How popular is the baby name Joan 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 Joan.

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Popularity of the baby name Joan


Posts that mention the name Joan

Will Alexa and Siri become “servant” names?

Amazon Echo Dot

Last month, Marion Times columnist Dan Brawner wrote an essay about the Alexa in which he asked: “Are we training a new generation to give orders to servants?”

It’s a good question. Lots of us make demands of AI assistants as if they’re servants. No need to be polite to technology, right?

But I’m curious how this might affect the names of the assistants. Looking at history, we can point to many female names that fell out of favor as soon as they became linked to lower class activities (e.g., servitude, prostitution). Examples include Abigail, Joan, Nan/Nanny, Jill, and Parnel.

Will society come to see AI assistant names like Alexa and Siri as “servant” names over time? If so, will this stigma influence baby names — maybe even long after the original devices/technology are gone?

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Echo Dot (3rd Gen) 03 by Samuel Wiki under CC0 1.0.

Where did the baby name Manina come from in 1951?

The character Marianne "Manina" Stuart from the movie "September Affair" (1950).
Manina Stuart from “September Affair”

The name Manina first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1951:

  • 1953: 6 baby girls named Manina
  • 1952: 7 baby girls named Manina
  • 1951: 6 baby girls named Manina [debut]
  • 1950: unlisted
  • 1949: unlisted

Where did it come from?

The movie September Affair, which was released in the U.S. in late 1950. One of the main characters was a prominent concert pianist named Marianne “Manina” Stuart (played by Joan Fontaine).

In the film, Manina (pronounced mah-NEE-nah) meets a married American businessman while traveling. When they’re both mistakenly presumed dead (in a plane accident that would have killed them, had they not missed the flight) they take the opportunity to to start new lives together in Italy. But the affair only lasts until their past lives catch up with them.

Manina’s nickname happens to be the Italian word for “small or delicate hand” — fitting for a professional pianist, I suppose, though it might sound silly to an Italian.

The tagline of the film — “it happened in Capri!” — foreshadows the baby name Capri, which popped up on the charts just a few years later.

Which name do you prefer, Manina or Marianne?

Sources: September Affair (1951) – TCM, Manina – Wiktionary

The baby names Shevawn and Siobhan

Actress Siobhan McKenna (Life magazine, Sept. 1956)
Siobhán McKenna

Tara, Maeve, and many of the other Irish names used in the U.S. today weren’t introduced and popularized by Irish immigrants. Instead, they gained traction (among the descendants of Irish immigrants) after being introduced to the U.S. public via movies, television, and other types of pop culture.

Siobhan is no different. But it’s also a special case, because Americans heard about the name before they saw it written down. The result? The traditional Irish spelling made a splash on the U.S. baby name charts…but only after an anglicized spelling variant had made a similar splash. In fact, the misspelled version and the correctly spelled version were consecutive top girl name debuts in the mid-1950s.

So who’s the person behind the launch of Siobhan? Irish actress Siobhán McKenna (1923-1986).

In 1955, McKenna was nominated for a Tony for her role as Miss Madrigal in the play The Chalk Garden by Enid Bagnold (who had written National Velvet two decades earlier). The same year, the name Shevawn debuted in the U.S. data:

  • 1958: 9 baby girls named Shevawn
  • 1957: 8 baby girls named Shevawn
  • 1956: 24 baby girls named Shevawn
  • 1955: 36 baby girls named Shevawn [debut]
  • 1954: unlisted
  • 1953: unlisted

The spellings Shevon, Shevonne, Chavonne, and Chevonne also debuted in ’55.

The next year, Siobhán McKenna impressed audiences with her portrayal of Joan of Arc in the George Bernard Shaw play Saint Joan. Her popularity in this role earned her the cover of LIFE magazine in September. Next to her image was her name, Siobhan, spelled correctly (but missing the fada). Right on cue, the name Siobhan debuted in the data:

  • 1958: 54 baby girls named Siobhan
  • 1957: 67 baby girls named Siobhan
  • 1956: 58 baby girls named Siobhan [debut]
  • 1955: unlisted
  • 1954: unlisted
  • 1953: unlisted

Once U.S. parents learned how to spell “Siobhan,” the alternative spellings became less common, though they remained in use.

Siobhan was boosted into the top 1,000 in 1979 and remained popular during the 1980s thanks to the soap opera Ryan’s Hope, which introduced a character named Siobhan in 1978.

It’s rather fitting that Siobhán McKenna was best known for playing Saint Joan, as both “Siobhán” and “Joan” were derived from the name Jeanne, which is French feminine form of John (meaning “Yahweh is gracious”).

How do you feel about the name Siobhan? If you were going to use it, how would you spell it?

Update, 3/2018: Here’s some new info on Shevawn!

Sources: Siobhán McKenna – Wikipedia, SSA

Image: Clipping from the cover of Life magazine (10 Sept. 1956)

Which “Toni Twin” names do you like best?

"Toni Twins" Charlotte and Antoinette Winkelmann

While looking at multiples from 1944 last month, I found sources claiming that both Mary & Marjorie Vaughan and Lois & Lucille Barnes were the “original” twins in the ads for Toni Home Permanents (tagline: “Which twin has the Toni?”).

Many sets of twins were involved in the Toni ad campaigns of the ’40s, though, so I’m not sure if any single set of twins can be called the “original” twins. For example, a November 1949 issue of LIFE included a full-page Toni ad with six sets of twins:

  • Eleanor and Jeanne Fulstone of Nevada
  • Betty and Barbara Land of Virginia
  • Barbara and Beverly Lounsbury of New Jersey
  • Joan and Jean McMillan of Texas (pictured)
  • Marjorie and Mary Vaughan of Indiana
  • Charlotte and Antoinette Winkelmann of New York

Let’s pretend you’re about to have twin girls, and you have to give them one of the name-pairs above. Which pair do you choose? Why?

Image: Clipping from Life magazine (14 Nov. 1949)