How popular is the baby name Zoila 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 Zoila.

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Popularity of the baby name Zoila


Posts that mention the name Zoila

Where did the baby name Yma come from in 1954?

Yma Sumac album "Mambo!" (1954)
Yma Sumac album from 1954

The name Yma debuted in the U.S. baby name data in the mid-1950s:

  • 1958: unlisted
  • 1957: 7 baby girls named Yma [peak]
  • 1956: unlisted
  • 1955: unlisted
  • 1954: 5 baby girls named Yma [debut]
  • 1953: unlisted
  • 1952: unlisted

It may look like parents were simply experimenting with the spelling of Amy, but Yma actually had a specific source: exotica singer Yma Sumac (pronounced EE-mah SOO-mak). Known as the “Peruvian songbird,” she had a four-and-a-half-octave range and a very distinctive sound.

Yma Sumac album "Legend of the Sun Virgin" (1952)
Yma Sumac album from 1952

Originally from northern highlands of Peru, Yma Sumac moved to the U.S. in the mid-1940s and released her first album in 1950. Here’s a review of her August 1950 performance at the Hollywood Bowl:

For the first few bars of a Peruvian folk chant called High Andes, the full-figured Peruvian girl onstage rumbled roundly at the bottom of the contralto range. Then, to their astonishment, she soared effortlessly up a full four octaves, began trilling like a canary at the top of coloratura. At the end of her first song, the audience was still too surprised to raise more than warm applause. The second, Tumpa (Earthquake), brought cheers; after the third, a pyrotechnical Inca Hymn to the Sun, the applause and cheers swelled to a roar for encores.

Here’s Yma lip-syncing to “Tumpa”:

She was born Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo in the early 1920s. For her very first radio performance — in Peru, in 1942 — she used the stage name “Imma Sumack.” By the time she reached the U.S., she had settled upon the spelling “Yma Sumac.”

According to some sources, this name was part of her mother’s full name. Perhaps more importantly, it was the name of a character in the Quechua-language Peruvian drama Ollantay, thought to be of Inca origin. Often spelled Ima Sumac, the character’s name means “how beautiful” in Quechua.

Do you like the name Yma? (Do you like it more or less than Amy?)

Sources:

Mexican state bans baby names like Rambo, Robocop

banned baby names in sonora, mexico

On February 10, the Civil Registration Act went into effect in the Mexican state of Sonora (which is right across the border from Arizona).

Article 46 of the act allows local authorities to reject baby names they deem derogatory, discriminatory, defamatory, libelous and meaningless, among other things.

The state also banned 61 specific baby names, and will likely ban more names in the future. All of the banned names came directly from Sonora’s birth registries (meaning that each has been used at least once already).

After doing some digging, I finally found the full list of banned names on a Mexican news site. Here it is:

  1. Aceituno
  2. Aguinaldo
  3. All Power
  4. Aniv de la Rev (short for “anniversary of the revolution”)
  5. Batman
  6. Beneficia (meaning “benefits”)
  7. Burger King
  8. Cacerolo
  9. Calzón (meaning “panties”)
  10. Caraciola
  11. Caralampio
  12. Cesárea
  13. Cheyenne
  14. Christmas Day
  15. Circuncisión (meaning “circumcision”)
  16. Culebro
  17. Delgadina (meaning “the skinny girl.” It’s from the Mexican folk song “La Delgadina.”)
  18. Diódoro
  19. Email
  20. Escroto (meaning “scrotum”)
  21. Espinaca (meaning “spinach”)
  22. Facebook
  23. Fulanita (meaning “so-and-so” or “what’s-her-name”)
  24. Gordonia
  25. Gorgonio
  26. Harry Potter
  27. Hermione
  28. Hitler
  29. Hurraca
  30. Iluminada
  31. Indio
  32. James Bond
  33. Lady Di
  34. Marciana (meaning “martian”)
  35. Masiosare (meaning “if one should dare,” roughly. It’s from the phrase mas si osare, which is part of the Mexican National Anthem.)
  36. Micheline
  37. Panuncio
  38. Patrocinio (meaning “patronage” or “sponsorship”)
  39. Petronilo
  40. Piritipio
  41. Pocahontas
  42. Pomponio
  43. Privado (meaning “private”)
  44. Procopio
  45. Rambo
  46. Robocop
  47. Rocky
  48. Rolling Stone
  49. Sobeida
  50. Sol de Sonora
  51. Sonora Querida
  52. Telésforo
  53. Terminator
  54. Tránsito (meaning “transit”)
  55. Tremebundo (meaning “terrifying” or “terrible”)
  56. Twitter
  57. Usnavy
  58. Verulo
  59. Virgen (meaning “virgin”)
  60. Yahoo
  61. Zoila Rosa

Some thoughts:

  • Facebook is the legal first name of at least 2 human beings at this point. Amazing.
  • Robocop, I must admit, has been on my “baby names I am dying to find in the wild” list for many years. At last, proof that it exists! Exciting stuff. (Haven’t yet come across any babies named Chucknorris, however. Fingers still crossed on that one.)
  • Hermione? I can see why Sonora would object to “Harry Potter” and “James Bond,” but Hermione by itself (as opposed to “Hermione Granger”) makes no sense. Hermione is a legitimate (and lovely) name that existed long before the Potter books.

What are your thoughts? And, which name on the list above shocked you the most?

Sources: