How popular is the baby name Dinah 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 Dinah.

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Popularity of the baby name Dinah


Posts that mention the name Dinah

Baby born during WWII, named after radio affirmative “Roger”

British WWII poster

Toward the end of World War II, a British woman named Dinah Gatland met U.S. Army Air Corps Lt. Ira M. Gross while he was recovering in a London hospital.

Weeks later, Gross was seeing London’s sites with Dinah Gatland and her friends, who teasingly called the friendly Yank “Roger” because he always used the military affirmative “Roger” when he meant “yes” or “OK.”

Married and with a daughter he’d not yet met at home, Gross soon found out his good friend Dinah Gatland was pregnant and that her G.I. lover had returned home to Richmond, Ind., leaving her future in doubt.

After Ira Gross returned to the U.S., he and his wife Rose sent care packages — food, clothes, baby items — to Dinah. Ira recalled, “You couldn’t get anything in London. Everything was rationed. Food was rationed. Clothes were rationed.”

Dinah, who was ultimately abandoned by the G.I., welcomed a baby boy on December 24, 1945.

The baby was named Roger, in honor of Gross.

Dinah and Ira eventually lost touch. She never told her son Roger about his American father, or about the origin of his name.

As an adult, Roger managed to track down his father, and they became friends. “But it always intrigued me, this ‘Roger’ Gross, whom she named me after,” he said.

So, while visiting the U.S. in September, Roger visited the Ohio town where “Roger I.M. Gross” (the name written on the letters sent to his mother) used to live.

A local genealogist helped him figure out that “Roger I.M. Gross” was actually an Ira, not a Roger. Even better, she discovered that Ira and Rose Gross were both still alive, living in Texas.

Three weeks later, 67-year-old Roger Gatland and 90-year-old Ira “Roger” Gross spoke for the very first time, over the phone.

“I would love it to be known nationwide just what incredible people (the Grosses) are,” Roger Gatland told the Springfield News-Sun. “In spite of everything that was happening, he still had time to write and wrap up parcels and send things to my mother.”

Source: Stafford, Tom. “Roger, that: 67 years later, British child and Yank namesake meet.” Springfield News-Sun 14 Oct. 2012.

Image: Freedom shall prevail! – DPLA

110+ Hidden gems: Rare baby girl names

gemstone

Want a girl name that’s not popular, but also not unheard of?

I looked through the names at the bottom of SSA’s 2011 mega-list and found a bunch of hidden gems:

  1. Alberta (9 baby girls)
  2. Alexandrina (6)
  3. Amity (28)
  4. Apollonia (21)
  5. Augusta (31)
  6. Augustina (15)
  7. Avelina (34)
  8. Bernadine (6)
  9. Bertha (45)
  10. Bettina (8)
  11. Blanche (6)
  12. Bryony (5); Briony (16)
  13. Carlotta (20)
  14. Celestina (19)
  15. Celestine (7)
  16. Cicely (14)
  17. Claribel (19)
  18. Clarice (37)
  19. Clarity (17)
  20. Claudette (9)
  21. Claudine (9)
  22. Clementina (7)
  23. Constantina (5)
  24. Coretta (5)
  25. Corinna (37)
  26. Cornelia (17)
  27. Damiana (10)
  28. Davida (10)
  29. Delphine (26)
  30. Dinah (44)
  31. Dolores (39)
  32. Dorothea (15)
  33. Edwina (8)
  34. Eloisa (42)
  35. Enid (15)
  36. Ernestina (5)
  37. Eugenia (29)
  38. Eugenie (8)
  39. Eulalia (25)
  40. Euphemia (5)
  41. Evita (13)
  42. Fabiana (47)
  43. Faustina (21)
  44. Flavia (12)
  45. Floriana (6)
  46. Florina (6)
  47. Georgette (24)
  48. Gertrude (16)
  49. Gloriana (22)
  50. Golda (34)
  51. Goldie (37)
  52. Heloise (8)
  53. Henrietta (34)
  54. Hilda (40)
  55. Imelda (23)
  56. Io (9)
  57. Ione (26)
  58. Isidora (13)
  59. Jeanne (39)
  60. Josette (27)
  61. Junia (17)
  62. Linnaea (12)
  63. Lucette (7)
  64. Lucienne (43)
  65. Lucilla (12)
  66. Marietta (22)
  67. Maude (9)
  68. Mavis (38)
  69. Minerva (38)
  70. Nanette (8)
  71. Nell (32)
  72. Nella (38)
  73. Nicola (30)
  74. Nicoletta (19)
  75. Nicolina (29)
  76. Odette (48)
  77. Olympia (22)
  78. Orla (28); Orlagh (6)
  79. Phillipa (10)
  80. Philomena (41)
  81. Phyllis (20)
  82. Rhoda (28)
  83. Romana (6)
  84. Rosabella (46)
  85. Rosalba (17)
  86. Rosaline (20)
  87. Rosella (26)
  88. Rosetta (25)
  89. Rosette (5)
  90. Rosina (17)
  91. Rowena (15)
  92. Rubina (5)
  93. Rue (13)
  94. Sebastiana (5)
  95. Seraphine (19)
  96. Sigrid (15)
  97. Stephania (32)
  98. Sybilla (5)
  99. Talulla (5)
  100. Therese (47)
  101. Thomasina (6)
  102. Thora (19)
  103. Tova (43)
  104. Ulyssa (8)
  105. Ursula (25)
  106. Vashti (16)
  107. Verity (38)
  108. Violetta (46)
  109. Vita (36)
  110. Wanda (23)
  111. Winifred (30)
  112. Winona (20)
  113. Xanthe (7)
  114. Zenaida (36)
  115. Zenobia (22)
  116. Zillah (9)
  117. Zipporah (41); Tzipporah (12)

