How popular is the baby name Olajuwon 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 Olajuwon.

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Popularity of the baby name Olajuwon


Posts that mention the name Olajuwon

Where did the baby name Cozell come from in 1983?

College basketball player Cozell McQueen
Cozell McQueen

The rare name Cozell was a one-hit wonder in the U.S. baby name data in 1983:

  • 1985: unlisted
  • 1984: unlisted
  • 1983: 6 baby boys named Cozell [debut]
  • 1982: unlisted
  • 1981: unlisted

Where did it come from?

College basketball player Cozell (pronounced coh-ZEHL) McQueen.

He was a sophomore playing for N.C. State the year the team unexpectedly won the 1983 NCAA Tournament.

The N.C. State Wolfpack beat #1 seeded Virginia on its way to the Final Four, then Georgia in the semifinals, and finally Houston — a team that included future superstars Akeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler — in the championship game.

They wouldn’t have had the chance to win, though, had Cozell McQueen not been a crucial part of the first-round, double-overtime win against Pepperdine.

Cozell was also the player who, following the final win, stood atop one of the rims and held up a “Pack Power” sign in celebration.

What are your thoughts on the name Cozell?

Sources:

Image: Cozell McQueen trading card

How did Kareem Abdul-Jabbar influence baby names?

Basketball players Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wes Unseld
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar & Wes Unseld

Basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played with the Milwaukee Bucks from 1969 to 1974 and with the Los Angeles Lakers from 1975 to 1989. And, like player Hakeem Olajuwon, he underwent a name change during his career.

Abdul-Jabbar was born Ferdinand Lewis “Lew” Alcindor, Jr., in New York City in 1947. Twenty years later he was a standout player on the UCLA varsity basketball team (1967-1969). During this time period, the name Alcindor started appearing in the U.S. baby name data:

  • 1970: 9 baby boys named Alcindor
  • 1969: 7 baby boys named Alcindor
  • 1968: 7 baby boys named Alcindor [debut]
  • 1967: unlisted
  • 1966: unlisted

It stuck around for four consecutive years, and might have stuck around even longer had Lew not changed his name upon converting to Islam in 1971.

In an essay about his conversion, he mentioned that “Alcindor was a French planter in the West Indies who owned my ancestors. […] Keeping the name of my family’s slave master seemed somehow to dishonor them.” So he “became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (meaning “the noble one, servant of the Almighty”).”

His name change had an immediate effect upon U.S. boy names:

KareemAbdulJabbarKareen
1974324812748
1973243852930
19723789877*36**
19714449..
19701243..
*Debut (overall), **Gender-specific debut

In 1972, the usage of all three names — Kareem, Abdul, and Jabbar — increased. In fact, Jabbar was the top debut name of the year in 1972. The name Jabarr also popped up that year. Jabar, the best-guess phonetic version, arrived a year early.

Kareen, which had been charting a girl name, debuted impressively as boy name in ’72. And, in a nice show of symmetry, boy name Kareem debuted as a girl name the same year.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played in the NBA for twenty years, but it wasn’t until decades later, in the 2010s, that the tribute name Abduljabbar finally emerged in the data.

Source: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – Wikipedia

P.S. Ahmad Rashad, father of Condola, is another public figure who adopted an Muslim name in the early ’70s.

How did Hakeem Olajuwon influence baby names?

Hakeem Olajuwon
Hakeem Olajuwon

Akeem Olajuwon emigrated from Nigeria to play basketball at the University of Houston from 1980 to 1984. He then played professional basketball from 1984 to 2002 — half of that time as Akeem, the other half of that time as Hakeem. (He changed the spelling of his first name in 1991.)

How did Olajuwon’s successful career affect the popularity of the baby names Akeem, Hakeem and Olajuwon? Let’s check it out…

AkeemHakeemOlajuwon
200356865
200265839
20016311511
2000771328
19996113415
19989719416
199711622624
199614624126
1995*17424754
1994*22226458
199324216616
199232520018
199141924124
199057027222
198945927919
19882216517
19871785523
19862832952
19851603622
19842545019
19831923515*
19823222.
1981831.
*Debut

*These are the two years Olajuwon led the Houston Rockets to NBA championships.

So, why did Olajuwon change the spelling of his first name?

“It’s no big deal,” Olajuwon says. “I just want to go back to using the original spelling, the way it is meant to be spelled in Arabic.”

According to Olajuwon, “Hakeem,” in Arabic, means “a wise man; a doctor.”

But “Akeem,” which is the way it’s been spelled since he arrived in the United States in 1981, has no translation.

What does Olajuwon’s surname mean? According to NBA.com, Olajuwon means “always being on top.” In every Yoruba name that starts with Ola- that I’ve come across, though, Ola- means “wealth.” So I don’t know about that NBA definition. (I also don’t know what -juwon might mean.)

Finally, did you notice how the usage of Akeem and Hakeem jumped from 1988 to 1989, but the usage of Olajuwon stayed the same? The main inspiration here was Hakim of R&B group The Boys, which had a few hit singles out around this time. In fact, the names of all four of The Boys — Khiry, Hakim, Tajh & Bilal — got a boost in 1989.

Update, 9/5/2021: I think Jamie’s theory about the name Akeem getting a boost in 1989 from the 1988 movie Coming to America — in which comedian Eddie Murphy plays lead character Prince Akeem Joffer of the (fictional) African nation Zamunda — makes perfect sense! Off to add it to the timeline…

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