Tajikistani babies named after Rogun Dam

Tajikistan’s government believes that the hydroelectric Rogun Dam will solve the country’s economic woes. But it doesn’t have the billions of dollars needed to finish building the dam, so it’s been convincing (sometimes forcing) its citizens to invest in the project.

Some Tajiks are unhappy about this situation. But many have proudly bought “shares” in the dam (even though the government has yet to explain how shareholders can recoup their investments).

One of these optimistic investors is Abdullo Bobokhonov, a 59-year-old lawyer whose grandson was born in January of 2010, right around the time the Tajik government started selling shares. The baby was named Rogunshoh at Bobokhonov’s suggestion. Rogunshoh means “king Rogun” or “lord Rogun” in Tajik.

Another January baby — a baby girl born in Tajikistan’s Yavan region — was reportedly named Sahmiya, which means “share” in Tajik.

Sources: Baby boy in Tajikistan named in honor of hydroelectric dam, Tajiks invest in mega-dam project, Tajiks sink money into Soviet-style dam project

Where did the baby name MacGyver come from in 1989?

The character Angus MacGyver from the TV series "MacGyver" (1985-1992).
Angus MacGyver from “MacGyver“

A few months ago, in a post about creative baby names in Latin America, I mentioned “Makgiber” — a take on MacGyver, the name of both the popular American TV show MacGyver (1985-1992) and the remarkably resourceful lead character of that show, secret agent Angus MacGyver.

It made me wonder…have any U.S. babies been named after MacGyver?

Turns out the answer is yes!

The name MacGyver made its first appearance in the U.S. baby name data a bit belatedly, in 1989:

  • 1991: 7 baby boys named MacGyver
  • 1990: 6 baby boys named MacGyver
  • 1989: 6 baby boys named MacGyver [debut]
  • 1988: unlisted
  • 1987: unlisted

In my opinion, MacGyver might be the best ’80s-inspired baby name of all time. Seriously. How could anyone with even a passing interest in pop culture not appreciate this name? The main associations are inventiveness/ingenuity, cheesy ’80s TV, Scotland, mullets, and possibly duct tape.

The surname is a variant spelling of MacIver/McIver, which is based on a Gaelic phrase meaning “son of Íomhar.” The name Íomhar is based on the Old Norse name Ívarr, made up of the elements ýr, meaning “yew” or “bow” (bows were made yew wood) and herr, meaning “warrior.”

In mid-2015, MacGyver — long used informally as a verb — was added to the Oxford Dictionary. To “MacGyver” is to “make or repair (an object) in an improvised or inventive way, making use of whatever items are at hand.” “[H]e has a shock of short red hair and a pair of rectangular-framed glasses MacGyvered with duct tape”.

What are your thoughts on MacGyver as a baby name?

Sources: How ‘MacGyver’ became a verb, MacGyver – Oxford Dictionaries, SSA

Image: Screenshot of MacGyver

What turned Pebbles into a baby name in 1963?

pebbles flintstone
Pebbles Flintstone

Today’s Google Doodle is a tribute to the 50th anniversary of The Flintstones, which first aired on September 30, 1960. So I thought I’d help celebrate by posting about Pebbles, the Flintstones-inspired baby name.

The Flintstones originally featured Fred, Wilma, Barney and Betty. The babies, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm, weren’t introduced until 1963 — Pebbles in February, Bamm-Bamm in October.

And 1963 is the very first year we see Pebbles pop up in the U.S. baby name data:

  • 1965: 14 baby girls named Pebbles
  • 1964: 31 baby girls named Pebbles
  • 1963: 31 baby girls named Pebbles [debut]
  • 1962: unlisted
  • 1961: unlisted

And, surprisingly, Pebbles has remained on the list every year since.

There was renewed interest in the name during the early/mid 1970s (Pebbles cereals were introduced in 1971) and the late 1980s/early 1990s (singer Perri “Pebbles” Reid had a few hit singles during this period).

Source: A Flintstones World

Update, 3/13/15 – Looks like Pebbles may have been named via contest. (Either that, or the “contest” was for marketing purposes only.) From a Neatorama article about the Flintstones: “In 1963, a new angle was added to the show with the birth of Pebbles Flintstone, Fred and Wilma’s daughter. In anticipation of her birth, a huge nationwide contest was held to “name the Flintstone’s baby.”

Update #2, 9/17/20 – M Cain’s comment below inspired me to research the Pebbles name contest a bit more. The following story, which I found in Joseph Barbera’s 1994 autobiography My Life in ‘Toons: From Flatbush to Bedrock in Under a Century, suggests to me that the contest was rigged.

[The idea] — to give the Flintstones a baby — set off two days of uncharacteristically rancorous meetings at the studio debating the sex of the offspring. After much collective hair pulling, we decided: It’s a boy.

Relieved at having reached a decision at last, I turned to other matters. A few days later, I took a phone call from Ed Justin, our merchandising man in New York.

“I hear the Flintstones are having a baby.”

“That’s right,” I said.

“Boy or girl?”

“It’s a boy! Fred Jr.–A chip off the old rock!”

“That’s too bad,” he said. “I’ve got the vice president of Ideal Toy here, and the only dolls they’re doing are girls. We could have had a hell of a deal if it had been a girl.”

“It is a girl,” I said. “Her name is…Pebbles. A pebble off the old rock.”

Some ideas develop after days of meetings. Others are born in the flash of a dollar sign set off by a single phone call.

Baby born in helicopter, named for pilot

Airplanes have been around (and influencing names!*) since the early 1900s, but “the first useful helicopters did not appear until the early 1940s.”

In January of 1959, the wife of U.S. Army sergeant William S. Nolan went into labor with the couple’s second child. Nolan was stationed in Germany at the time, and the roads were too icy for driving, so they boarded an H-34 helicopter and braved “dangerous flying conditions” in an attempt to reach the U.S. Army hospital in Nuremberg in time for the birth.

The baby boy had other plans, though. He arrived about 10 minutes before landing in what an Army spokesman called “possibly the first helicopter delivery in history.” He weighed 6 1/2 pounds, had red hair, and was named Milton Billy after two of the helicopter’s crew members: pilot Milton Olsen and crew chief Billy Owen.

Sources:

  • “Bavarian Storks Have Competition.” Lodi News-Sentinel 13 Jan. 1959: 10.
  • “GI’s Wife Gives Birth to Child in Army Helicopter.” Schenectady Gazette 13 Jan. 1959: 1.
  • Helicopter – Britannica.com

*See Airlene, Vilas, Maitland, Belvin, Lindbergh, etc.