Where did the baby name Cauy come from in 1999?

The unusual name Cauy debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1999. (In fact, it was the highest-debuting boy name overall that year.) The very next year, it saw peak usage:

  • 2004: 9 baby boys named Cauy
  • 2003: 18 baby boys named Cauy
  • 2001: 35 baby boys named Cauy
  • 2000: 67 baby boys named Cauy [peak]
    • 8 born in Iowa, 7 in Arizona, 6 in Kansas, and 5 in North Dakota.
  • 1999: 32 baby boys named Cauy [debut]
  • 1998: unlisted
  • 1997: unlisted

Where did this one come from?

It was inspired by professional bull rider Cauy (pronounced koy) Hudson, who was at the height of his career in the late ’90s and early 2000s.

I don’t know where he’s from — some sources say Kansas, others say Nebraska — and I don’t know the story behind his unique name. But I do know that a surprising number of Cauy’s namesakes (e.g., Cauy Pennington, Cauy Preitauer, Cauy Begay, JaCauy Hale, Cauy Pokorny, Cauy Pool, Cauy Kraut, Cauy Schmidt) also ended up participating in rodeo.

What are your thoughts on the baby name Cauy?

Sources: PBR Rider | Cauy Hudson, SSA

[Latest update: Jan. 2025]

Baby name story: Xiaoai

Great Wall of China
Great Wall of China

On May 12, 2008, China’s Sichuan province was struck by a strong earthquake that ultimately killed tens of thousands of people

Zhang Xiaoyan, who was eight months pregnant at the time, wasn’t one of the victims. But she did end up trapped under a pile of rubble for 52 hours. “For two days, rescuers passed food and water to Zhang through a small hole as they struggled to find a way to free her.”

A month later, her baby girl was delivered via Caesarean section.

The girl was originally going to be named “Yingao”, meaning “to welcome the Olympics”, which Beijing hosted in August that year.

But after the quake, the couple decided on “Xiaoai”, or “little love”, to honour those whose care helped see them through the disaster.

In Chinese, xiao means “little” and ai means “love.” (Both words also have other meanings, though, depending upon the characters being used.)

Other Chinese babies that were named with earthquakes in mind include Zhongde, Zhensheng, Lutian, and Yuanyuan. And other Olympics-inspired Chinese baby names include Aoyun, Shen’ao, Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, and Nini.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from China by M M under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Where did the baby name Cozell come from in 1983?

College basketball player Cozell McQueen
Cozell McQueen

The rare name Cozell was a one-hit wonder in the U.S. baby name data in 1983:

  • 1985: unlisted
  • 1984: unlisted
  • 1983: 6 baby boys named Cozell [debut]
  • 1982: unlisted
  • 1981: unlisted

Where did it come from?

College basketball player Cozell (pronounced coh-ZEHL) McQueen.

He was a sophomore playing for North Carolina State University the year the team unexpectedly won the 1983 NCAA Tournament (via buzzer-beating alley-oop).

The NC State Wolfpack beat #1 seeded Virginia on its way to the Final Four, then Georgia in the semifinals, and finally Houston — a team that included future superstars Akeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler — in the championship game.

They wouldn’t have had the chance to win, though, had Cozell McQueen not been a crucial part of the first-round, double-overtime win against Pepperdine.

Cozell was also the player who, following the final win, stood atop one of the rims and held up a “Pack Power” sign in celebration.

What are your thoughts on the name Cozell?

Sources:

Image: Cozell McQueen trading card

The 16 children of William the Silent

William the Silent (1533-1584)
William the Silent

Sixteenth-century Dutch nobleman William the Silent — founder of the House of Orange-Nassau, the reigning house of the Netherlands — was the leader of the Dutch revolt against Spanish rule that set off the Eighty Years’ War (1568-1648).

William had a total of 16 children with five different women (four wives, one mistress). All 16 received traditional first names, but four of his daughters were given location-inspired middle names — symbols of the political alliances between William and “the lands for which he fought.”

Here are the names of all 16:

  1. Maria (born in 1553)
  2. Philip William, (b. 1554)
  3. Maria (b. 1556)
  4. Justinus (b. 1559)
  5. Anna (b. 1562)
  6. Anna (b. 1563)
  7. Maurice August Philip (b. 1564)
  8. Maurice (b. 1567)
  9. Emilia (b. 1569)
  10. Louise Juliana (b. 1576)
  11. Elisabeth (b. 1577)
  12. Catharina Belgica (b. 1578)
  13. Charlotte Flandrina (b. 1579)
  14. Charlotte Brabantina (b. 1580)
  15. Emilia Antwerpiana (b. 1581)
  16. Frederick Henry (b. 1584)

Each of the regions/locations honored with a name responded by “bestow[ing] pensions upon the children”:

This inspired other parents with connections to the House of Orange-Nassau to adopt similar naming practices. For instance, Ernst Casimir I — the Stadtholder of Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe — named his daughter Elisabeth Friso (b. 1620). And Henri Charles de Le Trémoille — a direct descendant of William the Silent via Charlotte Brabantina — named his son Charles Belgique Hollande (b. 1655).

Sources:

  • Broomhall, Susan and Jacqueline Van Gent. Gender, Power and Identity in the Early Modern House of Orange-Nassau. London: Routledge, 2016.
  • Steen, Jasper van der. Memory Wars in the Low Countries, 1566-1700. Leiden: Brill, 2015.
  • William the Silent – Wikipedia

Image: Adapted from William of Orange (1579) by Adriaen Thomasz. Key