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

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)