How popular is the baby name Manilla 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 Manilla.
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Not only were the girl names Ardis and Irva the dual top baby name debuts of 1899, but they were also tied for the 5th-highest debut of the late 1800s, according to the U.S. baby name data:
So far I haven’t been able to figure out what caused either debut, though. Maybe you guys can help me out?
Here’s what I know so far…
Ardis
According to the Social Security Death Index (SSDI), the number of people named Ardis jumped from at least 10 in 1898 to at least 86 in 1899. (The SSDI is a better source of raw-number data than the SSA for the late 1800s and early 1900s.)
1901: 47 people with the first name Ardis
1900: 59 people with the first name Ardis
1899: 86 people with the first name Ardis
1898: 10 people with the first name Ardis
1897: 15 people with the first name Ardis
The SSDI data also indicates that the usage of Ardis was highest during three successive months: July (12 births), August (17 births), and September (12 births).
Getting back to the SSA data…when Ardis was at peak popularity from the 1910s through the 1940s, it was particularly trendy in the Midwest (especially Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin). This regional preference may have existed in 1899 as well, though it’s hard to tell.
Finally, a novel with the name Ardis in the title — Frank R. Stockton’s Ardis Claverden — existed in 1899. It had been published in 1890, though, so it probably didn’t cause the debut. (Unless it was serialized in the newspapers a decade later…?)
Usage of the baby name Irva
Irva
The SSDI shows that the number of people named Irva jumped from at least 7 in 1898 to at least 64 in 1899:
1901: 14 people with the first name Irva
1900: 18 people with the first name Irva
1899: 64 people with the first name Irva
1898: 7 people with the first name Irva
1897: 5 people with the first name Irva
The name Erva also debuted in 1899. Alternative spellings sometimes point to an audio influence like talkies or television, but the debuts of Irva and Erva predate most of these technologies.
So does anyone out there have any theories on either Ardis or Irva?
(And if you like doing baby name detective work, check out these other open cases!)
But the actual number was much higher. The Social Security Death Index indicates that at least 59 people named Corbett were born in 1892:
1894: 67 people named Corbett
1893: 49 people named Corbett
1892: 59 people named Corbett
1891: 5 people named Corbett
1890: 3 people named Corbett
So, what gave Corbett a boost that year?
Sports!
In September of 1892, boxer James “Gentleman Jim” Corbett defeated John L. Sullivan to win the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Even if he hadn’t won, the press leading up to the match would have popularized the name enough for it to make a splash. More than half of those baby Corbetts — 31 out of 59 — were born before the match even took place.
(That said, many babies born in those days were not named immediately after birth. So no doubt a portion of the early Corbetts were actually nameless until the day of the event.)
Usage of the name increased again in 1894, which is the year Corbett defended his title against boxer Charley Mitchell.
Jim Corbett ultimately lost the title in 1897, to Bob Fitzsimmons.
So what does the English surname Corbett mean? It can be traced back to a Norman French nickname meaning “little crow” or “raven.” The nickname was likely given to a person with a dark complexion or dark hair.
Though most of the baby names in the SSA’s annual datasets are repeats, each dataset does contain a handful of brand-new names.
Below are the most popular debut names for every single year on record, after the first.
Why bother with an analysis like this? Because debut names often have cool stories behind them, and high-hitting debuts are especially likely to have intriguing explanations tied to historical people/events. So this is more than a list of names — it’s also a list of stories.
Here’s the format: “Girl name(s), number of baby girls; Boy name(s), number of baby boys.” Keep in mind that the raw numbers aren’t too trustworthy for about the first six decades, though. (More on that in a minute.)
I’ve already written about some of the names above, and I plan to write about all the others as well…eventually. In the meanwhile, if you want to beat me to it and leave a comment about why Maverick hit in 1957, or why Moesha hit in 1996, feel free!
Source: U.S. SSA
Image: Adapted from LotusBud0048a (public domain) by Frank “Fg2” Gualtieri
The Spanish-American War was a brief war fought between the United States and Spain during 1898.
It began in April, two months after the sinking of the USS Maine.
By the time it ended, in December, Spain had lost “most of its overseas empire” — including Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines — and the U.S. had emerged as a world power.
The war inspired hundreds of patriotic parents in the U.S. to choose war-inspired baby names.
Maine, Havana & Cuba
Wreck of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor
One of the events that led to war was the explosion of the USS Maine in Cuba’s Havana Harbor on February 15. The explosion killed more than 260 men. Many people in the U.S. blamed the explosion on Spain.
The names Maine and Havana both debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1898, and the name Cuba saw a spike in usage:
(The girl names Maine and Mayne were both one-hit wonders in the data that year.)
According to U.S. Social Security Death Index (SSDI) data — which is more comprehensive than the SSA data for this time period — 25 people named Maine, 12 named Havana, and 79 named Cuba were born in 1898.
