How popular is the baby name Sonseeahray 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 Sonseeahray.

The graph will take a few moments to load. (Don't worry, it shouldn't take 9 months!) If it's taking too long, try reloading the page.


Popularity of the baby name Sonseeahray


Posts that mention the name Sonseeahray

Where did the baby name Shalimar come from in 1954?

The character Shalimar from the movie "Princess of the Nile" (1954)
Shalimar from “Princess of the Nile“

The name Shalimar first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1954:

  • 1958: unlisted
  • 1957: 6 baby girls named Shalimar
  • 1956: unlisted
  • 1955: unlisted
  • 1954: 5 baby girls named Shalimar
  • 1953: unlisted

The inspiration here was not the famous perfume created by Guerlain in the 1920s, but a movie called Princess of the Nile released in mid-1954. It starred Debra Paget as an Egyptian Princess named Shalimar (who sometimes went incognito as a dancing girl known as Taura).

This was a few years after the Debra Paget movie Broken Arrow boosted Sonseeahray into the data, and a few years before Debra started outranking Deborah on the popularity charts.

But the word Shalimar is not Egyptian. It comes from the famous Shalamar Gardens in Lahore, Pakistan. The gardens were created in the mid-1600s by Shah Jahan (who also built the Taj Mahal). “Shalamar” was derived from the Arabic phrase shah al-‘imarat, meaning “master of buildings.”

Source: Princess of the Nile (1954) – TCM, The meaning of ‘Shalimar’

Image: Screenshot of Princess of the Nile

How did “Broken Arrow” influence baby names?

The character Sonseeahray from the movie "Broken Arrow" (1950)
Sonseeahray from “Broken Arrow“

Elliott Arnold’s 1947 novel Blood Brother was a fictionalized account of the adventures of Old West historical figures Cochise, a Chiricahua Apache chief, and Tom Jeffords, a U.S. Indian agent.

The book was later adapted into a movie and a TV series, and both of these things ended up influencing U.S. baby names.

Sonseeahray & Debralee

The movie Broken Arrow was released in the summer of 1950. It starred Jeff Chandler as Cochise and James Stewart as Tom Jeffords. But the two baby names that debuted in the data thanks to the movie were associated with a different character: Sonseeahray, played by teenage actress Debra Paget.

Broken Arrow wasn’t Debra Paget’s first movie, but it was her first big hit, and it helped her achieve a new level of fame. And in 1951, her birth name Debralee debuted in the data. In fact, it was that year’s top debut name.

  • 1953: 11 baby girls named Debralee
  • 1952: 9 baby girls named Debralee
  • 1951: 19 baby girls named Debralee [debut]
  • 1950: unlisted
  • 1949: unlisted

The public had become aware that Debra Paget was born “Debralee Griffin” in mid-1950, thanks to a newspaper article by AP journalist Hubbard Keavy, who called Debra’s birth name “improbable” (a curious comment, coming from guy named Hubbard Keavy). He quoted Debra’s mother, Margaret Griffin, as saying:

I christened her Debra. Her father’s people were Pagets. I used to call her Debra Lee, thinking that would be a good professional name. But Paget is more unusual and there are no Pagets in the movies.

Debra’s sister, Marcia Eloise Griffin, also acted under a stage name: Teala Loring.

The name of the character Sonseeahray also debuted in 1951:

  • 1953: unlisted
  • 1952: unlisted
  • 1951: 7 baby girls named Sonseeahray [debut]
  • 1950: unlisted
  • 1949: unlisted

Sonseeahray, defined in the novel as “morning star,” seems to be legitimate Apache name; it was included and defined in the book Life Among the Apaches (1868) by John C. Cremony.

Two real-life Sonseeahrays are Fox News reporter Sonseeahray Tonsall and German actress Sonsee Neu, born Sonsee Ahray Natascha Floethmann-Neu.

Marsheela & Ansara

The TV series Broken Arrow first aired on ABC from 1956 to 1958. (Reruns aired in 1959 and 1960.) The show starred Michael Ansara as Cochise and John Lupton as Tom Jeffords. While it did not include the character Sonseeahray, an early episode did feature a Sonseeahray-like character named Marsheela.

Marsheela, played by actress Donna Martell, appeared in the episode “Apache Girl” in mid-1957. The same year, the name Marsheela was a one-hit wonder in the baby name data:

  • 1959: unlisted
  • 1958: unlisted
  • 1957: 11 baby girls named Marsheela [debut]
  • 1956: unlisted
  • 1955: unlisted

I figured out the source of this one only after posting about Marsheila, which was the most-used spelling of Marsheela that year (no doubt because of the familiarity of the Irish name Sheila, which was a top-100 girl name in the U.S. throughout the ’50s and ’60s).

Another one-hit wonder was the surname of Arab-American actor Michael Ansara. Five baby boys were named Ansara in 1960:

  • 1962: unlisted
  • 1961: unlisted
  • 1960: 5 baby boys named Ansara [debut]
  • 1959: unlisted
  • 1958: unlisted

Though Broken Arrow had made Michael Ansara a household name, this debut lines up more cleanly with a later TV Western that Ansara also starred in: Law of the Plainsman, which lasted from 1959 to 1960.

His surname may be based on the Arabic term al-ansar, meaning “the helpers.”

Sources:

Apache personal names

According to John C. Cremony, who wrote Life Among the Apaches in 1868, Apache men and women had much less gruesome names than the Miwok.

Apache men were named for “some marked trait of character, personal conformation, or noteworthy act.” But this didn’t happen until they were beyond boyhood. Up to that point, each one was called ish-kay-nay, or “boy.”

Some examples of adult male names:

  • Gian-nah-tah, “Always Ready”
  • Klo-sen, “Hair Rope” (for having lassoed and killed a Comanche with a cabestro)
  • Nah-kah-yen, “Keen Sighted”
  • Nah-tanh, “Corn Flower” (for having once hidden in a field of corn after a raid)
  • Natch-in-ilk-kisn, “Colored Beads”
  • Para-ah-dee-ah-tran, “Contented”
  • Pindah-Lickoyee, “White Eye”
  • Too-ah-yay-say, “Strong Swimmer”

And women? For the most part, women did not get names; each was simply known as ish-tia-nay, or “woman.” But several did get “decidedly poetical appellations,” such as…

  • Ish-kay-nay, “Boy” (for being a tomboy)
  • Sons-ee-ah-ray, “Morning Star”
  • [Forgotten by the author], “Dexterous Horse Thief”

The name Sonseeahray was used for a character in the Elliott Arnold book Blood Brother (1947), which was later made into the movie Broken Arrow (1950).