How popular is the baby name Beryl 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 Beryl.

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Popularity of the baby name Beryl


Posts that mention the name Beryl

Where did the baby name Korla come from in the early 1950s?

Musician Korla Pandit in the early 1950s
Musician Korla Pandit (early 1950s)

Behind today’s name is a fascinating story involving early television, exotic music, racial identity, and clever deception.

The name is Korla, which, along with variant Corla, first appeared in the SSA’s baby name data in 1951:

Girls named KorlaGirls named Corla
1953..
19526
(5 born in CA)		.
19516*8*
1950..
1949..
*Debut

A bit of research reveals that most of these early ’50s Korlas and Corlas — mainly females, but also a few males — were born in California specifically. This location is already pretty telling, but the smoking gun is this middle name:

  • Karlo Pandit Lindsay, male, born in November, 1950, in Los Angeles
  • Korla Ponda Williams, female, born in March, 1951, in Los Angeles
  • Korla Pandit Lord, male, born in September, 1953, in San Francisco

So what’s the influence here?

Korla Pandit, the mystical musician whose Los Angeles-based TV show Adventures in Music made him famous, particularly on the West Coast, in the early ’50s.

Pandit first appeared on TV in the spring of 1949. In each episode of Adventures in Music, Pandit wore a jeweled turban and gazed hypnotically at the camera, never speaking — just playing otherworldly music on a Hammond organ. His show, which aired on KTLA, was soon picked up by other California stations.

Some early recordings of Korla prominently feature his name, but I’m not sure if the live show Adventures in Music did. (If not, this could account for why “Corla” debuted higher than “Korla” in the data.)

Korla Pandit's television program, early 1950s

Korla Pandit was an immediate hit, particularly among suburban housewives. He received an impressive amount of fan mail.

He also started putting out albums, eventually releasing well over a dozen on various labels.

In 1951, after shooting hundreds of shows for KTLA, he left to film a series of short musical performances for Snader Telescriptions. These Snader clips introduced Pandit to a national audience.

But Pandit didn’t stay with Snader long, instead leaving to do other things (including start a new live TV show).

According to the 1952 ad below, his songs were “bringing dollars to the cash register and wild acclaim from feminine hearts.”

Korla Pandit advertisement in Billboard Magazine, 1952
Korla Pandit advertisement, 1952

His music helped set the stage for the late ’50s Exotica craze. In fact, some people have since dubbed Korla the “Godfather of Exotica,” though the title has also been given to other musicians (including Les Baxter).

As the decade wore on, Pandit’s fame began to wane. But he did spend the rest of his life recording and performing — and always wearing that bejeweled turban.

He passed away in 1998, leaving behind his American wife Beryl and their two sons, Shari and Koram.

…But the story doesn’t end there.

Because, a few years after that, a Los Angeles journalist discovered that Korla Pandit was not the half-Indian, half-French man from New Delhi that he had claimed to be. Instead, he was an African-American man named John Roland Redd from Columbia, Missouri.

Adopting a non-black identity had allowed Redd to have advantages that he couldn’t have had otherwise in 1950s America. He was one of the first African-Americans with a television show, but, ironically, if the public had known he was black, it’s highly unlikely that audiences (especially those entranced housewives) would have responded as enthusiastically as they did.

Redd took his adopted identity to the grave. Not even his sons were aware of their father’s true origin. (His wife must have known the secret, but she never openly admitted it.)

Notably, “Korla Pandit” was Redd’s second adopted persona. In the ’40s he had assumed the name “Juan Rolando,” which helped him get gigs during the Latin music craze of the time and, more importantly, allowed him to join the white L.A. musicians union as opposed to the black one, which afforded him more career opportunities.

It’s not hard to see how he got Juan from John, but I do wonder how he came up with Korla.

What are your thoughts on the name Korla? And on the story of Korla Pandit?

Sources:

P.S. After Pandit left Snader Telescriptions, the company found a replacement: a young Las Vegas pianist, originally from Wisconsin, by the name of Wladziu Valentino Liberace…

What gave the baby name Vicki a boost in the late 1930s?

Vicki Lester's name in lights (outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre) in the movie "A Star is Born" (1937).
Vicki Lester’s name in lights

In April of 1937, the film A Star Is Born was released. It starred Janet Gaynor and Fredric March as a married couple at opposite ends of their Hollywood careers: hers beginning, his ending.

The husband was named Norman Maine. The wife, on the other hand, had several identities. At first she was North Dakota farm girl Esther Victoria Blodgett. Then she morphed into movie star Vicki Lester for most of the film. Finally, in that memorable last line, she said: “Hello everybody. This is Mrs. Norman Maine.”

