According to the U.S. baby name data, the rare name Cornel more than sextupled in usage in 1946 (which was the first year of the post-war baby boom):
- 1948: 47 baby boys named Cornel
- 1947: 59 baby boys named Cornel [rank: 907th]
- 1946: 38 baby boys named Cornel
- 1945: 6 baby boys named Cornel
- 1944: 5 baby boys named Cornel
This jump qualified Cornel as the year’s fastest-rising boy name, in terms of relative increase. One year later, the name reached peak usage.
What was drawing attention to the name Cornel in the mid-1940s?
Hungarian-American actor Cornel Wilde, who attained stardom with his portrayal of Polish composer Frédéric Chopin in the early 1945 film A Song to Remember. (The role earned Wilde his first and only Academy Award nomination.)
The “muscular and dashing” actor went on to star opposite Gene Tierney in the late 1945 melodrama Leave Her to Heaven, the second-highest-grossing film of the year. He also played the lead roles in the swashbucklers A Thousand and One Nights (1945) and The Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1946).
Wilde was born Kornél Lajos Weisz in the Kingdom of Hungary in 1912. After his family immigrated to the United States in 1920, his name was Anglicized to Cornelius Louis Wilde.
What are your thoughts on the name Cornel?
P.S. A Song to Remember was what inspired young pianist Wladziu Liberace to start putting a candelabrum atop his piano…
Sources:
- Cornel Wilde – Wikipedia
- Flint, Peter B. “Cornel Wilde, 74, a Performer and Film Producer.” New York Times 17 Oct. 1989.
- Leave Her to Heaven – Wikipedia
- Pyron, Darden Asbury. Liberace: An American Boy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013.
- SSA
Image: Screenshot of A Song to Remember