How popular is the baby name Mae 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 Mae.

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Popularity of the baby name Mae


Posts that mention the name Mae

Glitch alert: Essfa in Vermont?

glitch

This might not be a glitch. It might just be my imagination running away with me. But I’ll put it out there anyway.

We all know there are flaws with the SSA data. I’ve blogged about the baby name glitch of 1989 and the Korea-Kansas mis-codes, for instance. And data scientist David Taylor made a slide deck illustrating several issues with the SSA data a few years ago.

So my question is this: Could Essfa, a one-hit wonder from 1921, be another flaw?

According to the SSA data, the name Essfa was given to 6 babies in 1921, and all 6 of these babies were born in Vermont.

But when we look for these Essfas in the Social Security Death Index (SSDI), we get…nothing. Not a single Essfa from anywhere, born in any year.

This doesn’t prove anything, but it is very curious.

Then there’s the fact that all these Essfas were born in Vermont, a relatively small state not known for adventurous baby-naming. The SSA’s Vermont-specific data from 1921 puts oddball Essfa on par with classics like Emma and Julia:

All baby names given to 6 babies in Vermont in 1921, according to SSA
VT,F,1921,Emma,6
VT,F,1921,Essfa,6
VT,F,1921,Germaine,6
VT,F,1921,Glenna,6
VT,F,1921,Gloria,6
VT,F,1921,Harriett,6
VT,F,1921,Julia,6
VT,F,1921,Kathryn,6
VT,F,1921,Mae,6
VT,F,1921,Margery,6
VT,F,1921,Wilma,6

Again, very curious.

After doing more research, I was only able to find a single person named Essfa who was born in Vermont in 1921. The intriguing part? She had multiple identities:

  • She was born Essfa Estella Bickford Vermont on May 7, 1921.
  • She became Essfa E. Davis upon marrying William Earl Davis in Vermont in 1937.
  • She became Essfa E. Millette upon marrying Rupert Frank Millette in New Hampshire in 1941.
  • She became Essfa E. Walker upon marrying Howard C. Walker in New Hampshire in 1953.
  • She became Essfa E. Davis (again) upon marrying Arthur I. Davis in Connecticut in 1964, and passed away in 1976 as a Davis.

And I found a sixth alias — in Billboard magazine, oddly enough. For decades Billboard operated a mail-forwarding service for traveling performers. The name “Essfa E. White” appeared regularly on their Letter List from 1945 until 1948. (She was also listed under the surname Millette once, in 1946.)

So we know for sure that one Essfa was born in Vermont in 1921, and that this Essfa used at least six different names (if you count Davis twice) throughout her lifetime.

At this point, I can’t help but wonder whether this particular Essfa was counted 6 different times in the SSA data somehow.

What do you think?

Source: Billboard – Wikipedia

Image: Adapted from Data loss of image file (public domain)

Baby names from early beauty queens: Garnelle & Edithmae

Beauty queen Garnelle Haley
Garnelle Haley

In 1921, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat newspaper held a beauty contest.

About 7,000 girls from across the U.S. entered the contest by sending in their photographs.

These entrants were split up into 4 “districts” depending on where they were from — the city of St. Louis, the state of Missouri, the state of Illinois, or anywhere else in the United States.

Several dozen finalists were asked to come to St. Louis for in-person judging, and ultimately a first ($1,000), second ($500), and third ($100) place winner was chosen for each district.

I’m not sure who won 1st place in the city of St. Louis, but here are the other three first-place winners:

  • Illinois: Leola Aikman, 18 years old, from Salem, Illinois
  • Missouri: Garnelle Haley, 17 years old, from Moberly, Missouri
  • United States: Edith Mae Patterson, 19 years old, from Pine Bluff, Arkansas

As it turns out, two of these winners had a small influence on U.S. baby names…

Garnelle

Garnelle Haley’s photo was featured on the front page of several Missouri newspapers after her win.

That year, the baby name Garnelle debuted in the U.S. baby name data with 11 baby girls — five born in Missouri specifically.

  • 1923: unlisted
  • 1922: unlisted
  • 1921: 11 baby girls named Garnelle [debut]
  • 1920: unlisted
  • 1919: unlisted

Garnelle never appeared on the list again, but its debut was impressive enough to make Garnelle the top one-hit wonder baby name of 1921.

The name Garnell also debuted on the girls’ list in 1921.

