Adilene isn’t the only ’80s baby name that has me stumped. The baby name Marquita became popular suddenly in 1983, and I have absolutely no idea why.
In 1983, thousands of baby girls were suddenly given the name Marquita (or a variant thereof):
| Name | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marquita (f) [rank] |
127 [1,111th] |
2,543 [112th] |
1,372 [195th] |
536 [417th] |
| Marquita (m) | – | 20 | – | – |
| Marquitta | 27 | 138 | 128 | 75 |
| Marquetta | 62 | 80 | 91 | 72 |
| Marqueta | 7 | 28 | 26 | 12 |
| Markeeta | 11 | 28 | 29 | 18 |
| Markeita | – | 20 | 18 | 10 |
| Marqutia | – | 12 | – | – |
| Markeda | 10 | 10 | 16 | 14 |
| Marquieta | – | 9 | 7 | – |
| Markitta | – | 8 | 11 | 6 |
| Marquida | – | 8 | 8 | 6 |
| Markida | – | 6 | – | 6 |
| Markeyta | – | 5 | 9 | 7 |
Marquita was out of the top 1,000 again by the mid-1990s.
The spike seems to have been centered in the South. The states with the most babies named Marquita in 1983 were…
- Georgia – 218 babies named Marquita
- Texas – 195 babies named Marquita
- North Carolina – 176 babies named Marquita
- Mississippi – 170 babies named Marquita
- Louisiana – 168 babies named Marquita
- Florida – 162 babies named Marquita
- Illinois – 161 babies named Marquita
- Alabama – 145 babies named Marquita
- California – 123 babies named Marquita
- Virginia – 112 babies named Marquita
The spike wasn’t caused by Marquita Rivera. And I don’t think either Marquita Pool-Eckert (at that time Marquita Pool) or Marquita Lister were popular enough to have caused it.
Any ideas?