From 1948 to 1964, Brenda was one of the top 20 girl names in the United States. So it makes sense that, during this period, names like Brendalyn, Brendalee, and Labrenda started seeing enough usage to debut in the U.S. baby name data. (The SSA’s dataset only includes names given to at least five babies per gender, per year.)
But it doesn’t explain why the combo Brendalee saw stronger-than-expected usage in the early 1960s specifically:
- 1964: 14 baby girls named Brendalee
- 1963: 22 baby girls named Brendalee
- 1962: 12 baby girls named Brendalee
- 1961: 20 baby girls named Brendalee
- 1960: 24 baby girls named Brendalee (peak usage)
- 1959: 10 baby girls named Brendalee
- 1958: 6 baby girls named Brendalee
What accounts for this usage?
Pint-sized pop singer Brenda Lee (born Brenda Mae Tarpley in Georgia in 1944).
Brenda Lee was discovered by country singer Red Foley in early 1955, when she was just eleven. Soon after that, her first singles started coming out.
She went on to have a recording career that lasted multiple decades. More than a dozen of her singles ended up reaching the U.S. top 10 — most of them during the first half of the 1960s.
Her biggest hit was the song “I’m Sorry,” which peaked at #1 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in the summer of 1960, when she was fifteen.
Here’s what it sounds like:
(Brenda finally scored a second #1 hit in late 2023, when her rockabilly holiday song “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” rose to the top of the charts thanks to a cute music video created to celebrate the song’s 65th anniversary.)
What are your thoughts on the compound name Brenda Lee?
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