The unusual name Bedar has appeared just once in the U.S. baby name data:
- 1968: unlisted
- 1967: unlisted
- 1966: 5 baby girls named Bedar [debut]
- 1965: unlisted
- 1964: unlisted
Where did it come from?
A flower girl. Specifically, six-year-old “Bedar Howar” — the flower girl at the August wedding of 19-year-old Luci Baines Johnson, daughter of U.S. president Lyndon Baines Johnson.
But here’s the catch: Her name was actually Bader Howar. White House press releases had transposed the vowels in her name, resulting in Bader’s name being misspelled in every contemporary write-up about the wedding.
Her father Edmond was a real estate developer of Jordanian descent; her mother Barbara was a Washington, D.C., socialite and writer. In the mid-1970s, Barbara mentioned to People magazine that Bader was “named for a paternal grandmother.” (The name is derived from the Arabic word badr, meaning “full moon.”)
Bader now works as a portrait photographer in California, though she did have a brief acting career (including a small part in Pretty in Pink).
Sources:
- “Wedding Members Revealed.” Indiana Gazette 5 Aug. 1966: 3.
- “Barbara Howar unleashes a new book and snappish opinions, mostly about herself.” People 3 May 1976.
- Howar, Barbara. Laughing all the way. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett, 1973.
- Badr – Behind the Name
- SSA
Image: Clipping from Life magazine (19 Aug. 1966)