How popular is the baby name Bromo 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 Bromo.

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Popularity of the baby name Bromo


Posts that mention the name Bromo

Babies named for Fletcher’s Castoria

Fletcher's Castoria newspaper advertisement (Jun. 1915)
Castoria newspaper ad (1915)

In yesterday’s post about the name Castara I mentioned a medicine called Castoria, which was a senna-based laxative made for children.

Castoria was developed in the mid-19th century by Massachusetts doctor Samuel Pitcher, who patented the medicine in 1868 and sold it as “Pitcher’s Castoria.” Three years later, the formula was purchased by the Centaur Company (headed by Charles H. Fletcher) and renamed “Fletcher’s Castoria.”

Advertising was the key to Castoria’s success. The Centaur Company “became a pioneer in mass marketing […] distributing millions of printed trade cards, running long-standing advertisements in newspapers and magazines, and painting the sides of hundreds of buildings.” (Case in point: You can see a massive Fletcher’s Castoria ad on the side of a building during the opening seconds of this clip of a train ride on the Brooklyn Bridge, recorded in 1899 by none other than Thomas Edison.) Castoria’s ubiquitous advertisements were so effective that the medicine continued to sell well for many decades — long after its patent had expired in 1885.

Fletcher's Castoria newspaper advertisement (Dec. 1923)
Castoria newspaper ad (1923)

So, was Castoria ever used as a human name?

Yes! In fact, Castoria popped up in the U.S. baby name data for the first and only time in 1919:

  • 1921: unlisted
  • 1920: unlisted
  • 1919: 5 baby girls named Castoria [debut]
  • 1918: unlisted
  • 1917: unlisted

But the SSA’s data doesn’t give a full picture of the name’s actual usage.

Records reveal that hundreds of U.S. babies were named Castoria, and that the majority of these babies were born after the medicine was put on the market. Some examples…

So, how did the medicine come to be called Castoria?

The inventor (Dr. Pitcher) named it after castor oil, a well-known laxative. (Marketing copy from the mid-1870s states, “Castoria is more than a substitute for Castor Oil.”) Castor oil, in turn, was likely named after an older medicine, castoreum — an oily fluid produced by beavers. And castoreum’s name is simply based on castor, the Latin word for “beaver.”

Interestingly, Fletcher’s Castoria remains on the market to this day, though it’s now called “Fletcher’s Laxative.”

P.S. Some of the earliest Castoria ads were rhymed verse that invariably paired “Castoria” with the name “Victoria.” One poem, for instance, included the lines: “The darling girls all named Victoria / And with the boys, they have Castoria.”

P.P.S. Speaking of babies named for laxatives, here’s Laxative Bromo Quinine Crim

Sources:

Images: Clipping from the Holly Chieftain (18 Jun. 1915); clipping from the Chicago Tribune (16 Dec. 1923)

Baby name story: Laxative Bromo Quinine

E. W. Grove Laxative Bromo Quinine
Laxative Bromo Quinine

A baby named Laxative? Could it be legit?

Yes, amazingly.

What’s the story?

On October 3, 1903, a baby boy was born to Taylor and Lizzie Crim of Lubbock, Texas.

When the baby was a couple of years old, he became seriously ill. His parents tried all the remedies they knew of. Nothing worked.

In an effort to save his son’s life, Taylor Crim trekked from his farm in the countryside to the nearest general store.

After Taylor explained his plight to the storekeeper, a traveling salesman who’d overheard the conversation mentioned that he sold a line of drugs that might help.

So Taylor Crim brought the salesman back to his farm. The salesman stayed the night, periodically giving the baby doses of Bromo Quinine.

(Bromo Quinine tablets, made by the Paris Medicine Company, were marketed as “the world’s first cold tablets” in the late 1800s and early 1900s.)

The baby seemed to get better; he was able to sleep.

Before leaving the next day, the salesman gave the Crims his Bromo Quinine and told them how to use it.

The baby’s health continued to improve. Eventually, he made a full recovery.

A grateful Lizzie decided to name her baby “Laxative Bromo Quinine Crim” after the medicine that she believed saved his life.

She wrote to the Paris Medicine Company, and the company was so impressed with her story that they added her letter and a photo of Bromo (as he came to be known) to their packaging. They also said they’d pay Bromo’s college tuition and hire him as an employee.

Bromo didn’t end up going to college or working for the Paris Medicine Company, though. Instead, he went into the grocery business. He married a woman named Ethel and had several children.

Sadly, he didn’t live long. Laxative Bromo Quinine Crim passed away in 1928 while still in his mid-20s.

What are your thoughts on the name Laxative?

P.S. As this story implies, babies born in earlier times weren’t always named at birth. Another example of this is Emancipation Proclamation Coggeshall.

Sources:

  • Ensor, Dennis Kelso. Texas Pioneer Chronicles: The Life And Times Of The Ensor, Kelso & Crim Families Since 1856. Self-published. Charleston: CreateSpace, 2009.
  • McAlavy, Don. “Some baby names don’t come from books.” Clovis News Journal 17 Nov. 2006.
  • Texas Birth Index – FamilySearch.org

Image: E. W. Grove Laxative Bromo Quinine | National Museum of American History