How popular is the baby name Twiggy 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 Twiggy.
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Back when I was writing about the baby name Twiggy, I happened upon the one-hit wonder baby name Twig:
1957: unlisted
1956: unlisted
1955: 5 baby boys named Twig [debut]
1954: unlisted
1953: unlisted
Where did it come from?
A short-lived TV sitcom called Professional Father, which aired on CBS from January to July, 1955. The central characters were Dr. Tom Wilson, his wife Helen, and their kids Kathryn, known as “Kit,” and Tom Jr., known as “Twig.”
The show was a mid-season replacement for another sitcom called That’s My Boy. It was replaced in the fall by Gunsmoke, which went on to become the longest-running western in TV history.
What do you think of the baby name Twig? (How about “Twig” as a nickname for Thomas?)
I thought it was just a variant of Cookie until I did some research. Turns out that Kookie was a hipster character played by Edd Byrnes on the detective show 77 Sunset Strip (1958-1964). He worked as a valet parking attendant at the club next door to the detectives’ office. The character quickly became a cultural phenomenon:
Constantly combing his glossy, duck-tailed hair and speaking in what was called ‘jive talk’, Gerald Lloyd Kookson III – ‘Kookie’ to his friends — helped Stu and Jeff out on their cases and stole the show. Teenage girls went wild for Kookie and his fan mail reached 10,000 letters a week. A glossary was issued for those who wanted to learn his language which included such young dude phrases as, ‘let’s exitville’ (let’s go), ‘out of print’ (from another town), ‘piling up the Z’s’ (sleeping), ‘a dark seven’ (a depressing week) and ‘headache grapplers’ (aspirin) – all soon copied by youth worldwide.
This popularity led to Kookie-branded merchandise, including “Kookie’s Comb.”
Byrnes also appeared in-character as Kookie on other TV shows and in advertisements (such as a series of Harley-Davidson ads for the Topper motor scooter).
Most impressively, Edd Byrnes became a top-10 recording artist with the release of the 1959 novelty song “Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb” (vid), a duet with Connie Stevens that reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In 2005, TV Guide ranked the top 25 teen idols of all time. Edd “Kookie” Byrnes came in 5th. (John Travolta came in 3rd. Michael J. Fox came in 23rd.)
Source: Lewis, Jon E. and Penny Stempel. Cult TV: The Essential Critical Guide. London: Pavilion Books, 1996.
English model Twiggy (birth name Lesley Hornby) hit the scene in the mid-1960s as a skinny teen with drawn-on lower lashes she called “twigs.”
Twiggy’s claim that she was “the world’s first supermodel” may be an exaggeration, but she did take the United States by storm when she first visited in the spring of 1967 to promote her line of Twiggy Dresses.
So it’s no surprise that 1967 was the year the name Twiggy debuted in the U.S. Social Security Administration’s baby name data:
1969: unlisted
1968: unlisted
1967: 12 baby girls named Twiggy [debut]
1966: unlisted
1965: unlisted
Twiggy’s name turned out to be a one-hit wonder, but Twiggy herself went on to be nominated for a Tony (for playing Edith Herbert in the musical “My One and Only”) and to be a judge on the popular reality TV show America’s Next Top Model, among other things.
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