One of last week’s post featured Glenna Lee McCarthy, whose father was famous Texas oil prospector and entrepreneur Glenn McCarthy (1907-1988).
Writer Edna Ferber fictionalized Glenn’s rags-to-riches life story in her novel Giant (1952) with the character Jett Rink.
The book was later made into a movie, which came out in October of 1956.
Jett was played by James Dean, who died in a car accident a month before the film premiered.
The other two main characters were Jordan “Bick” Benedict (played by Rock Hudson) and his wife Leslie Benedict (Elizabeth Taylor). Secondary characters included the Benedicts’ son Jordan, or “Jordy” (Dennis Hopper) and a neighbor named Vashti (Jane Withers).
The movie did well at the box office and was nominated for various Academy Awards, including a posthumous Best Actor nomination for Dean. It also gave a boost to several baby names.
In 1957, the year after the movie was released, the name Jett saw its then-highest-ever usage (a level that wasn’t surpassed until the 1980s).
- 1958: 17 baby boys named Jett
- 1957: 24 baby boys named Jett
- 1956: 14 baby boys named Jett
- 1955: 5 baby boys named Jett
- 1954: unlisted
The boy name Jordan more than doubled in usage in 1957, and the diminutive form Jordy debuted the same year:
| Jordan | Jordy | |
| 1958 | 186 [rank: 567th] | . |
| 1957 | 207 [rank: 539th] | 5* |
| 1956 | 101 [rank: 733rd] | . |
| 1955 | 106 [rank: 712th] | . |
| 1954 | 109 [rank: 692nd] | . |
Leslie — which had started being given more often to baby girls than to baby boys about a decade earlier — saw its highest-ever usage as a girl name in 1957:
- 1958: 6,010 baby girls named Leslie [rank: 79th]
- 1957: 6,101 baby girls named Leslie [rank: 77th] (peak usage)
- 1956: 4,386 baby girls named Leslie [rank: 104th]
- 1955: 4,403 baby girls named Leslie [rank: 99th]
- 1954: 4,148 baby girls named Leslie [rank: 99th]
And Vashti, like Jordan, more than doubled in usage:
- 1958: 10 baby girls named Vashti
- 1957: 16 baby girls named Vashti
- 1956: 7 baby girls named Vashti
- 1955: 8 baby girls named Vashti
- 1954: 8 baby girls named Vashti
Interestingly, Luz — another name that was used for two different characters in the movie — saw a slight decline in usage from 1956 to 1957.
Sources: Giant (1956) – Wikipedia, SSA
First two images: Screenshots of Giant