How popular is the baby name Gregory 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 Gregory.
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Australia’s biggest horse race, the Melbourne Cup, has been held every year since 1861.
On November 3, 1936, a horse from New Zealand named Wotan (pronounced VO-tahn) won the race — despite being a 100-to-1 underdog. His surprise victory was one of the biggest upsets in the race’s history.
The same day, a baby boy was born at Crown Street Women’s Hospital in Sydney. The baby’s father, Gregory Swain, announced that his son’s name would be Gregory Wotan Swain.
“I had no money on the winner. He was my Cup — a fine boy, 7 1/2 lb., when born. Our first,” Swain explained.
He expressed surprise to know that Wotan was also one of the names given to the god of battle by the Anglo-Saxons.
The name Wotan is a variant of Woden, which was indeed the name of a major Anglo-Saxon/Germanic deity. Woden and his Norse counterpart, Odin, can trace their names back to a reconstructed proto-Germanic word meaning something along the lines of “raging, mad, inspired.”
Related name story: A baby girl named Jacqueline, born a few years ago in Ireland, was also named after a racehorse. (Her dad was the jockey.)
Sources:
“Baby Named After Cup Winner.” Courier-Mail [Brisbane, Australia] 10 Nov. 1936: 16.
Last month, Canadian singer Bryan Adams and his girlfriend welcomed their second baby girl, Lula RosyLea. Lula’s middle name is a reference to her time of birth, as per this tweet by Adams:
Lula Rosylea arrived @ teatime this wk. a cup of ‘rosie lee’ = ‘cup of tea’ in cockney. Lula comes from Gene Vincent’s song Be-Bop-A-Lula
This is the first baby I know of to be named via Cockney rhyming slang.
What’s Cockney rhyming slang? It involves word substitution based on rhyme. Typically, a word in a sentence is replaced with a rhyming phrase, and then the rhyming part of the phrase is dropped. This makes the resulting sentence hard for those not in-the-know to understand.
Here’s an example: “Use your loaf.” It’s really “use your head,” but the phrase loaf of bread was used instead of head, and then loaf of bread was shortened to just loaf. Hence, “use your loaf.” Get it?
Speaking of bread, if you’ve ever heard people use the slang word bread to mean money, that’s CRS too. Money rhymes with the old expression bread and honey, which shortens to bread.
So that’s how Bryan Adams turned tea into Rosie Lee, which is a common CRS rhyme for tea. (And now, if you’re ever in London and someone asks you if you want a cup of Rosie, you’ll know what they’re talking about!) “Rosie Lee” refers to American burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee (1911-1970).
I thought this was a rather cool way to come up with a baby name, so I’ve collected a few dozen other well-known CRS rhymes that involve names. On the left you’ll find the original word, in the middle is the name/phrase substitution, and on the right is the shortened version.
back – rhymes with Cilla Black – shortens to Cilla
ball – rhymes with Albert Hall – shortens to Albert
belly – rhymes with Darby Kelly – shortens to Darby
brake – rhymes with Veronica Lake – shortens to Veronica
cake – rhymes with Sexton Blake – shortens to Sexton
coat – rhymes with Billy goat – shortens to Billy
curry – rhymes with Ruby Murray – shortens to Ruby (if these parents had had a girl instead of a boy, Ruby would have been a great option)
door – rhymes with Rory O’Moore – shortens to Rory
fairy – rhymes with Julian Clairy – shortens to Julian
fish – rhymes with Lillian Gish – shortens to Lillian
gin – rhymes with Anne Boleyn – shortens to Ann
gin – rhymes with Vera Lynn – shortens to Vera
ice – rhymes with Vincent Price – shortens to Vincent
kettle – rhymes with Hansel and Gretel – shortens to Hansel
lisp – rhymes with Quentin Crisp – shortens to Quentin
mess – rhymes with Elliot Ness – shortens to Elliot
neck – rhymes with Gregory Peck – shortens to Gregory
old man (father) – rhymes with Peter Pan – shortens to Peter
rail – rhymes with Toby Ale – shortens to Toby
Stella (brand of beer) – rhymes with Yuri Geller – shortens to Yuri
Stella – rhymes with Nelson Mandela – shortens to Nelson
table – rhymes with Betty Grable – shortens to Betty
tea – rhymes with Bruce Lee – shortens to Bruce
tea – rhymes with Kiki Dee – shortens to Kiki
tea – rhymes with Rosie Lee – shortens to Rosie
telly – rhymes with Liza Minnelli – shortens to Liza (e.g., “What’s on the Liza?”)
trouble – rhymes with Barney Rubble – shortens to Barney
undies – rhymes with Eddie Grundies – shortens to Eddie
wedding – rhymes with Otis Redding – shortens to Otis
I think Darby (for “belly”) might be an especially tempting one baby namers, no? :)
Bryan’s first baby girl, Mirabella Bunny, was born last Easter.
