How popular is the baby name Roy in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Find out using the graph below! Plus, see baby names similar to Roy and check out all the blog posts that mention the name Roy.

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Popularity of the Baby Name Roy

Number of Babies Named Roy

Born in the U.S. Since 1880

Posts that Mention the Name Roy

Obama’s Mama: Stanley Ann

It’s election day!

While we wait for news about the next U.S. president, let’s talk about Stanley, the late mother of the current U.S. president.

Stanley Ann Dunham was born in 1942 to Stanley and Madelyn Dunham of Wichita, Kansas. According to most sources, her father had been hoping for a baby boy. When a baby girl arrived instead, he stubbornly decided to pass his name down regardless.

But Pulitzer-winning journalist David Maraniss has another theory: “The naming of Stanley Ann had less to do with the dictates of a presumptuous father than with the longing for sophistication of a starstruck mother.” He explains:

Since her teenage years as a moviegoer at the commodious Augusta Theatre, Madelyn had devoutly followed the film career of Bette Davis, her favorite actress. A new picture starring Davis and Olivia de Havilland reached Kansas during the summer of 1942, while Madelyn was pregnant. In the movie, In This Our Life, Davis and de Havilland played the two Timberlake sisters, each with a man’s name: Davis was Stanley and de Havilland was Roy.

In This Our Life, Bette Davis, Stanley
Bette Davis as Stanley in the movie In This Our Life

According to Maraniss, this is what inspired Madelyn to name the baby Stanley, and the fact that the baby’s father was also named Stanley was just a coincidence.

The movie In This Our Life was based on a Pulitzer-winning novel of the same name by author Ellen Glasgow. The 1941 novel is set in Glasgow’s home state of Virginia — one of the many states throughout the South in which family surnames were often bestowed upon baby girls (especially in families without many sons).

Stanley Ann Dunham “was teased mercilessly for her name” as a youngster, according to Barack Obama in his book Dreams from My Father. She ended up dropping “Stanley” and simply going by “Ann” as an adult.

Where did her father get his name? “His mother, an avid reader, named him in honor of one of her favorite historical characters, Sir Henry Morton Stanley, the British newspaperman and adventurer who became famous probing the nether regions of interior Africa.”

Interestingly, Sir Henry Morton Stanley was born John Rowlands; he created the name “Henry Morton Stanley” for himself upon emigrating to America from England.

What do you think of the name Stanley for a baby girl?

Sources:

  • Maraniss, David. Barack Obama: The Story. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2012.
  • Obama, Barack. Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. New York: Crown Publishers, 1995.

The Baby Name Saford, a Hillbilly One-Hit Wonder

In 1941, Saford debuted on the U.S. baby name charts with 11 baby boys — enough to make it the top boy name debut of the year.

Clayton and Saford Hall in in 1940
Clayton and Saford Hall in 1940
Never to be seen on the list again, Saford was also the top one-hit wonder name of 1941, and it’s tied for 9th on the list of most popular one-hit wonder boy names of all time.

So what’s the story behind this mysterious name?

The state-by-state data offers a big clue about the origin of Saford:

  • 1942: unlisted
  • 1941: 11 baby boys named Saford
    • 9 born in Virginia specifically
  • 1940: unlisted

The name Saford was inspired by Saford Hall, a member of the pre-bluegrass musical duo the Hall Twins. The other member was Saford’s identical twin brother, Clayton. Saford played the fiddle, Clayton played the banjo, and both boys could sing.

Clayton and Saford were born in rural Patrick County, Virginia, in 1919. They were the last of 10 children. Their older siblings were named Lee, Roxie, Thamon, Mack, Romie, Samson, Simon and Asa.

Ralph Berrier, Jr. — a journalist who happens to be Clayton’s grandson — wrote about the twins in his book If Trouble Don’t Kill Me. Here’s how he describes them on his website (which also includes recordings of several performances from the early ’40s):

The Hall twins rose from mountain-bred poverty to pickin’ and yodelin’ all over the airwaves of the South in the 1930s and 1940s, opening shows for the Carter Family, Roy Rogers, the Sons of the Pioneers, and even playing the most coveted stage of all: the Grand Ole Opry.

They played the Grand Ole Opry twice, in 1941 and in 1942, as part of Roy Hall and His Blue Ridge Entertainers. (They weren’t related to Roy.)

This is exactly when we see the unusual name Saford pop up on the baby name charts for the first and only time. I’ve even found a Virginia baby named Saford Clayton, though he wasn’t born until 1944.

The name Clayton was already being given to hundreds of U.S. babies per year in the early ’40s, but usage does seem to rise in both Virginia and North Carolina in 1942.

Just as their musical careers were beginning to take off, though, the brothers were drafted. Saford was sent to North Africa and Europe, and Clayton was sent to the South Pacific.

