Where did the baby name Kecia come from in 1962?

The baby name Kecia both debuted and peaked in the U.S. baby name data in the 1960s:

• 1966: 208 baby girls named Kecia [rank: 672nd]
• 1965: 560 baby girls named Kecia [rank: 392nd] (peak usage)
• 1964: 265 baby girls named Kecia [rank: 617th]
• 1963: 43 baby girls named Kecia
• 1962: 11 baby girls named Kecia (debut)
• 1961: unlisted
• 1960: unlisted

What was making it so trendy?

A Finnish fashion model named Kecia Nyman.

The height of her career was in the mid-to-late ’60s, when she was being featured on magazine covers, in television commercials, and apparently even on boxes of Kotex.

But she’d been appearing on major magazine covers since at least 1962. She was on the cover of the U.S. edition of Vogue that September, for instance.

Right after Kecia debuted in the data, a slew of Kecia-like names followed suit:

	1963	1964	1965	1966
Kisha	7*	17	50	34
Kesia	.	17*	29	12
Keshia	.	14*	19	30
Kesha	.	14*	34	34
Kechia	.	12*	12	.
Keesha	.	8*	13	12
Kasha	.	6*	5	7
Kiesha	.	.	16*	13
Keica	.	.	8*	.
Keicha	.	.	8*	.
Keysha	.	.	6*	6
Lakecia	.	.	6*	5
Kicia	.	.	6*	.
Keisa	.	.	.	5*

(Keshia was later popularized by The Cosby Show.)

I don’t know the story behind Kecia Nyman’s name. It could be based on the Biblical name Keziah, or on the Finnish word kesä, meaning “summer.” It also happens to bear a resemblance to Kaisa, a Finnish diminutive of Katherine.

I also couldn’t find a clip of Kecia saying her name, so I can’t offer you an official pronunciation.

But here’s an interesting (if random) fact: Kecia’s older sister Tamara, who was also a successful model, stopped modeling in 1966 when she married into the royal family of Liechtenstein.

What are your thoughts on the baby name Kecia? How would you spell it?

Sources: Girl Name Kecia – BabyNamesHub.com, Kecia Nyman – Wikipedia, SSA