So how did she go from Esther Blodgett to “Vicki Lester”? Here’s the scene:

Press Agent: Do you know what her name is? Esther Victoria Blodgett.
Producer: Gee, we’ll have to do something about that right away.
Press Agent: …Esther Victoria Blodgett…
Producer: Well that Blodgett’s definitely out. See, uh…Esther Victoria, Victoria, Vicki…how about Vicki?
Producer’s Secretary: Oh I think that’s terribly cute.
Producer: Let’s see, Vicki…Vicki what?
Press Agent: Vicki Vicki, pronounced Vicki Vicki. [sarcasm]
Producer: Siesta, Besta, Sesta, Desta, Fester…
Press Agent: Oh that’s very pretty.
Producer: …Jester, Hester, Jester, Lester…Vicki Lester!
Secretary: Oh I like that!

Everyone in the office started chanting the newly minted name Vicki Lester…and with that the star was born.

On the name charts, the entire name-group — Vicki, Vickie, Vicky, Vickey, and so forth — rode a wave of trendiness that started in the ’30s, peaked around 1957, and was over by the ’80s. It’s hard to say how much of this trendiness (if any of it) was fueled by the movie, but one thing definitely attributable to the movie is the higher-than-expected usage of “Vicki” in the late ’30s:

  • 1941: 542 baby girls named Vicki [ranked 274th]
  • 1940: 405 baby girls named Vicki [ranked 316th]
  • 1939: 334 baby girls named Vicki [ranked 355th]
  • 1938: 367 baby girls named Vicki [ranked 332nd]
  • 1937: 148 baby girls named Vicki [ranked 555th]
  • 1936: 82 baby girls named Vicki [ranked 738th]
  • 1935: 70 baby girls named Vicki [ranked 822nd]

Notice how the number adjusted downward in 1939 before the name was picked back up by the wave.

Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that several baby girls born in the late ’30s were named “Vicki Lester.” In 1940, for instance, the Seil family of Washington included parents Orval (26 years old) and Beryl (25) and daughters Arlene (4) and Vicki Lester (1).

vicki lester, census, 1940
Vicki Lester Seil on 1940 U.S. Census

History repeated itself in 1954 upon the release of the first A Star is Born remake, which starred Judy Garland as Esther/Vicki. The name Vicki was again nudged upward a few years ahead of schedule:

  • 1958: 7,434 baby girls named Vicki [ranked 57th]
  • 1957: 8,101 baby girls named Vicki [ranked 51st]
  • 1956: 7,762 baby girls named Vicki [ranked 57th]
  • 1955: 7,978 baby girls named Vicki [ranked 52nd]
  • 1954: 8,220 baby girls named Vicki [ranked 50th]
  • 1953: 6,822 baby girls named Vicki [ranked 61st]
  • 1952: 6,774 baby girls named Vicki [ranked 61st]

And, again, records from the mid-1950s reveal a handful of baby girls named “Vicki Lester.”

In the second remake — the 1976 Barbra Streisand version — the character was called Esther throughout the film. Even if there hadn’t been a name change, though, the popularity of Vicki was plummeting by the ’70s and I doubt the film could have done much to boost its image/usage.

Currently the name Vicki is only given to about a dozen baby girls in the U.S. per year. But another version of A Star is Born is in the works — a Lady Gaga version slated for 2018. If this third remake materializes, and if it features the name Vicki, do you think it will influence the baby name charts?

(While we wait for 2018, check out the original version of A Star is Born (1937), which is in the public domain.)

Sources: SSA, U.S. Census
Image: Screenshot of A Star Is Born

What popularized the baby name Cheryl in the 1940s?

Actress Cheryl Walker in the movie "Stage Door Canteen" (1943)
Cheryl Walker in “Stage Door Canteen“

We may not know the exact origin of the name Cheryl (is it Cherie + Beryl…?), but we do know that the name saw a drastic rise in popularity during the first half of 20th century. Cheryl went from a rarity in the early 1900s to one of the most popular girl names in the U.S. by the mid-1950s.

How did it manage to do that?

With a little help from pop culture!

The first pop culture boost happened in 1938:

U.S. girls named CherylCalif. girls named Cheryl
1940285 [rank: 408th]42
1939289 [rank: 390th]49
1938397 [rank: 312th]76
1937145 [rank: 563rd]16
193694 [rank: 688th]10

What was drawing attention to the name (particularly in California) around that time?

A 19-year-old from Pasadena named Cheryl Walker. In late 1937, she was selected as the 1938 Queen of the Tournament of Roses. Local newspapers (including the Los Angeles Times) talked about Cheryl quite a bit during the last month of 1937 and the first few months of 1938.

