How did the start of the new millennium influence U.S. baby names?

Y2K headlines
Y2K headlines

The new year is a few days away! Going from 2010 to 2011 will be cool, though probably not as cool as it was going from 1999 to 2000 (Y2K!) or from 2000 to 2001 (the official start of the new millennium).

Speaking of the millennium, did you know that dozens of baby girls were given the names Millennium and Millennia (and variants) about a decade ago? The names started popping up in the mid-90s and were gone by the early 2000s.

 199619971998199920002001
Millennium...8*195
Millenium....7*.
Millennia.5*.1138.
Millenia5*7.234110
Milenia...11*22.
Millinia....5*.
*Debut

(Millenium and Millinia were one-hit wonders.)

So why did Millenia and Millennia appear early? A pair of products: a car and a fragrance. The Mazda Millenia was a sedan launched (in North America) around 1995, and Millennia was a perfume launched by Avon in 1996.

Source: SSA

Image: Clipping from the cover of the Weekly World News (28 Dec. 1999)

Where did the baby name Dijonnaise come from in 1993?

Dijonnaise & sandwich

In 1992, mayonnaise maker Hellmann’s introduced to the world a brand new condiment: Dijonnaise (pronounced dee-zhohn-ayz) — a tasty blend of Dijon mustard and mayonnaise.

The company marketed the product with TV commercials featuring a catchy “Dij, Dij, Dij, Dij-onn-aise” ditty set to the tune of the Gene Chandler song “Duke of Earl” (1961).

The very next year, the baby name Dijonnaise debuted in the U.S. baby name data:

  • 1996: unlisted
  • 1995: 5 baby girls named Dijonnaise
  • 1994: unlisted
  • 1993: 23 baby girls named Dijonnaise [debut]
  • 1992: unlisted
  • 1991: unlisted

These babies were probably not named in tribute to a sandwich spread, though. The sound of the word Dijonnaise happened to be relatively trendy at the time. Three of the names that debuted in the baby name data the year before, for instance, were Dijonnae, Daijanae and Dajonae.

What are your thoughts on the baby name Dijonnaise?

Source: About – Hellmann’s

Alanis Morissette’s baby boy named Ever Imre

Alanis Morissette and husband Mario “Souleye” Treadway had their first child, a baby boy, on December 25. They named him Ever Imre.

They haven’t explained the significance behind the name yet, though I’m sure they will soon. (For what it’s worth, Imre, pronounced eem-reh, is a Hungarian name derived from Emmerich.)

In the meanwhile, let’s talk about a possible trend alert. After all, this is the second celebrity baby I know of named Ever. The first was Ever Gabo, Milla Jovovitch’s daughter, born in late 2007.

Here’s how frequently the baby name Ever has been used over the last decade:

Boys named EverGirls named EverTotal
200914669215
200817539214
200715517172
200614827175
200514810158
200412623149
200311722139
20029716113
20011028110
200080787

So there’s already an upward trajectory, and now not one but two celebs have jumped on the bandwagon. How high will the name go? Will it crack the top 1,000 for either gender, do you think?

Update, Mar. 2024: Alanis Morissette was recently on the PBS program “Finding Your Roots” [vid], and one of the ancestors she discussed with host Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., was her maternal grandfather Imre Feuerstein. So that explains the significance behind the middle name Imre.

Source: Rovzar, Chris. “Alanis Morissette Has Baby, Names It ‘Ever Imre’.” New York Magazine 27 Dec. 2010.

Where did the baby name Adeva come from in 1992?

Adeva's single "It Should Have Been Me" (1991)
Adeva single

The cute name Adeva was a one-hit wonder in the U.S. baby name data in the early 1990s:

  • 1994: unlisted
  • 1993: unlisted
  • 1992: 5 baby girls named Adeva [debut]
  • 1991: unlisted
  • 1990: unlisted

Where did it come from?

American singer Adeva (born Patricia Daniels), who put out dance tracks in the late ’80s and early ’90s.

Though her albums sold better overseas than they did in the U.S., several of her singles became popular in U.S. dance clubs. Her most successful song (in the U.S.) was “It Should Have Been Me,” which ranked #1 on Billboard‘s Dance Club Songs chart during the last two weeks of 1991.

What are your thoughts on the name Adeva?

Sources: Adeva – Wikipedia, SSA