How popular is the baby name Ed 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 Ed.

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Popularity of the baby name Ed


Posts that mention the name Ed

Baby born in Colorado town of Salida, named Salida

Map of Salida, Colorado, from 1882

The Colorado mountain town of Salida (pronounced sah-LIE-dah) was founded in 1880. It’s name was based on the Spanish word for “exit” or “way out,” salida (pronounced sah-LEE-dah), because it’s located close to where the Arkansas River flows out of the Upper Arkansas Valley and into Bighorn Sheep Canyon.

Not long after Salida was established, the town fathers announced that a free plot of land would be given to the first baby girl named after the community.

In May of 1881, Stephen and Esther Hunt of Salida welcomed a baby girl, and — taking the town up on its offer — named her Salida Gertrude.

But when Salida Gertrude tried to collect her prize upon turning 21, she was denied. The offer had apparently never been entered into the town record and made official.

Nearly 80 years later, on Salida Gertrude’s 100th birthday, Salida town mayor Ed Touber tried to make things right by presenting Salida with a plaque “bearing her name and the town symbol.”

Something is better than nothing, I suppose.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Bird’s eye view of Salida, Chaffee County, Colorado. 188 (LOC)

What turned Pebbles into a baby name in 1963?

The character Pebbles Flintstone from the TV series "The Flintstones" (1960-1966)
Pebbles Flintstone from “The Flintstones“

Today’s Google Doodle is a tribute to the 50th anniversary of the cartoon The Flintstones, which first aired on September 30, 1960. So I thought I’d help celebrate by posting about Pebbles, the Flintstones-inspired baby name.

The Flintstones originally featured Fred and Wilma Flintstone, along with their neighbors Barney and Betty Rubble. The couples’ babies, Pebbles Flintstone and Bamm-Bamm Rubble, weren’t introduced until 1963 — Pebbles in February, Bamm-Bamm in October.

And, the same year, the unusual name Pebbles appeared for the very first time in the U.S. baby name data:

  • 1965: 14 baby girls named Pebbles
  • 1964: 31 baby girls named Pebbles
  • 1963: 31 baby girls named Pebbles [debut]
  • 1962: unlisted
  • 1961: unlisted

While the name never became popular, its usage did increase slightly both in the early to mid-1970s and in the late ’80s to early ’90s. Why?

  • In October of 1971, Pebbles breakfast cereals (e.g., Fruity Pebbles, Cocoa Pebbles) were introduced to the market. The TV commercials featured various Flintstone characters.
  • In the late 1980s, several songs by dance-pop singer Perri “Pebbles” Reid became top-5 hits on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart. (One of those songs was “Mercedes Boy.”)

What are your thoughts on the name Pebbles? Would you consider using it?

Update, Mar. 2015: Looks like Pebbles Flintstones may have been named via contest. (Either that, or the “contest” was for marketing purposes only.) From a Neatorama article about The Flintstones: “In 1963, a new angle was added to the show with the birth of Pebbles Flintstone, Fred and Wilma’s daughter. In anticipation of her birth, a huge nationwide contest was held to “name the Flintstone’s baby.”

Update #2, Sept. 2020: M Cain’s comment below inspired me to research the Pebbles name contest a bit more. The following story, which I found in Joseph Barbera’s 1994 autobiography My Life in ‘Toons: From Flatbush to Bedrock in Under a Century, suggests to me that the contest was rigged.

[The idea] — to give the Flintstones a baby — set off two days of uncharacteristically rancorous meetings at the studio debating the sex of the offspring. After much collective hair pulling, we decided: It’s a boy.

Relieved at having reached a decision at last, I turned to other matters. A few days later, I took a phone call from Ed Justin, our merchandising man in New York.

“I hear the Flintstones are having a baby.”

“That’s right,” I said.

“Boy or girl?”

“It’s a boy! Fred Jr.–A chip off the old rock!”

“That’s too bad,” he said. “I’ve got the vice president of Ideal Toy here, and the only dolls they’re doing are girls. We could have had a hell of a deal if it had been a girl.”

“It is a girl,” I said. “Her name is…Pebbles. A pebble off the old rock.”

Some ideas develop after days of meetings. Others are born in the flash of a dollar sign set off by a single phone call.

Sources: A Flintstones World, SSA

Image: Screenshot of The Flintstones

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)

What gave the baby name Timi a boost in the 1960s?

Timi Yuro's album "Hurt!" (1961)
Timi Yuro album

The name Timi saw a swift rise in usage during the first half of the 1960s:

  • 1965: 67 baby girls named Timi
  • 1964: 71 baby girls named Timi [peak usage]
  • 1963: 54 baby girls named Timi
  • 1962: 47 baby girls named Timi
  • 1961: 17 baby girls named Timi
  • 1960: unlisted

Why?

Because of Italian-American singer Timi Yuro, born Rosemary Timotea Auro in Chicago in 1940.

Her deep, strident, almost masculine voice, staggered delivery and the occasional sob, created a compelling musical presence.

Timi’s first hit song, “Hurt,” was also her biggest hit song. The R&B ballad reached #4 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in September of 1961. Other singles that did well on the charts were “Smile” (1961), “What’s A Matter Baby” (1962), and “Make the World Go Away” (1963).

She also made a number of TV appearances during the ’60s, both on late-night talk shows (like The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show) and on music shows (like American Bandstand and The Lloyd Thaxton Show).

Interestingly, Timi was almost the original singer of Burt Bacharach’s “What The World Needs Now.” Here’s how she told the story:

…And I missed out on a friggin’ smash. I went to the office a few days later, and [Bacharach] played “What the World Needs Now” for me. And I started singing it and he said, “No, I want you to say, [beats hand against the table to accent every word] What…the…world…needs…now…” And I said, “Oh, go f*ck yourself,” and I left his office. And I blew that song. It was out a few weeks later with Jackie DeShannon.

What are your thoughts on the name Timi?

Sources: