Ready for another mystery? This month we’ve got the name Lafondra, which was the top debut name of 1962:
- 1964: unlisted
- 1963: 10 baby girls named Lafondra
- 1962: 30 baby girls named Lafondra (7 born in California specifically)
- 1961: unlisted
- 1960: unlisted
Though it’s written “Lafondra” in the SSA data, elsewhere on the internet it’s usually written “LaFondra” (with a capital F).
The first thing I should note is that actress Jane Fonda became popular in the early 1960s. As a result, usage of the baby name Fonda was boosted into the top 1,000 from 1960 to 1966:
- 1967: 97 baby girls named Fonda
- 1966: 118 baby girls named Fonda [rank: 930th]
- 1965: 128 baby girls named Fonda [rank: 884th]
- 1964: 145 baby girls named Fonda [rank: 864th]
- 1963: 181 baby girls named Fonda [rank: 767th] – peak usage
- 1962: 161 baby girls named Fonda [rank: 826th]
- 1961: 143 baby girls named Fonda [rank: 904th]
- 1960: 152 baby girls named Fonda [rank: 841st]
- 1959: 108 baby girls named Fonda
The trendiness of “Fonda” in turn gave a boost to Lafonda (typically written “LaFonda”):
- 1964: 21 baby girls named Lafonda
- 1963: 24 baby girls named Lafonda
- 1962: 35 baby girls named Lafonda – peak usage
- 1961: 24 baby girls named Lafonda
- 1960: 9 baby girls named Lafonda
But LaFonda saw peak usage the year before Fonda, in 1962 — the same year that LaFondra-with-an-R debuted. So perhaps the event that gave LaFondra-with-an-R a boost had an effect upon LaFonda as well.
The “La” prefix in both of these names suggests African-American usage, so I scanned copies of Jet and Ebony from the time period, but couldn’t come up with any clues.
Do you have any theories about where LaFondra came from? (Even better: If you’re a LaFondra, please leave a comment and tell us how you got your name!)