How popular is the baby name Billy 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 Billy.

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Popularity of the baby name Billy


Posts that mention the name Billy

Was the baby name Kasara influenced by misheard song lyrics in 1987?

Singer Lisa Lisa (born Lisa Velez) in the "Lost in Emotion" video
Lisa Lisa

Do you ever mishear song lyrics?

I do. All the time. (Though I’m not nearly as bad as my husband.)

I ask because I believe today’s baby name(s) can be traced back to a specific set of lyrics misheard by dozens of parents a little more than 20 years ago.

Intrigued?

The Names

Casara, Kasarah, Cassara, and Casarah all debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1987. The same year, Kasara returned to the data after popping up only once before (in the mid-1970s). And, in 1988, Cassarah made its first and only appearance.

1986198719881989
Kasara.2244†18
Casara.17*34†9
Kasarah.10*25†17
Cassara.9*18†10
Casarah.7*12†10
Cassarah..5*.
*Debut, †Peak usage

At first I couldn’t figure them out. They didn’t look like alternative spellings of a more popular name. They all emerged at about the same time, pointing to a single pop culture source, but the origin wasn’t obvious (as it had been with names like Daughtry and Cheetara.)

Finally, months after discovering them, I came up with a decent theory.

The Song

Let’s set the scene. Artists on the radio back in 1987 included U2, George Michael, Whitney Houston, Tiffany, Billy Idol, Madonna, The Bangles, Bon Jovi, Kim Wilde, Los Lobos with “La Bamba,” Belinda Carlisle, Exposé, Atlantic Starr…and Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam.

In fact, 1987 was a great year for Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam. Their second album, Spanish Fly, went platinum in August. Two songs from the album ended up hitting #1 on Billboard‘s “Hot 100” chart — “Head to Toe” in June, and “Lost In Emotion” in October.

Below is the video for “Lost in Emotion.” Pay special attention to the following lines (starting at 1:27):

Que sera, que sera
Baby, whatever will be
Que sera, que sera
Between you and me

(How awesome is all that ’80s fashion/styling, btw?)

The Connection

That “que sera, que sera” in the chorus is a corruption of the phrase “que sera, sera,” which was created for the earlier song “Que Sera, Sera” (1956).

The phrase “que sera, sera” — commonly thought to mean “whatever will be, will be” — is an hispanicized form of “che sera, sera,” which itself is an ungrammatical corruption of the Italian phrase quel che sarà, sarà, meaning “that which will be, will be.”

Anyway…to someone casually listening to “Lost in Emotion” on the radio, the words “que sera” blend together and sound just like Kasara, Casara, and the other names above.

Singer Lisa Lisa (born Lisa Velez) in the "Lost in Emotion" video
Lisa Lisa

The Proof

Well, not “proof” exactly. But an enticing bit of evidence.

I did a search for anyone (a blogger, say) who’d written about mistaking “que sera” for a girl name. Just to see if anyone could back me up.

Check out this comment I found at song site Am I Right:

Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam’s, “Lost In Emotion”

The Misheard Lyrics:
Kassarah, Kassarah

The Real Lyrics:
Lost in emotion Que sera, que sera.

The Story: My sister named my niece Kassarah after this song. Ooops, oh well a beautifully unique name for a beautiful, unique girl! – Submitted by: Sandee

Jackpot. :)

(Incidentally, the spelling Kassarah has never appeared in the U.S. baby name data.)

Singer Lisa Lisa (born Lisa Velez) in the "Lost in Emotion" video
Lisa Lisa

The Conclusion

So that’s what I suspect — in the late ’80s, dozens of expectant parents heard Lisa Lisa’s “Lost in Emotion,” interpreted “que sera” as a female name, and used the mondegreen as a baby name, spelling it various ways (e.g. Kasara, Casara, Kasarah).

But I’d be happy to hear other theories if anyone out there has a better explanation.

