The offbeat comedy-drama series Ally McBeal premiered on television in September of 1997.
The show was set largely in a fictional Boston law firm (with a unisex bathroom), and its main character was a young lawyer named Allison “Ally” McBeal (played by Calista Flockhart), whose inner world was frequently depicted on-screen “in quick, comic surrealisms.”
Ally McBeal was an immediate hit and, as a result, the baby names Ally and Calista both saw steep rises in usage in the late 1990s:
| Girls named Ally | Girls named Calista | |
| 2000 | 418 [rank: 605th] | 401 [rank: 627th] |
| 1999 | 540 [rank: 480th] | 490† [rank: 519th] |
| 1998 | 636† [rank: 417th] | 323 [rank: 697th] |
| 1997 | 185 | 43 |
| 1996 | 79 | 26 |
| 1995 | 73 | 23 |
The name Allie also saw discernible uptick in usage in 1998, and the names Kalista and Callista both reached peak popularity in 1999.
Flockhart, who was born in Illinois in 1964, was “given her first name, Calista, in honor of her great-grandmother, who the family believes was named after an Irish Catholic nun who became a saint.”
The name Calista derives from the Roman name Callistus, which is based on the Ancient Greek word kallistos, meaning “most beautiful.” (Kallistos is the superlative form of the word kalos, meaning “beautiful.”)
What are your thoughts on the names Ally and Calista? (Which one would you be more likely to use in real life?)
Sources:
- Ally McBeal – Wikipedia
- “Everybody’s talking about Ally.” Buffalo News 13 Jan. 1998.
- Tucker, Ken. “TV Show Reviews: ‘Ally McBeal’ and ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’.” Entertainment Weekly 10 Oct. 1997.
- Calista – Behind the Name
- SSA
Image: Screenshot of Ally McBeal