How popular is the baby name Zsazsa 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 Zsazsa.

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Popularity of the baby name Zsazsa


Posts that mention the name Zsazsa

Where did the baby name Saadia come from in 1954?

The character Saadia (played by Rita Gam) in the movie "Saadia" (1953).
Saadia from “Saadia

The exotic-looking name Saadia first popped up in the U.S. baby name data in 1954:

  • 1956: 10 baby girls named Saadia
  • 1955: 17 baby girls named Saadia
  • 1954: 19 baby girls named Saadia [debut]
  • 1953: unlisted
  • 1952: unlisted

The source?

The movie Saadia, released at the end of 1953. (It was based on the 1950 book Échec au destin by Francis D’Autheville.)

The film was set in the Moroccan desert, and the primary female character was a young woman named Saadia (pronounced sah-dee-ah), played by actress Rita Gam.

Though the character was female, the earliest known real-life Saadia was male: Sa’adia ben Joseph, 10th-century Jewish philosopher and rabbi.

The name “Saadia,” which, so far as is known, he was the first to bear, is apparently an artificial Hebrew equivalent of his Arabic name, “Sa’id.”

The name Sa’id means “happy” or “lucky” in Arabic.

But, getting back to the 1950s…a comedic movie called 3 Ring Circus — filmed while Saadia was playing in theaters, and released at the end of 1954 — also included a character named Saadia (this time played by Zsa Zsa Gabor). This second film may have influenced expectant parents as well.

What do you think of the name Saadia?

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of Saadia

Where did the baby name Jolie come from in the 1940s?

red foley, jolie blon, song, baby name, 1940s
Red Foley

These days, main association for the name Jolie, from the French word for “pretty,” is actress Angelina Jolie (who single-handedly turned Maleficent into a baby name a few years ago). But Angie — though she’s certainly influenced the usage of the name recently — didn’t put the name on the map in the late ’40s:

  • 1949: 6 baby girls named Jolie
  • 1948: 9 baby girls named Jolie
  • 1947: 7 baby girls named Jolie [debut]
  • 1946: unlisted
  • 1945: unlisted

In 2006, name expert Cleveland Kent Evans noted that the name “was first brought to the attention of Americans by Jolie Gabor…the mother of actresses Eva and Zsa Zsa Gabor.” I don’t think this is wrong — I think Jolie Gabor may account for some of the usage of the name during the ’50s — but I also don’t think it’s right, as Zsa Zsa wasn’t terribly famous in ’40s. (The name Zsa Zsa first appeared in the data in 1957.)

My guess on the 1947 debut of Jolie is the song “New Jolie Blonde” by country singer Red Foley. That, plus a couple of the similar songs: “New Pretty Blonde (Jole Blon)” by Aubrey “Moon” Mullican and “(Our Own) Jole Blon” by Roy Acuff. All three saw heavy play on juke boxes in 1947, according to Billboard. Red’s rendition, which featured the “Jolie” spelling in the title, was the most successful.

The song is ultimately based on the old (pre-1900) Cajun song “Jole Blon.” In 1946, Cajun fiddler Harry Choates came out with an updated version of the song that saw moderate success. Other performers then followed Harry’s lead with their own versions.

(According to one source, the title of the version by Harry Choates was initially misspelled jolie blonde, “thus forever altering the song title among Anglophone audiences,” but I haven’t seen any evidence of this misspelling, so I doubt it would have had much impact. The Choates version was only ever called “Jole Blon” in Billboard magazine, for example.)

What do you think of the baby name Jolie?

Sources:

Where did the baby name Zsa Zsa come from in 1957?

zsa zsa gabor, milton berle, tv, 1950
Zsa Zsa Gabor getting a kiss from Milton Berle, 1956

This one is easy, dahling.

The distinctive name Zsazsa debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1957:

  • 1959: 12 baby girls named Zsazsa
  • 1958: 5 baby girls named Zsazsa
  • 1957: 6 baby girls named Zsazsa [debut]
  • 1956: unlisted
  • 1955: unlisted

The source, of course, is glamorous Hungarian-born Zsa Zsa (pronounced zhah zhah) Gábor.

It’s hard to know what caused the debut specifically, but it probably wasn’t the movies. More likely it was Zsa Zsa’s many TV appearances in 1956 and 1957. She was on The Milton Berle Show, The Herb Shriner Show, The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show, The Rosemary Clooney Show, and other shows.

Her birth name was Sári (pronounced SHAH-ree) Gábor. She was named after Hungarian stage actress Sári “Zsazsa” Fedak, whose nickname came from her young daughter’s mispronunciation of her first name.

What do you think of the name Zsa Zsa?

Source: Gábor, Zsa Zsa and Gerold Frank. Zsa Zsa Gábor: My Story. NY: World Publishing Company, 1960.
Image: Screenshot of The Milton Berle Show, 3/13/1956 episode

Where did the baby name Mitchum come from?

Actor Robert Mitchum (1917-1997)
Robert Mitchum

The surname Mitchum can be traced back to the English village of Mitcham (which now part of London). The toponym was derived from two Old English words meaning “big” and “homestead, settlement.”

Mitchum first appeared in the U.S. baby name data when actor Robert Mitchum was at the height of his fame, in the mid-20th century:

  • 1953: unlisted
  • 1952: unlisted
  • 1951: 5 baby boys named Mitchum [debut]
  • 1950: unlisted
  • 1949: unlisted

The appearance of Mitchum doesn’t seem to correspond to a notable Robert Mitchum-related event, oddly, like his single Academy Award nomination in 1946. (Same with several other debuts I’ve found, including Zsazsa and Sinatra — both also from the ’50s.)

Mitchum antiperspirant, 1970s-1980s
Mitchum antiperspirant

The name dropped out of the data the next year. It might have remained a one-hit wonder if not for a completely unrelated Mitchum: Mitchum antiperspirant.

Mitchum antiperspirant was developed in the late ’50s by a Paris, Tennessee, businessman named Mitchum Warren — the son of the founder of a successful cosmetics company. Warren died unexpectedly in the late ’60s, and his company was acquired by Revlon in 1970.

In 1971, Revlon re-introduced Mitchum with a national advertising campaign that featured the memorable tagline, “So effective you can skip a day.” A year after that, the name Mitchum re-appeared in the U.S. baby name data.

Revlon stopped actively marketing the brand in the late 1980s. Unsurprisingly, the name disappeared from the data around the same time.

Do you like the name Mitchum? Do you like it more or less than similar names, such as Mitchell and Magnum?

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