How popular is the baby name Mona 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 Mona.

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Popularity of the baby name Mona


Posts that mention the name Mona

Where did the baby name Kiz come from in 1961?

The character Kiz Bouchet from the TV series "Maverick" (1957-1962).
Kiz Bouchet from “Maverick“

A while back we talked about the name Maverick, which was put on the onomastic map thanks to the TV western Maverick (1957-1962).

Since then, I’ve discovered that a handful of minor female characters from Maverick also influenced baby names in the late ’50s and early ’60s. I’ll go in chronological order…

First there’s Samantha, which saw higher usage around the time recurring character Samantha Crawford (played by Diane Brewster) was on the show. She appeared a total of four times: once in 1957, three more times in 1958. (This was still a few years before Bewitched came along.)

  • 1959: 111 baby girls named Samantha
  • 1958: 109 baby girls named Samantha [rank: 999th]
  • 1957: 38 baby girls named Samantha
  • 1956: 29 baby girls named Samantha
  • 1955: 27 baby girls named Samantha

Second there’s Modesty, which debuted around the time recurring character Modesty Blaine was on the show. She appeared a total of three times. In her first two appearances, in 1959 and 1960, she was played by Mona Freeman.

  • 1962: unlisted
  • 1961: unlisted
  • 1960: 5 baby girls named Modesty [debut]
  • 1959: unlisted
  • 1958: unlisted

Third there’s Kiz, which debuted the year after character Kiz Bouchet (played by Kathleen Crowley) appeared in the episode “Kiz” (December, 1960).

  • 1963: 5 baby girls named Kiz
  • 1962: 7 baby girls named Kiz
  • 1961: 21 baby girls named Kiz [debut]
  • 1960: unlisted
  • 1959: unlisted

Fourth there’s Caprice, which doubled in usage the year the character Caprice Rambeau (played by Dawn Wells) appeared in the episode “The Deadly Image” (March, 1961).

  • 1963: 31 baby girls named Caprice
  • 1962: 43 baby girls named Caprice
  • 1961: 48 baby girls named Caprice
  • 1960: 24 baby girls named Caprice
  • 1959: 15 baby girls named Caprice

And finally there’s Tawney, which saw higher usage the year the Native American character Tawney (played by Sharon Hugueny) appeared in the 2-part episode, “The Devil’s Necklace” (April, 1961).

  • 1963: 6 baby girls named Tawney
  • 1962: 9 baby girls named Tawney
  • 1961: 27 baby girls named Tawney
  • 1960: 5 baby girls named Tawney
  • 1959: unlisted

Which one of these names — Samantha, Modesty, Kiz, Caprice, or Tawney — do you like best?

Sources:

Starlet names from the early 1900s

WAMPAS baby stars 1928

Ever heard of the WAMPAS Baby Stars?

They were young actresses on the cusp of movie stardom back in the 1920s and 1930s.

About 13 Baby Stars were selected by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers every year from 1922 to 1934 (minus 1930 and 1933).

Some of those young women did indeed achieve stardom. Among the Baby Stars were Clara Bow (’24), Mary Astor (’26), Joan Crawford (’26), Fay Wray (’26) and Ginger Rogers (’32).

I thought the names of the Baby Stars — the oldest of whom were born in the final years of the 1800s, the youngest of whom were born in the mid-1910s — would make an interesting set. But I wanted birth names, not stage names, so I tracked down as many birth names as I could. Here’s the result, sorted by frequency (i.e., seven women were named Dorothy).

  • 7: Dorothy
  • 6: Helen
  • 4: Elizabeth
  • 3: Frances, Ruth, Virginia
  • 2: Anita, Ann, Barbara, Betty, Clara, Doris, Dorothea, Eleanor, Evelyn, Gladys, Gwendolyn, Hazel, Jacqueline, Katherine, Laura, Louise, Lucille, Margaret, Maria, Marian, Marie, Marion, Mary, Patricia, Violet
  • 1: Adamae, Alberta, Alma, Anne, Audrey, Augusta, Blanche, Carmelita, Caryl, Constance, Derelys, Dolores, Duane, Edna, Eleanor, Ena, Enriqueta, Ethel, Ethlyne, Evalyn, Flora, Gisela, Gloria, Gretchen, Hattie, Helene, Ina, Ingeborg, Jacquiline, Jean, Joan, Jobyna, Josephine, Juanita, Julanne, Kathleen, Kathryn, Kitty, Launa, Laurette, Lena, Lenore, Lilian, Lola, Lu Ann, Lucile, Madeline, Marceline, Martha, Mildred, Myrna, Natalia, Natalie, Nellie, Neoma, Olive, Olivia, Patsy, Rita, Rochelle, Rose, Sally, Suzanne, Sidney, Toshia, Vera, Vina

And here are the leftover stage names:

  • 5: Sally
  • 4: Mary
  • 3: Joan, June
  • 2: Betty, Jean, Judith, Pauline
  • 1: Alice, Bessie, Boots, Claire, Colleen, Dolores, Dorothy, Elinor, Evelyn, Fay, Frances, Gigi, Ginger, Gladys, Gloria, Gwen, Iris, Janet, Joyce, Julie, Karen, Kathleen, Lila, Lina, Lois, Lona, Loretta, Lucille, Lupe, Marian, Molly, Mona, Natalie, Patricia, Sue

(Often stage names were the real-life middle names of these women.)

