How popular is the baby name Lancer 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 Lancer.

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Popularity of the baby name Lancer


Posts that mention the name Lancer

What gave the baby name Scotty a boost in 1971?

Bobby Goldsboro's single "Watching Scotty Grow" (1970)
The single “Watching Scotty Grow”

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Scotty saw its highest-ever usage in the early 1970s:

  • 1973: 696 baby boys named Scotty [rank: 268th]
  • 1972: 757 baby boys named Scotty [rank: 260th]
  • 1971: 1,118 baby boys named Scotty [rank: 210th]
  • 1970: 574 baby boys named Scotty [rank: 330th]
  • 1969: 607 baby boys named Scotty [rank: 308th]
Graph of the usage of the baby name Scotty in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Scotty

Why?

Because of the song “Watching Scotty Grow” [vid] by Bobby Goldsboro. It was released in October of 1970 and peaked at #11 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in February of 1971.

Songwriter Mac Davis wrote “Watching Scotty Grow” about his young son, Scotty. He’d taken Scotty to the office with him one day, and that’s when inspiration struck:

He was a typical 5-year-old and was in my hair with questions, “Daddy” this and “Daddy” that.

Finally, I gave him a yellow legal pad and a felt tip pen. I said, “Draw Daddy a picture.” So he started drawing, and I’m trying to write a song. All of a sudden he shows me this picture that he’d drawn. It was a crude little rocket ship, and on the side of it, it had “P-R-L-F-Q.” I said, “Well, what does that spell?” And he said “Mom and Dad.” Yikes!

The song (as Mac Davis sings it) starts with the lyrics:

There he sits with a pen and a yellow pad
He’s a handsome lad
That’s my boy
PRLFQ spells mom and dad
Well that ain’t too bad
‘Cause that’s my boy

Singer Bobby Goldsboro asked if he could change the name in the song from “Scotty” to “Danny” — the name of his own son — but Davis wouldn’t give him permission:

I said, “Nope.”

[…]

I said, “I just can’t do it.” He said, “Well, OK, then.” … I just couldn’t do that to my son. I wanted it to be his name.

The song also managed to nudge the name Scott (which we talked about in the Lancer post earlier this week) into the boys’ top 10 for the first and only time:

  • 1973: 18,982 baby boys named Scott [rank: 18th]
  • 1972: 22,857 baby boys named Scott [rank: 11th]
  • 1971: 30,919 baby boys named Scott [rank: 10th] (peak usage)
  • 1970: 28,588 baby boys named Scott [rank: 12th]
  • 1969: 28,668 baby boys named Scott [rank: 12th]
Graph of the usage of the baby name Scott in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Scott

What are your thoughts on the name Scotty? (How about Scott?)

Sources:

What brought the baby name Lancer back in 1968?

The characters Johnny Madrid Lancer and Scott Lancer from the TV series "Lancer" (1968-1970).
Johnny Madrid and Scott from “Lancer“

The name Lancer returned to the U.S. baby name data (after a long absence) in 1968, and two years later it reached peak usage:

  • 1971: 17 baby boys named Lancer
  • 1970: 31 baby boys named Lancer [peak]
  • 1969: 19 baby boys named Lancer
  • 1968: 10 baby boys named Lancer
  • 1967: unlisted
  • 1966: unlisted

What brought it back?

A TV western called Lancer (1968-1970), logically enough.

It was set in the 1870s, and the main characters were adult half-brothers named Johnny Madrid (played by James Stacy) and Scott (played by Wayne Maunder). They shared a father, but were otherwise unalike: Johnny was a gunfighter and drifter from Mexico; Scott was an educated Civil War veteran from New England.

They met for the first time in the first episode, when their father, Murdoch Lancer, summoned them to his 100,000-acre ranch in California and offered them each one-third of the ranch in exchange for help protecting the land and livestock from bandits.

Title of the TV series "Lancer" (1968-1970)
“Lancer“

The series only lasted two seasons, but was popular enough to during that time to affect several other baby names as well.

The Lancer-like name Lance saw a sharp rise in usage while the show was on the air:

  • 1971: 3,180 baby boys named Lance [rank: 98th]
  • 1970: 4,166 baby boys named Lance [rank: 76th] (peak)
  • 1969: 3,030 baby boys named Lance [rank: 103rd]
  • 1968: 1,995 baby boys named Lance [rank: 144th]
  • 1967: 1,804 baby boys named Lance [rank: 152nd]
Graph of the usage of the baby name Lance in the U.S. since 1880.
Usage of the baby name Lance

The name Johnny, which was generally declining in usage during the second half of the 20th century, saw a brief turnaround in 1969 and 1970:

  • 1971: 3,939 baby boys named Johnny [rank: 74th]
  • 1970: 4,440 baby boys named Johnny [rank: 65th]
  • 1969: 4,217 baby boys named Johnny [rank: 67th]
  • 1968: 4,053 baby boys named Johnny [rank: 69th]
  • 1967: 4,170 baby boys named Johnny [rank: 70th]
Graph of the usage of the baby name Johnny in the U.S. since 1880.
Usage of the baby name Johnny

And the name Scott, which was about to experience a similar slide, saw increased usage for several years before its decline began:

  • 1971: 30,919 baby boys named Scott [rank: 10th]
  • 1970: 28,588 baby boys named Scott [rank: 12th]
  • 1969: 28,668 baby boys named Scott [rank: 12th]
  • 1968: 26,029 baby boys named Scott [rank: 14th]
  • 1967: 25,537 baby boys named Scott [rank: 16th]
Graph of the usage of the baby name Scott in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Scott

But there’s more to the story on Scott. See how the usage popped up even higher in 1971? That extra uptick has a separate explanation, which we’ll get to in a few days…

Sources: Lancer – TV Western – Six-gun Justice, SSA