Baby Named Cali for Cal Ripken

A baby girl born in Baltimore on September 5, 1995 — just after Baltimore Orioles baseball player Calvin “Cal” Ripken tied the 2,130 consecutive-game record set by Lou Gehrig in 1939 — was named Cali, in honor of Cal.

(Cali’s mother, Kimberly Drouillard, mentioned that the name was her husband idea, and that the baby was originally going to be named Alexia.)

And Cali wasn’t the only baby named with Cal Ripken in mind around that time. Usage of the name Cal spiked in the mid-1990s…

  • 1999: 69 baby boys named Cal
  • 1998: 72 baby boys named Cal
  • 1997: 93 baby boys named Cal
  • 1996: 112 baby boys named Cal
  • 1995: 84 baby boys named Cal
  • 1994: 47 baby boys named Cal
  • 1993: 52 baby boys named Cal

…and the name Ripken first appeared in the data in 1997.

Source: Olney, Buster. “Behind scenes, Ripken nights were memorable, too.” Baltimore Sun 8 Sep. 1995.


Baby Named for Michael Landon

Actress Melissa Gilbert is probably best known for portraying young Laura Ingalls Wilder on the TV series Little House on the Prairie (1974–1984). Her TV father, Charles, was played by actor Michael Landon.

In October of 1995, Melissa and her second husband welcomed a son (12 weeks early). He was named Michael Garrett — “Michael” in honor of Michael Landon, who had died of cancer in 1991, and “Garrett” in honor of the deceased teenage son of family friends.

Landon’s birth name was Eugene Maurice Orowitz. His nickname in primary school was “Ooogy.” He chose his stage name by flipping through a phone book.

Sources:

Baby Name Story: Camera

cameraTennis star Arthur Ashe and his wife, photographer Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, adopted a baby girl in December of 1986.

What did they name her? Camera Elizabeth Ashe, “Camera” in tribute to her mother’s profession.

The baby name Camera saw its highest usage in 1993 and 1994, when Camera was being mentioned in the news a lot following the death of her father from AIDS-related pneumonia in early 1993.

  • 1996: 6 baby girls named Camera
  • 1995: 12 baby girls named Camera
  • 1994: 24 baby girls named Camera [peak usage]
  • 1993: 18 baby girls named Camera
  • 1992: 8 baby girls named Camera

What are your thoughts on Camera as a baby name?

Source: “Arthur Ashe and Wife Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe Are Parents of Baby Girl.” Jet 9 Feb. 1987: 22.

Crimean Baby named “Bitcoin”

bitcoin logoA baby boy born in Crimea last December — while Bitcoin prices were soaring — was named “Bitcoin” after the digital currency.

The boy’s father, 31-year-old Oleg from Simferopol, told reporters that “he and his wife owe their financial wellbeing to the spike in bitcoin’s value, and wanted to show their gratitude.”

Speaking of babies and bitcoin…the first baby “bought” by bitcoin (that is, the first baby born thanks to a fertility treatment cycle paid for in bitcoins) arrived in 2013 in California. I’m not sure what he/she was named, though.

Sources: Baby Bitcoin Born in Russia’s Crimea (found via Nancy Friedman – thank you!), Meet the world’s first Bitcoin baby

Name Change: Joyce to Antonia

king vidor, actor
King Vidor
Movie director King W. Vidor [pronounced vee-dor] and his second wife, Eleanor Boardman, welcomed their first child together in November of 1927. They had a name picked out for a boy — “Boardman Vidor” — but didn’t have anything ready for a girl.

So, of course, it was a girl. :)

According to news reports, the baby remained nameless until at least April, when she was named Joyce.

But while the couple was abroad promoting Vidor’s latest film, The Crowd, she was renamed Antonia. They announced the change in early July, on the day they returned to the U.S. aboard the SS De Grasse.

Which of the two names do you like more?

I prefer...

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