How popular is the baby name Donald 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 Donald.
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Francis William “Frank” Leahy, who played football at Notre Dame under Knute Rockne, went on to coach the Notre Dame football team himself for 11 seasons (1941-43, 1946-53).
“While at Notre Dame, Leahy had six undefeated seasons, five national championship teams and an unbeaten string of 39 games in the late 1940s.”
Leahy retired for health reasons in 1954.
A week after he retired, Arnold and Mildred Penza of Kenosha, Wisconsin — parents of Don Penza, captain of Leahy’s 1953 Notre Dame team — welcomed their 10th child.
The baby boy was named Frank Leahy Penza, after Coach Leahy.
(The names of all 10 Penza kids, from oldest to youngest, were Donald, John, George, Dennis, Thomas, Joan, James, Mary Lynn, Diane, and Frank.)
The movie-inspired baby name Rawnie from a few weeks ago reminded me of the baby names Roni and Roni Sue, neither of which I’ve posted about yet. So today let’s check out Roni, which saw a spike in usage in the mid-1950s:
1958: 89 baby girls named Roni
1957: 94 baby girls named Roni
1956: 134 baby girls named Roni (ranked 864th)
1955: 295 baby girls named Roni (ranked 536th) [peak usage]
1954: 70 baby girls named Roni
1953: 49 baby girls named Roni
What was the cause?
A feel-good news story about a 17-month-old Greek orphan named Roni Marie. She was being adopted by childless Texas couple Norman and Helen Donahoe in very early 1955. (This is how the story managed to slightly increase the usage of Roni among 1954 babies.)
Norman, a Navy lieutenant, “took his Christmas leave to hitchhike to Athens for the brown eyed foundling.” He spent 3 weeks in Greece finalizing the adoption.
Once Roni was his, the pair set off on the return trip, which lasted from January 8 to January 13.
“Roni Marie’s trip to the U.S. became somewhat of a diaper derby for Lieutenant Donahoe…he was rapidly running out of disposable diapers and he worried about the dwindling supply. But he was able to add to his diaper stock during a stopover in Morocco.”
LIFE Magazine, a little late to the party, printed a short blurb about the Donahoes on January 24.
So how do you feel about the name Roni? Do you like it any more or less than Rawnie?
P.S. A follow-up article published in 1961 revealed that Norman and Helen had gone on to adopt one more Greek orphan, Steven, and then have two biological children, Eloni [sic?] and Donald. (I’m assuming Eloni’s name was really Eleni, which is a Greek form of Helen.)
Annette Funicello, the most popular member of the original Mickey Mouse Club (1955-1959), passed away a couple of days ago.
Seeing her name in the news made me think about the other original Mouseketeers, most of whom were born in the early to mid-1940s (making them teens in the late 1950s). If you’re looking for a baby name reminiscent of sock hops and soda fountains, the first batch of Mouseketeers is not a bad place to start:
Annette Funicello (b. 1942)
Thanks to Funicello’s fame, the baby name Annette saw a drastic rise in usage during the latter half of the 1950s.
Billie Beanblossom (b. 1944)
Bonita “Bonnie” Lynn Fields (b. 1944)
Bonni Lou Kern (b. 1941)
Bronson Scott (b. 1947) – who was a girl, despite her name
Charles “Charlie” Laney (b. 1943)
Cheryl Holdridge (b. 1944) – who went on to marry Lance Reventlow
I listed all the female names in the Domesday Book a while back, so today I thought I’d complete the project by listing all the male names.
The male names below appeared in the Open Domesday database just once, except where noted. (For the record, I overlooked entries in which one person’s name was used to refer to another person, e.g., “Aelfric’s uncle.”)
The most-mentioned name within each letter group is in bold.
If you make it all the way to the bottom, your reward is a top ten list. :)
Which male were mentioned most often in the Domesday book? The #1 name was William, followed by Robert and Ralph:
William (166)
Robert (127)
Ralph (124)
Aelfric (88)
Alwin (76) [tie]
Hugh (76) [tie]
Roger (73)
Godwin (72)
Walter (64)
Godric (59)
Though the names in the book aren’t necessarily representative of name usage in England overall, it does make sense than William took the top spot. The Domesday Book was created a couple of decades after the Norman Conquest, at a time when the name William was very fashionable, thanks to William the Conqueror.
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