How popular is the baby name Tunney 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 Tunney.

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Popularity of the baby name Tunney


Posts that mention the name Tunney

Where did the baby name Tunney come from in 1926?

American boxer Gene Tunney (1897-1978)
Gene Tunney

The name Tunney was being used often enough in the 1920s to register in the U.S. baby name data for three years straight:

  • 1929: unlisted
  • 1928: 9 baby boys named Tunney
  • 1927: 23 baby boys named Tunney
  • 1926: 8 baby boys named Tunney [debut]
  • 1925: unlisted

The variant spelling Tunny also popped up just once, in 1927.

Where did these names come from?

Professional boxer James Joseph “Gene” Tunney, who held the World Heavyweight title from 1926 to 1928.

He won the title by defeating Jack Dempsey in 1926, retained the title by defeating Dempsey again in 1927 (in a famous match now known as “The Long Count Fight”), and retired in 1928 after defeating Tom Heeney of New Zealand.

Gene Tunney in the movie serial "The Fighting Marine" (1926)
Gene Tunney in “The Fighting Marine

Another factor that could have influenced the name in 1926 was the 10-episode film serial The Fighting Marine, which starred Tunney. (Tunney had served as a Marine during World War I.)

The Irish surname Tunney is ultimately based on the personal name Tonnach, which may have meant either “billowy” or “shining.”

What do you think of Tunney as a baby name?

Sources:

P.S. In the 1952 movie Sailor Beware, the characters played by Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis had a short conversation in which they mixed up the similar names of boxer Gene Tunney and actress Gene Tierney — who was not behind the debut of the baby name Tierney, incidentally.

Baby girl named after 25 heavyweight boxers

To the kids at school, she’ll be Autumn Brown.

But her full name is: Autumn Sullivan Corbett Fitzsimmons Jeffries Hart Burns Johnson Willard Dempsey Tunney Schmeling Sharkey Carnera Baer Braddock Louis Charles Walcott Marciano Patterson Johansson Liston Clay Frazier Foreman Brown.

Autumn was born about 6 weeks ago in Wolverhampton, England. Her boxing-obsessed maternal grandparents gave their three children a total of 103 boxer names, and Autumn’s mother Maria (who wasn’t able to remember her own full name until the age of 10) decided to keep the tradition alive.

Autumn’s middle names are the surnames of 25 world heavyweight boxing champions, beginning with John L. Sullivan and ending with George Foreman (and including Ezzard Charles).

Source: Autumn’s a real knockout! Express & Star 22 June 2007.