How popular is the baby name Orlando 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 Orlando.
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The name Livan first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1997. It reached peak usage the very next year.
1999: 23 baby boys named Livan
1998: 66 baby boys named Livan [peak]
1997: 36 baby boys named Livan [debut]
1996: unlisted
1995: unlisted
Where did it come from?
Professional baseball player Liván Hernández, who was born (as Eisler Liván Hernández Carrera) in Cuba in 1975.
Liván pitched for nine different teams during his 17-year Major League Baseball career (from 1996 to 2012).
He was particularly successful in 1997, when he helped the Florida Marlins win both the National League Championship Series (against the Atlanta Braves) and the World Series (against the Cleveland Indians). He was named MVP of both series.
Later in his career, he was selected as an All-Star twice (in 2004 and 2005) and received a Silver Slugger Award (in 2004).
What are your thoughts on the name Liván?
P.S. Hernández’s older half-brother, Orlando, was also a pitcher in the major leagues.
According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Candida — which comes from the Latin word candidus, meaning “shining white” — saw a jump in usage (and entered the top 1,000 for the first time) in 1971:
1973: 163 baby girls named Candida [rank: 802nd]
1972: 170 baby girls named Candida [rank: 798th]
1971: 222 baby girls named Candida [rank: 687th]
1970: 95 baby girls named Candida
1969: 30 baby girls named Candida
What gave it a boost that year?
The song “Candida” (pronounced kan-DEE-dah), which was sung by Tony Orlando…but credited to a non-existent group called Dawn.
(Orlando, an executive at Columbia Records, recorded the song for a competitor, Bell Records. Not wanting to jeopardize his career, he asked that Bell not reveal his name. “Dawn” was chosen because it was the name of the daughter of Bell executive Steve Wax.)
“Candida” was released in July of 1970. It peaked at #3 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in early October.
Here’s what it sounds like:
In an interview, one of the co-writers of the song, Toni Wine, explained how she came up with the name Candida:
We knew we wanted a Spanish girl’s name. Rosita had been taken. Juanita was a hit. Maria had happened. We knew we wanted to write a Latin-flavored song […] We needed a three-syllable word, and all those girls were gone. So Candida had been a name that I had toyed with, and there she became a reality.
The name of the fictitious group also influenced expectant parents: Dawn, already a top-100 girl name, entered the girls’ top 20 for the first time in 1970.
Speaking of Dawn…after it scored a second #1 hit, “Knock Three Times,” Tony Orlando decided to give up his day job and make Dawn a reality. He recruited a pair of backup singers, Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson, and the three of them started touring.
Telma Hopkins, Tony Orlando, and Joyce Vincent Wilson
Together, the trio scored two more #1 hits:
“Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree” (1973), as Dawn featuring Tony Orlando, and
“He Don’t Love You (Like I Love You)” (1975), as Tony Orlando and Dawn.
They also hosted a musical variety series, The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show, which was broadcast on CBS from mid-1974 until late 1976. The New York Times described the series as “mildly hip, in a safe middle-of-the-road sort of way. It’s slick. It’s disarmingly hokey. Imagine, if you will, Sonny & Cher filtered through Lawrence Welk.”
While the show was on the air, the baby names Tony, Orlando, Telma, and Candida all saw discernible (if slight) upticks in usage.
What are your thoughts on the name Candida? Would you use it?
P.S. The name Telma saw another uptick while Telma Hopkins, who went on to become an actress, was starring on the sitcom Getting By (1993-1994).
Looking for baby names that contain the word LAND?
If so, you’re in luck!
Below you’ll find a long list of names that contain the letter sequence “l-a-n-d.” Most of these names come directly from the U.S. SSA’s baby name data.
Used mostly in the state of Tennessee. The University of Tennessee’s football team plays in Neyland Stadium, which was named after former head coach/athletic director Robert Neyland.
The name Lanny had popped up several times in the U.S. baby name data before re-emerging in 1933 with two dozen baby boys:
1937: 174 baby boys named Lanny [rank: 429th]
1936: 133 baby boys named Lanny [rank: 493rd]
1935: 123 baby boys named Lanny [rank: 520th]
1934: 93 baby boys named Lanny [rank: 620th]
1933: 24 baby boys named Lanny
1932: unlisted
1931: 8 baby boys named Lanny
1930: unlisted
1929: unlisted
Usage of the name continued to climb over the rest of the decade and into the next; Lanny reached its highest-ever ranking (299th) in 1942.
So, what spurred the rise of Lanny during the 1930s?
Radio singer Lanny Ross (born Lancelot Patrick Ross in Seattle in 1906).
Lanny Ross first sang over the airwaves as a member of the Yale Glee Club in 1928. Over the next few years, while attending law school at Columbia University, he gave solo performances on radio shows like Troubadour of the Moon.
When he completed his law degree in 1931, NBC offered him a radio show of his own, at a salary five times greater than that offered by a law firm that was also courting him.
He could be heard on several shows, in fact.
One of them, Maxwell House Show Boat, was a weekly, hour-long program notable for “combining a dramatic plot with music and comedy” and having a cast of more than fifty performers. Show Boat, which premiered in October of 1932, quickly became one of the top radio shows in the country — and Lanny Ross was its breakout star.
By the end of the first year, Ross was the sensation of Radio Row, propelled into front ranks by his boyish good looks (as radio fans could see on every heartthrob magazine) and his clear tenor voice.
In the summer of 1934, the readers of Radio Stars magazine voted for their favorite artists, and Lanny Ross placed second in the “male popular singer” category (after Bing Crosby).
During and after his time on Show Boat, Lanny Ross was featured on various other programs, including The Packard Hour, Your Hit Parade, and Camel Caravan. He could be heard regularly on the radio until the mid-1950s.
He also released dozens of recordings over the course of his career. For instance, here’s his rendition of the 1934 song “Stay As Sweet As You Are”:
Remarkably, several hundred of the boys named “Lanny” during the 1930s, 1940s, and early 1950s were given the middle name “Ross.” Some examples:
What are your thoughts on the name Lanny? Do you like it as a standalone name, or do you prefer it as a nickname (for names like Landon, Lance, Orlando, and Leonard)?
P.S. In the late 1940s, Lanny Ross hosted a television program called The Swift Show. It aired weekly on NBC — just like Girl About Town, hosted by Kyle MacDonnell.
Image: Clipping from Radio Stars magazine (Aug. 1934)
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