The Little Mermaid — which marked a return to the Walt Disney company’s tried-and-true formula of creating animated musical adaptations of folktales, fairy-tales, and other well-known stories (e.g., Pinocchio, Cinderella) — was released in theaters in November of 1989.
It went on to become the ninth-highest-grossing film of the year, and kicked off the “Disney renaissance” of the 1990s.
The movie’s protagonist, a teenage mermaid named Ariel (pronounced AIR-ee-el), was the daughter of King Triton, ruler of the undersea kingdom of Atlantica.
Ariel, who had long been fascinated by the human world, fell in love with a human prince — right before rescuing him from a shipwreck.
When Ariel’s father found out that she’d had contact with a human — something that was “strictly forbidden” for merfolk — he became enraged and destroyed her large collection of human artifacts (e.g., a dinner fork, a tobacco pipe).
Distraught, Ariel decided to make a deal with Ursula the sea witch. She would be transformed into a human for three days, and, if she could get the prince to fall in love with her during that time, she would remain a human forever. If not, she would return to the ocean and become Ursula’s prisoner.
A year after The Little Mermaid came out, not only did the name Triton debut in the U.S. baby name data, but the name Ariel — which was already on the rise for baby girls (thanks to a song and a soap opera) — entered the girls’ top 100 for the very first time:
| Girls named Ariel | Boys named Ariel | |
| 1992 | 3,961 [rank: 87th] | 456 [rank: 472nd] |
| 1991 | 5,411† [rank: 66th] | 666† [rank: 360th] |
| 1990 | 3,607 [rank: 94th] | 408 [rank: 482nd] |
| 1989 | 1,284 [rank: 209th] | 383 [rank: 489th] |
| 1988 | 911 [rank: 277th] | 345 [rank: 493rd] |
A year after that, Ariel reached peak usage (for both genders, interestingly).
Also peaking in 1991 were slew of other spellings: Aerial, Aeriel, Aeriell, Aireal, Airiel, Airielle, Areial, Areil, Arial, Arieal, Ariele, Arielle, Arriel, Arrielle, Auriel, and Ayriel.
So, how did the character come to be called Ariel?
The film’s co-director, Ron Clements, wrote a two-page treatment of The Little Mermaid in January of 1985. His treatment was based on the like-named 19th-century fairy-tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. In the original story, the mermaid was nameless; in the treatment, Clements referred to the mermaid as Ariel.
Years later, Clements deduced that he’d been influenced by the 1984 film Footloose, which featured a female character named Ariel (who, like the mermaid, was a rebellious teenager).
What are your thoughts on the name Ariel? Do you like it better as a girl name or as a boy name?
P.S. The nine other Disney films released during the “renaissance” period were The Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Mulan, and Tarzan.
P.P.S. Another mermaid movie from the 1980s that influenced U.S. baby names was Splash…
Sources:
- Wikipedia: The Little Mermaid (1989 film), 1989 in film, Disney Renaissance, Footloose
- Redmond, Christopher. “9 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About The Little Mermaid.” Dear Cast & Crew 23 Sept. 2014.
- Robb, Peter. “The Little Mermaid: The film that saved Disney animation.” Ottawa Citizen 19 Sept. 2014.
- YouTube: Interview with Ron Clements & John Musker – 25th Anniversary of The Little Mermaid [vid], Ron Clements: A True Disney Legend – Part 1 [vid], Q & A with Writers/Directors for The Little Mermaid–Little Known Facts [vid]
- SSA
Image: Screenshot of The Little Mermaid