In the mid-1960s, the unisex name Marlo saw a sudden surge in usage as a girl name:
| Girls named Marlo | Boys named Marlo | |
| 1968 | 545 [rank: 396th] | 28 |
| 1967 | 353 [rank: 505th] | 28 |
| 1966 | 101 | 27 |
| 1965 | 16 | 25 |
| 1964 | 22 | 20 |
The name went on to feature in the girls’ top 1,000 for more than a decade, from 1967 to 1977. (It also popped into the boys’ top 1,000 a few times during the ’70s, interestingly.)
What was drawing attention to the name Marlo around that time?
Actress Marlo Thomas, star of the sitcom That Girl, which began airing on television in September of 1966.
Marlo played Ann Marie, an aspiring actress living in New York City. (“Marie” was her surname.) Ann was a young unmarried woman living on her own terms — something rarely seen on TV in those days. As Marlo recently said,
All the girls and moms at home wanted to be That Girl: [to] have her own apartment, have fabulous clothes, be getting a job, have a boyfriend, [be] living away from her parents. It was like every girl’s dream.
The compound name Annmarie also saw its highest-ever usage during the five seasons That Girl was on the air.
Marlo Thomas was born Margaret Julia Jacobs in 1937. Her father was entertainer (and St. Jude founder) Danny Thomas, whose legal name was Amos Jacobs — an anglicized form of his Lebanese birth name, Muzyad Yakhoob. She was named after Danny’s mother (Margaret) and aunt (Julia).
How did she come to be called “Marlo”? Here’s how Danny explained it:
So we began to call the infant Margaret, then “Margo,” which we thought would be easier for her to say as she began to speak. It wasn’t easier. The closest she could come to Margo was “Marlo,” as in “Me Marlo.” And that’s how another soon-to-be-well-known stage name was created.
(His own stage name had been created from the names of his youngest brother Daniel and his eldest brother Thomas.)
What are your thoughts on the name Marlo?
Sources:
- Marlo Thomas – Wikipedia
- That Girl – Wikipedia
- Whiting, Amanda. “Marlo Thomas On ‘That Girl,’ Feminism & Her Podcast With Phil Donahue.” Bustle 12 Mar. 2021.
- Thomas, Danny and Bill Davidson. Make Room for Danny. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1991.
- Margaret J. Jacobs – 1950 U.S. Census
- SSA
Image: Screenshot of That Girl