The name Jonah saw a sharp increase in usage during the 1990s, according to the U.S. baby name data:
- 1996: 1,569 baby boys named Jonah [rank: 197th]
- 1995: 1,370 baby boys named Jonah [rank: 215th]
- 1994: 1,178 baby boys named Jonah [rank: 245th]
- 1993: 449 baby boys named Jonah [rank: 469th]
- 1992: 225 baby boys named Jonah [rank: 693rd]
- 1991: 246 baby boys named Jonah [rank: 649th]
What was behind the rise?
My guess is a young character from the classic rom-com Sleepless in Seattle, which was released in June of 1993.
In the movie, Jonah Baldwin (played by Ross Malinger) was the 8-year-old son of widowed Sam Baldwin (played by Tom Hanks) of Seattle.
On Christmas Eve, Jonah called in to a radio talk show and told the host that he wished his father could find a new partner. Minutes later, Sam joined Jonah on the line and talked to the host — who dubbed him ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ — about how much he missed his late wife. (“She made everything beautiful.”)
Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, Baltimore Sun reporter Annie Reed (played by Meg Ryan) happened to hear the radio show while driving. Annie, despite having a fiancé, became captivated by Sam and set out to find him. (“What if this man is my destiny and I never meet him?”)
After some sleuthing, Annie found Sam’s address and wrote him a letter proposing that they meet atop the Empire State Building on Valentine’s Day. (Hundreds of other women had also written letters to Sam [via the radio show], but Jonah liked Annie’s letter best because it mentioned Baltimore baseball player Brooks Robinson.)
I won’t divulge the rest of the plot, but, as film critic Roger Ebert noted in his review, Sleepless in Seattle was essentially “about two people who are destined for one another.”
It was also the eighth-highest-grossing movie of 1993. (In tenth place that year was The Pelican Brief.)
The biblical name Jonah is derived from the Hebrew word yona, which means “dove.” (The similar name Jonas has the same origin.)
What are your thoughts on the name Jonah?
P.S. Sleepless in Seattle also managed to nudge the usage of the rare name Seattle above the SSA’s five-baby threshold for the first time ever in 1994.
Sources:
- Sleepless in Seattle – Wikipedia
- Sleepless in Seattle movie review – Roger Ebert
- 1993 in film – Wikipedia
- Hanks, Patrick, Kate Hardcastle and Flavia Hodges. (Eds.) A Dictionary of First Names. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
- SSA
Image: Screenshot of Sleepless in Seattle
