How popular is the baby name Salida 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 Salida.

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Popularity of the baby name Salida


Posts that mention the name Salida

Baby born in British Columbia city of Kelowna, named Kelowna

Kelowna, British Columbia
Kelowna (in 1920)

So far we’ve talked about two babies named for newly formed towns — Salida and Nira — and today we have one more: Kelowna.

The Canadian city of Kelowna in British Columbia, Canada, was settled in the mid-1800s and incorporated in 1905. The name of the city means “grizzly bear” in the Okanagan language.

For several decades during the early 1900s, the residents of Kelowna’s Chinatown made up as much as 15% of the total population. But the birth rate in Chinatown was quite low, as most of the residents were men whose families remained in China due to Canada’s discriminatory Chinese head tax.

Chinatown’s first baby didn’t arrive until early 1906. Her name? Kelowna, after her Canadian birthplace.

Sources: Okanagan history not sexy, but it is ours, UBC O 2013 GREEN EDUC 417 “Kelowna’s Chinatown” (vid)

Image: Bernard Avenue, Kelowna, B.C.

For-profit baby names

California mom-to-be Natasha Hill — the woman who was supposed to be getting $5,000 for allowing strangers to name her unborn baby via the site Belly Ballot — isn’t really pregnant. She isn’t even really named “Natasha Hill.”

Her name is Natasha Lloyd, and she’s an actress who was hired by the website’s founder to help drum up publicity.

Yep — the whole thing was a hoax. The folks at Today.com were the ones to figure it out:

When TODAY Moms first reported on the contest, some readers were incredulous; they couldn’t believe a real mom would do such a thing. Now it appears they were right.

Except…they weren’t. Several “real moms” (and dads) have indeed done such a thing. Here are all the for-profit baby names (and attempts) I know of:

*I never blogged about these three, so here are the details:

  • In 2001, Jason Black and Frances Schroeder of New York tried to auction off the name of the their third child (first son) via Yahoo and eBay. They were aiming for a corporate sponsor, so the bidding started at $500,000. No one bid. They ended up naming the baby Zane Black.
  • In 2002, Bob and Tracy Armstrong from Florida tried to auction off the name of their baby (gender unknown) via eBay. After eBay pulled the auction for the third time, they decided not to try again.
  • In 2002, Heather and Steve Johnston of Washington state tried to auction off the name of their baby boy via eBay. The bidding started at $250,000. I found no follow-up stories, so I imagine the auction was either pulled or unsuccessful.

Video games on one end, $15,000 on the other…such wildly different values placed on baby names. Kinda fascinating, isn’t it?

Sources: $5,000 online baby-name contest revealed as hoax, Mom crowdsources baby name for $5,000

Image: Adapted from $20 Federal Reserve Bank Note (1929) (public domain)

[Latest update: March 2022]

Baby born in Alberta town of Wainwright, named Wainwright

Welcome sign in Wainwright, Alberta

The town of Wainwright in Alberta, Canada, was established in 1908 and named in honor of William Wainwright, a vice-president of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. (The town was on the Grand Trunk line.)

The first baby born in the small community was the daughter of Martin L. Forster, proprietor of the Wainwright Hotel. She was named Wainwright Marguerite Forster, after the town.

(Wainwright was the fourth of eight children. Her siblings were named Russell, Claudine, Carl, Jessie, Doris, Eileen, and Jeanette.)

While being interviewed in 1958 — just before the town’s 50th anniversary celebration — Wainwright admitted: “It’s a strange first name for a woman and one that has caused quite a bit of confusion, believe me.”

(Other babies named after towns include Salida, Kelowna, and Nira.)

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Wainwright sign by Awmcphee under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Baby born in Iowa town of Nira, named Nira

While doing research for the post about NIRA, I discovered that there used to be a town in Washington County, Iowa, called Nira.

The town wasn’t named after the legislation, though. It had been named decades earlier by Col. William B. Bell, an early Washington County postmaster. He named the town after his wife, Nira.

And here’s an interesting fact: the town of Nira — just like the town of Salida, Colorado — held a baby name contest in its early days:

Col. Bell watched the growth of the village named for his wife, Nira, and offered a gold dollar to the first baby girl born in the town who was named Nira.

The gold dollar eventually was awarded Nira Moffitt, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Moffitt. Her present location is unknown.

(According to the U.S. Census of 1900, Nira Moffitt was born in June of 1880.)

There was a surge of interest in the town in August of 1933, when Nira became one of the first places in the nation to sell NIRA-emblem postage stamps. By that point, though, the town had dwindled to just 20 residents.

After those last residents left, the down of Nira became (and remains) a ghost town.

Sources:

  • “Nira Enjoys New Boom.” Telegraph-Herald 17 Aug. 1933: 1+.
  • “Nira, Iowa, Enjoys Boom Because of New Stamp.” Reading Eagle 17 Aug. 1933: 11.