How popular is the baby name Dora 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 Dora.
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The Seven Sutherland Sisters of New York had 37 feet of hair between them. By the time they joined the Barnum and Bailey Circus in the mid-1880s, they were already celebrities. They were also growing rich thanks to the sale of their pricey “Seven Sutherland Sisters” hair grower tonic.
The names of the seven sisters?
Sarah
Victoria
Isabella
Grace
Naomi
Dora
Mary
Sarah had the shortest hair (3 feet) and Victoria had the longest (7 feet).
Last month we looked at the top Providence names of 1867, so today let’s check out the rankings from the year before — 1866.
First, some stats:
1,633 babies were babies were born in Providence in 1866, by my count. (The number given by the author of the document is 1,632.)
1,457 of these babies (707 girls and 750 boys) had names that were registered with the government at the time of publication. The other 176 babies got blank spaces.
234 unique names (123 girl names and 108 boy names) were shared among these 1,457 babies.
And here’s some extra information I forgot to mention in the last post: In 1860, the city of Providence was home to 29.0% of Rhode Island’s population. In 1870, it was home to 31.7% of the population. So each of these 3 sets of rankings (1866, 1867, 1868) ought to account for roughly 30% of the residents of the state.
Now, on to the names…
Top 5
The top 5 girl names and boy names of 1866 were, unsurprisingly, very similar to the top names of 1867.
Top baby girl names
Top baby boy names
1. Mary 2. Catherine 3. Ellen 4. Margaret 5. Sarah
1. John 2. William 3. James 4. George 5. Thomas
The girls’ top 5 is identical, while the boys’ top 5 includes Thomas instead of George.
All Girl Names
As expected, Mary was the front-runner by a huge margin. And, while there were dozens of Catherines, and a single Catharine, there weren’t any Katherines.
Mary, 149 baby girls
Catherine, 43
Ellen, 40
Margaret, 37
Sarah, 36
Elizabeth, 32
Alice, 18
Annie, 15
Anna & Eliza, 14 each (2-way tie)
Clara, 13
Ann, 11
Carrie, Emma, Jane & Susan, 10 each (4-way tie)
Grace & Ida, 9 each (2-way tie)
Esther, Martha & Minnie, 7 each (3-way tie)
Anne & Julia, 6 each (2-way tie)
Agnes, Charlotte, Cora, Harriet, Jennie, Joanna, Maria & Rosanna, 5 each (8-way tie)
(I didn’t combine any variant spellings, but I did lump the abbreviated names Chas., Benj., and Fred’k in with Charles, Benjamin and Frederick.)
*Does Augustavus = Augustus + Gustav?
Twins
I counted 19 pairs of twins born in Providence in 1866. I didn’t notice any triplets this year. (All of these names have already been accounted for above.)
Girl-girl twins
Girl-boy twins
Boy-boy twins
Agnes & Anna Eldora & Ellen Eliza & Mary Elizabeth & Julia Frances & Mary Josephine & Mary Mary & Sarah Theresa & (blank)
Alice & Frederick Alice & John Annie & Stephen Catherine & (blank) Sarah & Samuel
Edgar & Oscar Edward & James Francis & James James & John John & Thomas (blank) & (blank)
I’ll try to finish/post the final set of rankings before the end of the year.
The registrar of Providence, Rhode Island, published a series of documents listing all “of the names of persons deceased, born and married in the city of Providence” during years 1866, 1867 and 1868. The series may have been longer, but these are the only documents I could find online.
I’ve finally finished creating a set of rankings using one of the documents — 1867. But before we get to the rankings, here are some stats:
1,547 babies were born in Providence in 1867, going by the number of babies listed in the document itself. According to the document’s introduction, though, the number is 1,625. Not sure what to make of this discrepancy.
1,431 of these babies (713 girls and 718 boys) had names that were registered with the government at the time of publication. The other 116 babies got blank spaces. Either their names hadn’t been registered yet, or they hadn’t been named yet, or perhaps they died young and never received a name.
