How popular is the baby name Rainell 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 Rainell.

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Popularity of the baby name Rainell


Posts that mention the name Rainell

Where did the baby name Clovia come from in 1949?

The characters Chipper and Clovia from the comic strip "Gasoline Alley" (panel from the early 1950s).
Clovia and Chipper

The curious name Clovia debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1949:

  • 1951: 5 baby girls named Clovia
  • 1950: 13 baby girls named Clovia
  • 1949: 22 baby girls named Clovia [debut]
  • 1948: unlisted
  • 1947: unlisted

It was the 4th-highest girl name debut that year after Rainelle, Rainell and Randye.

Where did it come from?

A comic strip!

The strip, called Gasoline Alley, debuted in newspapers in late 1918. (And it’s still being published today, amazingly.)

In May of 1949, Gasoline Alley characters Skeezix and Nina welcomed a baby girl and decided to name her Clovia.

Why “Clovia”?

Nina got stuck in traffic on the way to the hospital and was forced to give birth in a taxi. On the infant’s wrist was a birthmark in the shape of a four-leaf clover.

Clovia doll
Clovia the doll

And Clovia wasn’t just a comic strip character. For a time, she was also a doll.

In mid-1949, a few weeks after Clovia’s introduction, Clovia dolls became available in retail stores. (Dolls based on comic strip babies had become trendy in the 1940s.)

The baby name Clovia remained on the national baby name list through the 1950s, but usage petered out in the 1960s.

(Dondi, another comic strip-inspired name, had more staying power. Sparkle, on the other hand, lasted only a year.)

Sources:

  • “Comic Strip Dolls.” Life 19 Oct. 1953.
  • Cushman, Philip. Constructing the Self, Constructing America. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1995.

Images © Life.

Where did the baby name Rainelle come from in 1949?

Rainell

We know that baby names have been inspired by missing children (e.g., Caylee Anthony, Kyron Horman, Natalee Holloway). Sadly, they’ve also been inspired by murdered children.

One example is Rainelle. The baby name Rainelle was given to 46 baby girls all of a sudden in 1949, making it a top debut name that year.

  • 1951: 15 baby girls named Rainelle
  • 1950: 14 baby girls named Rainelle
  • 1949: 46 baby girls named Rainelle [debut]
  • 1948: unlisted
  • 1947: unlisted

Similar baby girl names to debut that year were Rainell, Ranell, and Raenelle.

So, who was the victim?

Rainell Karel Downing, a 2-year-old from Michigan who was murdered in February of 1949. She and her mother Deliphene were victims of the Lonely Hearts Killers Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck.

Mrs. Beck admitted drowning the child, Rainelle [sic] Downing, in a tub of water after Fernandez had killed her mother, Mrs. Delphine [sic] Downing.

(Many newspapers misspelled their names “Rainelle” and “Delphine” repeatedly.)

After a highly sensationalized trial, Fernandez and Beck were found guilty of first-degree murder in August. Both were executed by electric chair about a year and a half later.

Poor Rainell didn’t live long, but it’s nice to think that her name lives on.

Source: “Jury Convicts ‘Hearts’ Pair of Murder.” Reading Eagle 18 Aug. 1949: 1+.