Where did the baby name Samia come from in 1951?

Egyptian belly dancer Samia Gamal (1924-1994)
Samia Gamal

Here’s a debut name I almost missed because it’s so similar to names like Sammie and Samie. It’s Samia, which first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in the early 1950s:

  • 1955: unlisted
  • 1954: 7 baby girls named Samia
  • 1953: 14 baby girls named Samia
    • 6 in Texas specifically
  • 1952: 11 baby girls named Samia
  • 1951: 6 baby girls named Samia [debut]
  • 1950: unlisted
  • 1949: unlisted

What was the inspiration?

An Egyptian belly dancer!

She was born Zaynab Ibrahim Mahfuz in 1924, but early in her dancing career she started using the stage name Samia Gamal.

She became a film star in Egypt, but the U.S. press didn’t start mentioning her until 1950, when King Farouk of Egypt (who had divorced his first wife Farida a few years earlier) made it known that Samia was his favorite dancer.

What really caught America’s attention, though, was Samia’s whirlwind romance with oil heir Sheppard King III of Houston, Texas. They’d met in mid-1951 in a Paris nightclub and became engaged the same night. Within a few months he had converted to Islam, taken the name “Abdullah,” and married Samia in Cairo.

Egyptian belly dancer Samia Gamal (1924-1994)
Samia Gamal

“Naturally, the press, especially some of the Houston papers, ate it up.”

Over the next few months, the couple didn’t have to do much to end up in the newspaper. When not jet-setting around the world, mostly to satisfy Gamal’s dancing commitments, the two could be found in Houston. For instance, a proposed visit to Arrowhead Park Speedway in July 1952 merited a couple of paragraphs in the Chronicle.

And, of course, the press was also there to cover the couple’s separation and divorce in 1953.

Given the story’s Texas connection, it’s not surprising that many of the babies named Samia in 1953 (and in 1952, according to records) were born in Texas specifically.

The Arabic name Samia (also spelled Samiya) is derived from the male name Sami, which means “elevated” or “sublime.”

What are your thoughts on the name Samia?

Sources:

Images: Clippings from Life magazine (24 Mar. 1952) and another Life magazine (22 Oct. 1951)

Popular baby names in Denmark, 2020

Flag of Denmark
Flag of Denmark

According to Statistics Denmark, the most popular baby names in the country last year were Alma and Alfred.

Here are Denmark’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2020:

Girl Names

  1. Alma, 514 baby girls
  2. Agnes, 456
  3. Ella, 448
  4. Freja, 439
  5. Clara, 432 (tie)
  6. Emma, 432 (tie)
  7. Sofia, 423
  8. Karla, 398
  9. Anna, 375
  10. Ellie, 363

Boy Names

  1. Alfred, 520 baby boys
  2. Oscar, 516
  3. Carl, 503 (tie)
  4. Noah, 503 (tie)
  5. William, 497
  6. Oliver, 463
  7. Aksel, 454
  8. Arthur, 453
  9. Valdemar, 432
  10. Lucas, 429

In the girls’ top 10, Ellie replaced Olivia.

In the boys’ top 10, Aksel and Valdemar replaced August and Malthe.

In 2019, the top two names in Denmark were Emma and William.

Sources: Names of newborn children – Statistics Denmark, Alma and Alfred the most popular names of 2020

Image: Adapted from Flag of Denmark (public domain)

How have Mexican comic books influenced U.S. baby names?

Partial cover of the comic book "Lágrimas, risas y amor" #78, featuring the story "María Isabel" (1964).
One of the “María Isabel” covers

In the 1960s, comic books were on their way out in the United States. But they were still going strong in Latin America.

In fact, one of Latin America’s best-selling comic books, Lágrimas, risas y amor (transl. Tears, Laughter and Love), was introduced in Mexico in late 1962.

Lágrimas, risas y amor was created by Yolanda Vargas Dulché. It featured romantic stories, each of which had its own unique set of characters. And, believe it or not, some of these stories ended up influencing U.S. baby names, particularly in states with large Spanish-speaking populations (like California and Texas). Here are some examples:

Yesenia

“Yesenia” (1965-1966) told the love story of Yesenia, a gypsy, and Osvaldo, a Mexican soldier. In 1966, we see the name Yesenia appear for the first time in the U.S. baby name data:

  • 1968: 13 baby girls named Yesenia
  • 1967: 12 baby girls named Yesenia
  • 1966: 17 baby girls named Yesenia [debut]
  • 1965: unlisted
  • 1964: unlisted

Geisha

I don’t know anything about the plot of “Geisha” (1967), but the baby name Geisha first appeared in the U.S. data the same year:

  • 1969: unlisted
  • 1968: unlisted
  • 1967: 8 baby girls named Geisha [debut]
  • 1966: unlisted
  • 1965: unlisted
Partial cover of the comic book "Lágrimas, risas y amor" #279, featuring the story "Geisha" (1967).
One of the “Geisha” covers

Analuisa

“El atardecer de Ana Luisa” (transl. “Ana Luisa’s Middle Years”) (1971) told the story of Ana Luisa, who lost her boyfriend to another woman when she was young, but got him back years later. There’s a gap between the publication and the debut of the compound name Analuisa, but I still think it’s likely that the two events are connected.