Beauty queen Edith Mae Patterson
Edith Mae Patterson

Edithmae

Edith Mae Patterson wasn’t just a district winner, but also the grand prize winner. Her title was “The Most Beautiful Girl in the United States,” and she received an additional $2,500.

Right on cue, the baby name Edithmae made its debut in the national dataset in 1921:

  • 1924: unlisted
  • 1923: 5 baby girls named Edithmae
  • 1922: unlisted
  • 1921: 5 baby girls named Edithmae [debut]
  • 1920: unlisted

It made the list again in 1923, perhaps because Patterson remained in the public eye for several more years, “cross[ing] the country in the capacity of everything from civic-club speaker to fashion model to aspiring Hollywood actress.” She gave it all up in the mid-1920s, though, after a religious conversion.

Which name do you like more, Garnelle or Edithmae? Why?

P.S. The Miss America competition began the very same year.

Sources:

  • “Egyptian Girl is Handsomest.” Marion Semi-Weekly Leader 30 Sept. 1921: 1.
  • Full Gospel Temple Plant of Renown, Inc. Founder
  • Lindsey, William D. and Mark Silk. Religion and Public Life in the Southern Crossroads: Showdown States. Walnut Creek, CA: Rowman Altamira, 2005.
  • “Miss Garnelle Haley.” Mansfield Mirror 22 Sept. 1921: 1.
  • “A Moberly Girl Wins.” Chariton Courier 23 Sept. 1921: 1.
  • Pennington, Edith Mae. “From the Foot-Lights to the Foot of the Cross.” Latter Rain Evangel Aug. 1931: 16.
  • SSA

Images: Clippings from the Mansfield Mirror (22 Sept. 1921) and the Bridgeport Times (11 Nov. 1921)

5 Curious names: Darcy, Iyla, Manahil, Ruzgar, Tulisa

This is my last post on the 2013 England and Wales baby name list, I promise.

Here are five names from the list that made me curious enough to do some digging…

Darcy

Darcy just keeps rising, doesn’t it? Wonder how high it will go. Two variants of the name are now in the top 100, and a third is just three spots away:

  • Darcey (651 baby girls) – ranks 84th
  • Darcy (588) – ranks 93rd
  • Darcie (540) – ranks 103rd

Lower down on the list there are 22 more variants (I’m including compound names here):

  • Darci (56), D’arcy (11), Darcee (9)
  • Darcie-Mae (22), Darcy-Mae (13), Darcie-Mai (11), Darcy-May (9), Darcie-May (7), Darcey-Mai (5), Darcey-Mae (4), Darcey-May (3), Darci-Mae (3)
  • Darcie-Rae (12), Darcey-Rae (3), Darcy-Rae (3)
  • Darcy-Leigh (9), Darcie-Leigh (8), Darcey-Leigh (4)
  • Darcey-Rose (6), Darcie-Rose (6), Darcy-Rose (3)
  • Darcie-Louise (3)

In total, 1,989 baby girls share these 25 versions of Darcy. If we could rank the entire group, it would fall between #24 Phoebe and #25 Millie on the 2013 list.

As Lou of Mer de Noms noted in a post about female names on the rise, dancer Darcey Bussell became a judge on the TV show Strictly Come Dancing in 2012. This explains why Darcey overtook the more traditional spelling Darcy that year.

And the name is still being used for boys, at least for now. Last year, more than 2 dozen baby boys were named Darcy.

Iyla

The 5th most popular girl name in England and Wales right now is Isla, which is pronounced EYE-la. The –s– is silent, the same way the –s– is silent in the word “isle.”

But more and more parents are opting to simplify the name by respelling it Iyla. Watch how the number of baby girls named Iyla has been rising in the shadow of skyrocketing Isla:

 2007200820092010201120122013
Isla9641,5991,9082,3842,8493,5013,526
Iyla922334672118137

I doubt Iyla will ever overtake the traditional version of the name, but you never know, alternative spellings sometimes catch on. Darcey is now ahead of Darcy, after all, and Zoey has been more popular than Zoe here in the U.S. since 2011.

Manahil

Last year, two variants of this name entered the girls’ top 1,000 for the first time:

  • Manahil (52 baby girls) – ranks 750th
  • Minahil (47) – ranks 813th
  • Menahil (4)

And I found a fourth variant, Minaahil, on the list from 2012.

Manahil is an Arabic name that means “springs, fountains.” It’s the plural form of the word Manhal.

Ruzgar

Ruzgar, given to 20 baby boys last year, comes from the Turkish word rüzgâr, meaning “wind.” You can hear the proper pronunciation of Rüzgâr at Forvo.

Tulisa

Usage of the name Tulisa plummeted last year, but that’s only part of the story. The name also increased in popularity markedly from 2009 to 2012:

  • 2013: 33 baby girls named Tulisa [out of the top 1,000 again]
  • 2012: 126 baby girls named Tulisa [ranked 375th]
  • 2011: 86 baby girls named Tulisa [ranked 494th]
  • 2010: 34 baby girls named Tulisa [ranked 988th]
  • 2009: 6 baby girls named Tulisa [debut]
  • 2008: unlisted

What accounts for the steep rise and the even steeper drop?

English singer and television personality Tulisa (born Tula Paulinea Contostavlos). She became famous as a member of the hip hop group N-Dubz (2000-2011) and was a judge on the TV show The X Factor (2011-2012).

But 2013 was not a good year for Tulisa. First, she left television. Second, she was arrested on drug charges. These two things were enough to knock the baby name Tulisa out of the top 1,000.

Though the stage name is pronounced tu-lee-sa, her name was originally pronounced tu-litz-a and was used to distinguish her from her grandmother (and namesake) Tula. The Greek name Tula/Toula is a short form of any Greek feminine name ending with the diminutive –toula such as Aretoula, Fotoula, Kostoula, Kritoula, Margaritoula, Panagiotoula or Stamatoula.

…More?

Have you had a chance to scan the list? Which of the baby names there made you curious?

Sources:

  • Gandhi, Maneka, and Ozair Husain. The Complete Book of Muslim and Parsi Names. New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 2004.
  • Smith, Sean. Tulisa. London: Simon & Schuster UK, 2012.

Biggest changes in girl name usage (England, 2013)

I’ve got a post on the top names in England and Wales scheduled for Monday, but until then here are a couple of “biggest changes” analyses. We’ll do the girl names today and the boy names tomorrow.

The tables below include two versions of each list. On the left are the top raw-number differences, taking all names into account. On the right are the top ranking differences, taking only the top 1,000 names (roughly) into account.

Biggest Increases in Popularity

Raw Numbers (all names)Rankings (top 1,000)
  1. Sienna, +586 babies
  2. Scarlett, +395
  3. Elsie, +293
  4. Sofia, +274
  5. Thea, +241
  6. Ivy, +234
  7. Poppy, +219
  8. Evelyn, +193
  9. Willow, +182
  10. Alice, +172
  1. Reeva, +4951 spots
  2. Esmay, +844
  3. Bea, +761
  4. Khaleesi, +711
  5. Neriah, +703
  6. Keeva, +690
  7. Siyana, +650
  8. Milan, +643
  9. Isla-Mae, +574
  10. Dahlia, +566

Eleanor “Elea” Nickerson of British Baby Names mentioned the rise of Reeva yesterday on Facebook, attributing it to Reeva Steenkamp, the girlfriend Oscar Pistorius allegedly murdered. That sounds like a good explanation to me. In fact, the murder early last year (and the ongoing news coverage) might explain why Oscar itself saw such a big increase in 2013.

Can you think of explanations for any of the other names? (Well, besides Khaleesi. I think we all know where that one comes from at this point.)

Biggest Decreases in Popularity

Raw Numbers (all names)Rankings (top 1,000)
  1. Amelia, -1491 babies
  2. Lily, -919
  3. Jessica, -658
  4. Mia, -531
  5. Evie, -513
  6. Sophie, -483
  7. Lola, -436
  8. Maisie, -393
  9. Holly, -391
  10. Grace, -389
  1. Gemma, -402 spots
  2. Lilly-Mai, -364
  3. Krystal, -360
  4. Star, -320
  5. Sian, -297
  6. Tayla, -286
  7. Bo, -271
  8. Veronica, -256
  9. Zaina, -246
  10. Tahlia, -240

Top Debut Name

Everly.

Fewer than 3 baby girls got the name in 2012, but 21 baby girls were named Everly in 2013. Everley, Everleigh and Everlyn have been on the list before, but never Everly. (I only have the full England and Wales baby name lists going back to 2007, though.)

Here are the U.S. girl names that changed the most in popularity in 2013, if you’d like to compare.

Source: Baby Names, England and Wales, 2013 – ONS