How popular is the baby name Pat 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 Pat.
The graph will take a few moments to load. (Don't worry, it shouldn't take 9 months!) If it's taking too long, try reloading the page.
Tuesday’s post about the Victorian-style Tylney Hall Hotel reminded me of a list of Victorian-era names that I’ve had bookmarked forever.
The list was created by amateur genealogist G. M. Atwater as a resource for writers. It contains names and name combinations that were commonly seen in the U.S. from the 1840s to the 1890s. Below is the full list (with a few minor changes).
| Victorian Era Female Names | Victorian Era Male Names |
|---|---|
|
|
Which female name and male name do you like best?
The baby name Rooney has been given to dozens of baby girls lately thanks to the influence of actress Rooney Mara, but it first popped up in the data as a boy name in 1943:
Why?
The obvious answer would be Mickey Rooney, though it’s hard to pinpoint a reason, as he’d been appearing in movies since the 1920s.
My best guess is the film The Human Comedy (1943), in which Rooney played Homer Macauley, a teenager who became the man of house after his older brother went off to war. It was one of Rooney’s first dramatic roles, and it earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
Mickey Rooney was born Joe Yule, Jr., in 1920. (His vaudevillian father was technically named Ninian Ewell, but went by the stage name Joe Yule.) After starring in a series of “Mickey McGuire” movies as a kid, Rooney not only began using the name Mickey McGuire professionally, but his legal name was also changed to Mickey McGuire.
When he signed with Universal to make Fast Companions (1932), the studio asked him to use a different stage name. His mother, remembering vaudevillian Pat Rooney, suggested Mickey Rooney. And, again, both his stage and legal names were changed.
Here’s what Rooney thought about the name changes (from his 1991 autobiography, Life Is Too Short):
This is the kind of world I was born in, one in which I had only one reason for existence: pleasing others. This was very clear, now, with a second legal name change: Even my name, even that, was designed to please others.
What are your thoughts on Rooney as a baby name?
Sources:
I listed all the female names in the Domesday Book a while back, so today I thought I’d complete the project by listing all the male names.
The male names below appeared in the Open Domesday database just once, except where noted. (For the record, I overlooked entries in which one person’s name was used to refer to another person, e.g., “Aelfric’s uncle.”)
The most-mentioned name within each letter group is in bold.
If you make it all the way to the bottom, your reward is a top ten list. :)
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
Y
And now it’s time for the…
Which male were mentioned most often in the Domesday book? The #1 name was William, followed by Robert and Ralph:
Though the names in the book aren’t necessarily representative of name usage in England overall, it does make sense than William took the top spot. The Domesday Book was created a couple of decades after the Norman Conquest, at a time when the name William was very fashionable, thanks to William the Conqueror.
Image: Domesday Book for Warwickshire (public domain)
The baby name Lorry had appeared in the U.S. name data as a boy name about a dozen times before it finally debuted as a girl name in 1943:
What caused the debut?
A story that was being serialized in the newspapers at the time.
The story was called Glider Girl, and it was published in 30 short chapters from March to April of 1943. One of the main characters, named Loraine “Lorry” Stuart, was engaged to a man in the U.S. Army Glider Corps. When another woman (Pat) came along to take glider lessons (and flirt with Lorry’s fiancé), Lorry became quite vindictive.
Cupid pulled the ripcord on romance when Captain Jimmy Carr helped Pat Friday adjust her parachute harness — but Loraine Stuart, the captain’s fiancee, was determined to send Pat Friday’s high-gliding dreams into a tailspin.
The author of Glider Girl was journalist and novelist Oren Arnold (1900-1980).
Do you like the name Lorry? Do you like it more for girls or for boys?
Source: “Glider Girl.” San Bernardino Daily Sun 2 Mar. 1943: 17.
