How popular is the baby name Sooner 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 Sooner.

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Popularity of the baby name Sooner


Posts that mention the name Sooner

Why didn’t Cloris Leachman change her name?

Actress Cloris Leachman (1926-2021)
Cloris Leachman

While other mid-20th-century actors and actresses were swapping out their birth names for catchy stage names (like Rory Calhoun, Lana Turner, Kirk Douglas, Piper Laurie, Tab Hunter, and Rock Hudson), Cloris Leachman decided to go against the grain and stick with her legal name (which she’d inherited from her mother).

But she did consider changing her name for a time…thanks largely to Tallulah Bankhead.

In 1949, Cloris was in her early 20s and appearing on stage in Come Back, Little Sheba. Bankhead came to see the production, and, afterwards, when the two women met for the first time, Tallulah implored Cloris to change her name.

On a different occasion, Bankhead brought the topic up again:

“Cloris Leachman,” she crowed, “too long. Too many syllables. Too unknown. Clorox Bleachman would be better. You can’t even fit it on the marquee in front of a theater.”

During that second interaction, Cloris came up with the potential stage name “April Claiborne” by combining her birth month with her youngest sister’s first name. (“Claiborne” was their paternal grandmother’s maiden name.)

She still wasn’t sure about making the change, though.

When I went to the Actors Studio the next day, I talked about Madame Bankhead’s rant. They all agreed with her. “You have to change your name! You have to!,” they cried. It was a unanimous opinion. So right there we got out the New York phone book. It opened it up to the Ls, closed my eyes, and the name under my finger was Leavitt. It was miraculous. That translated to “Leave it!” This is no accident, I thought. The god of monikers is talking, and he says leave it. Okay, I’ll leave it.

When I got to Hollywood, the subject came up again. People said I should not only change my name, I should have my nose shortened. I emphatically didn’t want to do either, and that’s why I’m still Cloris Leachman with a big nose.

Cloris Leachman’s name may not have been as trendy-sounding as “Lana Turner” or “Piper Laurie,” but it certainly wasn’t an impediment to her career, which lasted more than seven decades. She appeared in nearly 100 films (like The Last Picture Show), dozens of TV movies (such as A Girl Named Sooner), and well over 100 TV shows (including Johnny Staccato, Rawhide, Outlaws, Shirley Temple’s Storybook, The Loretta Young Show, Gunsmoke, The Twilight Zone, Route 66, Wagon Train, Stoney Burke, 77 Sunset Strip, A Man Called Shenandoah, The Big Valley, Mannix, The Virginian, and Lancer).

Her first name, a variant spelling of the ancient Greek name Chloris (meaning “greenish-yellow, pale green”), is closely related to the name Chloe (meaning “green shoot”).

What are your thoughts on the name Cloris?

Sources:

Where did the baby name Sooner come from in 1975?

The character Sooner from the TV movie "A Girl Named Sooner" (1975).
Sooner (l) from “A Girl Named Sooner“

Here’s an odd name: Sooner. It debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1975, and it was only on the list for two years before disappearing again:

  • 1977: unlisted
  • 1976: 5 baby girls named Sooner
  • 1975: 5 baby girls named Sooner [debut]
  • 1974: unlisted
  • 1973: unlisted

What inspired a handful of parents to name their baby girls named Sooner in the mid-1970s?

A TV movie called A Girl Named Sooner (1975), which was set in 1930s Indiana.

Title of the TV movie "A Girl Named Sooner" (1975)
“A Girl Named Sooner” (1975)

The main character, Sooner (played by actress Susan Deer), was an 8-year-old orphan who had been “born too soon” and hence named Sooner.

(This reminds me of Speedy Long, the U.S. Representative who was also born early and named accordingly.)

The telefilm was based on a Suzanne Clauser novel of the same name. If you’d like to watch it, a copy of A Girl Named Sooner has been uploaded to the Internet Archive.

Source: A Girl Named Sooner – Wikipedia

Where did the baby name Shenandoah come from in 1965?

The title character from the TV series "A Man Called Shenandoah" (1965-1966)
Shenandoah from “A Man Called Shenandoah“

The unusual name Shenandoah first popped up (as a boy name) in the U.S. baby name data in the middle of the 1960s:

  • 1967: unlisted
  • 1966: 12 baby boys named Shenandoah
  • 1965: 15 baby boys named Shenandoah [debut]
  • 1964: unlisted
  • 1963: unlisted

Why?

Mainly because of television…though a movie may have helped.

The TV western A Man Called Shenandoah ran from September of 1965 to September of 1966. It starred Robert Horton as a man who, after recovering from a gunshot, forgot his identity. He adopted the name Shenandoah and spent the series wandering the West, searching for clues about himself.

Title of the TV show "A Man Called Shenandoah" (1965-1966)

I’d say this was the main cause, as the title so strongly suggested that “Shenandoah” could be a name (just like A Girl Named Sooner a decade later).

But a secondary cause could have been the film Shenandoah, released in June of 1965. It starred actor Jimmy Stewart as a widowed Virginia farmer who tried unsuccessfully to remain neutral and keep his family together during the Civil War.

The word “Shenandoah” refers to the river, which runs mainly through Virginia. The origin of the name of the river isn’t known for sure, but one theory is that it’s a form of “Senedo,” the name of a Native American group that once existed in that region.

Do you like Shenandoah as a baby name? If so, do you think it works better for boys or for girls?

Source: Do You Remember… “A Man Called Shenandoah”
Image: Screenshot of A Man Called Shenandoah