How popular is the baby name Lusitania 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 Lusitania.

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Popularity of the baby name Lusitania


Posts that mention the name Lusitania

Where did the baby name Eitel come from in 1915?

SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich
SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich

In the 1910s, the uncommon name Eitel surfaced in the U.S. baby name data for three years in a row:

  • 1918: unlisted
  • 1917: 6 baby boys named Eitel
  • 1916: 7 baby boys named Eitel
  • 1915: 6 baby boys named Eitel [debut]
  • 1914: unlisted

The earliest decades of the Social Security Administration’s data tend to under-count actual usage but, in this case, the numbers from the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) look remarkably similar:

  • 1918: 3 people named Eitel
  • 1917: 6 people named Eitel
  • 1916: 5 people named Eitel
  • 1915: 7 people named Eitel
  • 1914: 3 people named Eitel

Most of the Eitels born in the U.S during this time period had German surnames (e.g., Boettcher, Steuer, Gelhaus).

So, what was the influence?

Well, the German emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, had a son named Eitel. But this particular son wasn’t the crown prince, and he didn’t play a prominent role in World War I.

A German ship named after this son, however, was mentioned in the U.S. newspapers regularly during the war years.

The SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich sank 11 vessels in the Pacific and South Atlantic Oceans over the course of 3 months (from December of 1914 to February of 1915). Significantly, one of those vessels was the William P. Frye — the first U.S. ship to be sunk during World War I.

"Raiding Cruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich" newspaper illustration (Mar. 1915)
(early 1915)

In early March, the Prinz Eitel Friedrich — now low on supplies, and in need of repairs — headed for the then-neutral United States. It sailed into Newport News harbor in Virginia on March 10.

After several weeks, the ship was ordered to leave. But the ship’s captain, well aware that Allied vessels were lying in wait outside U.S. waters, chose to ignore the order.

So, on April 9, the ship was interned and moved (along with another interned German sea raider, the SS Kronprinz Wilhelm) to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia.

At first, the crew and officers of the two ships moved about freely in Portsmouth. The men, numbering roughly 1,000, were welcomed by the community:

In the afternoon they go to Virginia Beach, Ocean View and other nearby resorts. They smoke good cigars, eat the best, and appear to have plenty of money. […] The men have been taken into the homes of a number of citizens and entertained, and special services have been held for them in Protestant churches. They are made to feel at home.

But in October, after several incidents, their movements were restricted to their ships and a small section of land, for exercise.

On that land, the sailors did more than stretch their legs — they began building a miniature German village using scrap materials in the shipyard. Their village, dubbed “Eitel Wilhelm” (from the names of both ships), eventually featured about 50 buildings, most of which were small homes with brightly painted exteriors and picket fences.

Many of them have gardens, with cabbages, onions, corn, lettuce, and beets flourishing. Others have miniature chicken farms attached, and geese, ducks, and rabbits are also raised.

A building in the German village "Eitel Wilhelm" in Portsmouth, Virginia (1916)
The “telegraph office” in Eitel Wilhelm (1916)

Eitel Wilhelm also featured replicas of other buildings, including a church, a windmill, a telegraph office, a police station, a mayor’s office, a gymnasium, and a working bakery that produced “authentic cakes and pastries.”

The German village became a tourist attraction, welcoming “thousands of visitors from the local community.” The sailors donated proceeds from the entry fee (10¢) and from the sales of various items (e.g., baked goods, postcards, hand-crafted toys) to the German Red Cross.

In August of the following year, President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the Naval Act of 1916, which called for enlarging the U.S. Navy. Officials at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard would need “to find space for […] new shops and dry docks” — meaning that the internees (and their village) would have to be relocated.

So the sailors disassembled Eitel Wilhelm, boarded their two ships, and departed for the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.

The German village "Eitel Wilhelm" reconstructed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (late 1916)
Eitel Wilhelm, reconstructed in Philadelphia (late 1916)

Upon arriving on October 1, they re-erected their village, and it became a tourist attraction once again — but only for a matter of months.