George, Dewey, Manila & Olympia
On April 25, the U.S. declared war on Spain.
On May 1, the Battle of Manila Bay took place in the Philippines.
The U.S. fleet, under the command of Commodore George Dewey, defeated Spain. This victory turned Dewey into a national hero.
According to the U.S. baby name data, the number of boys named George, and the number of babies of both genders named Dewey, increased significantly in 1898. (Dewey became a top-20 boy name that year, impressively.) The spelling variants Dewie and Dewy also debuted that year.
Note that, during this time period, many children were not given names right away. That’s why it seems as though the name Dewey began rising in usage ahead of schedule — because dozens of children born in 1897 and 1896 weren’t named until 1898.
This likewise explains the 1897 debut of the baby name Olympia, which corresponds to the name of Dewey’s flagship, the USS Olympia.
Getting back to Dewey…we see even higher numbers in the SSDI data: 6,708 people named Dewey, 36 named Dewie, and 1 named Dewy born in 1898.
An article in the Reading Eagle in 1899 listed ten local babies named for George Dewey, and another article I spotted from decades later joked about starting a George Dewey namesake club.
We see a similar (though less pronounced) spike of in the usage of Manila for baby girls:
1900: 10 baby girls named Manila
1899: 34 baby girls named Manila (rank: 512th)
1898: 104 baby girls named Manila (rank: 306th) [peak usage]
Again, the SSDI’s numbers are even higher — 195 people named Manila and 118 named Manilla were born in 1898.
One writer recounted (in the early 2000s) the story of how his great aunt came to be named both Dewey and Manila:
Four months after [Dewey’s] triumph, a baby was born in Kingsport, Tennessee. The father had his heart set on a boy, and planned to name him Dewey Manila in honor of the admiral and his victory. The child turned out to be a little girl, but the parents named her Dewey Manila anyway.
Here are seven more war-related names that saw higher usage among U.S. babies in 1898, thanks to the events of the Spanish-American War.
Richmond P. Hobson
The baby name Hobson was influenced by Richmond Pearson Hobson, prisoner of war in Cuba
Hobson was a handsome Southerner who became a national celebrity following his month-long imprisonment. He became well known for kissing pretty young women as he toured the country. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch jokingly called him “the champion kisser of the universe.”
1898: 38 baby boys named Hobson (rank: 311th) [debut]
1897: unlisted
1896: unlisted
According to the SSDI, at least 161 babies were named Hobson that year.
The baby name Admiral was the rank of many of the men (e.g. Admiral Dewey, Admiral Sampson, Admiral Schley) who played a part in the war — Dewey especially.
1900: 18 baby boys named Admiral (rank: 579th)
1899: 13 baby boys named Admiral (rank: 549th)
1898: 25 baby boys named Admiral (rank: 394th) [debut]
1897: unlisted
1896: unlisted
According to the SSDI, at least 154 babies were named Admiral that year.
William T. Sampson
The baby name Sampson was influenced by William Thomas Sampson, hero of the Battle of Santiago de Cuba.
According to the SSDI, at least 94 babies were named Sampson that year.
William R. Shafter
The baby name Shafter was influenced by army general William Rufus Shafter, who had command of the U.S. forces in Cuba during the war.
1900: 8 baby boys named Shafter
1899: unlisted
1898: 14 baby boys named Shafter (rank: 604th) [debut]
1897: unlisted
1896: unlisted
This was the first and only time the name Shafter landed in the U.S. top 1,000.
According to the SSDI, at least 58 babies were named Shafter that year.
The baby name Maceo was influenced by Cuban revolutionary Antonio Maceo, “one of the outstanding guerrilla leaders in nineteenth century Latin America.” (He had died in late 1896, actually.)
1900: 8 baby boys named Maceo
1899: 9 baby boys named Maceo (rank: 760th)
1898: 13 baby boys named Maceo (rank: 621st) [debut]
1897: unlisted
1896: unlisted
According to the SSDI, at least 34 babies were named Maceo that year.
Winfield Scott Schley
The baby name Schley was influenced by Winfield Scott Schley, hero of the Battle of Santiago Bay.
1900: unlisted
1899: unlisted
1898: 10 baby boys named Schley (rank: 737th) [debut]
According to the SSDI, at least 39 babies were named Schley that year.
(Winfield Scott Schley — just like Winfield Scott Hancock — had been named in honor of General Winfield Scott (1786-1866), who was a family friend. Scott became Commanding General of the U.S. Army two years after Schley was born.)
Finally, the baby name Philippina, likely inspired by the Philippines, was another one-hit wonder the year of the war:
1900: unlisted
1899: unlisted
1898: 5 baby girls named Philippina [debut]
1897: unlisted
1896: unlisted
Interestingly, only a single Philippina is accounted for in the SSDI data that year.
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