How popular is the baby name Clovia 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 Clovia.

The graph will take a few moments to load. (Don't worry, it shouldn't take 9 months!) If it's taking too long, try reloading the page.


Popularity of the baby name Clovia


Posts that mention the name Clovia

Where did the baby name Dellora come from in 1918?

Heiress Dellora Angell (1902-1979)
Dellora Angell

The Dolores-like baby name Dellora appeared in the U.S. data for a total of six years, seeing peak usage in 1922:

  • 1925: unlisted
  • 1924: 8 baby girls named Dellora
  • 1923: 13 baby girls named Dellora
  • 1922: 14 baby girls named Dellora
  • 1921: 7 baby girls named Dellora
  • 1920: unlisted
  • 1919: 7 baby girls named Dellora
  • 1918: 5 baby girls named Dellora
  • 1917: unlisted

Much of this usage is attributable to heiress Dellora Angell of St. Charles, Illinois.

Her name first started popping up in the newspapers in late 1918, upon the death of her maternal aunt, Dellora Gates. Aunt Dellora was the widow of wealthy industrialist John W. Gates, and she left the bulk of the Gates fortune to her last two close relatives: her brother Edward, and her teenage niece/namesake Dellora (the daughter of her deceased sister Lavern).

In the early 1920s, the newspapers began linking young Dellora to various suitors (e.g., a Brazilian physician named Vantini, an oil man named Campbell).

In late 1922, she finally got engaged to a childhood friend from St. Charles named Lester Norris, described as a “poor artist and son of the village undertaker.” (He was a newspaper cartoonist; he later became a businessman.)

They had a small wedding in March of 1923. After that, they rented a modest apartment in St. Charles, where Dellora “began housekeeping, doing her own cooking and sewing, and having a lot of fun doing it.”

For several years the newspapers continued to report on Dellora’s growing family, and her unusual decision to live so simply:

The richest young woman in the world, who, from the number of her millions, and her youth and beauty, one would expect to find wintering at Cannes, moving with the seasons from one smart watering place to another and filling her wardrobe with Parisian gowns and jewels, lives quietly in a Middle Western town, wears gingham dresses, as she does own housework, and looks after her two babies herself.

(They went on to have a total of five children: Lavern, Lester*, Joann, Robert, and John.)

In the meanwhile, Dellora and Lester (and Dellora’s uncle, Edward) quietly gave back to the community of St. Charles. They funded/created a theater, a municipal center, a hospital (named “Delnor,” a contraction of Dellora Norris), a hotel, a community center, and made numerous other contributions and donations to schools, churches, and so forth. Today, Dellora’s name lives on in the name of the Dellora A. Norris Cultural Arts Center.

What are your thoughts on baby name Dellora? Would you consider using it on a modern baby?

Sources:

*In July of 1925, it was reported that baby Lester, born in April, was still nameless and “in lieu of a permanent name” was being called Skeezix after the comic strip character (see Clovia).

Where did the baby name Corky come from in 1928?

The characters Lora, Corky and Walt from the comic strip "Gasoline Alley" (1918-today).
Corky from “Gasoline Alley“

The curious name Corky first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in the late 1920s:

  • 1930: unlisted
  • 1929: 8 baby boys (and 5 baby girls) named Corky
  • 1928: 7 baby boys named Corky [debut]
  • 1927: unlisted
  • 1926: unlisted

Where did it come from?

The comic strip Gasoline Alley (1918-), which introduced a newborn named Corky on May 2, 1928.

Corky’s parents were Walt and Phyllis Wallet, and his older brother was 7-year-old Skeezix. (Lora, in the image, was Walt’s teenage cousin.)

Gasoline Alley was one of the first strips in which the characters aged over time, and so, a couple of decades later, Corky became the uncle of Skeezix’s kids Clovia and Chipper.

The name Corky has never been very popular, but it saw more usage in the 1950s than in any other decade — possibly because of the 1951 films Gasoline Alley and Corky of Gasoline Alley. In both movies, Corky was played by actor Scotty Beckett (who, several years earlier, had appeared in A Date with Judy with Jane Powell).

What are your thoughts on Corky as a baby name?

Image: Advertisement for the Post Gazette. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 31 Jul. 1930: 5.

Where did the baby name Chipper come from in 1945?

The characters Chipper and Clovia from the comic strip "Gasoline Alley" (panel from the early 1950s).
Chipper and Clovia

The name Chipper first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in the middle of the 1940s:

  • 1948: unlisted
  • 1947: unlisted
  • 1946: 5 baby boys named Chipper
  • 1945: 7 baby boys named Chipper [debut]
  • 1944: unlisted
  • 1943: unlisted

Why?

Comics!

On April 1, 1945, a baby boy named Chipper was born to Nina and Skeezix* Wallet of the comic strip Gasoline Alley. I’m not sure why they chose to call him Chipper. (The name of his sister Clovia, on the other hand, came with a memorable story.)

Chipper went on to serve with the Seabees in Vietnam and then become a doctor.

Do you like the baby name Chipper?

*Skeezix’s real name was Allison. According to Encyclopædia Britannica, the word skeezix is “a cowboy slang term for an orphaned calf.”

Sources:

Where did the baby name Clovia come from in 1949?

The characters Chipper and Clovia from the comic strip "Gasoline Alley" (panel from the early 1950s).
Clovia and Chipper

The curious name Clovia debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1949:

  • 1951: 5 baby girls named Clovia
  • 1950: 13 baby girls named Clovia
  • 1949: 22 baby girls named Clovia [debut]
  • 1948: unlisted
  • 1947: unlisted

It was the 4th-highest girl name debut that year after Rainelle, Rainell and Randye.

Where did it come from?

A comic strip!

The strip, called Gasoline Alley, debuted in newspapers in late 1918. (And it’s still being published today, amazingly.)

In May of 1949, Gasoline Alley characters Skeezix and Nina welcomed a baby girl and decided to name her Clovia.

Why “Clovia”?

Nina got stuck in traffic on the way to the hospital and was forced to give birth in a taxi. On the infant’s wrist was a birthmark in the shape of a four-leaf clover.

Clovia doll
Clovia the doll

And Clovia wasn’t just a comic strip character. For a time, she was also a doll.

In mid-1949, a few weeks after Clovia’s introduction, Clovia dolls became available in retail stores. (Dolls based on comic strip babies had become trendy in the 1940s.)

The baby name Clovia remained on the national baby name list through the 1950s, but usage petered out in the 1960s.

(Dondi, another comic strip-inspired name, had more staying power. Sparkle, on the other hand, lasted only a year.)

Sources:

  • “Comic Strip Dolls.” Life 19 Oct. 1953.
  • Cushman, Philip. Constructing the Self, Constructing America. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1995.

Images © Life.