How popular is the baby name Hondo 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 Hondo.

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Popularity of the baby name Hondo


Posts that mention the name Hondo

Where did the baby name Taggart come from in 1964?

Part of a poster for the movie "Taggart" (1964)
Poster for “Taggart“

The name Taggart popped up for the first time in the U.S. baby name data in the mid-1960s:

  • 1966: unlisted
  • 1965: unlisted
  • 1964: 5 baby boys named Taggart [debut]
  • 1963: unlisted
  • 1962: unlisted

Why?

I’d say it was the movie Taggart, which was a Western released in late 1964.

The main character, Kent Taggart, spent much of the film being pursued by a ruthless killer through Apache country (in Arizona). He was played by actor Tony Young, who had played Cord in Gunslinger several years earlier.

The movie Taggart was based on the 1959 book of the same name by Louis L’Amour. (The TV show Hondo was also based on L’Amour’s writing.)

The Celtic surname Taggart can be traced back to a Gaelic phrase meaning “son of the priest.” (The word for “priest” was sagart.)

What are your thoughts on the name Taggart?

Sources:

Where did the baby name Hondo come from in 1967?

The character Hondo Lane from the TV series "Hondo" (1967).
Hondo Lane from “Hondo”

The odd name Hondo first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1967:

  • 1969: unlisted
  • 1968: 7 baby boys named Hondo
  • 1967: 5 baby boys named Hondo [debut]
  • 1966: unlisted
  • 1965: unlisted

Where did it come from?

A short-lived TV western called Hondo, which featured a main character named Hondo Lane (played by Ralph Taeger) who was a former Confederate cavalry officer. The series was only on the air during the last third of 1967 (September to December).

Hondo was based on a 1953 John Wayne movie of the same name, which itself was based on the 1952 short story “The Gift of Cochise” by Louis L’Amour. While Wayne shot the film, L’Amour turned the movie’s screenplay into a novel, and both the movie and the book were released at the same time, with the same title.

The name Hondo wasn’t original to the story; Wayne borrowed it from a minor character in another film he’d starred in called The Angel and the Badman (1947). (In that film, Wayne’s character had the quirky name Quirt Evans.)

What are your thoughts on the name Hondo?

Sources:

  • Hondo (TV series) – Wikipedia
  • Howard, Donald E. The Role of Reading in Nine Famous Lives. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2005.
  • Joyner, C. Courntey. The Westerners: Interviews with Actors, Directors, Writers and Producers. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009.