How popular is the baby name Louise in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Find out using the graph below! Plus, check out all the blog posts that mention the name Louise.
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Looking for an off-the-radar J-name for your baby girl? Here’s the latest installment of rare female names collected from very old films (released from the 1910s to the 1940s).
For the names that saw enough usage to register in the U.S. data, I’ve included links to the popularity graphs.
Jacala
Jacala Auehli was a character played by actress Priscilla Dean in the film The Brazen Beauty (1918).
Jacinta
Jacinta was a character played by actress Nanci Price in the film In Gay Madrid (1930).
Jeanne
Jeanne d’Alcy was an actress who appeared in films from the 1890s to the 1900s. She was born in 1865 in France. Her birth name was Charlotte Lucie Marie Adèle Stephanie Adrienne Faës. Jeanne Eagels was an actress who appeared in films from the 1910s to the 1920s. She was born in 1890 in Missouri. Her birth name was Amelia Jean Eagles. Jeanne Aubert was an actress who appeared in films from the 1920s to the 1960s. She was born in 1900 in France. Jeanne was also a character name in multiple films, including The Phantom’s Secret (1917) and The Flower of the North (1922).
Jesseva
Jesseva was a character played by actress Bobbie Gould in the film The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914).
Jetta
Jetta [pronounced ZHET-eh] Goudal was an actress who appeared in films from the 1920s to the 1930s. She was born in 1891 in the Netherlands. Her birth name Juliette Henriette Goudeket.
Jinjur
Jinjur was a character played by actress Marie Wayne in the film The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914).
Jinx Jinx Falkenburg was an actress who appeared in films from the 1930s to the 1940s. She was born in Spain in 1919. Her birth name was Eugenia Lincoln Falkenburg. Jinx was also a character name in the film Juke Box Jenny (1942).
Jonesy
Jonesy was a (female) character name in multiple films, including Hollywood Hotel (1937) and Babes on Broadway (1941).
José
José Collins was an actress who appeared in films from the 1910s to the 1930s. She was born in England in 1887. Her birth name was Josephine Charlotte Collins.
Josephita
Josephita Guerrero was a character played by actress Renée Adorée in the film Tide of Empire (1929).
Josette
Josette Andriot was an actress who appeared in films from the 1900s to the 1910s. She was born in France in 1886. Her birth name was Camille Élisa Andriot. Josette was also a character played by actress Tala Birell in the film Josette (1938).
Josseline
Josseline Gaël was an actress who appeared in films from the 1920s to the 1940s. She was born in France in 1917. Her birth name was Jeannine Augustine Jeanne Blanleuil.
My husband and I hung out in New Orleans for about 48 hours in mid-December. It rained almost the entire time, but we still managed to get out and spot a few interesting names!
First, an unexpected food name: Beignet (pron. ben-YAY), which literally means “bump” in French. In terms of food, it’s fried dough with sugar on top. In terms of names, though, it’s been bestowed as a middle at least three times, according to the records I’ve seen. These human Beignets were all girls born in the ’80s and ’90s in Texas and Oklahoma.
We briefly visited the New Orleans Jazz and Jean Lafitte National Historical Parks, where we learned about people like…
Fate Marable, African American jazz pianist/bandleader (“Fate” could be short for Lafayette)
We also learned about various locations, including Atchafalaya.
Speaking of locations…while wandering around the city, we spotted ghost signs for Antoine’s Restaurant (which I mentioned in the Caresse post) and Uneeda Biscuits (I discovered the name “Uneeda” on a trip to Kansas City):
And finally, how about the name “New Orleans” itself? In the records I found dozens, including New Orleans Taylor, a 13-year-old girl living with her family in Louisiana at the time of the 1930 U.S. Census:
Laloe
Laloe Berchmans was a character played by actress Julie Suedo in the film The Woman from China (1930).
Lamentina
Lamentina was a character played by actress Nancy Brown in the film Red Wagon (1933).
Lammchen
Emma “Lammchen” Pinneberg was a character played by actress Margaret Sullavan in the film Little Man, What Now? (1934). Lammchen means “little lamb” in German.
Landra
Landra was a character played by actress June Collyer in the film Revenge at Monte Carlo (1933).
Laraine
Laraine Day was an actress who appeared in films from the 1930s to the 1960s. She was born in Utah in 1920. Her birth name was La Raine Johnson.
Laurette
Laurette Taylor was an actress who appeared in films in the 1920s. She was born in New York in 1884. Her birth name was Loretta Cooney. Laurette was also a character played by actress Molly Lamont in the film Scared to Death (1947).
Lavolia
Lavolia was a character played by actress Etta McDaniel in the film Magnificent Brute (1936).
Leatrice
Leatrice Joy was an actress who appeared in films from the 1910s to the 1950s. She was born in Louisiana in 1893. Leatrice Joy Gilbert (Leatrice Joy’s daughter) was an actress who appeared in films from the 1930s to the 1940s. She was born in California in 1924.
Leontine
Leontine Dranet was an actress who appeared in 2 films in the 1910s. Leontine was also a character name in multiple films, including The Closing Net (1915) and The Shielding Shadow (serial, 1916).