Update, Dec. 2016: A reader named Sam recently told me about the Complete Dictionary of Cockney Rhyming Slang, which contains a bunch more names — like Errol Flynn for “chin,” and Euan Blair for “Leicester Square.” Enjoy!
Dick Gregory was an African-American comedian and civil rights activist.
He and his wife Lillian were also the parents of 11 children:
Michele
Lynne
Richard, Jr. (1963) – died as a baby
Pamela Inte (1964) – twin
Paula Gration (1964) – twin
Stephanie (1965)
“Gregory” – no official first name
Christian
Miss
Ayanna (1971)
Yohance (1973)
Those last two births are notable because they inspired other parents to use Ayanna and Yohance, and the resultant upticks in usage made Ayanna and Yohance the top baby name debuts of 1971 and 1973, respectively.
Ayanna
1973: 177 baby girls named Ayanna
1972: 343 baby girls named Ayanna
1971: 194 baby girls named Ayanna [debut]
1970: unlisted
1969: unlisted
Dick and Lillian Gregory found the name Ayanna in Jet magazine, which claimed Ayanna was a female name from East Africa meaning “beautiful flower.”
This information probably came from The Book of African Names (1970) by Chief Osuntoki. Name expert Dr. Cleveland Evans says Osuntoki was “half right” about Ayanna:
Ayana is a name used for both males and females in Ethiopia, but its meaning is uncertain. Ayyanaw is a male Amharic name meaning “we saw him.” Ayana is an Oromo word for the spirits believed to mediate between the high god, Waka, and human beings in the ancient indigenous religion of the Oromos, but it’s unclear if either of those is related to the common Ethiopian name. ln any event, it’s easy to see how parents looking through Osuntoki’s book would seize upon Ayanna as one of the few names included that fit in well with the look and sound of American names of the time.
Yohance
1975: 13 baby boys named Yohance
1974: 23 baby boys named Yohance
1973: 44 baby boys named Yohance [debut]
1972: unlisted
1971: unlisted
A 1973 issue of Jet states that Dick and Lillian found the name Yohance (pronounced yoh-HAHN-seh) in a book called Names from Africa, and that Yohance “means “God’s gift” in the Hausa language of Nigeria.”
The only sources I’ve found that mention Yohance are baby name books, so I’m not entirely convinced that Yohance is a legitimate Hausa name. Some of the books claim Yohance is a form of John, but an online Hausa bible I found translates John as “Yahaya” — similar, but not quite the same.
Gregory
One of Dick Gregory’s children is named Gregory — just Gregory. Like Tifft and Gatewood, Gregory doesn’t have a first name. Here’s the explanation:
My oldest son, Gregory, has just one name. His birth certificate does not read “Gregory Gregory,” but rather simply “Gregory.” In the American system, whose computers, bureaucracy and institutional requirements demand two names to function, my son Gregory is a symbol of independence of the built-in entanglements which predetermine the destiny of the “two-namers” in a controlled society.
Miss
One of Dick Gregory’s daughters is named Miss, making her full name “Miss Gregory.” Here’s why:
At the time of her birth, racial hangups in the United States made it difficult for some white folks to call a black woman “Miss” and a black man “Mister.” So to be on the safe side, my wife and I named our daughter Miss. All her life, anyone who calls her by her proper name will have to say, “Miss Gregory.”
Inte & Gration
The middle names of Dick Gregory’s twins Paula and Pamela are “Inte” and “Gration.” Dick wrote in his memoir:
On March 18, 1964, one year and three days after Richard Jr. was born, Lil gave birth to Paula and Pam. We gave them the middle names of Inte and Gration so they would always remember the sacrifice their mother had made while they were still in the womb.
Lillian’s sacrifice was that she’d been jailed for attempting to dine at a restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia. (She went to the restaurant knowing she’s be arrested; her intent was the draw attention to the fight for civil rights.)
Sources:
“African Names for Your Children.” Jet 16 Sep. 1971: 14.
“All in a Name.” Jet 11 Nov. 1971: 33.
“Dick Gregory, Wife’s 10th Child Given African Name.” Jet 9 Aug. 1973: 16.
Evans, Cleveland Kent. The Great Big Book of Baby Names. Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International, 2006.
Gregory, Dick and Sheila P. Moses. Callus on My Soul: A Memoir. New York: Kensington, 2000.
Gregory, Dick. Dick Gregory’s Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat. New York: Harper Collins, 1974.
Gregory Peck won an Oscar for playing Atticus Finch in the movie To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), based on the 1960 novel of the same name. In 1999, Peck’s daughter Cecilia gave birth a baby boy she named Harper in honor of the novel’s author, Harper Lee.
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