How popular is the baby name Mickey 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 Mickey.
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Here’s a curious one: Buff. It appeared in the SSA data in the middle of the 20th century as both a boy name and a girl name — but slightly more often as a girl name. The female usage was entirely in the 1950s:
1960: unlisted
1959: 5 baby girls named Buff
1958: unlisted
1957: unlisted
1956: 6 baby girls named Buff
1955: 15 baby girls named Buff
1954: 10 baby girls named Buff
1953: 6 baby girls named Buff
1952: 5 baby girls named Buff [debut]
1951: unlisted
1950: unlisted
What was the influence here?
An actress with an intriguingly gender-neutral name: Buff Cobb.
She was born Patrizia Chapman in Italy in 1927 to American parents. When she decided in her teens to become a film star, she created the stage name “Buff Cobb” from her mother’s nickname, Buffy, and her maternal grandfather’s surname, Cobb. (He was writer/humorist Irvin Cobb.)
While Buff’s film career didn’t pan out, she did tour with a company putting on Noël Coward’s play Private Lives in the late ’40s. During a stop in Chicago, she was interviewed for a radio show by a young reporter named Mike Wallace — most famous today for his work as a 60 Minutes correspondent from 1968 to 2006.
She and Mike got married in 1949 and began co-hosting a Chicago radio show, which led to two New York City TV shows (both live):
Mike and Buff (1951-1953), originally entitled Two Sleepy People, one of television’s first talk shows. “[T]he couple would engage in heated debate over a different topic each day, then try to settle their differences after interviewing experts.” One of Mike’s catchphrases on the show was: “Smarten up, Buff!” The show was sponsored by Pepsi and guests included Harry Belafonte and Mickey Spillane.
All Around the Town (1951-1952), an interview show typically broadcast from different parts of New York City.
A year after Mike and Buff was cancelled, the real Mike and Buff were also cancelled — they divorced in 1954. Buff appeared regularly on just one more TV show after that: the ’50s game show Masquerade Party, from 1953 to 1955. Usage of the (female) name Buff was highest during these years.
Do you like the name Buff for a baby girl? Do you like it more or less than Buffy and Buffie (both of which also debuted during the first half of the ’50s)?
Sources:
Gladstone, B. James. The Man Who Seduced Hollywood: The Life and Loves of Greg Bautzer. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2013.
If you’re on the hunt for baby names with a numerological value of 3, you’re in luck! Because today’s post features hundreds of 3-names.
Before we get to the names, though — how do we know that they’re “threes” 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 Tyson correspond to the numbers 20, 25, 19, 15, and 14. The sum of these numbers is 93. The digits of 93 added together equal 12, and the digits of 12 added together equal 3 — the numerological value of Tyson.
Baby names with a value of 3
Below you’ll find the most popular 3-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.
3 via 12
The letters in the following baby names add up to 12, which reduces to three (1+2=3).
Girl names (3 via 12)
Boy names (3 via 12)
Aja, Fae, Bia, Abi, Bee
Gad, Jb, Abed
3 via 21
The letters in the following baby names add up to 21, which reduces to three (2+1=3).
Girl names (3 via 21)
Boy names (3 via 21)
Kai, Asa, Gala, Jaia, Clea
Kai, Kade, Asa, Alec, Ben, Beck, Cale
3 via 30
The letters in the following baby names add up to 30, which reduces to three (3+0=3).
There’s no definitive answer, unfortunately, because various numerological systems exist, and each one has its own interpretation of the number three. That said, if we look at a couple of modern numerology/astrology websites, we see 3 being described as “creative,” “optimistic,” “friendly,” “outgoing,” and “self-expressive.”
We can also look at associations, which are a bit more concrete. Here are some things that are associated with the number 3:
Triple crown (victory in three events)
Hat trick (3 goals scored in one game by a single player)
Circus (3 rings)
Yard (3 feet)
Three-act structure (in narrative)
Rule of thirds (in photography)
Traffic lights
Manx flag (3 legs)
What does the number 3 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 one, two, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine.
The rare name Jymme has appeared in the U.S. baby name data just twice: first in 1955, last in 1963.
1964: unlisted
1963: 10 baby girls named Jymme
1962: unlisted
[…]
1956: unlisted
1955: 5 baby girls named Jymme [debut]
1954: unlisted
Where did it come from? A singer/actress who started her career with one name, then switched to another.
She was born Roberta Jymme Schourup in 1943, but kicked off her career as Jymme Shore. (Jymme is pronounced “Jimmy.”)
As a youngster in the mid-1950s she appeared on 2 televised programs, The Tex Williams Show and The Pinky Lee Show, and also became associated with the Mouseketeers (she was too tall to become an official member of the group). It was around this time that the name Jymme debuted in the data.
While she worked for Disney, though, she changed her professional name:
“When the studio would send out information without a picture, ‘Jymme Shore’ ended up referred to as a he,” she explained. “Walt Disney actually was the one who suggested I use the name Roberta.”
(She continued to go by Jymme in her personal life.)
She worked for Disney a little longer — appearing on The Mickey Mouse Club, voicing animated characters, even yodeling the Switzerland part of the song It’s a Small World. Then she became an independent actor, appearing in TV shows and movies such as Maverick, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, and even the infamous Lolita (1962).
Also in 1962, Roberta landed the role of Betsy Garth on the series The Virginian, which would go on to become one of TV’s most successful Westerns. Media coverage of the new show must have mentioned her former stage name, as this is the year “Jymme” returns for an encore in the data.
Roberta Shore played Betsy for three seasons. Then she got married and retired from show business altogether.
What are your thoughts on the name Jymme?
Sources:
Hollis, Tim and Greg Ehrbar. Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2006.
A day or so ago, I finally replaced the old popularity graphs (which were created way back in 2012) with brand new popularity graphs. Yay! Here are the main improvements:
The graphs are now responsive, meaning they’ll change size to match your screen dimensions. Phones will definitely need to be turned sideways to get the best view, though, because the graphs are so wide.
The graphs’ data points are now in alignment no matter what. This was not the case with the original graphs, which were getting more and more misaligned every year.
Better aesthetics! Nicer colors, cleaner design, no more ugly watermark, etc.
If you mouse over a graph, the data point values will appear as tooltips. Neat!
If you’re using a computer and you right-click on a graph, you can save it as an image — to share via social media, perhaps. ;)
There are still several fixes I need to make, but overall the new graphs are working well. (If they aren’t functioning properly for you, please let me know.)
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