What gave the baby name Marianne a boost in 1957?

Terry Gilkyson and the Easy Riders' song "Marianne" (1957)
“Marianne” single

According to the U.S. baby name data, name Marianne nearly doubled in usage in 1957:

  • 1959: 1,915 baby girls named Marianne [rank: 186th]
  • 1958: 2,076 baby girls named Marianne [rank: 181st]
  • 1957: 3,021 baby girls named Marianne [rank: 139th]
  • 1956: 1,617 baby girls named Marianne [rank: 202nd]
  • 1955: 1,747 baby girls named Marianne [rank: 191st]

Why?

Because of the calypso song “Marianne,” which became popular during the first months of the year (during America’s short-lived “calypso craze,” which had been kicked off by Harry Belafonte’s mid-1956 album Calypso).

Marianne” [vid] by folk music trio Terry Gilkyson and the Easy Riders was released during the final days of 1956. It was based on the calypso song “Mary Ann” (1946) by Trinidadian calypsonian Roaring Lion (birth name: Rafael de Leon), though its lyrics were substantially different.

During the months that followed, other artists (including Burl Ives) released their own recordings of “Marianne.” The most successful cover was that by The Hilltoppers, who performed the song live on The Steve Allen Show in late February.

In mid-March, the recordings of “Marianne” by the Easy Riders and the Hilltoppers peaked at #5 and #8 (respectively) on Billboard‘s Top 100 chart (a precursor to today’s Hot 100 chart).

What are your thoughts on the name Marianne?

Sources:

One thought on “What gave the baby name Marianne a boost in 1957?

  1. My grandmother almost named my mother Marianne — it was her favorite name, but she was very committed to a pronunciation that would not have survived the “merry Mary marry” divide. We live in the Baltimore area and other people’s spoken vowels are not predictable here. There’s a class/race pronunciation difference even within just the metro area. She hated when people said it like mayr-ee-ANN, with a flat nasal sound on the last syllable. She only like it pronounced the way the New Zealand pronouncer does here on Forvo: https://forvo.com/word/marianne/

    Anyway, the Beatles didn’t have any songs about Marianne, either, so my mother still would have been bummed out. But maybe she would have become a Leonard Cohen fan.

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