How popular is the baby name Jimalee 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 Jimalee.

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Popularity of the baby name Jimalee


Posts that mention the name Jimalee

Where did the baby name Jimalee come from in 1956?

Photo of Adlai Stevenson and Jimalee Burton in 1956.
Adlai Stevenson with Jimalee Burton (r)

The name Jimalee has appeared just once in the U.S. baby name data, in 1956:

  • 1958: unlisted
  • 1957: unlisted
  • 1956: 5 baby girls named Jimalee [debut]
  • 1955: unlisted
  • 1954: unlisted

What put it there?

The answer seems to be an image that ran in newspapers nationwide in September of 1956. The image featured politician Adlai Stevenson — who’d just landed in Tulsa, Oklahoma — receiving “an Indian peace pipe” from a woman named Jimalee Burton.

Jimalee Burton, née Chitwood, was born in Oklahoma in 1891. She was an artist, poet, and musician who claimed to be of Cherokee descent. (I say “claimed” because, in various early records, she and her family members — parents James and Mary, and sister Maude — are all repeatedly classified as “white,” never as “Indian.”)

What are your thoughts on the name Jimalee? Would you use it?

Sources:

  • U.S. Census (1900 & 1910)
  • “Stevenson Presented Peace Pipe.” Daily News-Record [Harrisonburg, VA] 25 Sept. 1956: 1.
  • SSA

Interesting one-hit wonder names in the U.S. baby name data

single flower

They came, they went, and they never came back!

These baby names are one-hit wonders in the U.S. baby name data. That is, they’ve only popped up once, ever, in the entire dataset of U.S. baby names (which accounts for all names given to at least 5 U.S. babies per year since 1880).

There are thousands of one-hit wonders in the dataset, but the names below have interesting stories behind their single appearance, so these are the one-hits I’m writing specific posts about. Just click on a name to read more.

2020s

  • 2020: Jexi

2010s

2000s

1990s

1980s

1970s

1960s

1950s

1940s

1930s

1920s

1910s

1900s

  • (none yet)

1890s

As I discover (and write about) more one-hit wonders in the data, I’ll add the names/links to this page. In the meanwhile, do you have any favorite one-hit wonder baby names?

Image: Adapted from Solitary Poppy by Andy Beecroft under CC BY-SA 2.0.

[Latest update: Apr. 2024]