Finally, a few interesting details:

  • “Derelys” was Derelys Perdue, whose first name at birth was actually Geraldine. I’m not sure how she came up with her stage name, but, in March of 1923, her film studio (FBO) tried to re-rename her “Ann.” (They’d sponsored a name contest in a magazine called Film Fun. The winner got $50.) Derelys brought an injunction against the studio in April to prevent the name change from happening, and the story ended up in the newspapers. This extra visibility is likely what boosted the name Derelys into the U.S. baby name data for the first and only time in 1924.
  • “Jobyna” was Jobyna Ralston, who was named for actress Jobyna Howland, daughter of a man named Joby Howland. The name Jobyna debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1927.
  • “Sidney” was Sidney Fox, a female who was given the name Sidney long before the name (in particular, the spelling Sydney) became trendy for baby girls.

Which of all the names listed above do you like best? Why?

Sources:

Baby names needed: Girl names for twin sisters

A reader named Grace would like some help naming her twin girls, due in a couple of months. She and her husband John already have three boys, Jackson, Samuel and Lucas.

So far, their favorite girl names are Juliet, Isla, Susannah and Norah. But they’re also considering a family name:

We would love to honor my mother, Denise Marie, but we despise both names. I would love some ideas on how to use that without actually using those names.

For the middle spots, they’re aiming for virtue names. They already have Honor picked out, and “[i]f there is another virtue name you would suggest so they both had one that would be great!”

Their last name is similar to Cawston.

–
On the current favorites…
I like all of the current favorites. The pairing I like best, though, is Juliet and Susannah. I just think they sound good together. I also like how they can both be shortened, just like the boys’ names — Jack, Sam, Luke, Jules & Sue (or Julie & Susie).

On incorporating Denise Marie…
One way to incorporate Denise Marie would be to find a name that features the sounds of both Denise and Marie (especially those D- and M-sounds). Names with these sounds include Madeline, Demetria, Dominique/Domenica, Damaris, Adamina, Amadea and Idamae.

Another approach would be to use initials — either the initials “D. M.” for one twin or a D-name for twin #1 and an M-name for twin #2. Some possibilities (beyond the names above) include Dahlia, Daisy, Damiana, Daphne, Dara, Delphine, Diana, Dina, Dora, Dorothy and Drusilla for D-names and Mara, Marian, Marlene, Martina, Mina, Mirabelle, Miranda, Miriam, Molly, Monica and Mona for M-names.

On virtuous middles…
My first thought was Mercy, because it sounds a lot like Marie. Other virtue names that might make nice middles are Amity, Charity, Clementine/Clemency, Hope, Joy, Patience, Peace/Pax, Temperance and Verity.

–
Now it’s your turn! Which of Juliet, Isla, Susannah and Norah do you like best for twins? What names can you come up with to honor Denise Marie? Which virtue names do you like best for middle names?

What turned Mona Lisa into a baby name in 1950?

Many of us probably don’t know anything about the 1950 movie Captain Carey, U.S.A.

But I bet most of us could hum a few bars of the film’s theme song, “Mona Lisa” [vid].

The song, performed by Nat “King” Cole, was the #1 song in the nation for several weeks straight in the summer of 1950. It went on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song in early 1951.

Not surprisingly, the song inspired dozens of expectant parents to name their baby girls Monalisa in 1950:

  • 1952: 7 baby girls named Monalisa
  • 1951: 15 baby girls named Monalisa
  • 1950: 35 baby girls named Monalisa [debut]
  • 1949: unlisted
  • 1948: unlisted

Monalisa became the top baby name debut that year, and it’s been on the list ever since.

Even more impressive? The jump in the number of babies named Mona that year:

  • 1952: 950 baby girls named Mona
  • 1951: 1,106 baby girls named Mona
  • 1950: 1,087 baby girls named Mona
  • 1949: 513 baby girls named Mona
  • 1948: 455 baby girls named Mona

You can bet many of those babies were given the middle name Lisa. :)

The song refers to Leonardo da Vinci’s painting Mona Lisa, a 16th-century portrait of Lisa Gherardini. Mona is a contraction of Madonna, or ma donna, Italian for “my lady,” and Lisa is a short form of Elisabetta, the Italian form of Elizabeth.

Source: SSA
Image: Adapted from Nat King Cole Mona Lisa 1957