How popular is the baby name Jesus in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Find out using the graph below! Plus, check out all the blog posts that mention the name Jesus.
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The relatively rare name Aissa started appearing in the U.S. data in the early 1960s:
1963: unlisted
1962: 5 baby girls named Aissa
1961: 6 baby girls named Aissa [debut]
1960: unlisted
1959: unlisted
The reason?
Looks to be John Wayne’s daughter Aissa (pronounced ie-EES-ah), who was born in 1956 had a short acting career in the early 1960s. Her first and most notable role was that of Lisa Angelina Dickinson in the movie The Alamo (1960).
Photographs of Aissa also occasionally appeared in the newspapers. Perhaps the most prominent photo of her was the one on cover of Cosmopolitan magazine in March of 1961. It was their “diamond jubilee issue” (marking their 75th year in print) and, according to the caption, Aissa was “wearing $850,000 in Cartier diamonds.”
Aissa’s mother was John Wayne’s third wife, Pilar, and her two full siblings were named John Ethan and Marisa.
I know the story behind John Ethan’s middle name — it came from the character John Wayne played in The Searchers (the movie that launched Pippa) — but I don’t know the story behind “Aissa.” Perhaps the Waynes found it in the 1951 movie Outcast of the Islands, which featured an exotic character named Aissa (played by French actress Kerima)…?
In terms of etymology, “Aissa” comes from the French name Aïssa, which is based on the Arabic name Isa, a form of Jesus.
The name saw peak usage in the U.S. in the early 1990s:
1994: 10 baby girls named Aissa
1993: 20 baby girls named Aissa
1992: 58 baby girls named Aissa [peak]
1991: 20 baby girls named Aissa
1990: 11 baby girls named Aissa
Aissa Wayne’s name was in the news a lot during 1992 due to legal troubles. In April, she testified in court against her ex-husband (a physician who had hired two assailants to attack her in 1988 amid their child custody battle). The ex-husband was convicted in May and sentenced in July. In December, Aissa won full custody of their 5-year-old daughter, Anastasia Pilar.
What are your thoughts on the name Aissa/Aïssa?
Sources:
Coburn, Marcia Froelke. “Legend’s Child.” Chicago Tribune 23 Feb. 1992.
“The John Wayne Family.” Independent Star-News 10 Jan. 1960: 107
P.S. Here are several more “delayed” celebrity baby name debuts, i.e., celebrity baby-inspired names that didn’t appear on the charts at the time of birth.
P.P.S. John Wayne’s second wife was named Esperanza, nicknamed Chata. His first was named Josephine.
Yesterday’s post about the name Passion, plus the fact that I happen to love passion flowers (because they are so weirdly elaborate), made me wonder: Has anyone ever been given the first-middle combo “Passion Flower”? How about the name of the genus, passiflora?
Turns out the answer is “yes” to both questions, though I could only find a single trustworthy example of each in the records.
A female named Passion Flower Johnson was born in California in 1988.
A female named Passiflora Dadge was born in Lancashire, England, in 1896. (Her four older siblings were Lilian, Stephen, Rose and Violet.)
So how did the plant come to be called “passion flower” in the first place? It was named in the 17th century by Spanish Christian missionaries who saw the various components of the bloom as being symbolic of the Passion of Jesus (e.g., the corona filaments represented the crown of thorns).
I also happened to find a Mississippi man named Maypop Stewart on the 1880 U.S. Census. “Maypop” is the common name of a type of passion flower native to the southern U.S. He was an African-American man who’d been born in Alabama in 1820s, so it’s possible that he was a former slave who’d been named by a slaveowner.
Here are hundreds of baby names that have a numerological value of “2.”
I’ve sub-categorized them by overall totals, because I think that some of the intermediate numbers could have special significance to people as well.
Within each group, I’ve listed up to ten of the most popular “2” names per gender (according to the current U.S. rankings).
Beneath all the names are some ways you could interpret the numerological value of “2,” including descriptions from two different numerological systems.
2 via 11
The following baby names add up to 11, which reduces to two (1+1=2).
“11” girl names: Adea, Fe
“11” boy names: Aj
2 via 20
The following baby names add up to 20, which reduces to two (2+0=2).
“20” girl names: Jade, Dana, Jia, Deja, Ara, Nada, Amada, Hiba, Ena, Jai
“20” boy names: Abel, Gage, Adan, Kace, Ean, Jai, Chace, Fahad, Jade, Able
2 via 29
The following baby names add up to 29, which reduces to two (2+9=11; 1+1=2).
The following baby names add up to 155, which reduces to two (1+5+5=11; 1+1=2).
“155” boy names: Krystopher, Chrystopher, Muhammadmustafa
What Does “2” Mean?
First, we’ll look at the significance assigned to “2” by two different numerological sources. Second, and more importantly, ask yourself if “2” or any of the intermediate numbers above have any special significance to you.
Numerological Attributes
“2” (the dyad) according to the Pythagoreans:
“The dyad is the first to have separated itself from the monad, whence also it is called ‘daring. ‘ For when the monad manifests unification, the dyad steals in and manifests separation.”
“Among the virtues, they liken it to courage: for it has already advanced into action. Hence too they used to call it ‘daring’ and ‘impulse.'”
“They also gave it the title of ‘opinion,’ because truth and falsity lie in opinion. And they called it ‘movement,’ ‘generation,’ ‘change,’ ‘division,’ ‘length,’ ‘multiplication,’ ‘addition,’ ‘kinship,’ ‘relativity,’ ‘the ratio in proportionality.’ For the relation of two numbers is of every conceivable form.”
“Apart from recklessness itself, they think that, because it is the very first to have endured separation, it deserves to be called ‘anguish,’ ‘endurance’ and ‘hardship.'”
“From division into two, they call it ‘justice’ (as it were ‘dichotomy’)”
“And they call it ‘Nature,’ since it is movement towards being and, as it were, a sort of coming-to-be and extension from a seed principle”
“Equality lies in this number alone…the product of its multiplication will be equal to the sum of its addition: for 2+2=2×2. Hence they used to call it ‘equal.'”
“It also turns out to be ‘infinity,’ since it is difference, and difference starts from its being set against 1 and extends to infinity.”
“The dyad, they say, is also called ‘Erato’; for having attracted through love the advance of the monad as form, it generates the rest of the results, starting with the triad and tetrad.”
“2” according to Edgar Cayce:
“Two – divided” (reading 261-14).
“Two – the combination, and begins a division of the whole, or the one. While two makes for strength, it also makes for weakness” (reading 5751-1).
Personal/Cultural Significance
Does “2” — or do any of the other numbers above (e.g., 38, 47, 83, 101) — have any special significance to you?
Think about your own preferences and personal experiences: lucky numbers, birth dates, music, sports, and so on. Maybe you like how “101” reminds you of education and learning new things, for example.
Also think about associations you may have picked up from your culture, your religion, or society in general.
If you have any interesting insights about the number 2, or any of the other numbers above, please leave a comment!
Source: Theologumena Arithmeticae, attributed to Iamblichus (c.250-c.330).
This might be my favorite photo on the entire internet.
The shot, which depicts a playful little Texas boy pretending to ride a dead catfish on someone’s front porch, was taken by photographer Neal Douglass in April of 1941.
The Portal to Texas History calls it “Mrs. Bill Wright; Boy Riding Catfish.” So I’m guessing that “Mrs. Bill Wright” was the boy’s mother. But there’s no other identifying information, so I don’t know the boy’s name, nor do I have any way of tracking it down.
So let’s turn this into a name game!
First, let’s suppose our little catfish-rider was not named “Bill” (or “William,” or “Willie,” etc.) after his father. With that rule in place, here are the questions:
What do you think Mrs. Bill Wright named her son?
What would you have named him?
Just for reference, popular names for Texas newborns in the late ’30s included:
Albert
Arthur
Carl/Charles
Clarence
Daniel
David
Don/Donald
Edward/Eddie
Ernest
Frank
Fred
Gary
Gene/Eugene
George
Gerald
Harold
Henry
Jack
James
Jerry
Jesse
Jesus
Jimmie/Jimmy
Joe/Joseph
John/Johnny
Jose
Juan
Kenneth
Larry
Louis
Manuel
Melvin
Paul
Raymond
Richard
Robert/Bobby
Ronald
Roy
Thomas/Tommy
Walter
For extra credit, what do you think the boy named his catfish? And, what would you have named his catfish? ;)
According to provisional data released yesterday by the Arizona Department of Health Services, the most popular baby names in the state in 2016 were Emma and Liam.
Here are Arizona’s projected top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2016:
In the girls’ top 10, Charlotte replaced Victoria.
In the boys’ top 10, Oliver, Benjamin and Mason replaced Ethan, Jacob, and Aiden.
The Arizona Daily Sun also notes that…
A decade ago, before Arizona approved one of the harshest laws in the nation aimed at those here illegally, names like Angel, Jose, Jesus and Juan were among the Top 20. In fact in 2005 Jose was the top name for all boys born in the state.
Now Angel has dropped to 26, Jose to 34, Jesus to 37 and Juan to 78.
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