Top male names in Early Medieval Ireland

Cliffs of Moher, Ireland
Cliffs of Moher, Ireland

Which names were the most popular among males in early medieval Ireland?

To find out, researcher Heather Rose Jones compiled a list of the most-used male names in the book Corpus Genealogiarum Hiberniae, “a collection of Irish genealogical material from the pre-Norman period (i.e., roughly pre-12th century).”

The 10 most-used names were…

  1. Áed, 248 instances
  2. Óengus/Áengus, 191
  3. Ailill, 145
  4. Fergus, 140
  5. Eochaid, 130
  6. Lugaid, 129
  7. Domnall, 120
  8. Cairpre, 109
  9. Conall, 108
  10. Cormac, 105

It’s pretty interesting that Áed came out on top, as Áed is the ultimate root of the Aidan-names (e.g. Ayden, Aedan, Adyn) that became so trendy during the first decade of the 2000s.

Other names in Ireland’s medieval top 100 include Crimthann, Crundmáel, Indrechtach, and Imchad. Click the link below to see the rest.

Source: 100 Most Popular Men’s Names in Early Medieval Ireland by Heather Rose Jones

Image: Adapted from Cliffs of Moher 3 by Carogonmu under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Where did the baby name Kirsten come from in 1937?

Opera singer Kirsten Flagstad (1895-1962).
Kirsten Flagstad

The name Kirsten first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1937:

  • 1939: 16 baby girls named Kirsten
  • 1938: 14 baby girls named Kirsten
  • 1937: 10 baby girls named Kirsten
  • 1936: unlisted
  • 1935: unlisted

The reason?

Norwegian opera singer Kirsten (pronounced keer-sten) Flagstad, who became famous in America in the mid-1930s, particularly for playing Wagnerian roles (like Isolde in Tristan und Isolde, and Brünnhilde in Die Walküre). People would have been able to hear her on 1930s radio shows like Kraft Music Hall (NBC) with Bing Crosby and The Ford Sunday Evening Hour (CBS).

Her first name is the Norwegian form of Christina. (She also had an interesting middle name, Malfrid, which is made up of Old Norse elements meaning “ore” and “beautiful.”)

Do you like the name Kirsten?

Sources: Kirsten Flagstad – Wikipedia, Malfrid – Nordic Names Wiki

Popular baby names in Manitoba (Canada), 2020

According to Manitoba’s Vital Statistics Agency, the most popular baby names in the province last year were Olivia and Liam.

Oddly, Manitoba didn’t publish two gender-specific sets of rankings for 2020. Instead, the province’s annual report featured a single set of rankings that combined both genders.

So here are Manitoba’s top 10 baby names overall for 2020:

  1. Liam
  2. Olivia
  3. Oliver
  4. Noah
  5. Levi
  6. James
  7. Lucas
  8. Sophia
  9. Amelia
  10. Emily, Theodore (tied)

From this, we can deduce that…

  • The top four girl names were Olivia, Sophia, Amelia and Emily.
  • The top seven boy names were Liam, Oliver, Noah, Levi, James, Lucas, and Theodore.

We don’t have enough information to compare these rankings to the 2019 rankings, but we do know that the top two names stayed the same, and that Oliver jumped from 8th place to 2nd place.

Sources: Annual Report | Manitoba Vital Statistics Branch | Province of Manitoba, Annual Report 2020-2021 (pdf)

Where did the baby name Terrea come from in the early 1950s?

Terrea Lea's album "Folk Songs" (1956)
Terrea Lea album

Usage of the unisex name Terry was rising fast for both genders during the ’40s and ’50s, but I think the debuts of Terrea and Terria in the early ’50s had a more specific explanation than the trendiness of Terry.

Girls named TerreaGirls named Terria
195610†
[9 born in CA]		18
1955.10
1954915
1953616
1952.17*
19516.
19505*
[all born in CA]		.
1949..
1948..
*Debut, †Peak usage

I think the influence was Missouri-born folksinger Terrea Lea, who was closely associated with the Southern California folk scene starting in the early ’50s — long before folk music became trendy in the U.S. in the mid-’60s.

Terrea Lea was born Bette June Nutz in Liberty, Missouri, in 1922. I’m not sure how she chose her stage name or when she started using it, but she was being mentioned as “Terrea Lea” in Billboard magazine by mid-1950 and was appearing on television, performing on radio, and putting out singles by 1951. In April of 1951, Billboard described her as “local TV folk chirper billed as the fem[inine] Burl Ives.”

Her own Terrea Lea Show could be heard on the East Coast radio by 1952, but the newspapers often misspelled her name (e.g., “Terria Lea,” “Terrea Lee”) in the broadcast schedules. Typos like these, combined with the fact that the shows were (of course) audio only, probably account for why the name Terria was the top debut name of 1952.

Misspelling of "Terrea Lea" in Billboard magazine (1952)
Misspelling (Billboard, 1952)

In 1956 and 1957, Terrea Lea put out her first two full-length albums. In late 1958, she and some friends opened a coffee house in West Hollywood called The Garret. (The name was inspired by Puccini’s La bohème.) She regularly performed there, and it was frequented by popular folk singers of the day, including Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell. The Garret existed until 1971.

There’s a website dedicated to The Garret, and the guest book includes six comments from people named after Terrea Lea. They are: Terra Lea, Terrea Lee, Terrea Lea (b. 1954, Calif.), Terrea Lea (b. 1951, Oregon), and Terria Leigh. Another comment is from someone whose son has the middle name Garret.

What are your thoughts on the name Terrea?

Sources: