How popular is the baby name Zeus in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Zeus.
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Several days ago, NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day was the impressive “Io: Moon Over Jupiter,” which was taken by the Cassini spacecraft.
Jupiter’s moon Io (pronounced IE-oh) was discovered by Galileo in 1610. He named it for the mythological character Io — a nymph who was seduced by Zeus, then turned into a cow.*
The baby name Io doesn’t have a known meaning, and it’s rarely used in the U.S.:
2010: 6 baby girls named Io
2009: 8 baby girls named Io
2008: 5 baby girls named Io
2007: 5 baby girls named Io
2006: 5 baby girls named Io
Nevertheless, I’ve always found it intriguing. There aren’t many two-letter girl names out there, and this is the only one I know of from Greek myth.
Do you like the name Io? Would you give it to your baby girl?
*The name of the Bosphorus, which comes from ancient Greek and means “cow passage,” commemorates Io-the-cow’s crossing of the strait.
I’ve found long names, and alphabetical sibling names, but this is the first time I’ve spotted a long, alphabetical name that belonged to a single individual.
A baby girl born on December 19, 1882, in West Derby, Liverpool, England, to Arthur and Sarah Pepper was named:
Ann Bertha Cecilia Diana Emily Fanny Gertrude Hypatia Inez Jane Kate Louisa Maud Nora Ophelia Quince Rebecca Starkey Teresa Ulyses Venus Winifred Xenophon Yetty Zeus Pepper
Regarding the name, the Boston Evening Transcript quipped, “Apparently the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children has little power in London”:
(The handwriting on the original birth record is relatively clear, but certain names are hard to make out — this accounts for the spelling differences between my version and the Transcript‘s version.)
In 1919 — years before radio broadcasting became a means of popularizing music — the song “Dardanella” was published as sheet music with lyrics. The song tells the tale of a “lonesome maid Armenian” named Dardanella. Here’s the chorus:
Oh sweet Dardanella, I love your harem eyes, I’m a lucky fellow, to capture such a prize, Oh Allah knows, my love for you, And he tells you to be true,
Dardanella, oh hear my sigh, my Oriental, Oh sweet Dardanella, prepare the wedding wine, There’ll be one girl in my harem when you’re mine. We’ll build a tent, just like the children of the Orient.
Oh, sweet Dardanella, my star of love divine.
“Dardanella” became so trendy that it inspired dozens of expectant parents to name their baby girls Dardanella in the early 1920s:
The name in the song is derived from the word Dardanelles, which is one of the Turkish Straits that separates European Turkey from Asian Turkey. The word Dardanelles can be traced back to the mythological figure Dardanus, son of Zeus and Electra.
It’s feasible that the Dardanelles Campaign of WWI was lyricist Fred Fisher’s direct inspiration. After all, several years earlier, in 1917, he’d helped create the song “Lorraine (My Beautiful Alsace Lorraine).” (And a few years before that, in 1910, he’d scored a big hit with “Come Josephine in My Flying Machine.”)
If you’d like to hear “Dardanella,” check out this 1920 recording by Gladys Rice and Vernon Dalhart [vid]. A version by Selvin’s Novelty Orchestra that was released in late 1919 became “the first pressing ever to sell more than a million copies.”
What do you think of the name Dardanella? Usable nowadays?
Please note that I did include names in the gray area between one syllable and two syllables. The deciding factor on these particular names (such as Charles, Miles, and Noel) will be your own interpretation/accent, so be sure to test the names out loud before making any final decisions.
Many of these names also happen to be unisex, so they appear on the one-syllable girl names list as well.
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