Sources:

Images: Screenshots of Lisa Lisa from the music video for “Lost in Emotion”

Baby born in helicopter, named for pilot

Airplanes have been around (and influencing names!*) since the early 1900s, but “the first useful helicopters did not appear until the early 1940s.”

In January of 1959, the wife of U.S. Army sergeant William S. Nolan went into labor with the couple’s second child. Nolan was stationed in Germany at the time, and the roads were too icy for driving, so they boarded an H-34 helicopter and braved “dangerous flying conditions” in an attempt to reach the U.S. Army hospital in Nuremberg in time for the birth.

The baby boy had other plans, though. He arrived about 10 minutes before landing in what an Army spokesman called “possibly the first helicopter delivery in history.” He weighed 6 1/2 pounds, had red hair, and was named Milton Billy after two of the helicopter’s crew members: pilot Milton Olsen and crew chief Billy Owen.

Sources:

  • “Bavarian Storks Have Competition.” Lodi News-Sentinel 13 Jan. 1959: 10.
  • “GI’s Wife Gives Birth to Child in Army Helicopter.” Schenectady Gazette 13 Jan. 1959: 1.
  • Helicopter – Britannica.com

*See Airlene, Vilas, Maitland, Belvin, Lindbergh, etc.

What turned Blue into a baby name in 1968?

Movie poster for "Blue" (1968)
“Blue”

Decades before Beyoncé had daughter Blue Ivy (2012), and years before Cher had son Elijah Blue (1976), the color-name Blue debuted in the U.S. baby name data:

  • 1970: 10 baby boys named Blue
  • 1969: 13 baby boys named Blue
  • 1968: 11 baby boys named Blue [debut]
  • 1967: unlisted
  • 1966: unlisted

What put it there initially?

I have two theories.

The first is Billy Blue “Blue Boy” Cannon, a character from the TV western The High Chaparral, which started airing in September of 1967. Blue Boy, played by actor Mark Slade, was a young man who was the son of main character, “Big John” Cannon. (The show also launched the name Manolito.)

The second is the movie Blue, which was released April of 1968. It was a western in which the main character, played by Terence Stamp, was called Azul on account of his blue-colored eyes. The movie was panned — critic Roger Ebert said Blue was “not just a bad movie, but a painfully inept one” — and it didn’t do well at the box office, but the advertising campaign may have been enough.

(Incidentally, the name Blue was used again in the title of a western just a few years later with the release of Kid Blue (1973) starring Dennis Hopper.)

What are your thoughts on Blue as a baby name? Do you like it better as a male name or as a female name? How about as a first vs. as a middle?

Sources: Review of Blue (1968) by Roger Ebert, SSA

Reduplicated names: Asher Asher, Owen Owen

oystercatcher birds

I find it interesting that some people are given forenames that exactly match their surnames. A few historically significant examples include:

(Ford Madox Ford and Horst P. Horst don’t count. They were born Ford Hermann Hueffer and Horst Paul Albert Bohrmann.)

There are also many forename/surname sets out there that are partially reduplicated, such as:

  • Alastair McAllister, Australian harpsichord builder
  • Aleksandr Aleksandrov, Soviet cosmonaut
  • Anders Andersen, Norwegian politician
  • Antonis Antoniadis, Greek soccer player
  • Damiano Damiani, Italian film director
  • David Davidson, Canadian baseball player
  • Donagh MacDonagh, Irish writer
  • Donald MacDonald, Canadian politician
  • Dru Drury, British entomologist
  • Filip Filipovic (several people)
  • Fiodar Fiodarau, Soviet physicist
  • Friðrik Friðriksson, Icelandic film director

Have you ever met someone whose first name and last name were identical (or nearly so)? Do you like these sorts of names?

P.S. The name Thomas McKean Thompson McKennan (which belonged to a guy who served as U.S. Secretary of the Interior for a few weeks in 1850) is as close to a double double as I’ve ever seen!

Image: Adapted from Two Variable Oystercatchers standing close to each other (public domain)

[Last update: October 2024]