How popular is the baby name Catherine 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 Catherine.

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Popularity of the baby name Catherine


Posts that mention the name Catherine

What gave the baby name Rheta a boost in the 1930s?

Chicago murder victim Rheta G. Wynekoop (1910-1933)
Rheta G. Wynekoop

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Rheta saw an impressive spike in usage in the 1930s:

  • 1936: 37 baby girls named Rheta
  • 1935: 61 baby girls named Rheta
  • 1934: 151 baby girls named Rheta (peak usage)
  • 1933: 81 baby girls named Rheta
  • 1932: 20 baby girls named Rheta

Here’s a graph showing the sharp rise of Rheta in 1933 and 1934:

Popularity graph of the baby name Rheta in the U.S.
Usage of the baby name Rheta

(The spelling Rheata was also a one-hit wonder in 1934.)

So what caused this sudden interest in the name Rheta?

A murder in Chicago!

On November 21, 1933, the body of a 23-year-old woman named Rheta G. Wynekoop was found — chloroformed, partially undressed, and shot to death — on an operating table inside the office of respected female physician Alice Wynekoop, who also happened to be Rheta’s mother-in-law.

The office was located in the basement of Alice’s sizeable Chicago residence, which Alice shared with Rheta and her husband Earle (as well as with various boarders).

Rheta, a violinist originally from Indianapolis, had been married to Earle Wynekoop for four years.

On November 23, both Alice and Earle were arrested.

Earle — who didn’t have a job, but did have multiple paramours (several of whom were named in the newspapers) — confessed to committing the crime. Soon after, though, it was determined that he had an alibi. (He’d been on a trip to Kansas City with a friend at the time of the murder.)

His false confession was an attempt to protect his 62-year-old mother, who (he knew) had taken out a double indemnity life insurance policy on Rheta two weeks earlier.

Alice — despite having an annual income, and owning a large home — was sinking into debt.

Not only that, but at least four other family members and friends had died under Alice’s care, in her “gloomy mansion,” in recent years. Alice’s otherwise healthy husband Frank, for instance, died suddenly in 1929. (His estate was worth $75,000.) And Alice’s close friend Catherine Porter died in 1932. (Alice claimed all the money in their joint bank account, and also inherited Porter’s 100-acre farm.)

On November 25, Rheta Wynekoop’s funeral took place in Indianapolis.

Huge bronze and yellow chrysanthemums, which might have graced the beauty of Rheta Gardner Wynekoop on the concert stage, bowed their heads as if in sorrow this morning while more than 1,000 persons filed slowly past her casket.

On November 30, Dr. Alice Wynekoop was indicted.

Her first trial began on January 15, 1934. It was declared a mistrial four days later due to Alice’s poor health.

Her second trial began on February 19 and lasted more than two weeks.

In early March, the jury returned a guilty verdict. Alice was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder of her daughter-in-law.

Soon after, the story of Rheta Wynekoop’s murder was recounted in various true crime magazines, such as Real Detective (in April) and Bernarr Macfadden‘s True Detective Mysteries (in May).

What are your thoughts on the name Rheta?

P.S. I have a hunch that this incident also inspired the cartoonist behind Mandrake the Magician to name one of his comic strip characters Rheeta in early 1935…

Sources:

Image: Clipping from the Brownsville Herald (26 Nov. 1933)

Popular baby names on Nantucket, 2023

Flag of Massachusetts
Flag of Massachusetts

The Massachusetts island of Nantucket, which sits about 30 miles off the coast Cape Cod, is home to over 14,000 year-round residents (though the population “swells to around 80,000 or more” during July and August).

According to the Nantucket Town Clerk’s office, a total of 158 babies were born on the island in 2023. But we only have access to the names of 108 of these babies. Why?

[B]ecause of a Massachusetts law that separates birth certificates based on the parent’s marital status. If the parents were not married at the time of the birth or the father is not named on the record, the birth certificate is considered a restricted record and is not public.

So, out of the 108 known names, which were the most popular? For girls it was a tie between Leah and Sarah (given to two babies each), and for boys it was a tie between Grayson and Lucas (also given to two babies each).

