Baby Name: Kathlyn

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Kathlyn saw a steep rise in usage in the mid-1910s:

• 1916: 86 baby girls named Kathlyn [rank: 731st]
• 1915: 108 baby girls named Kathlyn [rank: 633rd]
• 1914: 101 baby girls named Kathlyn [rank: 559th]
• 1913: 28 baby girls named Kathlyn
• 1912: 12 baby girls named Kathlyn

Why?

Because of fictional character Kathlyn Hare, protagonist of the story The Adventures of Kathlyn. She was a young American woman who traveled to India to rescue her father, a wild animal collector.

William N. Selig, founder of the Chicago-based motion picture company Selig Polyscope, had commissioned novelist Harold MacGrath to write the tale.

It was serialized in print and on the big screen concurrently, from the very end of 1913 until June of 1914, thanks to an innovative collaboration between Selig Polyscope and the Chicago Tribune newspaper.

In the newspapers — the Tribune as well as dozens of affiliated papers across the country — a new chapter of The Adventures of Kathlyn was released every week, on Sunday, for 26 weeks.* The chapters were illustrated with films stills and sketches.

In the movie theaters, 13 installments of The Adventures of Kathlyn were released in two-week increments. Notably, at the end of each installment, Kathlyn was left “in some dangerous predicament designed to lure the audience back to see how she would extricate herself.” Cliffhangers — utilized for the very first time (by American filmmakers) in The Adventures of Kathlyn — went on to become a defining feature of motion picture serials.

The film’s heroine was portrayed by, and named after, Selig player Kathlyn Williams (born Kathleen Mabel Williams in Montana in 1879). Its exotic animals (leopards, lions, and elephants, and more) came from William Selig’s extensive animal collection.

The partnership between the newspaper and the motion picture company proved very successful. “Chicago Tribune Sunday circulation jumped almost 80,000, while the motion picture theaters showing Kathlyn were packed.”

As a result, Kathlyn Williams’ name and likeness were used to promote a variety of products (including a perfume, a face powder, a shirtwaist, a waltz, a cocktail, a cigar, and a “watch charm for single men”) throughout 1914, continuing to draw attention to the name Kathlyn even after the synchronized serializations had ended.

What are your thoughts on the name Kathlyn?

*The 26 chapters of The Adventures of Kathlyn were finally published as a standalone book in June of 1914.

Sources:

• The Adventures of Kathlyn – Wikipedia
• Rainey, Buck. Serials and Series: A World Filmography, 1912-1956. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 1999.
• Rainey, Buck. Those Fabulous Serial Heroines: Their Lives and Films. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1990.
• Wendt, Lloyd. Chicago Tribune: The Rise of a Great American Newspaper. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1979.
• The Adventures of Kathlyn – Chicagology
• “Literary and Trade Notes.” Publishers’ Weekly 27 Jun. 1914: 2020-1.
• “Named for Kathlyn Williams.” Day Book [Chicago, IL] 21 Jan. 1915: 15.
• SSA

Images Clippings from Photoplay Magazine (Apr. 1914), Chicago Sunday Tribune (31 May 1914), and Photoplay Magazine (Sept. 1914)