Years before the boy name Darryl was at the height of its trendiness (in the early ’60s), the Darryl-based, Marilyn-like name Darrylin debuted in the baby name data:
- 1951: 8 baby girls named Darrylin
- 1950: unlisted
- 1949: 11 baby girls named Darrylin [debut]
- 1948: unlisted
- 1947: unlisted
What made it show up in 1949 specifically?
Darrylin Zanuck, the teenage daughter of famous film producer Darryl Zanuck (founder of 20th Century Fox) and his wife Virginia (a former silent film actress).
She was in the news starting in August of 1949, after her parents announced that the 18-year-old had just gotten engaged to a 22-year-old University of Southern California student named Robert “Bob” Jacks (who went on to become a TV producer). The announcement mentioned that the couple would wed after his graduation the following year, but the pair ended up marrying just a few months later, in November.
And here’s some interesting trivia: Darrylin was a pioneering lady-surfer. In 1947, surfboard maker Joe Quigg crafted a board just for her — it was shorter and lighter than the boards being used by men at the time — and that board has since come to be known as the “Darrylin Board.”
What are your thoughts on the name Darrylin?
P.S. Here’s another name coined by Darryl and Virginia Zanuck: Darvi.
Sources:
- Darrylin Zanuck de Pineda Dead: Fox Founder’s Daughter Dies at 84 – Variety
- “Producer’s Daughter to Wed.” Lubbock Evening Journal 23 Aug. 1949: 10.
- Marcus, Ben. Surfing USA! Stillwater, Minn.: Voyageur Press, 2005.
Image: Adapted from Darrylin Zanuck via DPLA under CC BY 3.0.