The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) — which aimed to guarantee equal rights to all U.S. citizens, regardless of gender — was first introduced in Congress in December of 1923. The proposed constitutional amendment came closest to being adopted during the 1970s.
So when I stumbled upon a baby named Era after the ERA, I wasn’t surprised to learn she was born to a women’s rights activist during the ’70s.
Judy McCarthy — an Apache woman from Phoenix, Arizona — was a delegate to the 1977 National Women’s Conference (Nov. 18-21) in Houston. She was pregnant at the time and began experiencing labor pains during the conference. She ended up giving birth on December 1st to a 7-pound, 13-ounce baby girl she named Era in honor of the Equal Rights Amendment. (She decided to pronounce the name “arrow,” though.) Several newspapers ran photos of baby Era in early 1978.
I’ve since found one more person named for the ERA: Era Gay, who at one time was a staff writer for the The Xavier Herald (the student newspaper of Xavier University of Louisiana). In a 2011 essay about Occupy Wall Street, she mentioned that she was “a girl who was named Era after the Equal Rights Amendment.”
The baby name Era — which regularly appeared in the girls’ top 1,000 during the early 1900s — is rare these days, though usage has been creeping upwards lately. Do you like “Era” as a baby name? Would you use it?
(And here are a few more Acronym Baby Names, in case you’re interested.)
Sources:
- “Era’s Her Name.” Wisconsin State Journal 24 Mar. 1978: 3.
- Equal Rights Amendment – Wikipedia
- Gay, Era. “Occupy Wall Street has resurrected grassroots politics.” Xavier Herald 25 Oct. 2011: 5.
- Wood, Rob. “Delegates Vary, But All Firm in Women’s Rights Commitment.” Toledo Blade 21 Nov. 1977: 9.