Back in 1907, the baby name Theta debuted in the U.S. baby name data, making the top 1,000 for the first and only time:
- 1909: 7 baby girls named Theta
- 1908: 6 baby girls named Theta
- 1907: 20 baby girls named Theta (rank: 868th) [debut]
- 1906: unlisted
- 1905: unlisted
Theta was not only the top debut name that year, but it was also one of the top debut names of the entire decade (tied with Rosevelt, a misspelling of Roosevelt that debuted in 1900 with 20 baby boys).
Here are the Social Security Administration (SSA) and Social Security Death Index (SSDI) numbers side by side:
| Girls named Theta (SSA) | Girls named Theta (SSDI) | |
| 1909 | 7 | 13 |
| 1908 | 6 | 21 |
| 1907 | 20*† | 36 |
| 1906 | . | 6 |
| 1905 | . | 8 |
While neither set of data is perfect, both indicate that Theta saw increased usage in 1907. I can’t figure out why, though. Literature is often a good bet for this time period, but so far I’ve been unable to link Theta to a particular book or story.
Do you have any idea where Theta came from?
P.S. If you’d like to try a search and want to eliminate all the other Greek letters from your results, add this to your search string:
-alpha -beta -gamma -delta -epsilon -zeta -eta -iota -kappa -lambda -mu -nu -xi -omicron -pi -rho -sigma -tau -upsilon -phi -chi -psi -omega
Hi,
I actually think it may be connected to Greek letters. Alpha, Iota and Delta all had a spike in 1916, and Eta in 1922. Perhaps it was the first graduates of college fraternities, or something similar that caused all these names to become popular at a similar time?
Hm, could be! I never really looked at it like that. Thanks Rachel!