Where did the baby name Twiggy come from in 1967?

English model Twiggy (birth name Lesley Hornby) hit the scene in the mid-1960s as a skinny teen with drawn-on lower lashes she called “twigs.”

Twiggy’s claim that she was “the world’s first supermodel” may be an exaggeration, but she did take the United States by storm when she first visited in the spring of 1967 to promote her line of Twiggy Dresses.

So it’s no surprise that 1967 was the year the name Twiggy debuted in the U.S. Social Security Administration’s baby name data:

• 1969: unlisted
• 1968: unlisted
• 1967: 12 baby girls named Twiggy [debut]
• 1966: unlisted
• 1965: unlisted

Twiggy’s name turned out to be a one-hit wonder, but Twiggy herself went on to be nominated for a Tony (for playing Edith Herbert in the musical “My One and Only”) and to be a judge on the popular reality TV show America’s Next Top Model, among other things.

Sources:

• Italie, Leanne. “Twiggy: ‘It could have gone terribly wrong’.” San Diego Union-Tribune 29 Mar. 2010.
• Twiggy – The Official Site