How popular is the baby name Uldine 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 Uldine.

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Popularity of the baby name Uldine


Posts that mention the name Uldine

Where did the baby name Marjoe come from in 1974?

Preacher Marjoe Gortner in the documentary "Marjoe" (1972).
Marjoe Gortner

The rare name Marjoe has appeared in the U.S. baby name just twice, both times in the mid-1970s:

  • 1976: unlisted
  • 1975: 6 baby boys named Marjoe
  • 1974: 6 baby boys named Marjoe [debut]
  • 1973: unlisted
  • 1972: unlisted

This name is similar to Uldine in that both are associated with something rather unusual: child preachers.

In the case of Marjoe, the influence was child preacher-turned-actor Marjoe Gortner.

He was born Hugh Marjoe Ross Gortner to parents to Vernon and Marge of California in 1944. According to an early source, the middle name “Marjoe” was based on the name of his mother Marge. (His younger siblings were named Vernoe and Starloe.) Later sources claim “Marjoe” was a combination of Mary and Joseph.

Marjoe Gortner was a precocious child, and his family was full of preachers, so his parents (putting two and two together) decided to turn Marjoe into a child preacher. By the age of four, he was an ordained minister and could deliver about 40 different sermons from memory. His entire childhood was spent evangelizing.

By the early 1970s, Marjoe Gortner was in his late 20s and only in it for the money. In the autobiographical documentary Marjoe (1972), he gave viewers a behind-the-scenes look at “the lucrative business of Pentecostal preaching.” It earned critical acclaim and won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in early 1973, but wasn’t screened in many theaters.

Following the success of the documentary, Marjoe pursued an acting career. He was most visible in the mid-1970s, appearing mainly on television. He could be seen on episodes of various TV shows (like Nakia, in 1974) and in several made-for-TV movies (like The Gun and the Pulpit, also in 1974).

What are your thoughts on the name Marjoe?

Sources:

What popularized the baby name Uldine in the 1920s?

Uldine Utley in 1926 (from her magazine)
Uldine Utley in 1926 (from her magazine)

Have any 20th-century Uldines in your family tree? If so, there’s a good chance that your Uldine was named after pint-sized preacher Uldine Mabelle Utley.

Uldine Utley was born in Oklahoma in 1912, spent much of her youth in Colorado, and then moved with her family to California — where she first encountered Pentecostal evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, in 1921. Not long after witnessing Aimee preach, Uldine decided to begin her own preaching career.

By the mid-1920s, Uldine was one of America’s best-known child evangelists. She drew a crowd of 14,000 when she preached at Madison Square Garden at the age of 14, for instance. She even put out her own monthly magazine called Petals from the Rose of Sharon.

And when Uldine Utley was most popular — from the mid-1920s to the mid-1930s — usage of the rare baby name Uldine was at its highest, according to data from both the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Social Security Death Index (SSDI).

Girls named Uldine
(SSA)		People named Uldine
(SSDI)
1938.2
1937105
1936.1
193563
193463
1933106
1932106
1931219
1930208
1929165
19281910
192736†19
19263019
19252726†
1924129
1923..
1922.2
1921.3
19205*4
1919.4
*Debut, †Peak usage

At least four of these babies, including Uldine Utley Parnell (b. 1921, South Carolina) and Uldine Utley Peters (b. 1930, West Virginia), were given “Uldine Utley” as a first-middle pairing.

The original Uldine Utley kept up an intense preaching schedule until the end of 1936, when she suffered a nervous breakdown. She recovered temporarily, and even had a brief marriage, but spent most of the rest of her life in institutions or under family care.

Are you related to anyone named Uldine? What are your thoughts on the name? Any guesses about the name’s derivation?

Sources:

Image: Petals from the Rose of Sharon (pdf), November 1926.