Was Kamala Harris named after an actress?

Actress Kamala Devi (1933-2010)
Kamala Devi

With the presidential inauguration just two days away, now is a good time to take a closer look at the baby name Kamala.

Most Americans already know that Kamala Devi Harris’ first name is pronounced KAH-mah-lah (or “comma-la“). And I bet some also know that the Sanskrit name Kamala means “lotus,” and is sometimes used to refer to the Hindu deity Lakshmi.

But here’s an intriguing fact that isn’t very well known: usage of the baby name Kamala peaked in 1964 — the year that Kamala Harris was born.

  • 1967: 46 baby girls named Kamala
  • 1966: 51 baby girls named Kamala
  • 1965: 91 baby girls named Kamala
  • 1964: 105 baby girls named Kamala [rank: 1,064th]
  • 1963: 44 baby girls named Kamala
  • 1962: 20 baby girls named Kamala
  • 1961: 10 baby girls named Kamala

Here’s the graph:

Graph of the usage of the baby name Kamala in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Kamala

What caused the spike?

I believe the influence was half-Indian, half-English actress Kamala Devi (birth name: Kamala Devi Amesur). She came to the U.S. from India around 1960, and over the course of the decade appeared in two U.S. films and on about ten TV shows (including My Three Sons).

The thing that put her name in the papers, though, was her 1963 marriage to actor Chuck Connors, her co-star in the 1962 film Geronimo. (You can see several press photos of the pair at one Chuck Connors fan site.) Here’s what Louella Parsons wrote about the couple in mid-1963:

The Brooklyn-born Irishman and the Bombay-born East Indian, married in April, are as unlikely a combination as you could dream up, but they seem ideally mated. Chuck and Kamala met when both played in “Geronimo.” She was the last actress to be interviewed for the lead opposite him. “I took one look at her,” says Chuck, “and that was it.”

So, now, back to Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

I have never seen anything that explicitly connects Kamala Devi Harris to Kamala Devi, but the fact that Harris’ middle name is Devi (which means “goddess”), and the fact that she was born in 1964, makes me think Harris’ parents were probably influenced by the actress — whether they were aware of it or not.

(Her parents, Donald Harris of Jamaica and Shyamala Gopalan of Tamil Nadu, met as graduate students in California in the fall of 1962. They married in July of 1963 and welcomed their first daughter, Kamala, the following year in October. Their second daughter, Maya Lakshmi, was born in early 1967.)

Regardless, Kamala Harris’s visibility over the last few years seems to have had a slight influence on the name:

  • 2020: 18 baby girls named Kamala
  • 2019: 13 baby girls named Kamala
  • 2018: 10 baby girls named Kamala
  • 2017: 10 baby girls named Kamala
  • 2016: 10 baby girls named Kamala

What are your thoughts on the name Kamala?

Sources:

Where did the baby name Scheherazade come from in 1948?

The character Scheherazade from the movie "Song of Scheherazade" (1947)
Scheherazade from “Song of Scheherazade“

The name Scheherazade (pronounced sheh-hehr-uh-zahd) comes to us from classic literature: Scheherazade was the wife of the sultan Shahryar in The Arabian Nights,* the collection of Middle Eastern and Indian folk tales first published in English in the early 18th century.

The name didn’t appear in the U.S. baby name data, though, until 1948:

  • 1950: unlisted
  • 1949: unlisted
  • 1948: 5 baby girls named Scheherazade [debut]
  • 1947: unlisted
  • 1946: unlisted

What put it there?

My guess is the movie Song of Scheherazade, which was released in March of 1947. The main female character, Cara de Talavera (played by actress Yvonne De Carlo), moonlighted as a cabaret dancer known as Scheherazade.

(The name might have debuted earlier had the 1942 film Arabian Nights similarly featured Scheherazade’s name in the title.)

So…what does the name Scheherazade mean? Good question. Sources agree that it’s Persian, but don’t agree on the definition. One defintion I’ve found is “city-freer.” Another is “born to a good race” (which reminds of the definition of Eugene: “well-born”).

What are your thoughts on the baby name Scheherazade? Would you considering using it?

*Shahryar and Scheherazade are part of the collection’s frame story. Scheherazade — like all of the sultan’s previous wives — had been sentenced to die. (Not because of something she did; the sultan had a habit of killing his wives, because he presumed they would all be unfaithful.) So, every night, clever Scheherazade told Shahryar a story that ended with a cliffhanger. Because the sultan always wanted to hear the ending, he kept putting off Scheherazade’s execution…

Sources:

  • Mernissi, Fatema. Scheherazade Goes West: Different Cultures, Different Harems. New York: Washington Square Press, 2001.
  • Nurse, Paul McMichael. Eastern Dreams: How The Arabian Nights Came To The World. Ontario: Penguin, 2010.
  • The Thousand and One Nights – Britannica.com

Image: Screenshot of Song of Scheherazade

Popular baby names in Italy, 2019

Flag of Italy
Flag of Italy

According to Italy’s ISTAT (Istituto Nazionale di Statistica), the most popular baby names in the country in 2019 were (again) Sofia and Leonardo.

Here are Italy’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2019:

Girl Names

  1. Sofia, 5,851 baby girls (2.87%)
  2. Aurora, 5,467
  3. Giulia, 5,356
  4. Ginevra, 3,721
  5. Alice, 3,658
  6. Emma, 3,245
  7. Giorgia, 3,056
  8. Beatrice, 3,046
  9. Greta, 2,725
  10. Vittoria, 2,713

Boy Names

  1. Leonardo, 7,786 baby boys (3.64%)
  2. Francesco, 5,946
  3. Lorenzo, 5,264
  4. Alessandro, 5,229
  5. Andrea, 4,715
  6. Mattia, 4,714
  7. Gabriele, 4,412
  8. Tommaso, 4,269
  9. Riccardo, 4,176
  10. Edoardo, 3,651

In the girls’ top 10, Vittoria replaced Anna (now ranked 11th).

(One girl name with top-10 potential is the intriguing Ludovica, which — unlike cousins Luisa, Louisa, and Louise — has seen very little usage in the United States. Ludovica was Italy’s 30th most popular girl name — give or take a few spots — from 2008 to 2015, but in the last few years it has reached 15th twice.)

The boys’ top 10 includes the same 10 names, but in a slightly different order.

Source: How Many Babies Are Named…?

Image: Adapted from Flag of Italy (public domain)

Popular baby names in New Brunswick (Canada), 2020

According to the Vital Statistics Office at Service New Brunswick, the most popular baby names in the province last year were Olivia and Liam.

Here are New Brunswick’s top 10+ girl names and top 10 boy names of 2020:

Girl Names

  1. Olivia
  2. Amelia
  3. Emma
  4. Charlotte
  5. Violet
  6. Ella
  7. Scarlet
  8. Ellie
  9. Ava
  10. Sophie
  11. Mia

Boy Names

  1. Liam
  2. Noah
  3. Jack
  4. Jackson
  5. Benjamin
  6. Lincoln
  7. William
  8. Oliver
  9. Thomas
  10. Jacob

These preliminary rankings were published on the last day of 2020. I’m not sure how much of the year they cover, but the news release mentioned that they account for “1,026 different names given to boys and 1,174 different names given to girls.”

In 2019, the top two names were Olivia and William. (I didn’t blog about the 2019 rankings, but I did post the 2018 rankings.)

Source: New Brunswick’s birth numbers and top baby names for 2020