How popular is the baby name Frank 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 Frank.

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Popularity of the baby name Frank


Posts that mention the name Frank

Baby names inspired by M&M’S

M&M candies
M&M’S

What’s the best thing about Halloween? If you said the costumes, or the parties, or the history, or the carving of very elaborate jack-o’-lanterns…you’d be wrong. Because the correct answer is: the candy.

But, as funny as I think it would be to meet a kid named Twizzler, I don’t want people taking names from candy wrappers and putting them onto birth certificates. So let’s look at candy-inspired baby names in a slightly different way by focusing on a single brand with a simple name: M&M’S.

Did you know that M&M’S are the top-selling Halloween candy in California, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C.? They’re the second-best seller in eight other states, and the third-best seller in three more.

More important for our purposes, though, is the fact that the brand name is essentially the same letter twice. So let’s check out baby names that similarly have two M’s, but two separate M’s. Because, if the candies won’t melt in your hand, the M’s shouldn’t meld in a name.

So here are over 20 baby names with two audibly distinct M’s, just like M&M’S candies:

  • Amram (m) – “exalted nation” in Hebrew.
  • Chrysanthemum (f) – flower name, from the ancient Greek words for “gold” and “flower.”
  • Jemima (f) – “dove” in Hebrew.
  • Kimimila (f) – “butterfly” in Lakota.
  • Leimomi (f) – “pearl lei” or “pearl child” in Hawaiian.
  • Malcolm (m) – “disciple of Saint Columba” in Scottish.
  • Mamie (f) – pet form of Mary or Margaret.
  • Maram (f) – “wish, desire” in Arabic.
  • Maximus, Maxima, Maximilian, etc. (m/f)- “greatest” in Latin.
  • Megumi (f) – Japanese name with various possible meanings, including “love, affection.”
  • Memphis (m/f) – “his beauty” in Egyptian.
  • Menachem (m) – “comforter” in Hebrew.
  • Mimi (f) – pet form of M-names like Mary and Maria.
  • Miriam (f) – original Hebrew form of Mary.
  • Maryam (f) – Arabic form of Maria.
  • Momoka (f) – Japanese name with various possible meanings, including “peach” + “fragrance.”
  • Montgomery (m) – English surname, from Norman French, meaning “Gumarich’s mountain.”
  • Mortimer (m) – English surname, from Old French, meaning “still water.”
  • Muhammad (m) – “praiseworthy” in Arabic.
  • Tomomi (f) – Japanese name with various possible meanings, including “friend” + “beautiful.”

Which of the M+M names above do you like best?

And, are you curious to know what the M’s in “M&M’S” actually stand for? Mars and Murrie, the surnames of Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie, the businessmen who created M&M’S back in the early 1940s. Forrest was the sons of Frank C. Mars (founder of Mars, Incorporated) and Bruce was the son of William F. R. Murrie (president of Hershey’s).

Sources: Top Halloween Candy by State [Interactive Map] – CandyStore.com, Memphis – Online Etymology Dictionary, Behind the Name

Image: Adapted from Plain-M&Ms-Pile (public domain) by Evan-Amos

Baby born on Coney Island, named “Isla”

Isla Tudor, 1915

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, English showman and “Animal King” Frank C. Bostock brought his performing menagerie of lions, jaguars, elephants, camels, and other animals to various cities in Great Britain and America.

Given that Bostock was famous for hosting weddings (for humans) inside the lion cage, the following story isn’t too surprising:

On August 23, 1903, Bostock’s English-born, Brooklyn-based business manager, Harry E. Tudor, had a baby girl. At three weeks old, the newborn was taken to an afternoon Bostock show on Coney Island, at the Sea Beach Palace.

Bostock’s lion tamer, Captain Jack Bonavita, took the newborn inside the lion cage, which contained 27 lions at the time. “[H]e commanded them to stand on their hind legs, which they did, supporting themselves against the bars of the cage.”

He then conducted some sort of naming ceremony in front of several thousand spectators, choosing the name Isla for the baby because, he said, it paid tribute to Coney Island. The baby was then passed out of the cage “and the regular exhibition took place.”

According to New York City birth records, the baby’s name was officially Isabel, same as her mother. Regardless, she was always called Isla by the newspapers.

