How popular is the baby name Patsy 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 Patsy.

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Popularity of the baby name Patsy


Posts that mention the name Patsy

Loretta Lynn named her baby after Patsy Cline

Country singer Loretta Lynn (1932-2022)
Loretta Lynn

In mid-1961, up-and-coming country singer Loretta Lynn moved to Nashville and met established country singer Patsy Cline.

Cline quickly became both a friend and a mentor to Lynn. In her 1976 memoir, Lynn explained:

She taught me a lot of things about show business, like how to go on to a stage and how to get off. She even bought me a lot of clothes. Many times when she bought something for herself, she would buy me the same thing. […] She even bought curtains and drapes for my house because I was too broke to buy them.

In March of 1963, at the height of her career, Patsy Cline died in a plane crash in Camden, Tennessee.

The following year, Loretta Lynn and her husband welcomed their last two children — twin girls. One was named Peggy Jean after Lynn’s sister Peggy Sue, the other was named Patsy Eileen after Patsy Cline.

I named my daughter after Patsy. That’s how much she meant to me. When I had my twins the year after Patsy died, I named them Peggy and Patsy. If only Patsy had been there for that. She’d have liked it.

Loretta Lynn’s four older children were named Betty Sue, Jack Benny, Ernest Ray, and Clara Marie.

P.S. Patsy Cline’s birth name was Virginia Patterson Hensley.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from LorettaLynn1960s (public domain)

Where did the baby name Shireen come from in 1923?

The characters Omar and Shireen from the movie "Omar the Tentmaker" (1922)
Omar and Shireen from “Omar the Tentmaker“

The baby name Shireen first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1923:

  • 1925: unlisted
  • 1924: unlisted
  • 1923: 5 baby girls named Shireen [debut]
  • 1922: unlisted
  • 1921: unlisted

A similar uptick can be seen in the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) data the same year:

  • 1925: 3 people named Shireen
  • 1924: 2 people named Shireen
  • 1923: 4 people named Shireen
  • 1922: no one named Shireen
  • 1921: 1 person named Shireen

What was drawing attention to the name Shireen around that time?

Two different characters in the silent film Omar the Tentmaker, which was released in December of 1922.

The movie was loosely based on the life of medieval Iranian polymath Omar Khayyam. Here’s how it was described in an advertisement:

Omar, most daring poet of ancient Persia, secretly wooed the beautiful, the forbidden Shireen, destined to be the bride of the Shah. Fleeing in the night, the Shah’s slaves tear them apart. Follows thrill, romance and conflict before the lovers are reunited in a most spectacular and smashing climax.

The plot, which spans a number of years, actually features two romances: the primary one between Omar (played by Guy Bates Post) and Shireen (Virginia Brown Faire), and a secondary one between the couple’s grown daughter “little Shireen” (Patsy Ruth Miller) and a Christian crusader.

The film was adapted from the 1914 play of the same name by playwright Richard Walton Tully.

The Persian name Shireen (also spelled Shirin) is transliteration of a Persian word meaning “sweet.” What are your thoughts on the name?

Sources:

Image: Clipping from Shadowland magazine (Oct. 1922)

Where did the baby name Valoyce come from in 1925?

Valoyce Conklin
Valoyce Conklin

In 1925, the rare name Valoyce was a one-hit wonder in the U.S. baby name data:

  • 1927: unlisted
  • 1926: unlisted
  • 1925: 8 baby girls named Valoyce
  • 1924: unlisted
  • 1923: unlisted

It was one of the top one-hit wonders of the year, in fact.

Where did the name come from?

Valoyce Conklin, a 4-year-old girl in California who was featured in the newspapers in 1925 because of an unusual court case.

Valoyce and several other children were living at a mansion in Oakland called Hickory Hall, which was apparently being used for two distinct purposes: as a boardinghouse for young children, and as the headquarters of the “Oakland Metaphysical Society.”

