After popping up in the U.S. baby name data once in the 1910s, the rare name Peola (pronounced pee-OH-lah) returned to the data during the second half of the 1930s, starting in 1935:
- 1937: 10 baby girls named Peola
- 1936: 8 baby girls named Peola
- 1935: 9 baby girls named Peola
- 1934: unlisted
- 1933: unlisted
Why?
Because of a character in the melodrama Imitation of Life, which was released in theaters in November of 1934.
The film’s main characters were Beatrice “Bea” Pullman (played by Claudette Colbert), who was white, and Delilah Johnson (played by Louise Beavers), who was Black.
At the start of the story, Bea and Delilah were single mothers struggling to make ends meet. They formed a business partnership and, over the next fifteen years, became wealthy together — all thanks to Delilah’s secret family pancake recipe.
The movie’s “most central, compelling conflict,” however, involved Delilah’s light-skinned daughter Peola (played by Fredi Washington).
Peola, who had wished to “pass” as white since she was a child, chose to repudiate both her mother and her Blackness as a young adult. (As she told Delilah, “I want to go away. And you musn’t see me, own me, or claim me, or anything. I mean, even if you pass me on the street, you’ll have to pass me by.”) This decision, which left Delilah heartbroken, ended up having tragic consequences.
Imitation of Life was popular with movie-going audiences — particularly Black audiences. It was also nominated for three Academy Awards in early 1935.
The film was based on the 1933 novel of the same name by Fannie Hurst. The book may have been influenced by Hurst’s friendship with fellow writer Zora Neale Hurston.
What are your thoughts on the name Peola?
Sources:
- Imitation of Life (1934 film) – Wikipedia
- Petty, Miriam J. “Imitation of Life: On Passing Between.” Criterion Collection 10 Jan. 2023.
- Stafford, Jeff. “Imitation of Life (1934).” TCM.com 26 Oct. 2004.
- The 7th Academy Awards (1935) – Oscars.org
- SSA
Images: Screenshots of Imitation of Life
