How popular is the baby name Lawrence 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 Lawrence.

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Popularity of the baby name Lawrence


Posts that mention the name Lawrence

Minnesota family with 22 children

kinderfest

In the mid-20th century, Alvin Joseph Miller and Lucille Rose Miller (née Kahnke) of Waseca, Minnesota, had 22 children — 15 girls and 7 boys.

Here are the names of all 22 siblings:

  1. Ramona Mary (born in 1940), who became a Franciscan nun
  2. Alvin Joseph, Jr. (b. 1942)
  3. Rose Ann (b. 1943)
  4. Kathleen Edith (b. 1945)
  5. Robert Vincent (b. 1946)
  6. Patricia Jean (b. 1947)
  7. Mary Lucille (b. 1948), nicknamed “Marylu”
  8. Diane Margaret (b. 1949)
  9. John Charles (b. 1950)
  10. Janet Irene (b. 1951)
  11. Linda Louise (b. 1953)
  12. Virginia Therese (b. 1954)
  13. Helen Rita (b. 1955), who wrote a book about growing up in a large family
  14. Arthur Lawrence (b. 1956)
  15. Dolores Maria (b. 1957)
  16. Martin Peter (b. 1959)
  17. Pauline Carmel (b. 1960)
  18. Alice Callista (b. 1961)
  19. Angela Mary (b. 1962)
  20. Marcia Marie (b. 1963)
  21. Gregory Eugene (b. 1964)
  22. Damien Francis (b. 1966)

Eight of the children had been born by April of 1950, when the Miller family was interviewed for the U.S. Census:

The Miller family on the 1950 U.S. Census
The Miller family (1950 U.S. Census)

Alvin and Lucille raised their children on a 300-acre farm that included a seven-bedroom farmhouse. Here’s how Diane (#8) described her childhood:

I remember a lot of rides in the wheelbarrow from the granary to the barn. I remember a lot of grinding feed, a lot of egg washing and packing, a lot of sitting by the wood stove in the basement, singing songs as we candled eggs.

Which of the names above you like most?

P.S. Thank you to Destiny for letting me know about the Miller family a few months ago! (Destiny also told me about the Jones family of West Virginia.)

Sources:

Image: Ein Kinderfest (1868) by Ludwig Knaus

What gave the baby name Vonetta a boost in 1973?

Actress Vonetta McGee in the movie "Shaft in Africa" (1973)
Vonetta McGee in “Shaft in Africa“

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Vonetta saw peak usage in 1973:

  • 1975: 111 baby girls named Vonetta
  • 1974: 126 baby girls named Vonetta [rank: 977th]
  • 1973: 161 baby girls named Vonetta [rank: 819th] (peak)
  • 1972: 32 baby girls named Vonetta
  • 1971: 7 baby girls named Vonetta

The spelling variant Vonnetta debuted in 1973 as well.

What was drawing attention to the name Vonetta around that time?

California-born actress Vonetta McGee, best known for her work in blaxploitation films such as Blacula (1972), Hammer (1972), and Shaft in Africa (1973).

Even more notable, perhaps, is the fact that Vonetta (and her name!) were featured on the covers of several African-American magazines in 1973: Jet in June, Jet again in September, and Ebony in November.

Vonetta McGee on the cover of "Jet" magazine (Sept. 1973)
Vonetta McGee on the cover of “Jet“

Interestingly, McGee’s full name at birth was Lawrence Vonetta McGee. She was named after her father (just like Barack Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham).

What are your thoughts on the name Vonetta?

Sources:

Images: Screenshot of Shaft in Africa; clipping from the cover of Jet magazine (20 Sept. 1973).

Where did the baby name Cypress come from in 1993?

The music video for the song "Insane in the Brain" (1993) by Cypress Hill.
Cypress Hill music video

The name Cypress first appeared in the U.S. baby name data as a boy name (and returned to the data as a girl name) in 1993:

  • 1995: 18 baby girls and 8 baby boys named Cypress
  • 1994: 19 baby girls and 7 baby boys named Cypress
  • 1993: 5 baby girls and 7 baby boys [debut] named Cypress
  • 1992: unlisted
  • 1991: unlisted

Why?

Because of West Coast hip hop group Cypress Hill.

Their single “Insane in the Brain” was released in June of 1993 and quickly became a crossover hit. The song topped Billboard‘s rap chart for three weeks straight in August, peaked at #19 on the Hot 100 in September, and earned a Grammy nomination (for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group) in early 1994.

Here’s the trippy music video for “Insane in the Brain”:

The band at that time was made up of Louis Freese (stage name “B-Real”), Senen Reyes (“Sen Dog”), and Lawrence Muggerud (“DJ Muggs”).

How did the band come to be named Cypress Hill? Here’s how B-Real explained it:

Before we really got on, we were called DVX or Devastating Vocal Excellence. When we got on, we had to change our name to something and Muggs was constantly bringing East Coast music over to Sen Dog and myself. One of those albums was Wild Style, the soundtrack for the movie. In one of the joints, Raymond Zoro references Cypress Hill. Sen Dog lived on Cypress Ave [in South Gate, California], so we thought ‘Cypress Hill.’

Cypress, the common name of coniferous trees in the family Cupressaceae, can be traced back to the ancient Greek word kyparissos.

What are your thoughts on Cypress as a baby name?

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P.S. “Devastating Vocal Excellence” is my new favorite band name.

Baby name story: Larry Allen

Newspaper reporter Larry Allen (1908-1975) pictured in an Associated Press advertisement from mid-1942.
Larry Allen circa 1942

In February of 1942, a baby boy was born to Lura and Alfred Bowles of Carswell, West Virginia.

What did they name him?

Larry Allen — after Associated Press war correspondent Laurence Edmund “Larry” Allen, the “sea-going Associated Press war correspondent whose experiences with the British fleet in the Mediterranean [had] thrilled millions of newspaper readers” a month earlier.

Those “blow-by-blow action stories of Mediterranean warfare” were so thrilling in fact that, several months later, 33-year-old Larry Allen won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting.

Interestingly, journalist Larry Allen was born (in 1908) with the name Lawrence Finzel. He was named after his father Lawrence Finzel, a “world champion coal miner.” As a teenager, “[d]etermined to carve out his own unique identity,” he altered the spelling of his first name. Sometime in the 1930s, after working in newspapers for several years, he changed his name again — adopting the surname Allen, and publishing stories under the nom de plume “Larry Allen.” (I’m not sure if the middle name Edmund was given at birth or added later on.)

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