How popular is the baby name Elfago 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 Elfago.

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Popularity of the baby name Elfago


Posts that mention the name Elfago

What gave the baby name Elfego a boost in 1959?

The title character from the TV mini-series "The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca" (1958-1960).
Elfego from “The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca

According to the U.S. baby name data, the rare Spanish name Elfego saw peak usage in 1959:

  • 1961: unlisted
  • 1960: 7 baby boys named Elfego
  • 1959: 10 baby boys named Elfego
  • 1958: unlisted
  • 1957: unlisted

The variant spelling Elfago was a one-hit wonder in the data that year as well.

What gave these names a slight boost?

New Mexican gunfighter and folk hero Elfego Baca (1865-1945).

But not the real Elfego Baca, who wasn’t well-known outside of New Mexico. Instead, Walt Disney’s fictionalized version of him.

From late 1958 to early 1960, Elfego Baca was featured in 10 irregularly-airing episodes of the TV anthology series Walt Disney Presents. (The series had been renamed since the days of Davy Crockett.)

The Baca miniseries, entitled The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca, starred actor Robert Loggia as the title character — a New Mexico lawman during the final years of the Old West. Though the episodes didn’t popularize Baca to the same degree that earlier episodes had popularized Crockett, they did turn Baca into “America’s first Hispanic popular culture hero,” according to one historian.

In his introductions to the episodes, Walt Disney pronounced Baca’s first name the traditional way: EL-fay-go (stress on the first syllable). Characters within the episodes, however, tended to mispronounce it el-FAY-go (stress on the second syllable).

The name is a Spanish form of the Middle English name Alphege, ultimately based on the Old English words ælf, meaning “elf,” and heah, meaning “high, tall.”

What are your thoughts on the name Elfego?

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of the Elfego Baca miniseries

Interesting one-hit wonder names in the U.S. baby name data

single flower

They came, they went, and they never came back!

These baby names are one-hit wonders in the U.S. baby name data. That is, they’ve only popped up once, ever, in the entire dataset of U.S. baby names (which accounts for all names given to at least 5 U.S. babies per year since 1880).

There are thousands of one-hit wonders in the dataset, but the names below have interesting stories behind their single appearance, so these are the one-hits I’m writing specific posts about. Just click on a name to read more.

2020s

  • 2020: Jexi

2010s

2000s

1990s

1980s

1970s

1960s

1950s

1940s

1930s

1920s

1910s

1900s

  • (none yet)

1890s

As I discover (and write about) more one-hit wonders in the data, I’ll add the names/links to this page. In the meanwhile, do you have any favorite one-hit wonder baby names?

Image: Adapted from Solitary Poppy by Andy Beecroft under CC BY-SA 2.0.

[Latest update: Apr. 2024]