The 100 other babies were given 100 single-use names:

Archibald, Abigail, Abraham, Alejandro, Alister, Alyssa, Alvaro, Amina, Andrew, Asher, Aurora, Bayard, Beckett, Benjaminas, Brenda, Callan, Carter, Catherine, Cameron, Charlotte, Christiaan, Colin, Cole, Cooper, Curren, Damien, Daniel, Debora, Eden, Edwin, Edward, Emilia, Emma, Enzo, Evelyn, Ezra, Fabian, Fae, Fiona, Gaby, Gabriella, Greydon, Griffyn, Harbor, Henry, Israel, Jacob, Jaden, James, Jantyah, Jefferson, Joshua, Julie, Justina, Kairi, Kiara, Lakelyn, La’Klia, Larkin, Latifa, Leon, Liv, Luna, Lydia, Mabel, Madison, Marianne, Marlow, Matheus, Maverick, Max, Mia, Mila, Milo, Miles, Mukhammadyusuf, Nia, Penelope, Quinn, River, Robin, Roman, Samir, Scarlett, Sergio, Shay, Shepard, Silverio, Skye, Stephanie, Sullivan, Theodore, Therdore, Tiller, Timothy, Wilder, William, Yasna, Yvonne, Zaniyah

Tiller caught my eye — it may have come from the English surname (which originally referred to someone who tilled the soil), but, given the location, I’m hoping it was inspired by the tiller of a boat. Maybe Tiller will become the boaters’ version of Taylor/Tyler? :)

Olivia and Liam — the top names in Boston last year — are nowhere to be found on Nantucket’s list, interestingly.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Flag of Massachusetts (public domain)

What popularized the baby name Marlene in the 1930s?

Actress Marlene Dietrich in the film "The Blue Angel" (1930)
Marlene Dietrich in “The Blue Angel

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Marlene was the fastest-rising baby name of 1931. It went on to see its highest-ever usage several years later, in the mid-1930s:

  • 1937: 5,037 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 40th]
  • 1936: 5,331 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 39th] – peak usage
  • 1935: 4,830 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 39th]
  • 1934: 3,755 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 57th]
  • 1933: 4,045 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 50th]
  • 1932: 3,218 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 78th]
  • 1931: 2,586 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 95th]
  • 1930: 306 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 388th]
  • 1929: 129 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 605th]

Here’s a visual:

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

What was popularizing Marlene during the the 1930s?

German actress Marlene Dietrich (pronounced mar-LAY-nah DEET-rikh).

She became an international star upon the release of Der blaue Engel (translation: The Blue Angel), Germany’s first feature-length sound film, in April of 1930.

Directed by Josef von Sternberg, the movie told the story of a respectable school teacher (played by Emil Jannings) whose obsession with a seductive cabaret singer named Lola Lola (Dietrich) led to his downfall.

Actress Marlene Dietrich in the film "The Blue Angel" (1930)
Marlene Dietrich in “The Blue Angel

Following the success of Der blaue Engel, both von Sternberg and Dietrich moved to Hollywood to continue “what would become one of the most legendary partnerships in cinema history.”

Over the course of six films produced by Paramount in the 1930s, the pair refined their shared fantasy of pleasure, beauty, and excess. Dietrich’s coolly transgressive mystique was a perfect match for the provocative roles von Sternberg cast her in — including a sultry chanteuse, a cunning spy, and the hedonistic Catherine the Great.

Those six films were…

Dietrich continued to appear on the big screen for decades to come, but reached the height of her fame — in terms of bankability as a movie star — during the 1930s.

She was born Marie Magdalene Dietrich in Berlin in 1901. Her earliest nicknames were Leni and Lene, but, while still a child, she voiced her preference for the contraction Marlene. Here’s her account of the story:

When I created my name, the first person I told was my sister [Elisabeth]. I told her that I didn’t like my name because it was too common a name in Germany.

I told Liesel I had decided to combine Marie and Magdalene to make a new name for myself, Marlene.