In March of 1917, a couple of weeks before the U.S. entered World War I, the German sailors were transported by train to internment camps in the state of Georgia.

When the U.S. officially declared war on Imperial Germany in early April, the internees became prisoners of war, and the SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich and SS Kronprinz Wilhelm were seized by U.S. Customs officials (then transferred to the U.S. Navy).

I don’t know what became of the village of Eitel Wilhelm.

But I do know that the personal name Eitel (which has several possible etymologies) is rarely used in Germany these days, as it happens to coincide with the German adjective eitel, meaning “vain.”

What are your thoughts on the name Eitel?

P.S. Did you know that hundreds of babies were named after the ill-fated RMS Lusitania in 1915?

Sources:

Images:

Babies named for the Lusitania

RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania

On May 7, 1915, the British passenger ship RMS Lusitania was nearing the end of a risky trans-Atlantic voyage from New York to Liverpool when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat about 11 miles off the southern coast of Ireland.

Europe had been embroiled in WWI for nearly a year by that point. Earlier in 1915, in response to being blockaded by Britain, Germany had declared the seas around Ireland and Great Britain a war zone. This meant unrestricted submarine warfare: U-boats would attack any Allied or neutral ship — military or not — without warning.

The Lusitania sank in just 18 minutes. Of the 1,962 passengers and crew on board, nearly 1,200 perished. The casualties consisted primarily of British and Canadian citizens, but also included 128 Americans.

Judging by the records I’ve seen, hundreds of babies worldwide were named Lusitania that year. Most were born in the United Kingdom. Others were born in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and elsewhere.

Here’s a sampling of the many babies named Lusitania in the UK:

  • Lusitania May Rayson, born in England on May 4, 1915
  • Bronwen Lusitania Davies, born in Wales on May 7, 1915
  • Lusitania Southwell, born in England on May 15, 1915
  • Lusitania Mayo, born in England on May 17, 1915
  • Lusitania Cartwright, born in England in mid-1915
  • Lusitania M. Fox, born in England in mid-1915
  • Lusitania Haywood, born in England in mid-1915
  • Lusitania Ypres Heavingham, born in England on June 20, 1915
  • Lusitania Nash, born in Wales in mid-1915
  • Lusitania Walker, born in England in mid-1915
  • Lusitania Cranstone, born in England in mid-1915
  • Lusitania G. Elias, born in Wales in mid-1915
  • Lusitania Wiggins, born in England in mid-1915
  • Lusitania Hayden, born in Eng in late 1915
  • Lusitania R. Horncastle, born in England in late 1915
  • Lusitania Colbridge, born in England on December 3, 1915

And here are a few of the U.S-born Lusitanias:

  • Lusitania Looney, born in Virginia in July of 1915
  • Lusitania Vinson (married name Lusitania Kelley), born in Oklahoma in March of 1916
  • Lusitania Henselman, born in Wisconsin circa 1916
  • Lusitania Krupinski, born in Missouri circa 1916
  • Lusitania Totino, born in New Jersey in May of 1917

Though the U.S. public was outraged by the destruction of the Lusitania, president Woodrow Wilson was reluctant to get the country involved in World War I.

Several months later, in September of 1915, Germany agreed to stop attacking passenger vessels.

In January of 1917, however, Germany decided to resume unrestricted U-boat warfare. This reversal — along with the interception and decoding of the Zimmermann Telegram — convinced Wilson to ask Congress to declare war against Germany. Which it did, on April 6, 1917.

The RMS Lusitania was named after the ancient Roman province of Lusitania, located on the Iberian peninsula. The province, in turn, was named after the Lusitanians — the people who’d lived in the region before it was conquered by the Roman Republic.

Sources: FamilySearch.org, RMS Lusitania – Wikipedia, Unrestricted U-boat Warfare | National WWI Museum and Memorial, Timeline (1914 – 1921) – LOC

P.S. In 1982, divers salvaged one reel of the silent film The Carpet from Bagdad, which featured a character named Fortune, from the wreckage of the Lusitania.