The surname Mitchum can be traced back to the English village of Mitcham (which now part of London). The toponym was derived from two Old English words meaning “big” and “homestead, settlement.”
Mitchum first appeared in the U.S. baby name data when actor Robert Mitchum was at the height of his fame, in the mid-20th century:
- 1953: unlisted
- 1952: unlisted
- 1951: 5 baby boys named Mitchum [debut]
- 1950: unlisted
- 1949: unlisted
The appearance of Mitchum doesn’t seem to correspond to a notable Robert Mitchum-related event, oddly, like his single Academy Award nomination in 1946. (Same with several other debuts I’ve found, including Zsazsa and Sinatra — both also from the ’50s.)
The name dropped out of the data the next year. It might have remained a one-hit wonder if not for a completely unrelated Mitchum: Mitchum antiperspirant.
Mitchum antiperspirant was developed in the late ’50s by a Paris, Tennessee, businessman named Mitchum Warren — the son of the founder of a successful cosmetics company. Warren died unexpectedly in the late ’60s, and his company was acquired by Revlon in 1970.
In 1971, Revlon re-introduced Mitchum with a national advertising campaign that featured the memorable tagline, “So effective you can skip a day.” A year after that, the name Mitchum re-appeared in the U.S. baby name data.
Revlon stopped actively marketing the brand in the late 1980s. Unsurprisingly, the name disappeared from the data around the same time.
Do you like the name Mitchum? Do you like it more or less than similar names, such as Mitchell and Magnum?
Sources:
- Dougherty, Philip H. “Advertising: Introducing a New Product.” New York Times 20 Sep. 1971.
- Hanks, Patrick. (Ed.) Dictionary of American Family Names. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
- Leggiere, Phil. “Cross-Media Case Study: Mitchum Deodorant.” MediaPost 24 Jun. 2005.
- Schlueter, Roger. “Robert Mitchum didn’t win an Oscar — or have an antiperspirant named after him.” Belleville News-Democrat 25 May 2017.