Lita
Lita Grey was an actress who appeared in films from the 1920s to the 1940s. She was born in California in 1908. Her birth name was Lillita MacMurray. Lita was also a character name in multiple films, including Bachelor Apartment (1931) and The Girl from Monterrey (1943).
Lorna
Lorna Gray was an actress who appeared in films from the 1930s to the 1950s. She was born in Michigan in 1917. Her birth name was Virginia Pound. Lorna was also a character name in multiple films, including Traffic in Souls (1913) and The Butterfly Girl (1921).
Luana
Luana Walters was an actress who appeared in films from the 1930s to the 1950s. She was born in California in 1912. Luana Patten was an actress who appeared in films from the 1940s to the 1980s. She was born in California in 1938. Luana was also a character played by actress Dolores del Rio in the film Bird of Paradise (1932).
Lucile
Lucile Watson was an actress who appeared in films from the 1910s to the 1950s. She was born in Canada in 1879. Lucile Browne was an actress who appeared in films from the 1930s to the 1950s. She was born in Tennessee in 1907. Lucile was also a character played by actress Marguerite Snow in the short film Lucile (1912).
Luya
Luya was a character played by actress Edith Roberts in the film Black Cargoes of the South Seas (1928).
Lya
Lya De Putti was an actress who appeared in films from the 1910s to the 1920s. She was born in Austria-Hungary (now Slovakia) in 1897. Her birth name was Amalia Putti.
When my mother was pregnant with me, she and my father read La montaña es algo más que una inmensa estepa verde, Omar Cabezas’ personal account of his time living with Sandinista guerrilla revolutionaries in the Cordillera Isabelia, a mountain range in Nicaragua. Today I choose to do justice to the radical provenance of my name, after years of subjecting myself to mispronunciations, ultracorrections, and the bulldozing erasure that accompanies nicknames. […] Because I’m not Izzy or Isa, I’m Isabelia.
From an article about the Fultz sisters, Americas first identical African-American quadruplets (b. 1946):
“The doctor took it upon himself to name the girls — all of them Mary, followed by the names of the women in the Klenner family. There was Ann, for the doctor’s wife; Louise, his daughter; Alice, his aunt; and Catherine, his great-aunt.
To the delivery nurse, who is black, it didn’t seem strange.
“At that time, you know, it was before integration,” Margaret Ware, 79, recalled recently. “They did us how they wanted. And these were very poor people. He was a sharecropper, Pete [Mr. Fultz] was, and she [Mrs. Fultz] couldn’t read or write.
Charlie was our choice. Not the most “out there” name in the world, but also not too overused or common. I honestly did not see why it was so very controversial. But they hated it. With a passion.
And they weren’t afraid to tell us. At the dinner table. At the restaurant. And even the day before Charlie was born.
[…]
Maybe they didn’t realize how hurtful it might be? Maybe they thought the name was so atrocious that they had to say something or else our kid would live a life of ridicule and pain? I just don’t freaking know.
While in recent years Utah has garnered attention for spelling names in more unique (or tortuous) ways, Utah has actually been the trendsetter within the United States in naming kids for a century
[…]
For many names, popularity hits Utah typically five or so years before elsewhere in the country. In some cases, like Evan, names are popular only in Utah for decades before they gain national traction.
For a tropical cyclone with wind speeds that could reach up to 150 kmph and has forced the evacuation of three lakh people in the Odisha coastline, Titli — meaning butterfly — is a surprisingly delicate name.
Malaysian Prime Minster Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad is now a source of inspiration for parents looking to name their babies.
The names ‘Tun’ and ‘Mahathir’ are extremely popular, with 4,726 people named Tun and 420 named Mahathir, according to the country’s National Registration Department (NRD).
“Especially in the Midwest, when they heard my name was Jihad the first thing that appeared to their minds was the image of suicide bombers, and the jihadists that attack the army in Afghanistan or Iraq.”
[Jihad Abdo, one of Syria’s best-known actors], whose most popular TV show had an audience of 50 million, simply couldn’t catch a break in Los Angeles. He suffered through 100 failed auditions and scraped by delivering pizza for Domino’s.
He realised that to keep his career, he would have to lose his name.
[…]
He considered Jude, but settled on the name Jay – simple, innocuous – American.
Things changed overnight, “because Jay for them is a lovely guy – it brings to them Jay Leno or… lovely people – people they are comfortable with. It doesn’t create any ‘sensitivity’, let’s say.”
Yes, this Asian outpost of Maine food and culture is named after that Cabot Cove. The one where the fictitious mystery writer Jessica Fletcher (played by Angela Lansbury from 1984 to 1996 on CBS) solved so many crimes that in 2012 researchers declared if the town were real, it would have the world’s highest murder rate.
It turns out that re-runs of “Murder, She Wrote” – or “Jessica Obasan no Jikenbo,” which translates to “Auntie Jessica’s Case Files” – were also must-see TV in Japan. Kiyoto and Keiko Deguchi, the owners of Cabot Cove restaurant, are big fans.
Looking for an uncommon girl name with a retro feel?