How popular is the baby name Jane 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 Jane.

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Popularity of the baby name Jane


Posts that mention the name Jane

Baby names in the news: Ryder, Marvel, Crew

Some recent and not-so-recent baby names from the news…

Betsy and Emory: Twin baby girls born in January of 2018 to singer Hillary Scott were named Betsy Mack and Emory JoAnn. Their older sister Eisele was behind the debut of Eisele in 2014. (Taste of Country)

Crew: A baby boy born in June of 2018 to reality TV stars Joanna and Chip Gaines was named Crew. (Motherly)

Hayes: A baby boy born on the last day of 2017 to actress Jessica Alba was named Hayes. (People)

Marvel: A baby girl born in May of 2018 to musician Pete Wentz was named Marvel Jane. Her older brother Bronx was behind the rise of Bronx in 2009. (Business Insider)

Knight: A baby boy born in Vegas in during the 2018 Stanley Cup Finals was named Haizen Knight in part after the Vegas Golden Knights, who ultimately lost to the Washington Capitals. (KTNV Las Vegas [vid])

Riley: A baby girl born in Vegas on the day the Vegas Golden Knights advanced to the playoffs was named Riley after player Reilly Smith. Her parents were survivors of the Las Vegas shooting. (NY Post)

Ryder: A baby boy born in May of 2018 was named Ryder after the Ryder Cup. (Ryder Cup website…and here’s a follow-up post that mentions several more babies named Ryder)

Sheboygan: A baby boy born in April of 2018 to a Michigan couple already famous for being prodigious producers of sons was named Finley Sheboygan — middle name derived from the phrase “she is a boy again.” (Today)

Stormi: A baby girl born in February to reality TV star Kylie Jenner was named Stormi. (People)

What gave the baby name Neva a boost in 1953?

Neva Jane Langley (1933-2012), Miss America 1953
Neva Jane Langley

The name Neva, which was most popular during during the 1910s and ’20s, saw an uptick in usage in the early 1950s:

  • 1955: 180 baby girls named Neva [rank: 705th]
  • 1954: 211 baby girls named Neva [rank: 627th]
  • 1953: 239 baby girls named Neva [rank: 568th]
  • 1952: 182 baby girls named Neva [rank: 658th]
  • 1951: 156 baby girls named Neva [rank: 700th]

Why?

Because of beauty queen Neva (pronounced NEE-va) Jane Langley, who was crowned Miss America 1953 in September of 1952.

Neva was a native Floridian, but represented the state of Georgia in the pageant because she was attending the Wesleyan Conservatory of Music (in Macon) at the time.

Speaking of music, Neva won the talent portion of the competition with a performance of the piano piece “Toccata” by Aram Khachaturian.

Because Miss America pageants weren’t televised until 1954, Neva’s first TV appearance didn’t happen until about a week later, on an episode of the panel show What’s My Line? [vid].

What are your thoughts on the baby name Neva?

P.S. Quite a few baby names were influenced by What’s My Line? in the 1950s and ’60s…

Sources:

Image: Clipping from the Hanford Journal (12 Sept. 1952)

What turned Dart into a baby name in 1956?

Part of the poster for "Foxfire" (1955)
“Foxfire” poster

This one stumped me for a long time, but I think I’ve finally figured it out.

The word-name Dart debuted in the U.S. baby name data in the mid-1950s and hung around for several years before disappearing again:

  • 1961: unlisted
  • 1960: 6 baby boys named Dart
  • 1959: 5 baby boys named Dart
  • 1958: 8 baby boys named Dart
  • 1957: 10 baby boys named Dart
  • 1956: 12 baby boys named Dart [debut]
  • 1955: unlisted

At first I got stuck on a pair of auto-Darts: the Chrysler Dart, a concept car that was in the news briefly in mid-1956, and the Dodge Dart, a production car that went on sale in 1960. Neither one was a good answer.

Finally I happened to find a 1955 film called Foxfire that featured a main character named Jonathan “Dart” Dartland (played by Jeff Chandler). He was a half-Apache mining engineer whose new marriage to socialite wife Amanda (played by Jane Russell) was threatened by the cultural gap between them.

The screenplay, based on a 1950 novel of the same name by Anya Seton, was written by Ketti Frings.

What do you think of “Dart” as a baby name?

P.S. Foxfire was the film playing aboard the SS Andrea Doria the moment it was struck by the MS Stockholm.

Sources: Foxfire (1955 film) – Wikipedia, Foxfire (1955) – TCM

Game: Add 3 girl names to this 1910 list…

In 1910, the Boston-based publisher H. M. Caldwell Co. ran the following ad for its “My Own Name” series of books in American Motherhood magazine.

names from 1910

It is the purpose of these charming little books to tell girls all about their names, information about the name, its origin, the name in history, the name in poetry, fiction and romance is given, also notable namesakes past and present.

It wasn’t much of a series, though, as there were only 25 names to choose from:

  1. Alice (ranked 10th nationally in 1910)
  2. Annie (19th)
  3. Bertha (33rd)
  4. Charlotte (99th)
  5. Dorothy (4th)
  6. Edith (35th)
  7. Eleanor (55th)
  8. Elizabeth (7th)
  9. Fanny (391st)
  10. Gertrude (26th)
  11. Gladys (15th)
  12. Helen (2nd)
  13. Isabel (176th)
  14. Jane (116th)
  15. Katherine (57th)
  16. Lucy (75th)
  17. Margaret (3rd)
  18. Marion (59th)
  19. Marjorie (68th)
  20. Mary (1st)
  21. Mildred (8th)
  22. Nellie (51st)
  23. Ruth (5th)
  24. Sarah (40th)
  25. Winifred (185th)

Clearly three more names could have fit on that last line (next to Winifred), so let’s turn this into a game. Which three girl names would you add to this list? That is, give us three names you like that would also be logical additions to this list, given the time period. For instance, I think I’d add Iola, Della, and Bonnie. How about you?

(If you want to access the national rankings for 1910, click over to the SSA’s site and scroll down to “Popular Names by Birth Year.”)