Where did the baby name Patsyann come from in 1933?

The compound name Patsyann (Patsy Ann) was a one-hit wonder in the U.S. baby name data, making its single appearance during the 1930s:

  • 1935: unlisted
  • 1934: unlisted
  • 1933: 7 baby girls named Patsyann [debut]
  • 1932: unlisted
  • 1931: unlisted

What put it there? I think the influence was the mystery tale Outrageous Fortune by British author Patricia Wentworth. The story was serialized in many U.S. newspapers in the autumn of 1933.

The mystery involved a shipwrecked man with amnesia. A woman named Nesta* claimed the man was her husband…but really she thought he might know the location of a certain priceless emerald necklace. In the meanwhile, the man’s cousin, a woman named Caroline, tracked him down and tried to help him recover his memory.

The protagonist was clearly Caroline, but Caroline’s roommate Patsy Ann “provide[d] an innocent diversion to the main story with her romantic life.”

In the UK the same year, Outrageous Fortune was published in book form, but under the title Seven Green Stones. Another difference between was Patsy Ann’s name: Pansy Ann in the UK. Perhaps the name had been changed from “Pansy” to “Patsy” for American readers because Patsy sounded trendier than Pansy in the U.S. at the time. The slang meaning of pansy, though relatively new in the ’30s, might have been a factor as well.

(If “Patsy Ann” sounds familiar to longtime readers, I blogged about Patsy Ann, the famous dog from Alaska, a couple of years ago.)

*The name Nesta got a boost in 1934.

Sources: Patricia Wentworth – Wikipedia, Outrageous Fortune by Patricia Wentworth – Northern Reader, Pansy – Online Etymology Dictionary, SSA

How did “The Mummy” influence baby names?

The character Anubis from the movie "The Mummy Returns" (2001).
Anubis from “The Mummy Returns“

A slew of Mummy-movies have come out since The Mummy in 1999.

After going through the names of the main characters in all the films, I came away with several that might have influenced the baby name data (Imhotep, Pollux, Valina) but only two that I considered slam-dunks: Anubis and Mathayus.

The Mummy Returns (2001) was the second film in the series, but the first to feature the wolf-headed god Anubis. A year after the movie came out, the baby name Anubis debuted in the data:

  • 2004: unlisted
  • 2003: unlisted
  • 2002: 10 baby boys named Anubis
  • 2001: unlisted
  • 2000: unlisted

Anubis was the god of “death, mummification, embalming, the afterlife, cemeteries, tombs, and the underworld” in ancient Egypt. “Anubis” is actually the Greek form of the name — in ancient Egypt, the god was known as “Inpw.” His name could have been derived from an Egyptian word meaning “royal child, prince,” or from a different Egyptian word meaning “to decay.”

The second film also featured a bad-guy character called the “Scorpion King” (played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson). In the 2002 spin-off movie The Scorpion King, this character was not only turned into a good guy, but also given a birth name: Mathayus. Right on cue, the baby name Mathayus debuted in the data:

  • 2005: 7 baby boys named Mathayus
  • 2004: 7 baby boys named Mathayus
  • 2003: 11 baby boys named Mathayus [debut]
  • 2002: unlisted
  • 2001: unlisted

Mathayus was an Akkadian warrior, but the name “Mathayus” doesn’t seem to be Akkadian. My guess is that the movie-makers simply got creative with the Biblical name Matthias.

Which of these two names do you like more, Anubis or Mathayus?

Sources: Anubis – Behind the Name, Anubis – Wikipedia

What popularized the baby name Donna in 1959?

The Ritchie Valens single "Donna" (1958)
Ritchie Valens single

From 1955 to 1965, Donna was a top-ten baby name in the United States. But, in 1959, it saw a steep rise in usage that boosted it all the way up to 5th place:

  • 1961: 28,668 baby girls named Donna [ranked 7th]
  • 1960: 34,132 baby girls named Donna [ranked 5th]
  • 1959: 36,465 baby girls named Donna [ranked 5th] – peak usage
  • 1958: 26,949 baby girls named Donna [ranked 10th]
  • 1957: 28,039 baby girls named Donna [ranked 10th]

Why the rise?

I think the primary reason was the song “Donna” by California teenager Ritchie Valens. It was released in December of 1958 and became Valens’ highest-charting single, reaching #2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart in February of 1959.

Sadly, Valens died in the same plane crash that killed The Big Bopper and Buddy Holly (“Peggy Sue“) several weeks before “Donna” reached peak popularity.

Valens was born Richard Steven Valenzuela in Pacoima, California, in 1941. He’d written “Donna” as a tribute to his high school sweetheart, Donna Ludwig. (They’d stopped dating about year before the song was released.)

Donna Reed show

A secondary influence on the name Donna might have been The Donna Reed Show, which began airing in September of 1958 — though the show didn’t achieve peak popularity until the early 1960s. It featured already-famous actress Donna Reed as fictional middle-class housewife Donna Stone.

Do you like the name Donna? Would you use it for a modern-day baby?

Source: Ritchie Valens – Billboard, Ritchie Valens – Wikipedia

Where did the baby name Allyson come from in 1945?

American actress June Allyson (1917-2006)
June Allyson

The names Alison and Allison had been in the U.S. baby name data for decades by the time the names Alyson and Allyson popped up, one after the other, in the mid-1940s:

Girls named AllysonGirls named Alyson
19486224
19475325
19463224
194518*7
1944.5*
1943..
*Debut

The double-L version was particularly popular. Why?

Because of June Allyson, the actress who “came to personify the perfect screen wife” in the ’40s and ’50s.

Her birth name was Eleanor “Ella” Geisman. She chose her stage name in the late ’30s, when her career was just beginning. June was for the month of June, and Allyson was “derived from the pet form of her first name.”

Fame finally came in the mid-1940s, when she landed her first starring role in a movie: Two Girls and a Sailor. She went on to star in many movies. For a time, she even had her own TV show (from 1959 to 1961).

In the 1980s, Allyson described her unique appeal:

I have big teeth. I lisp. My eyes disappear when I smile. My voice is funny. I don’t sing like Judy Garland. I don’t dance like Cyd Charisse. But women identify with me. And while men desire Cyd Charisse, they’d take me home to meet Mom.

Do you like the name Allyson? (Do you like that specific spelling?)

Sources: