How popular is the baby name Madonna 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 Madonna.
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In 1957, Mrs. William Beston of Morristown, New Jersey, had gave birth to her twelfth daughter.
What are the odds of having 12 daughters and no sons? If the probability of having a girl is 1/2, then the probably of having a dozen girls in a row is 1/4096, or about .0244% — less than three-hundredths of a percent. Pretty slim, in other words.
What were the names of the Beston girls?
(died in infancy)
Patricia, 12
Eileen, 11
Regina, 9
Carol, 8
Joann, 7
Gertrude, 6
Delores, 5
Betty Lou, 4
Catherine, 3
Levinia, 13 months
Madonna Grace, newborn
Of the 11 names above, which is your favorite?
If you had a dozen daughters, what would their names be?
Sources:
“It’s a Big Day for Bestons–Twelfth Daughter Joins Family.” Spokane Daily Chronicle 16 Sep. 1957: 20.
“Woman Gives Birth To 12th Daughter; Has No Sons.” Port Angeles Evening News 12 Sept. 1957: 4.
Many of us probably don’t know anything about the 1950 movie Captain Carey, U.S.A.
But I bet most of us could hum a few bars of the film’s theme song, “Mona Lisa” [vid].
The song, performed by Nat “King” Cole, was the #1 song in the nation for several weeks straight in the summer of 1950. It went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song in early 1951.
Monalisa became the top baby name debut that year, and it’s been on the list ever since.
Even more impressive? The jump in the number of babies named Mona that year:
1952: 950 baby girls named Mona
1951: 1,106 baby girls named Mona
1950: 1,087 baby girls named Mona
1949: 513 baby girls named Mona
1948: 455 baby girls named Mona
You can bet many of those babies were given the middle name Lisa. :)
The song refers to Leonardo da Vinci’s painting Mona Lisa, a 16th-century portrait of Lisa Gherardini. Mona is a contraction of Madonna, or ma donna, Italian for “my lady,” and Lisa is a short form of Elisabetta, the Italian form of Elizabeth.
I do. All the time. (Though I’m not nearly as bad as my husband.)
I ask because I believe today’s baby name(s) can be traced back to a specific set of lyrics misheard by dozens of parents a little more than 20 years ago.
At first I couldn’t figure them out. They didn’t look like alternative spellings of a more popular name. They all emerged at about the same time, pointing to a single pop culture source, but the origin wasn’t obvious (as it had been with names like Daughtry and Cheetara.)
Finally, months after discovering them, I came up with a decent theory.
The Song
Let’s set the scene. Artists on the radio back in 1987 included U2, George Michael, Whitney Houston, Tiffany, Billy Idol, Madonna, The Bangles, Bon Jovi, Kim Wilde, Los Lobos with “La Bamba,” Belinda Carlisle, Exposé, Atlantic Starr…and Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam.
In fact, 1987 was a great year for Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam. Their second album, Spanish Fly, went platinum in August. Two songs from the album ended up hitting #1 on Billboard‘s “Hot 100” chart — “Head to Toe” in June, and “Lost In Emotion” in October.
Below is the video for “Lost in Emotion.” Pay special attention to the following lines (starting at 1:27):
Que sera, que sera Baby, whatever will be Que sera, que sera Between you and me
(How awesome is all that ’80s fashion/styling, btw?)
The Connection
That “que sera, que sera” in the chorus is a corruption of the phrase “que sera, sera,” which was created for the earlier song “Que Sera, Sera” (1956).
The phrase “que sera, sera” — commonly thought to mean “whatever will be, will be” — is an hispanicized form of “che sera, sera,” which itself is an ungrammatical corruption of the Italian phrase quel che sarà, sarà, meaning “that which will be, will be.”
Anyway…to someone casually listening to “Lost in Emotion” on the radio, the words “que sera” blend together and sound just like Kasara, Casara, and the other names above.
The Proof
Well, not “proof” exactly. But an enticing bit of evidence.
I did a search for anyone (a blogger, say) who’d written about mistaking “que sera” for a girl name. Just to see if anyone could back me up.
Check out this comment I found at song site Am I Right:
Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam’s, “Lost In Emotion”
The Misheard Lyrics: Kassarah, Kassarah
The Real Lyrics: Lost in emotion Que sera, que sera.
The Story: My sister named my niece Kassarah after this song. Ooops, oh well a beautifully unique name for a beautiful, unique girl! – Submitted by: Sandee
Jackpot. :)
(Incidentally, the spelling Kassarah has never appeared in the U.S. baby name data.)
The Conclusion
So that’s what I suspect — in the late ’80s, dozens of expectant parents heard Lisa Lisa’s “Lost in Emotion,” interpreted “que sera” as a female name, and used the mondegreen as a baby name, spelling it various ways (e.g. Kasara, Casara, Kasarah).
But I’d be happy to hear other theories if anyone out there has a better explanation.
The rare name Milira first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1990:
1992: unlisted
1991: 16 baby girls named Milira [peak]
1990: 7 baby girls named Milira [debut]
1989: unlisted
1988: unlisted
It more than doubled in usage a year later, then dropped back below the 5-baby threshold.
Where did it come from?
New York-based R&B singer Milira Jones, known mononymously as Milira (pronounced mil-IE-ruh).
Milira’s self-titled debut album, released in June of 1990, featured her two most successful singles: “Mercy Mercy Me” (a “gently hip-hoppy version” of the Marvin Gaye classic) and “Go Outside in the Rain.” Neither one reached Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart, but both landed inside the top 40 on the Hot R&B Singles chart (peaking at #21 and #36, respectively).
Incidentally, one music reviewer began her critique of the album by calling attention to Milira’s name:
Milira — not to be confused with Malaria, Madonna, Martika or CBS recording starlet Mariah — hasn’t much of anything new to offer R&B fans, but what she does, she does professionally.
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