How popular is the baby name Marlon 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 Marlon.
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The rare name Desnee was a one-hit wonder in the U.S. baby name data in the early 1950s:
1953: unlisted
1952: unlisted
1951: 7 baby girls named Desnee [debut]
1950: unlisted
1949: unlisted
What was the influence?
A 15-month-old London girl named Desnee Sampson, who was featured in a pair of photos that ran in various U.S. newspapers in late 1950 and early 1951.
In the first photo, she was sitting on the floor, watching her cat Billy drink milk from a saucer. In the second, she was bent over the saucer herself and trying to lap up milk in the same way (with Billy looking on).
I don’t know the origin of the name. In fact, my initial guess was that “Desnee” was a typo for Desiree. (I could imagine the middle letters being transposed and then mistaken for an “n.”)
As it turns out, Desnee Sampson’s birth (1949) and marriage (1970) records both confirm that her real name was indeed “Desnee.” Besides, the name Desiree didn’t become trendy until a few years later, thanks to the 1954 Marlon Brando movie Désirée (which I mentioned in the Deserie post).
What do you think of the name Desnee? Would you pronounce the second syllable like that of Desiree (ay-sound) or Deedee (ee-sound)?
If you’re on the hunt for baby names with a numerological value of 1, you’re in luck! Because today’s post features hundreds of 1-names.
Before we get to the names, though — how do we know that they’re “ones” in numerology?
Turning names into numbers
Here’s how to calculate the numerological value of a name.
First, for each letter, come up with a number to represent that letter’s position in the alphabet. (Letter A would be number 1, letter B would be number 2, and so forth.) Then, add all the numbers together. If the sum has two or more digits, add the digits together recursively until the result is a single digit. That single digit is the name’s numerological value.
For instance, the letters in the name Taylor correspond to the numbers 20, 1, 25, 12, 15, and 18. The sum of these numbers is 91. The digits of 91 added together equal 10, and the digits of 10 added together equal 1 — the numerological value of Taylor.
Baby names with a value of 1
Below you’ll find the most popular 1-names per gender, according to the latest U.S. baby name data. I’ve further sub-categorized them by total sums — just in case any of those larger numbers are significant to anyone.
1 via 10
The letters in the following baby names add up to 10, which reduces to one (1+0=1).
Girl names (1 via 10)
Boy name (1 via 10)
Eda, Dea, Ebba, Adda, Ade
Ade
1 via 19
The letters in the following baby names add up to 19, which reduces to one (1+9=10; 1+0=1).
Girl names (1 via 19)
Boy names (1 via 19)
Mae, Ema, Abbie, Alea, Aela
Adam, Jace, Dan, Jed, Jah
1 via 28
The letters in the following baby names add up to 28, which reduces to one (2+8=10; 1+0=1).
There’s no definitive answer, unfortunately, because various numerological systems exist, and each one has its own interpretation of the number one. That said, if we look at a couple of modern numerology/astrology websites, we see 1 being described as “leader,” “independent,” “determined,” “creative,” and “self-assured.”
We can also look at associations, which are a bit more concrete. Here are a few things that are associated with the number 1:
Unity
Uniqueness
First place (as in sports)
Unicorn
Monolith
I kept the list short because you can associate the number 1 with just about anything. It’s universal, you might say. (See what I did there?)
What does the number 1 mean to you? What are your strongest associations with the number?
P.S. To see names with other numerological values, check out the posts for the numbers two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine.
We’re all familiar with sayonara, the Japanese word for “goodbye.”
But did you know that Sayonara was also a one-hit wonder in the U.S. baby name data in the 1950s?
1960: unlisted
1959: unlisted
1958: 6 baby girls named Sayonara
1957: unlisted
1956: unlisted
The James Michener novel Sayonara came out in 1953. Set during the Korean War, it told the story of U.S. airman Lloyd Gruver, stationed in Japan, who fell in love with a Japanese entertainer called Hana-ogi. (Her namesake is a historical courtesan; hana means “flower” and ogi means “fan”).
Originally, the book was going to be adapted into a stage production à la Michener’s South Pacific. With a musical in mind, Irving Berlin wrote a song called “Sayonara.”
Instead, the story was turned into a movie (starring Marlon Brando and Miiko Taka) a few years later, and so Irving Berlin’s song ended up on the soundtrack.
Both Sayonara the movie and “Sayonara” the song came out in late 1957. The film made a bigger splash than the song did, so it may have had more of an influence on baby names.
In March of 1958 the film won four Oscars, including one each for supporting actors Red Buttons (who played Joe Kelly) and Miyoshi Umeki (who played Katsumi).
Miyoshi Umeki, both an actress and a singer, was the first Asian performer to win an Academy Award. Her win drew attention to the Japanese name Miyoshi, which debuted in the data as well in 1958:
1963: 8 baby girls named Miyoshi
1962: 7 baby girls named Miyoshi
1959: 8 baby girls named Miyoshi
1958: 20 baby girls named Miyoshi [debut]
1957: unlisted
1956: unlisted
A few months later, Umeki appeared on the TV game show “What’s My Line?” Here’s how she signed her name:
Miyoshi was Umeki’s birth name, but at the start of her singing career in Japan, she used the stage name Nancy Umeki. She reverted to her Japanese name upon relocating to America, ironically.
In 1973, from February 27 until May 8, American Indian Movement (AIM) activists and Oglala Lakota occupied the town of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
The standoff lasted 71 days, and both the activists and the federal government were armed. Gunfire wounded several people on each side and ultimately killed two of the occupiers.
The first victim was 48-year-old activist Frank Clearwater, who had hitchhiked to Wounded Knee with his pregnant wife Morning Star, 37. They arrived on April 16, Frank was shot in the head on April 17, and he died in the hospital on April 25. The news of his death was widely reported.
The same year, the baby name Morningstar appeared in the U.S. baby name data for the very first time:
1976: unlisted
1975: 9 baby girls named Morningstar
1974: unlisted
1973: 8 baby girls named Morningstar [debut]
1972: unlisted
1971: unlisted
(The SSA data omits spaces, so some these babies may have been named “Morning Star.”)
Supporters of the Indian movement extolled Frank. The 1973 folk song “The Ballad of Frank Clearwater,” for instance, refers to Frank as an “Apache who longed to be free.”
But Frank’s background remains unclear. Some sources said he was Apache, while others said he was Cherokee. Some sources said he was from North Carolina, while others said he was from from Oklahoma.
One thing that is clear about Frank is his legal name: “Frank J. Clear.”
Morning Star’s name may have similarly been invented. And it’s possible that neither she nor Frank was Native American — that they were simply people who (like Marlon Brando) supported the American Indian Movement, and who chose to go by Indian-sounding names as a sign of solidarity.
We may never know Morning Star’s true identity, or what became of her (or her baby) after 1973. But her name — be it real or assumed — lives on in the U.S. baby name data…
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