How popular is the baby name Franklyn 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 Franklyn.

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Popularity of the baby name Franklyn


Posts that mention the name Franklyn

What gave the baby name Valencia a boost in 1927?

The character Valencia from the movie "Valencia" (1926)
Valencia from “Valencia“

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Valencia saw a spike in usage in 1927:

  • 1929: 11 baby girls named Valencia
  • 1928: 22 baby girls named Valencia
  • 1927: 65 baby girls named Valencia [rank: 934th]
  • 1926: 18 baby girls named Valencia
  • 1925: 5 baby girls named Valencia

It reached the girls’ top 1,000 for the first time that year, in fact.

What gave it a boost?

Both a song and a film.

The song, “Valencia,” was originally composed by José Padilla for the 1924 Spanish operetta La bien amada.

A couple of years later, the song — with lyrics translated into English — was introduced to Americans in the musical The Great Temptations, which ran on Broadway from May to November, 1926.

Sheet music for the song "Valencia (A Song of Spain)" (1926)
“Valencia” sheet music

“Valencia” became very popular in the U.S. that year. Various orchestras made recordings of the song, but it was the version [vid] by Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra (featuring vocalist Franklyn Baur) that became the top single of 1926, reaching the #1 spot in early July and staying put for over 2 months.

In December of the same year, a silent film called Valencia was released. One reviewer, unimpressed, stated:

The popularity of the song seems to have been a sufficient excuse for M-G-M’s picture, which adopts the name but is not so fortunate in the story that purports to be “Valencia.”

The movie’s main character, Valencia (played by actress Mae Murray), was a Spanish dancer in love with a sailor named Felipe. But she was also being pursued by Don Fernando, the local governor, who threw Felipe in jail. Valencia made “the usual sacrifice to secure Felipe’s freedom.”

While the movie wasn’t a box office hit, it contributed to the trendiness of the baby name Valencia in 1927.

What are your thoughts on the name Valencia?

P.S. In 1950, the name — which was just starting to rise again, perhaps due to the baby boom — got another nudge from “Valencia,” sung this time by crooner Tony Martin. His rendition peaked at #18 on the charts that year.

Sources:

Top image: Film still of Valencia

Is it OK for non-Hawaiians to use Hawaiian names?

Mary Astor, 1931

More than 80 years ago, Hollywood actress Mary Astor gave her daughter a Hawaiian baby name.

Mary Astor (born Lucile Langhanke) and her husband Franklyn Thorpe bought a yacht and set sail for Hawaii in May of 1932. One month later, Astor gave birth in Honolulu.

The baby girl was named Marylyn Hauoli. Marylyn was a combination of Mary and Franklyn, and Hauoli came from the Hawaiian word hau’oli, meaning “happy, glad, gay, joyful.”

(The name Hau’oli has never been on an SSA’s baby name list, but I’ve found one other semi-famous person with the name: college football player Hau’oli Kikaha, originally from Oahu.)

Mary Astor choosing Hauoli for her daughter in 1932 reminds me of Helen Hunt choosing Makena Lei for her daughter in 2004. And both of these names make me wonder: Do you think it’s acceptable for non-Hawaiian parents to choose Hawaiian names for their children? If so, under what conditions?

Sources:

  • Mary Astor – Wikipedia
  • Pukui, Mary Kawena and Samuel H. Elbert. Hawaiian Dictionary. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986.

P.S. There are a few more Hawaiian names in Tuesday’s post Names Collected on Hawaii’s Big Island.