How popular is the baby name Lee 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 Lee.
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The name Stryker debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1990:
1992: unlisted
1991: 6 baby boys named Stryker
1990: 7 baby boys named Stryker [debut]
1989: unlisted
1988: unlisted
Why?
Because of the the short-lived TV series B. L. Stryker, which aired from early 1989 until May of 1990.
The detective drama starred actor Burt Reynolds as Buddy Lee “B. L.” Stryker, a former New Orleans policeman who moves to Palm Beach, Florida, “where he runs a disreputable private detective business and lives on a houseboat with two parrots.” (The birds are named Gilbert and Roland.)
The series consisted of 12 two-hour episodes that aired as ABC Mystery Movies every few weeks, alternating with episodes of similar shows, including Columbo and Kojak.
The name dropped out of the data in 1992, but re-emerged a few years later, thanks to the Mortal Kombat 3 character Kurtis Stryker.
What are your thoughts on the name Stryker? Would you use it?
The song “Kayleigh” (1985) by British rock band Marillion.
Several of the band’s singles had done well in the UK up to that point, but the rock ballad “Kayleigh” was their first (and, so far, only) song to reach the U.S. Hot 100, peaking at #74 in late October, 1985.
The lead singer of the band had written the song with several past girlfriends in mind, but the name of the song was inspired by one woman in particular. He explained:
I’d wanted to write a song about a girlfriend I’d split up with, whose name was Kay. Which of course we couldn’t do. So we added her middle name, Lee, and it became Kayleigh instead. […] But it wasn’t just about Kay, it was inspired by three or four different people in my life.
Interestingly, the entire Kaylee name-group was already on the rise before the song was released in mid-1985. For instance, the most popular spelling of the name, Kaylee — which ultimately peaked at 26th in 2009 — jumped well into the top 1,000 (824th) in 1984. The same year, the spelling Kaylie was the 25th-fastest rising girl name (relatively speaking), and girl-name debuts included Caylie, Caleigh, Cayley, Kailie, and Cailey — not to mention Kayleigh itself.
So the song didn’t exactly kick things off. No doubt it contributed to the name’s trendiness, though. It does seem to have given a discernible boost to the spellings Kaleigh, Kalee, Kalie, Kaeleigh, and Kaileigh. And it may have been behind the debut of Cayleigh in 1986.
So…why was the Kaylee name-group already picking up stream in 1984? I don’t know for certain, but I can point to a couple of possible contributing factors:
The trendiness of Kayla in the early ’80s, due largely to a soap opera character: Kayla Brady from Days of Our Lives.
The trendiness of Ashley in the early ’80s, due in part to another soap opera character: Ashley Abbott from The Young and the Restless.
What are your thoughts on the baby name Kayleigh? (Do you like this spelling, or do you prefer one of the other spellings?)
P.S. Marillion’s 2nd-biggest song, “Lavender” (1985) — which was the track right after “Kayleigh” on the Misplaced Childhood album — may have given the baby name Lavender a nudge in the mid-’80s.
P.P.S. The band’s name, pronounced mar-IH-lee-un, was based on the title of the novel The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien.
The name Celynn has only ever appeared in the U.S. baby name data a single time, in 1964:
1966: unlisted
1965: unlisted
1964: 7 baby girls named Celynn [debut]
1963: unlisted
1962: unlisted
Where did it come from?
Television!
A short-lived game show called The Celebrity Game was on TV in the mid-1960s. Here’s how host Carl Reiner explained the show:
We ask our celebrity panel a question on some popular topic that can be answered yes or no. Then our three players each get a chance to pick a star and tell us how they think the star voted.
An episode that aired in June of 1964 featured a contestant named Celynn McDonald (first name pronounced seh-LYN). She was described as “a law student and a perpetual movie fan.”
In Celynn’s episode, the three questions posed to the 9-person celebrity panel (which included Mickey Rooney, Gypsy Rose Lee, and Lee Marvin) were:
Do romantic screen heroes tend to make wives satisfied at home?
Should a woman marry a man ten years younger than she?
Should the United States government subsidize children as they do in France?
Alas, Celynn did not win the game. But her fifteen minutes of fame did shine a spotlight on her unusual name, and this, in turn, increased the usage of the name just enough to boost it into the SSA’s baby name data (which, due to privacy concerns, only includes names given to at least five babies per year).
What are your thoughts on the name Celynn? Would you use it?
The name Draven first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1994. Rather unusually, it debuted for both genders in the very same year:
Boys named Draven
Girls named Draven
1996
163 (rank: 853rd)
16
1995
182 (rank: 797th)
16
1994
54*
9*
1993
.
.
1992
.
.
*Debut
Here’s a visual:
Where did the name Draven come from?
The dark movie The Crow, which was released in May of 1994.
The film was set in “some decaying urban hell […] where armed gangs prowl the alleyways and common people are driven inside to merely survive.”
The main character was resurrected rock star Eric Draven. He and his fiancée had been murdered by gang members the night before their wedding. Exactly one year later, Eric rose from the dead to avenge their deaths.
The Crow starred actor Brandon Lee, son of martial arts superstar Bruce Lee. Sadly, Brandon was fatally wounded by a prop gun during filming. He died in March of 1993. The same year, usage of the compound name Brandonlee more than tripled:
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