And why was she in the newspapers? Because she led a fascinating (if short) life.

During her childhood, Isla crossed the Atlantic dozens of times “and visited Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.” She spent her eighth birthday sailing to Europe aboard the RMS Olympic, and her 12th picnicking with a lion named Baltimore at Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

When her father took up flying, she took it up as well. She participated in aviation exhibitions in both England and America, eventually piloting a plane herself. Aerial Age Weekly said Isla was “known on two continents as the youngest girl aviator.”

isla tudor, air lady
Isla Tudor, “Little Air Lady” (1914)

Sadly, Isla Tudor died of appendicitis in 1916, one month after her 13th birthday. News of her death was reported in the New York Times, Billboard magazine, and many other publications. (In the New York City death records she’s listed as Isla, not Isabel; her name may have been legally changed at some point.)

Sources:

Where did the baby name Fanita come from in 1965?

Fanita James performing on the TV series "Shindig" (Dec. 1964)
Fanita James on “Shindig“

The pretty name Fanita first popped up in the U.S. baby name data in 1965, and it stuck around for just one more year before disappearing again.

  • 1967: unlisted
  • 1966: 12 baby girls were named Fanita
  • 1965: 21 baby girls were named Fanita [debut]
  • 1964: unlisted
  • 1963: unlisted

What put it there?

The story begins with The Blossoms, a West Coast girl group that began recording in the mid-1950s. One of the members was teenager Fanita Barrett. (Two others were similarly named twins Annette and Nanette Williams.)

The group was around for decades, with various lineups. They provided backup vocals for many major stars and songs of the 1960s, including Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, “Johnny Angel” and “Monster Mash.”

But they were most visible right in the middle of the ’60s. That’s when The Blossoms were appearing weekly on TV as part of the musical variety show Shindig!, which lasted from September of 1964 until January of 1966.

The photo above came from an episode in which Fanita sang lead on the song “Goin’ Out of My Head.” The segment began with “Fanita James” (her married name) in all-caps at the bottom of the screen.

I’m not sure how Fanita’s parents came up with her name, but it reminds somewhat of Epifanía and other epiphany-derived names (which were traditionally given to babies born on/near the Christian holiday of the Epiphany, on January 6).

Do you like the name Fanita?

Sources: The Blossoms – Wikipedia, SSA

Image: Screenshot of Shindig

Where did the baby name Morningstar come from in 1973?

Wounded Knee poster (AIM, 1973)

In 1973, from February 27 until May 8, American Indian Movement (AIM) activists and Oglala Lakota occupied the town of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

The standoff lasted 71 days, and both the activists and the federal government were armed. Gunfire wounded several people on each side and ultimately killed two of the occupiers.

The first victim was 48-year-old activist Frank Clearwater, who had hitchhiked to Wounded Knee with his pregnant wife Morning Star, 37. They arrived on April 16, Frank was shot in the head on April 17, and he died in the hospital on April 25. The news of his death was widely reported.

The same year, the baby name Morningstar appeared in the U.S. baby name data for the very first time:

  • 1976: unlisted
  • 1975: 9 baby girls named Morningstar
  • 1974: unlisted
  • 1973: 8 baby girls named Morningstar [debut]
  • 1972: unlisted
  • 1971: unlisted

(The SSA data omits spaces, so some these babies may have been named “Morning Star.”)

Supporters of the Indian movement extolled Frank. The 1973 folk song “The Ballad of Frank Clearwater,” for instance, refers to Frank as an “Apache who longed to be free.”

But Frank’s background remains unclear. Some sources said he was Apache, while others said he was Cherokee. Some sources said he was from North Carolina, while others said he was from from Oklahoma.

One thing that is clear about Frank is his legal name: “Frank J. Clear.”

Morning Star’s name may have similarly been invented. And it’s possible that neither she nor Frank was Native American — that they were simply people who (like Marlon Brando) supported the American Indian Movement, and who chose to go by Indian-sounding names as a sign of solidarity.

We may never know Morning Star’s true identity, or what became of her (or her baby) after 1973. But her name — be it real or assumed — lives on in the U.S. baby name data…

Sources:

Image: Prevent a 2nd massacre at Wounded Knee (LOC)