Baby Name: Rissa

This one took me years to figure out.

The curious name Rise debuted in the Social Security Administration data in 1942:

• 1944: 13 baby girls named Rise
• 1943: 7 baby girls named Rise
• 1942: 15 baby girls named Rise [debut]
• 1941: unlisted
• 1940: unlisted

“Rise”? Huh.

Rise was the 4th-most-popular debut name that year, and not far behind (in 7th place) was the somewhat similar Risa:

• 1944: 12 baby girls named Risa
• 1943: 5 baby girls named Risa
• 1942: 12 baby girls named Risa [debut]
• 1941: unlisted
• 1940: unlisted

Later in the ’40s, names like Reesa and Rissa popped up. And in the ’50s, names like Riesa and Reisa appeared. So there was definitely a minor Ris– trend going on in the mid-20th century, with “Rise” being the unlikely top variant.

But because “Rise” is also a vocabulary word, I had no luck pinning down the source. (It’s ridiculously hard to research word-names on the internet. I’m still stumped on Memory and Treasure.) Eventually I gave up.

Years later, as I was grabbing an image for the Finesse post, the answer landed right in front of me in the form of a cigarette ad:

The full-page advertisement for Camels from a 1953 issue of LIFE magazine featured a “lovely star of the Metropolitan Opera” named Risë Stevens. I knew right away that this glamorous-looking lady — and her diaeresis! — was the solution to the “Rise” puzzle.

Mezzo-soprano Risë Stevens was born Risë Steenberg in New York City in 1913. Her first name is pronounced REE-sah or REE-suh. Here’s how she explained it:

“It’s Norwegian; it was my grandmother’s name and my great-grandmother’s name. In school I was called everything but Rise; I was called Rose; I was called Rise {rhyming with “eyes”}; I was called Risé {rhyming with “play”}; even Teresa. In school, it was terrible; I would have arguments with the teachers. I would say, ‘I should know how to pronounce my own name.'”

(One source suggests that the name Risë is related to the Latin word risus, meaning “laughter.”)

So what was an opera singer doing in a national advertising campaign? Shouldn’t those be reserved for Hollywood stars? Well, turns out she was a Hollywood star — at least for a time. She sang professionally from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, but in the early 1940s she gave acting a shot.

Her first film, released in late 1941, was the musical The Chocolate Soldier. Notice how her dots were left off the movie poster:

This film accounts for the 1942 debut of both “Rise” and the phonetic respelling Risa.

Risë Stevens ultimately left Hollywood and returned to the opera — and she managed to bring at least a portion of her movie audience with her:

“I probably would never have reached that vast public had I not done films,” she said. “At least, I won a lot of people over to opera.”

This explains why Risë Stevens, often called the greatest Carmen of her generation, was being featured in advertisements and on television talk shows more than a decade later. And why her unique name therefore saw peak usage in the 1950s.

If you want to know more about Risë (and hear her sing!) here’s a Risë Stevens Tribute video created by the National Endowment for the Arts.

P.S. Risë Stevens had a granddaughter named Marisa — a combination of the names of her grandmothers, Maria and Risë. Risë Stevens’ son told her that he went with the -a ending instead of the -ë ending because he was “not going to put her through what you’ve been through.”

Sources:

• Hajela, Deepti. “Mezzo-soprano opera star Rise Stevens dies at 99” Omaha World-Herald 21 Mar. 2013.
• McLellan, Joseph. “Rise Stevens, a ‘Carmen’ for the Ages.” Washington Post 2 Dec. 1990.
• Pennino, John. Risë Stevens: A Life in Music. Fort Worth, TX: Baskerville Publishers, 1999.
• Risë Stevens – Wikipedia
• Risus – Latin Word Study Tool

Second image: © 1953 Life