  • 1975: unlisted
  • 1974: unlisted
  • 1973: 5 baby girls named Analuisa [debut]
  • 1972: unlisted
  • 1971: unlisted

…And it doesn’t end there! Many Lágrimas, risas y amor stories were later adapted for TV and film, giving them extra (and much bigger) rounds of exposure. Some examples:

Rosaisela

The comic “María Isabel” (1964) featured a character named Rosa Isela. It became a telenovela in 1966, and a year later the compound name Rosaisela first emerged in the data:

  • 1969: unlisted
  • 1968: 5 baby girls named Rosaisela
  • 1967: 9 baby girls named Rosaisela [debut]
  • 1966: unlisted
  • 1965: unlisted

Yesenia (again)

“Yesenia” became a telenovela in 1970 and a movie in 1971. The one-two punch of both of these pieces of media, both made in Mexico, resulted in an huge increase in the usage of Yesenia in the United States:

  • 1973: 343 baby girls named Yesenia [rank: 503rd]
  • 1972: 471 baby girls named Yesenia [rank: 414th]
  • 1971: 526 baby girls named Yesenia [rank: 410th]
  • 1970: 30 baby girls named Yesenia
  • 1969: 9 baby girls named Yesenia

Oyuki

The comic “El pecado de Oyuki” (transl. “The Sin of Oyuki”) (1975-1977) became a telenovela in 1987. It first aired in the U.S. on Univision, and the same year the name Oyuki debuted in the U.S. data:

  • 1989: 8 baby girls named Oyuki
  • 1988: 20 baby girls named Oyuki
  • 1987: 6 baby girls named Oyuki [debut]
  • 1986: unlisted
  • 1985: unlisted

Yesenia (yet again)

“Yesenia” was made into yet another telenovela in 1987, and this resulted in the name’s highest-ever usage in the U.S. the same year:

  • 1989: 1,303 baby girls named Yesenia [rank: 204th]
  • 1988: 1,208 baby girls named Yesenia [rank: 215th]
  • 1987: 2,003 baby girls named Yesenia [rank: 137th]
  • 1986: 845 baby girls named Yesenia [rank: 293rd]
  • 1985: 522 baby girls named Yesenia [rank: 422nd]

Alondra

The comic “Casandra” (which came out during the ’80s) was adapted as Alondra for TV in 1995. It was renamed in honor of Yolanda Vargas Dulché’s granddaughter, orchestra conductor Alondra de la Parra. The same year, the popularity of the name Alondra (the Spanish word for “lark”) rose considerably:

  • 1997: 1,837 baby girls named Alondra [rank: 167th]
  • 1996: 2,020 baby girls named Alondra [rank: 157th]
  • 1995: 1,205 baby girls named Alondra [rank: 238th]
  • 1994: 149 baby girls named Alondra
  • 1993: 193 baby girls named Alondra [rank: 972nd]

Rosaisela (again)

“María Isabel” was made into yet another telenovela in 1997. A year later, the name saw its highest-ever U.S. usage:

  • 2000: 20 baby girls named Rosaisela
  • 1999: 33 baby girls named Rosaisela
  • 1998: 51 baby girls named Rosaisela [peak]
  • 1997: 10 baby girls named Rosaisela
  • 1996: 10 baby girls named Rosaisela

…Do you know anyone who was named with one of these comics or telenovelas in mind? Which name did they get?

Sources:

  • Foster, David William. (Ed.) Handbook of Latin American Literature. New York: Routledge, 2015.
  • Hinds, Harold E. and Charles M. Tatum. Not Just for Children: The Mexican Comic Book in the Late 1960s and 1970s. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992.
  • Lágrimas, risas y amor – Wikipedia

Images adapted from Lagrimas, Risas y Amor #78 and Lagrimas, Risas y Amor #279 from the Grand Comics Database under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Baby name story: Skye

In March of 2006, a Scottish woman named Shirley Anne Hodge went into labor amid wintry weather that turned the 40-minute drive to Ayrshire Central Hospital into a trek that “took four hours and involved three vehicles, including a helicopter.” (The other two vehicles were an ambulance and a police jeep, both of which got stuck in snow.)

After the airlift, she gave birth to a baby girl at the hospital.

The baby’s name? Skye.

My hunch is that the name was a nod to the helicopter ride, though my source didn’t state that explicitly.

(Another potential influence might be Scotland’s Isle of Skye.)

Source: “Pregnant woman in airlift drama.” BBC 12 Mar. 2006.