Cheryl Walker went on to work in movies for about a decade. Her biggest picture was the wartime hit Stage Door Canteen, in which she played a canteen hostess (named Eileen) who fell in love with a soldier. Released in mid-1943, Stage Door Canteen became one of the highest-grossing films of the year.

In both 1943 and 1944, the number of babies named Cheryl increased significantly:

  • 1945: 8,150 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 32nd]
  • 1944: 7,970 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 36th]
  • 1943: 2,878 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 102nd]
  • 1942: 590 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 280th]
  • 1941: 439 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 311th]

The name of Cheryl’s character, Eileen, also saw increased usage, as did many variant spellings of Cheryl:

19421943194419451946
Cheryl5902,8787,9708,15011,525
Sheryl3245889491,0551,632
Sherrill202207263206250
Cheryle2780176184238
Sherryl4971104140203
Cheryll11416998120
Sheryle1219263152
Cherryl9195958104
Sharelle–28*10––
Charyl–24*271721
Scheryl–11*1175
Cherril–667–
Sherral–66–8
Sherelle–6*–––
Sheril–51169
Chyrl–5*8710
Cheril––6*7–
Cherl––6*58
Sherryll––565
Cherill––5*––
Cheyrl––5*59
Chyrel–––7*10
Cheryal–––6*5
Cherryle–––5*–
Sherell–––5*–
Sherrille–––5*–
Chryl––––9*
Sherryle––––7*
Cherel––––5*
Cherle––––5*
Cherryll––––5*
Chyral––––5*
Shyrel––––5*
*Debut

But the skyrocketing interest in the name Cheryl was due to more than just a movie.

A few weeks after the film was released, Hollywood star Lana Turner and her husband Stephen Crane welcomed a daughter they decided to call Cheryl Christina Crane. (Lana said the name “Cheryl” came to her in a dream.)

Stephen Crane, Lana Turner, and baby Cheryl Crane (in mid-1943)
Stephen Crane, Lana Turner, and Cheryl

Baby Cheryl was often mentioned in the news — particularly during 1944, when she was at the center of a custody battle that lasted from April until August.

Usage of the name Cheryl plateaued in the late ’40s and early ’50s, then began to rise again in 1954:

  • 1956: 21,280 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 18th]
  • 1955: 19,100 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 19th]
  • 1954: 15,000 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 22nd]
  • 1953: 12,271 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 28th]
  • 1952: 12,197 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 31st]

Why?

Likely because of a short-lived TV show called Waterfront (1954-1956). The central character, John Herrick, was the captain of a San Pedro Harbor tugboat called the “Cheryl Ann.” The show also gave a boost to the compound names Cherylann, Cherylanne and Sherylann specifically.

The rise continued with the help of Mouseketeer Cheryl Holdridge (b. 1944), who was featured on the immensely popular children’s TV series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1956 to 1958.

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

The name Cheryl reached peak popularity in 1958 — which just so happens to be the year that Lana Turner’s daughter Cheryl (now age 14) was back in the headlines, this time for killing her mother’s abusive boyfriend (a gangster named Johnny Stompanato).

After that, usage of the name began to decline. Cheryl fell out of the top 20 in 1962, then out of the top 50 in 1972.

It saw a minor resurgence at the end of the 1970s — thanks to actress Cheryl Ladd, singer Cheryl Lynn, and/or model Cheryl Tiegs — but was out of the top 100 by 1980.

  • 1980: 2,609 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 119th]
  • 1979: 3,210 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 94th]
  • 1978: 3,167 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 94th]
  • 1977: 2121 baby girls named Cheryl [rank: 134th]

And in 1998, exactly 40 years after nearly reaching the top 10, Cheryl fell out of the top 1,000 entirely.

What are your thoughts on the name Cheryl? (How about the specific spelling Cherrill?)

P.S. Thank you to all the people who’ve left helpful comments below! I’ve finally revised this post to incorporate your ideas/suggestions. :)

Sources:

Images: Screenshot of Stage Door Canteen; Cheryl Crane photo (public domain)

[Latest update: Feb. 2024]

Baby name mash-ups: Abdrew, Jeffifer, Ryatt, Tiffanique

Here are some oddball baby names I found while scanning the SSA’s baby name lists. They look like creative combinations of other names. (My guesses as to what those “other names” might be are in parentheses.)

Boy names:

Girl names:

Which is your favorite? (Mine is Franchester!)

Have you come across any other baby name mash-ups recently?

P.S. Don’t forget Craphonso. :)

[Last update: 5/2019]