What gave the baby name Perri a boost in 1958?

Movie poster for "Perri" (1957)

Here’s a Disney name that was totally new to me…

In 1958, the number of baby girls in the U.S. named Perri more than doubled:

  • 1960: 90 baby girls named Perri
  • 1959: 91 baby girls named Perri
  • 1958: 119 baby girls named Perri [peak usage]
  • 1957: 50 baby girls named Perri
  • 1956: 32 baby girls named Perri

Why?

In late 1957, Disney released the movie Perri, which follows “the perilous forest life of girl squirrel Perri, who falls for her own prince charming, a male squirrel!”

It’s not an animated film, but a fictional story narrated on top of documentary-style footage shot in Utah and Wyoming.

Like Bambi, the story was based on Felix Salten book. This one was called Die Jugend des Eichhörnchens Perri (Perri: The Youth of a Squirrel) and it was published fifteen years after Bambi.

The boy name Perry also spiked around this time, but this has more to do with the TV show Perry Mason (1957-1966) than with the Disney squirrel.

What do you think of the name Perri?

Sources: Disney’s Perri Trailer, SSA

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