How popular is the baby name Louis 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 Louis.

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Popularity of the baby name Louis


Posts that mention the name Louis

Where did the baby name Shalako come from in 1970?

Movie poster for "Shalako" (1968)
“Shalako” poster

The unusual name Shalako was a one-hit wonder in the U.S. baby name data in 1970:

  • 1972: unlisted
  • 1971: unlisted
  • 1970: 6 baby boys named Shalako [debut]
  • 1969: unlisted
  • 1968: unlisted

Where did it come from?

The movie Shalako, released toward the end of 1968. It was a Western starring Sean Connery as main character Moses Zebulon “Shalako” Carlin, a tracker and former cavalry officer. (Shalako’s love interest was played by Brigitte Bardot.)

In the story, set in New Mexico in 1880, Shalako had to rescue a group of European aristocrats that had decided to go hunting on reservation land and, as a result, gotten in trouble with the local Apaches.

The film was based on a 1962 novel by Louis L’Amour. Here’s how Shalako explained his unusual name in the book:

Name of the Zuni rain god. Seemed like every time I showed up in their country it rained, so they called me that for a joke.

For a time during the 1960s, L’Amour and others tried to build a working Old West town called Shalako in southwestern Colorado, but the town never materialized.

What are your thoughts on Shalako as a baby name?

Sources: Shalako by Louis L’Amour – Internet Archive, Shalako (1968) – TCM.com, SSA

Image: Movie poster for Shalako

Where did the baby name Decca come from in 1956?

Decca records

In the mid-1950s, the name Decca was a one-hit wonder in the U.S. baby name data:

  • 1958: unlisted
  • 1957: unlisted
  • 1956: 5 baby girls named Decca [debut]
  • 1955: unlisted
  • 1954: unlisted

The reason?

My wild guess is Decca Records.

I don’t know why the name of famous record company would have emerged in the baby name data that particular year, but around that time they were putting out popular artists like Sammy Davis Jr., Ella Fitzgerald, Bobby Darin, Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Tex Williams, Buddy Holly, and Bill Haley (of “Rock Around the Clock” fame).

The American branch of the British record company Decca was launched in 1934. The British company was created in 1929, but not from scratch — it began as a piece of a much older music company that had been sold off.

The older company was called Barnett Samuel and Sons (est. 1832). It was a family business that originally made musical instruments like banjos and pianos. Only in 1914 did the company begin making portable gramophones under the trade name “Decca,” which one of the Samuels had coined by taking the easy-to-pronounce word Mecca and changing it to Decca, using the “D” from Dulcephone (another of the company’s disk-playing products).

The Decca label is still around today — it’s part of Universal Music Group — but it’s nowhere near as prevalent as it used to be.

What do you think of “Decca” as a baby name?

Sources: Decca Records – Wikipedia, Barnett Samuel and Sons – Grace’s Guide, Explanation of the Word “Decca” – G&S Discography, SSA

Image: Clipping from Billboard magazine (28 Aug. 1954)

Where did the baby name Hondo come from in 1967?

The character Hondo Lane from the TV series "Hondo" (1967)
Hondo Lane from “Hondo”

The odd name Hondo first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1967:

  • 1969: unlisted
  • 1968: 7 baby boys named Hondo
  • 1967: 5 baby boys named Hondo [debut]
  • 1966: unlisted
  • 1965: unlisted

Where did it come from?

A short-lived TV western called Hondo, which featured a main character named Hondo Lane (played by Ralph Taeger) who was a former Confederate cavalry officer. The series was only on the air during the last third of 1967 (September to December).

Hondo was based on a 1953 John Wayne movie of the same name, which itself was based on the 1952 short story “The Gift of Cochise” by Louis L’Amour. While Wayne shot the film, L’Amour turned the movie’s screenplay into a novel, and both the movie and the book were released at the same time, with the same title.

The name Hondo wasn’t original to the story; Wayne borrowed it from a minor character in another film he’d starred in called The Angel and the Badman (1947). (In that film, Wayne’s character had the quirky name Quirt Evans.)

What are your thoughts on the name Hondo?

Sources:

  • Hondo (TV series) – Wikipedia
  • Howard, Donald E. The Role of Reading in Nine Famous Lives. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2005.
  • Joyner, C. Courntey. The Westerners: Interviews with Actors, Directors, Writers and Producers. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009.
  • SSA

Image: Screenshot of Hondo