“Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world…she walks into mine.”
Who is “she”? Ilsa Lund, the ex-lover of Rick Blaine in the classic film Casablanca, which was released in late 1942 and won the Academy Award for Best Picture (plus two other Oscars) in early 1944.
- 1945: 5 baby girls named Ilsa
- 1944: 12 baby girls named Ilsa
- 1943: 6 baby girls named Ilsa [debut]
- 1942: unlisted
- 1942: unlisted
The baby name Ilsa (a variant of Ilse, which is a pet form of Elisabeth, the German version of Elizabeth) promptly debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1943.
The movie was based upon a never-produced play written in 1940. In the play, the female lead was an American named Lois Meredith, but in the screenplay the character evolved into a Norwegian woman named Ilsa Lund.
Ingrid Bergman (the mother of Pia) played Isla, while Humphrey Bogart played protagonist Rick — who likely kicked off the sharp rise in the usage of Rick that began in the early ’40s:
- 1945: 505 baby boys named Rick
- 1944: 431 baby boys named Rick
- 1943: 237 baby boys named Rick
- 1942: 96 baby boys named Rick
- 1941: 60 baby boys named Rick
What do you think of the name Ilsa? Do you prefer this spelling, or the original spelling (Ilse)?
Sources:
- Rode, Alan K. Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2017.
- SSA
Image: Screenshot of Casablanca