How popular is the baby name Roberta 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 Roberta.

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Popularity of the baby name Roberta


Posts that mention the name Roberta

Names from WHER, America’s first all-female radio station

Dot Fisher of the radio station WHER circa 1957
Dot Fisher of WHER

Memphis-based radio station WHER (1430 AM), which was run almost entirely by women, went on the air in October of 1955. It was billed as America’s “First All-Female Radio Station.”

The station was created and funded by legendary record producer Sam Phillips — the guy who discovered Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash, among others.

WHER’s original staff included Sam’s wife Rebecca (Becky) along with seven other women: Barbara Gurley, Donna Rae Johnson, Dorothy “Dot” Fisher, Dotty Abbott, Fay Bussell, Phyllis Stimbert, and Roberta Stout.

Six of these eight ladies were on-air personalities with their own programs, each of which emphasized “some particular subject of interest to housewives” according to a 1957 source.

Which of the original WHER names do you like best?

  • Barbara
  • Donna
  • Dorothy/Dotty
  • Fay
  • Phyllis
  • Rebecca
  • Roberta

(Dotty is usually a nickname for Dorothy, so I combined them above.)

Vida Jane Butler, who joined WHER later in the ’50s, was known on-air as “Janie Joplin.” She’d been told that Vida “was considered too old-fashioned and too Southern for WHER,” and the data backs it up: the name Vida was indeed out of fashion and associated with the south at that time. These days, though, Vida is picking up steam — particularly in California. Janie, on the other hand, saw peak usage in the mid-20th century and has been in decline ever since.

Sources:

Image: Clipping from Broadcast News magazine (Apr. 1957)

26 Girl names from 1916

In early 1916, Photoplay Magazine came up with a list of potential titles for serial films using the formula established by The Perils of Pauline (1914), The Exploits of Elaine (1914), and The Hazards of Helen (1914).

(Just a few months after the above was published, The Mysteries of Myra came out.)

Which of those 26 names — Abigail, Bertha, Calpurnia, Delilah, Evangeline, Florence, Garnet, Hazel, Imogene, Jezebel, Kitty, Lizzie, Margaret, Nancy, Orillia, Priscilla, Queenie, Roberta, Sibyl, Theodosia, Ursula, Victoria, Winifred, Xanthippe, Yetta or Zira — do you like best?

And, which of those serials would you be most likely to watch? :)

Source: “Not-Yet Serials.” Photoplay Magazine Jan. 1916: 72.

Rory: Boy name or girl name?

The name Rory came up a few days ago in the quintuplet post, so I thought now would be a good time to take a closer look at Rory–especially at how pop culture has been tugging the traditionally male name over to the girls’ camp for quite some time.

First, the history. Rory is the Anglicized form of a Gaelic name that has been spelled various ways (e.g. Ruaidhri, Ruaidri, Ruari). Probably the most notable bearer was the last High King of Ireland, Ruaidri Ua Conchobair.

Rory was being used as a boy name in the U.S. long before it first popped up on the SSA’s baby name list in 1933. But this started to change in the late 1940s:

  • 1945: 20 boys
  • 1946: 37 boys
  • 1947: 73 boys, 41 girls [debut]
  • 1948: 123 boys, 43 girls
  • 1949: 149 boys, 45 girls

Those 41 baby girls in 1947 made Rory the top debut name for baby girls that year.

So what happened in 1947? The movie Stallion Road, starring actress Alexis Smith as rancher Rory Teller. (It also starred future president Ronald Reagan.)

(Interestingly, in the book Stallion Road, on which the movie was based, the lady rancher was named Fleace Teller. The screenplay was written by William Faulkner — he might have been the one to change it.)

Usage for boys stayed strong during the ’50s and ’60s with the help of actor Rory Calhoun (real name: Francis McCown). But, after Stallion Road faded from memory, usage for baby girls decreased so much that Rory fell off the girls’ list entirely for a few years in the 1960s.

And then, in December of 1968, Rory Kennedy came along.

  • 1966: 254 boys
  • 1967: 202 boys
  • 1968: 171 boys, 18 girls
  • 1969: 352 boys, 105 girls
  • 1970: 281 boys, 51 girls

Rory is the daughter of Ethel Kennedy and the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. She was born six months after her father, a presidential candidate, was assassinated. According to news articles announcing the birth, Ethel liked the name Rory because it was similar to Robert’s name without being “too obvious” (as the name Roberta would have been, she felt).

This time, the female version of Rory was able to hang on until the next pop culture boost: TV series Gilmore Girls (2000-2007).

  • 1998: 302 boys, 53 girls
  • 1999: 286 boys, 59 girls
  • 2000: 290 boys, 85 girls
  • 2001: 236 boys, 142 girls
  • 2002: 257 boys, 187 girls

Character Rory Gilmore was played by Alexis Bledel — yup, another actress name Alexis. (In both cases, though, Alexis was just a stage name. Alexis Bledel’s first name is actually Kimberly, and Alexis Smith was born Gladys Smith.)

And that leads us to today. How has Rory been used lately? It’s a close race:

  • 2007: 258 boys, 244 girls
  • 2008: 279 boys, 274 girls
  • 2009: 298 boys, 283 girls

It’ll be interesting to watch what happens in the next few years. Will usage for girls go back into decline? Will it overtake usage for boys? What do you think?

(Also, feel free to weigh in on Avery, Charlie, Elliot and Peyton.)

Source: “New Kennedy Girl May Be Named.” Schenectady Gazette 14 Dec. 1968: 2.

Where did the baby name Bobbiejo come from in 1964?

The character Bobbie Jo Bradley from the TV series "Petticoat Junction" (1963-1970)
Bobbie Jo Bradley from “Petticoat Junction“

The folksy-sounding girl name Bobbiejo didn’t start popping up in the U.S. baby name until the middle of the 1960s:

  • 1966: 11 baby girls named Bobbiejo
  • 1965: 8 baby girls named Bobbiejo
  • 1964: 7 baby girls named Bobbiejo [debut]
  • 1963: unlisted
  • 1962: unlisted

What put it there?

Television! The sitcom Petticoat Junction, which aired on CBS from 1963 to 1970, featured a trio of teenage sisters with similar nicknames:

  • Wilhelmina Josephine, “Billie Jo”
  • Roberta Josephine, “Bobbie Jo”
  • Elizabeth Josephine, “Betty Jo”

The main character was their widowed mother, Kathryn “Kate” Bradley, proprietor of the Shady Rest Hotel (located near the fictional farming community of Hooterville).

The role of middle daughter Bobbie Jo was played by actress Pat Woodell for the first two years, then by actress Lori Saunders for the rest of the show’s run.

The series also gave a boost to the baby names Betty Jo and Billie Jo in the 1960s. And when Betty Jo had a baby girl named Kathy Jo in a later season, that name got a boost as well.

The name Bobbie Jo went on to see peak usage in 1976, possibly thanks to the movie Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw (which starred Lynda Carter and Marjoe Gortner).

Which of the three “Jo” names do you like best: Billie Jo, Bobbie Jo, or Betty Jo?

Sources:

  • Petticoat Junction – Wikipedia
  • Terrace, Vincent. The Television Treasury: Onscreen Details from Sitcoms, Dramas and Other Scripted Series, 1947-2019. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2020.
  • SSA

Image: Screenshot of Petticoat Junction