How popular is the baby name Dwight 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 Dwight.

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Popularity of the baby name Dwight


Posts that mention the name Dwight

What gave baby name Oveta a boost in 1953?

Government official Oveta Culp Hobby (1905-1995)
Oveta Culp Hobby (c. 1953)

According to the U.S. baby name data, the rare name Oveta saw its highest usage during the 1950s:

  • 1955: 11 baby girls named Oveta
  • 1954: 12 baby girls named Oveta
  • 1953: 14 baby girls named Oveta (peak usage)
  • 1952: 7 baby girls named Oveta
  • 1951: unlisted

Why?

My guess is Texas-born government official Oveta (pronounced oh-VEE-tuh) Culp Hobby.

In April of 1953, she was appointed by Dwight Eisenhower as the first secretary of the newly formed U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. This made Oveta the second woman to hold a U.S. Cabinet position. (The first was Frances Perkins, under FDR.)

Oveta was featured on the cover of Time magazine in May of 1953. The lengthy cover article included an explanation of Oveta’s unusual first name:

She was […] the second of Isaac and Emma Hoover Culp’s seven children. Her mother named her Oveta (an Indian word for forget) after a character in a romantic novel, and because it rhymed so pleasantly with Juanita, the name of the first Culp daughter.

She served in the Eisenhower administration until mid-1955. After resigning, she returned to her home in Houston to work as president of the Houston Post Company. (Her husband, William P. Hobby — Oveta’s senior by close to 27 years — was chairman of the board of directors at the Post.)

Interestingly, Oveta may have influenced U.S. baby names a decade earlier as well. In 1942, after a short absence, her name re-emerged in the data with a relatively high number of babies:

  • 1944: unlisted
  • 1943: 6 baby girls named Oveta
  • 1942: 10 baby girls named Oveta
  • 1941: unlisted
  • 1940: unlisted

That was the year she was sworn in as the the first director of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), which was created in May — about five months after the attack on Pearl Harbor — “to enable women to serve in noncombat positions” during World War II.

What are your thoughts on the name Oveta?

Sources:

Image: Oveta (Culp) Hobby (LOC)

Baby name stories: Adlai

Newspaper photo

Several of the 1952 babies named after Adlai Stevenson were featured in the newspapers.

One, born in mid-August to Mr. and Mrs. Ben R. Isenhower of Chatsworth, Georgia, was named Adlai Stevenson Isenhower. His older brother, Dwight David Isenhower, had been born eight years earlier and was (of course) named after Dwight D. Eisenhower, “whose forces were then spearheading the European coastal invasion.”

Another, born during the wee hours of the morning on election day (Nov. 4) to Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Smith of Richlands, North Carolina, was named Adlai Stevenson Smith.

Sources:

  • “He’s Named, Win or Lose.” Evening Star [Washington, D.C.] 4 Nov. 1952: A-2.
  • “Political Influence.” Kokomo Tribune 8 Aug. 1952: 23.

What gave the baby name Adlai a boost in the 1950s?

Politician Adlai E. Stevenson II (1900-1965)
Adlai E. Stevenson II

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Adlai saw peak usage in 1952, then a smaller spike four years later:

  • 1959: unlisted
  • 1958: unlisted
  • 1957: 6 baby boys named Adlai
  • 1956: 22 baby boys named Adlai
  • 1955: 12 baby boys named Adlai
  • 1954: 7 baby boys named Adlai
  • 1953: 18 baby boys named Adlai
  • 1952: 39 baby boys named Adlai [peak]
    • 6 born in Illinois
  • 1951: unlisted
  • 1950: unlisted

Why?

Because of politician Adlai Ewing Stevenson II — the namesake of politician Adlai Ewing Stevenson I, his grandfather.

Adlai Stevenson II served as the governor of Illinois from 1949 to 1953. He was elected “by a larger majority than any other candidate had received in the history of the state.”

On a national level, though, he’s better remembered for being the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the presidency in both 1952 and 1956.

In spite of his refusal to seek the presidential nomination in 1952, he was drafted by the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He waged a vigorous campaign, but the popular appeal of wartime hero Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower proved irresistible. Stevenson was defeated a second time four years later, again by Eisenhower.

One of the other candidates for the Democratic nomination in both ’52 and ’56 was W. Averell Harriman.

Sources: SSA, Adlai Stevenson II – Wikipedia, Adlai E. Stevenson | American Statesman | Britannica

How did “I Love Lucy” influence baby names in the 1950s?

Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, and their two children on the cover of LIFE magazine (Apr. 1953)
The Arnaz family

The sitcom I Love Lucy (1951-1957) was TV’s first mega-hit. It won five Emmys and was ranked the #1 TV show in America four out of its six seasons.

The central characters were Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, played by real-life couple Lucille Ball (born in New York in 1911) and Desiderio “Desi” Arnaz (born in Cuba in 1917).

Ricky worked as a singer and bandleader at the Tropicana nightclub, while Lucy was a housewife on a quest for show business fame who “concocted hilarious (and ultimately doomed) schemes to finagle her way out of the kitchen and into the limelight.”

Though the original show ended in 1957, a modified version called The Ford Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show kept the characters on the air for several more years.

So did I Love Lucy affect U.S. baby names? Yes, though not as much as one might expect, given its popularity.

Lucy & Lucille

The old-fashioned names Lucy and Lucille spent most of the 20th century declining in usage.

But Lucy saw an increase in 1952, and both names saw increases in 1953. (The most fashionable L-name at that time was #1 Linda.)

Ricky & Ricardo

Both Ricky and Ricardo — which had been rising in usage since the 1940s — saw accelerated rises during the 1950s.

One event that drew attention to Ricky specifically was the birth of Lucy and Ricky’s baby, “Little Ricky,” on an especially popular episode of I Love Lucy that aired in January of 1953 (the day before the inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower). In fact, the Cesarean birth of Lucille and Desi’s real-life baby Desiderio “Desi” Arnaz, Jr., was scheduled to coincide with the birth of Little Ricky.

Speaking of Desi…

Desi & Arnaz

The 1950s is the first decade we see Desi (pronounced DEH-zee) appearing regularly the U.S. baby name data — thanks to both father and son (though Junior’s birth in 1953 is no doubt behind the name’s increase in usage that particular year).

Several months after baby Desi was born, the very first issue of TV Guide magazine came out — and guess who was on the cover?

Desi Arnaz, Jr., on the cover of the first issue of "TV Guide" magazine
Desi Arnaz, Jr.

The surname Arnaz (pronounced ahr-NEZ) debuted in the data in 1958, and spelling variant Arnez first popped up in 1960.

Now it’s your turn: Do you love the name Lucy? Or do you prefer Lucille?

P.S. Another influence on the name Ricky during this period was Ricky Nelson, the son of another TV couple: Ozzie and Harriet Nelson.

Sources:

Images:

  • Clipping from the cover of Life magazine (6 Apr. 1953)
  • Clipping from the cover of TV Guide magazine (3 Apr. 1953)