Curiously, the word Alias — which refers to an assumed name — became a name itself in the early 1970s, when it popped up for the first time in the U.S. baby name data:
- 1973: 5 baby boys named Alias
- 1972: 6 baby boys named Alias
- 1971: 7 baby boys named Alias [debut]
- 1970: unlisted
- 1969: unlisted
What put it there?
The TV western Alias Smith and Jones, which premiered on ABC in 1971 and lasted until 1973.
The lead characters were a pair of former outlaws trying to reform, so they used aliases:
- Hannibal Heyes (played initially by actor Pete Duel) went by “Joshua Smith”
- Jedediah “Kid” Curry (played by actor Ben Murphy) went by “Thaddeus Jones”
To be clear, none of the show’s characters were actually named Alias. The show’s title did make the word seem like a name, though, and that made all the difference.
The English word alias ultimately comes from the Latin word alius, meaning “other” or “another.”
This makes the rare name Alias a distant cousin of the more familiar name Eleanor. How? Because the name Eleanor evolved out of the Occitan phrase alia Aenor, meaning “other Aenor.” (The very first Eleanor, Aliénor d’Aquitaine, was the daughter of a woman named Aenor, and hence she was the other Aenor.)
So…if your real name was Alias, would you use it, or would you go by an alias? :)
Sources: Alias – Online Etymology Dictionary, Alias Smith and Jones – Wikipedia, Eleanor – Behind the Name