My sister said I would have a very peculiar name. No one else in school would have a name like Marlene. That’s just what I wanted to hear.

Dietrich also noted that she saw Marlene as a “glamorous name” with “a kind of French aura.”

What are your thoughts on the name Marlene?

Sources:

Images: Screenshots of The Blue Angel

Baby names with CAT: Catalina, Cathal, Ehecatl

cat amid snow

Are you a cat lover looking for baby names that contain the word CAT?

If so, you’re in luck!

Because today’s post is a long list — or should I say catalogue? — of names that contain the letter sequence “c-a-t.” Most of these names come directly from the U.S. SSA’s baby name data.

  • Annacatherine
  • Axayacatl
  • Catalda
  • Cataldo
  • Cataleya, Cataleyah, Cattaleya, Cataleia, Catileya, Cateleya
  • Catalaya, Catalayah, Cattalaya, Catilaya, Catelaya
  • Cataliya, Cataliyah, Cataleah, Catalea, Catalia, Catalya
  • Catalin
  • Catalina, Catalena, Cataleena, Catalyna
  • Catalino
  • Catana
  • Catania
  • Catara
  • Catarina, Caterina, Catterina
  • Catarino
  • Catasha
  • Catavia
  • Catch
  • Catcher
  • Cate
  • Catelin, Catelyn, Catelynn
  • Catello
  • Catenia
  • Catera, Caterra
  • Cateria
  • Caterin
  • Caterine
  • Catessa
  • Cath
  • Catha
  • Cathair
  • Cathal
  • Cathaleya, Cathalia
  • Cathalina
  • Cathaline, Cathalene, Cathaleen
  • Cathan
  • Cathay
  • Catheline, Cathelene, Catheleen
  • Cather
  • Catherina, Catharina
  • Catherine, Catherin, Catheryn, Catheryne, Catheren, Catherene, Catharine, Cathirine
  • Cathina
  • Cathleen, Cathline, Cathlene, Cathlean
  • Catherline
  • Cathia
  • Cathlina, Cathlena
  • Cathlin, Cathlyn
  • Cathreen
  • Cathrine, Cathrin Cathryn, Cathryne, Cathrynn, Cathren
  • Cathrina
  • Cathrinus
  • Cathy, Cathie, Cathey, Cathi, Cathee, Cathye, Cathe
  • Cathyann
  • Cathyjo
  • Cathylee
  • Cathyleen
  • Catia, Catya
  • Catiana
  • Catiche
  • Catie, Caty, Catey, Cati, Cattie
  • Catilla
  • Catina, Catena, Cateena Cattina, Catinna
  • Catine
  • Catinka
  • Catiria
  • Catisha
  • Catlin, Catlyn, Catlynn, Catlen
  • Cato
  • Caton
  • Catonya
  • Catori
  • Catoria
  • Catosha
  • Catoya
  • Catra
  • Catral
  • Catrana
  • Catrell, Catrel
  • Catrenia
  • Catressa
  • Catria
  • Catrice, Catrece, Catrese, Catrease
  • Catricia
  • Catrin
  • Catrina, Catrena
  • Catrinel
  • Catrinia
  • Catrinna
  • Catriona
  • Catrisha
  • Catrissa
  • Catron
  • Cattleya
  • Cattibrie
  • Catullo
  • Catullus
  • Catura
  • Caturia
  • Decatur
  • Ducati
  • Ecaterina
  • Ehecatl
  • Hecate
  • Marycatherine
  • Staccato
  • Tlaltecatzin
  • Tzilacatzin
  • Xicotencatl

Which names with CAT are the most popular in the U.S. right now? The top five are Catalina, Catherine, Cataleya, Cattleya, and Catarina — all girl names. (In fact, the only boy names with CAT in the data at the moment are Cato, Catarino, Cathan, and Catalino.)

Which CAT name do you like most? Let me know in the comments!

P.S. Did you know that Freddie Mercury was a cat lover as well? Here are the names of some of Freddie’s cats.

Image: Adapted from Felis catus-cat on snow by Von.grzanka under CC BY-SA 3.0.