 baby girls named Kizzy [rank: 223rd] [debut]
1976: unlisted
1975: unlisted
So far, Kizzy’s 1977 debut is the highest baby name debut ever.
During the scene in which the newborn Kizzy is named, Kunta Kinte says, “Girl, your name is Kizzy. […] Your name means ‘stay put,’ but it don’t mean ‘stay a slave.’ It will never mean that!”
Here’s how one Florida couple, who welcomed a baby girl in early 1977, decided to name their daughter Kizzy:
“I identified with Kunta Kinte, and I thought the name Kizzy was a way I could express that,” said Willie Parker of Carol City, a Miami suburb.
His wife, Carrie, initially wanted to name their new daughter Nicole. But Parker said he was especially moved by the scene from the television series in which Kinte names his child and then raises her to the stars and tells her to behold the only thing greater than herself. So, he persuaded his wife to name their child Kizzy.
Levar came from actor LeVar Burton, who played the young version of protagonist Kunta Kinte in the first two episodes of the miniseries.
1979: 175 baby boys named Levar [rank: 645th]
1978: 254 baby boys named Levar [rank: 512th]
1977: 523 baby boys named Levar [rank: 343rd] [debut]
1976: unlisted
1975: unlisted
The names Lavar, Levarr, Lavarr and Lavare also got a boost in 1977. (The last three were debuts.)
Kunta not only debuted in 1977, but it popped into the top 1,000 for the first and only time that year as well.
1979: 16 baby boys named Kunta
1978: 52 baby boys named named Kunta
1977: 215 baby boys named Kunta [rank: 572nd] [debut]
1976: unlisted
1975: unlisted
Kinte also reached the top 1,000 for the first and only time in 1977, after debuting the year before.
1979: 6 baby boys named Kinte
1978: 38 baby boys named Kinte
1977: 104 baby boys named Kinte [rank: 839th]
1976: 5 baby boys named Kinte [debut]
1975: unlisted
The New York Times reported in March of 1977 that a young couple from Harlem, John and Nefhertiti Reid, had welcomed a baby boy on February 18 and named him Kunta Kinte Reid. He was “one of 20 newborn black boys and girls in New York City last month who were given the names Kunta Kinte or Kizzy.”
Officials in the health departments of several cities reported that 15 babies last month had been named Kunta Kinte or Kizzy in Los Angeles, 10 in Detroit and eight in Atlanta. In Cleveland, male and female twins were named after the two characters.
These names, already seeing enough usage nationally to appear in the U.S. baby name data, were influenced by Roots as well. Two got a boost, but the third did not…
Though it did not return to the data when Roots aired, “[o]ne family in Detroit named their child Vereen, apparently for actor Ben Vereen, who in the television show portrayed Kizzy’s son, Chicken George.”
In fact, 198 was the highest debut number ever up to that point, and it remained the record-holder until Kizzy (inspired by Roots) came along with a whopping 1,115 baby girls in 1977.
And that’s not all. A bunch of similar names became more popular in 1964 as well:
I haven’t a clue. The very first Djuna seems to be writer Djuna Barnes (1892-1982), but I don’t think she made any headlines in the 1960s.
The name was also used in a bunch Ellery Queen novels, but that Djuna was a boy. (And the books were published in the ’40s and ’50s, mostly.)
Olympian Wilma Rudolph named her baby girl Djuana in mid-1964. This may have contributed to the surge in usage. But many (most?) of the Djunas and Djuanas I’ve seen so far were born during the first half of the year, so it can’t be the main cause.
So…I’m stumped.
Do you guys have any ideas?
UPDATE: We worked together to figure out that the answer was TV character Djuna Phrayne, who was featured on a single episode of the TV series Channing. Thank you, everyone!
Though most of the baby names in the SSA’s annual datasets are repeats, each dataset does contain a handful of brand-new names.
Below are the most popular debut names for every single year on record, after the first.
Why bother with an analysis like this? Because debut names often have cool stories behind them, and high-hitting debuts are especially likely to have intriguing explanations tied to historical people/events. So this is more than a list of names — it’s also a list of stories.
Here’s the format: “Girl name(s), number of baby girls; Boy name(s), number of baby boys.” Keep in mind that the raw numbers aren’t too trustworthy for about the first six decades, though. (More on that in a minute.)
I’ve already written about some of the names above, and I plan to write about all the others as well…eventually. In the meanwhile, if you want to beat me to it and leave a comment about why Maverick hit in 1957, or why Moesha hit in 1996, feel free!
Source: U.S. SSA
Image: Adapted from LotusBud0048a (public domain) by Frank “Fg2” Gualtieri
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