You’d think these two things wouldn’t mix well together, and…you’d be right. Because Valoyce’s adoptive mother, Ildica Conklin — apparently a former member of the Society — took Joyce Leech, the head of Hickory Hall, to court in January of 1925 in order to regain custody of Valoyce. The papers referred to Leech as the “high priestess” of a “religious cult.”

Mrs. Conklin testified that women members of the Society had been “forced to disrobe and submit to beatings at the hands of other women members.” She also testified that the children had been abused, e.g., “whipped with ropes.”

In the end, Ildica was able to regain custody of Valoyce.

The court case prompted local officials* to investigate Hickory Hall, but the investigation didn’t lead to any charges. Two years later, though, Hickory Hall was back in the headlines due to similar allegations (this time, the child was named Patsy). I’m not sure what the outcome of the second court case was, or what became of the Oakland Metaphysical Society.

What are your thoughts on the baby name Valoyce? Would you use it for a modern-day baby?

*One of the investigators was District Attorney Earl Warren, who went on to become Chief Justice of the United States.

P.S. Curious about the name “Ildica”? My best guess is that it’s a form of the traditional Hungarian feminine name Ildikó. Ildica Conklin (née Eisenmayer) was born in Illinois in 1870. Incidentally, she was the widow of San Diego sheriff Ralph Conklin (who’d died in 1918).

Sources:

  • “Abuse Tales of Hickory Hall Probed.” Oakland Tribune 14 Feb. 1925: 1.
  • Advertisement for Hickory Hall (in “Children Boarded” section). Oakland Tribune 2 Apr. 1921: 13.
  • “Court Probe of Whipping of Child Set for Hearing.” Oakland Tribune 20 Jan. 1927: 29.
  • “Cult Sensation.” Daily News [New York] 3 Feb. 1925: 15.
  • “‘I Don’t Mind Being a Witness,’ Child Smiles at Judge.” Oakland Tribune 3 Feb. 1927: 2.
  • “In ‘Hickory Hall’ Battle.” Oakland Tribune 27 Jan. 1925: 1.
  • “Mystic Cult of Women Bared in Mother’s Fight to Gain Captive Child.” Bee [Danville] 10 Feb. 1925: 11.
  • “Women of Cult Beat One Another, Apostate Declares.” Daily Times [Longmont] 27 Jan. 1925: 2.
  • SSA

Where did the baby name Patsyann come from in 1933?

The compound name Patsyann (Patsy Ann) was a one-hit wonder in the U.S. baby name data, making its single appearance during the 1930s:

  • 1935: unlisted
  • 1934: unlisted
  • 1933: 7 baby girls named Patsyann [debut]
  • 1932: unlisted
  • 1931: unlisted

What put it there? I think the influence was the mystery tale Outrageous Fortune by British author Patricia Wentworth. The story was serialized in many U.S. newspapers in the autumn of 1933.

The mystery involved a shipwrecked man with amnesia. A woman named Nesta* claimed the man was her husband…but really she thought he might know the location of a certain priceless emerald necklace. In the meanwhile, the man’s cousin, a woman named Caroline, tracked him down and tried to help him recover his memory.

The protagonist was clearly Caroline, but Caroline’s roommate Patsy Ann “provide[d] an innocent diversion to the main story with her romantic life.”

In the UK the same year, Outrageous Fortune was published in book form, but under the title Seven Green Stones. Another difference between was Patsy Ann’s name: Pansy Ann in the UK. Perhaps the name had been changed from “Pansy” to “Patsy” for American readers because Patsy sounded trendier than Pansy in the U.S. at the time. The slang meaning of pansy, though relatively new in the ’30s, might have been a factor as well.

(If “Patsy Ann” sounds familiar to longtime readers, I blogged about Patsy Ann, the famous dog from Alaska, a couple of years ago.)

*The name Nesta got a boost in 1934.

Sources: Patricia Wentworth – Wikipedia, Outrageous Fortune by Patricia Wentworth – Northern Reader, Pansy – Online Etymology Dictionary, SSA