The Hall twins survived WWII, and they continued playing music after returning to the States, but they were never able to achieve the same level of musical success. Saford passed away in 1999, Clayton in 2003.

Sources:

Stickers with Names from the ’60s

In 1969, dozens of “Mod Generation” stickers — each of which featured a drawing of a young person and a name — were distributed inside packs of Topps chewing gum.

(The outfits and hairstyles seem a lot more hippie than mod to me, but oh well.)

Female names used on the stickers include Alice, Ann, Barbara, Betty, Connie, Diane, Donna, Dotty, Ellen, Esther, Fay, Frances, Gloria, Helen, Jackie, Joan, Judy, Lois, Marie, Mary, Millie, Minda, Nancy, Natalie, Phyllis, Rose, Shelly and Susan.

Mod Generation Sticker BettyMod Generation Sticker DonnaMod Generation Sticker Minda

Male names used on the stickers include Barry, Bert, Bill, Charlie, Chris, Dave, Don, Fred, George, Herb, Irv, Jerry, Joe, John, Larry, Louis, Michael, Paul, Pete, Ray, Richard, Roy, Teddy and Tony.

Mod Generation Sticker IrvMod Generation Sticker LarryMod Generation Sticker Terry

While of these female and male names do you like most? How about least?

Source: 1969: “Mod Generation” Stickers, Mod Generation – 1969

Klondike, the Gold Rush Baby Name

Klondikers, 1898 - Klondike Gold RushAll this recent interest in mining Bitcoin is making me think of a gold rush.

And that reminds me…I have yet to talk about the many dozens of babies named after the Klondike Gold Rush (1896-1899).

Here are some examples of people named Klondike:

  • Klondike Counsell, born in Utah in May, 1897
  • Klondike Winters, born in Michigan in May, 1897
  • Harry Klondike Hayes, born in Washington in June, 1897
  • Klondyke Alaska Slaughter, born in Kentucky in July, 1897
  • Klondike McKinley Smith born in Oregon in August, 1897
  • Klondike A. Bogardeus, born in Ohio in August, 1897
  • Harold Klondike Hathaway, born in Massachusetts in August, 1897
  • Klondike P. Flint, born in Ohio in September, 1897
  • Klondike DeMoss Tucker, born in Indiana in September, 1897
  • Klondike Goldy Kelly, born in Ohio in October, 1897
  • Goldy Klondike Fletcher, born in Nebraska in December, 1897
  • Pearl Klondike Lincoln, born in Pennsylvania in December, 1897
  • Kittie Klondike Hughes, born in Texas in January, 1898
  • Klondyke Dodd, born in Texas in January, 1898
  • Klondike D. Ator, born in Texas in January, 1898
  • Loren Klondike Philleo, born in Washington in January, 1898
  • Dewey Klondike Livingston, born in Oklahoma in February, 1898
  • Klondyke Kirkendall, born in West Virginia in March, 1898
  • Vannie Klondyke Smith, born in West Virginia in June, 1898
  • Earl Klondike Kinahan, born in Illinois in June, 1898
  • Joseph Klondike Dawson, born in Tennessee in September, 1898
  • Roy Klondike Temple, born in Oregon in September, 1898
  • John Klondike Griffith, born in Massachusetts in October, 1898
  • Klondike Dewey Sengelmann, born in Texas in December, 1898

Some of the above take the Klondike theme even further with names like “Goldy” and “Alaska.” Others commemorate war hero Commodore George Dewey or 25th U.S. President William McKinley.

The baby name Klondike has never appeared on any SSA list, but I think it could (should?) have in 1897 and 1898, if a complete set of data had been collected those years.

Where does the word Klondike come from? The Klondike River was originally called Tr’ondëk in the Hän language. Tr’ondëk means “hammerstone water,” as the people who originally inhabited the area would “hammer stakes into the riverbed and weave branches between them to create weirs that guided fish into carefully set basket traps.”

So…think we’ll be seeing any babies named Bitcoin soon? ;)

Sources: Bitcoin Is No Longer a Currency, Dawson City Museum South Gallery

Pennsylvania Family with 20 Children

In October of 1952, Irma Griser of Pitcairn, Pennsylvania, welcomed her fifth set of twins — her 19th and 20th children.

In the most recent article I could find about Irma, she hadn’t yet named her most recent twins (a girl and a boy), so here are the names of her 18 older children:

  • Agnes, 17
  • Arthur, 15
  • Sarah, 13
  • Edward, 11
  • Delores and John, 10
  • Harvey, 9
  • Dorothy and Robert, 8
  • Mary and David, 6
  • James and Joseph, 5
  • Tommy, 4
  • Richard, Roy and Joan, 3
  • Sharon, nearly 2

What would you have named the twins?

And, which of the 18 names above is your favorite?

Source: “Fifth Set of Twins Makes 20 Children in Pitcairn Family.” Pittsburgh Press 2 Oct. 1952: 1.