254 unique names (141 girl names and 113 boy names) were shared among these 1,431 babies.
And now, on to the names…
Top 5
A quick look at the top 5 girl names and boy names in Providence in 1867:
Top baby girl names
Top baby boy names
1. Mary 2. Catherine 3. Ellen 4. Margaret 5. Sarah
1. John 2. William 3. James 4. Charles 5. George
All Girl Names
Notice how the #1 name, Mary, was bestowed three times as often as the #2 name, Catherine.
Twenty-one sets of twins and two sets of triplets were born in Providence in 1867. (All of these names were accounted for above — I just thought it’d be fun to check out the sibsets.)
Girl-girl twins
Girl-boy twins
Boy-boy twins
Triplets
Annie & Fannie Annie & Mary Ann & Ellen Jennie & Minnie Margaret & Martha (blank) & (blank)
Ann & Maurice Grace & George Harriet & Albert Ida & Ashel Mary & James
Abraham & George Charles & George Charles & John Daniel & David Dunlap & Frank Eugene & Timothy George & John George & William James & John John & Martin
Carl, (blank) & (blank) James, Alexander & Sarah
I’ll post Providence’s 1866 and 1868 rankings as soon I get them done. Until then, here are two older posts featuring uniquely named Rhode Islanders: Aldaberontophoscophornia (b. 1812) and Idawalley (b. 1842).
I don’t watch a lot of television, but I’m visiting my father right now and he’s got his TV on all the time, so I haven’t been able to help it lately. :)
The other day I was walking past the TV and heard “Alaska” — a place I’ve long wanted to visit. So I stopped to see what was on. Soon I was hearing names like Atz, Atz Lee, and Otto.
Who were these people? Where did they get such interesting names?
Turns out it was a reality show called Alaska: The Last Frontier, and the cast members were part of the locally famous Kilcher family.
Atz and Otto are the sons of homesteaders Yule Farenorth Kilcher (b. 1913) and Ruth Kilcher (b. 1920). Yule and Ruth left Switzerland for Alaska in the early 1940s. Yule went on to serve in the Alaska State Senate during the 1960s.
Yule wasn’t born “Yule Farenorth.” He was originally Julius Jakob (pronounced YOO-lee-us YAH-kob) but he changed his first and middle names after immigrating.
Yule and Ruth had a total of eight children — two boys and six girls. Here are the names:
Mairiis
Wurtila Dora (Wurzy)
Linda Fay
Attila Kuno (Atz)
Sunrise Diana Irene
Edwin Otto
Stella Vera Septina (Bonnie)
Catkin Melody
Many of the above also gave their own children distinctive names, such as Cornelius, Davin, Ecaterina, Gawan, Olga and Saskia.
One of Atz’s children is pop singer Jewel Kilcher, a.k.a. Jewel. Her popularity in the mid-1990s helped push the baby name Jewel back into the U.S. top 1,000 in 1997:
1999: 453 baby girls named Jewel [ranked 557th]
1998: 490 baby girls named Jewel [ranked 516th]
1997: 330 baby girls named Jewel [ranked 665th]
1996: 168 baby girls named Jewel [ranked 1,098th]
1995: 154 baby girls named Jewel [ranked 1,141st]
And, moving forward another generation, one of Wurzy’s grandchildren is actress Q’orianka Kilcher, whose appearance in the movie The New World (2005) made Qorianka a one-hit wonder on the baby name charts in 2006.
(Q’orianka told the press that her name means “golden eagle” in Quechua, and it does seem to be based on the Quechua words for “gold,” quri, and “eagle,” anca, but I’m not sure whether it’s a legit Quechua name or a modern invention.)
So do any of you guys watch Alaska: The Last Frontier regularly? Have I missed any other good Kilcher names?
Image: Screenshot of Alaska: The Last Frontier
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