(In some cases, a different spelling of the name is more popular than what’s shown here. For instance, Isidora is rare, but Isadora is more common.)

Like any of these?

Did you spot any other great end-of-the-list names?

P.S. Here’s the boys’ list.

Image by Tahlia Doyle from Unsplash

Where did the baby name Yana come from in 1955?

British singer Yana (1932-1989)
Yana

The name Yana debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1955, and saw an impressive jump in usage the next year:

  • 1957: 14 baby girls named Yana
  • 1956: 37 baby girls named Yana
  • 1955: 7 baby girls named Yana [debut]
  • 1954: unlisted
  • 1953: unlisted

Why?

Because of mononymous British pop singer Yana, who was famous (mainly in Britain) during the second half of the 1950s.

Her name was mentioned occasionally in U.S. newspapers during 1955, but it wasn’t until the last weeks of the year — around the time Bob Hope “discovered” her — that Americans really began to taking notice of Yana.

In early 1956, she started making U.S. TV appearances — on The Bob Hope Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Dinah Shore Show, etc.

Over the next few years she released some singles, sang in several British movies (including Zarak), and even had her own short-lived BBC television show, The Yana Show. (Critics dubbed it The Yawna Show.)

Yana’s birth name was Pamela Guard; I’m not sure how she chose her stage name (which happens to be a Russian feminine name in the “John” family).

Do you like the name Yana?

Sources: Yana – AllMusic, Yana – Wikipedia, SSA

Image: Clipping from the cover of Picturegoer magazine (11 Aug. 1956)

Baby name needed: Girl name that goes with Abel

A reader named Bonny writes:

We are already decided on a boys’ name, but just can’t come up with a good girl’s name. Our firstborn is Abel Zachary. We want a girls’ name that doesn’t clash with Abel. So far we like these girls’ names: Evangelina, Arabella, Amethyst, Isabelle, Olivia, River, Violet. We want something uncommon, but not overly weird. We are stumped and just can’t decide on a girl’s name we really love that fits well with Abel.

I like most of the names on Bonny’s shortlist, but I don’t think many of them fit well with Abel.

To me, Abel is simple, unassuming, obviously biblical, and slightly rural/old-fashioned.

Amethyst and River strike me as being exotic and modern (though I’m sure Amethyst was used occasionally during the Victorian era). Both are gender-neutral names, while Abel is definitively masculine. And I’m slightly concerned that an unusual noun-name could make people think of Abel as able the adjective…you never know.

I like Evangelina, Isabelle, Arabelle and Olivia a little more with Abel, but to me they still sound too formal, too cosmopolitan. I’m not fond of the way Isabelle and Arabelle nearly rhyme with Abel. Finally, Olivia and Isabelle can no longer be described as “uncommon” since becoming trendy during the 1990s.

I do think Violet and Abel make a nice pair, though. Other names that I think fit well with Abel include:

Adina
Cara
Clara
Daria
Dinah
Edna
Eliza
Esther
Helah (the “e” is long)
Helen
Hester
Irene/Irena
Judith
Leona
Mara
Martha
Miriam
Pauline
Ruth
Selah (another long “e”)
Tabitha
Tamar/Tamara
Tirzah
Zillah

Which of the names above do you like best with Abel? What other names would you suggest to Bonny?

Update: The baby is here! Scroll down to see what name Bonny chose…