The name Shalimar first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1954:
- 1958: unlisted
- 1957: 6 baby girls named Shalimar
- 1956: unlisted
- 1955: unlisted
- 1954: 5 baby girls named Shalimar [debut]
- 1953: unlisted
Why?
The inspiration was not the famous perfume created by Guerlain in the 1920s, but a movie called Princess of the Nile that was released in mid-1954.
It starred Debra Paget as an Egyptian Princess named Shalimar (who sometimes went incognito as a dancing girl known as Taura).
The movie came out a few years after the Debra Paget movie Broken Arrow boosted Sonseeahray into the data, and a few years before the swiftly rising name Debra started outranking Deborah on the popularity charts.
But the word Shalimar is not Egyptian. It comes from the famous Shalamar Gardens in Lahore, Pakistan. The gardens were created in the mid-1600s by Shah Jahan (who also built the Taj Mahal).
The etymology of “Shalamar” is unclear, but the word may be derived from the Arabic phrase shah al-‘imarat, meaning “master of buildings.”
What are your thoughts on Shalimar as a baby name?
Sources:
- Princess of the Nile (1954) – TCM
- Ahmed, Khaled. “The meaning of ‘Shalimar’.” Express Tribune 25 Jan. 2012.
- SSA
Image: Screenshot of Princess of the Nile