In the late 1950s, the name Ryne debuted impressively in the U.S. baby name data:
- 1960: 10 baby boys named Ryne
- 1959: 31 baby boys named Ryne
- 1958: 21 baby boys named Ryne [debut]
- 1957: unlisted
- 1956: unlisted
Where did it come from?
It was inspired by professional baseball pitcher Rinold “Ryne” Duren, known for “[staring] down batters through thick-lensed eyeglasses and then [delivering] fastballs that might go just about anywhere.”
In fact, Duren was the inspiration for the character Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn (played by Charlie Sheen) in the 1989 movie Major League.
Duren was in the Major Leagues from 1954 to 1965, but in 1958 was a member of the World Series-winning New York Yankees. It was also the first year he was selected for the All-Star Game.
He inherited the name Rinold from his father, whose family came from Germany. Rinold, like Renault, is related to the more familiar name Reynold.
But that’s not the end of the story!
Because one of the 1959 babies named Ryne was Ryne Dee “Ryno” Sandberg, who also became a professional baseball player (second baseman). He started with Chicago Cubs in 1981 and went on to become a Hall of Famer.
He boosted the name Ryne not just back into the data, but into the top 1,000 for the first time:
- 1985: 286 baby boys named Ryne [rank: 516th]
- 1984: 199 baby boys named Ryne [rank: 605th]
- 1983: 38 baby boys named Ryne
- 1982: 31 baby boys named Ryne
- 1981: unlisted
- 1980: unlisted
Ryne Sandberg had a son in the mid-1980s, but didn’t give him a baseball-inspired name. Instead, Justin Ross got a theater-inspired name. Ryne had seen “A Chorus Line” in New York around that time and been impressed with the name of performer Justin Ross.
Do you like the name Ryne? Would you use it for a baby boy?
Sources:
- Baker, Chris. “ Sandberg takes Cubs with him on a ride to the top.” Register-Guard [Eugene, Oregon] 12 Jul. 1984: 5B.
- Goldstein, Richard. “Ryne Duren, Yankees Reliever Who Made Batters Nervous, Dies at 81.” New York Times 7 Jan. 2011.
- Ryne Duren – Wikipedia
- Ryne Sandberg – Wikipedia