How popular is the baby name Ross 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 Ross.

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Popularity of the baby name Ross


Posts that mention the name Ross

What gave the baby name Tracee a boost in 1973?

Tracee Joy Silberstein on lap of mom Diana Ross (1973)
Tracee Joy Silberstein (b. 1972)

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Tracee more than doubled in usage from 1972 to 1973:

  • 1975: 95 baby girls named Tracee
  • 1974: 138 baby girls named Tracee [rank: 918th]
  • 1973: 313 baby girls named Tracee [rank: 536th]
  • 1972: 124 baby girls named Tracee [rank: 978th]
  • 1971: 99 baby girls named Tracee

What caused that spike?

A celebrity baby named Tracee Joy.

She was born in October of 1972 to Diana Ross, former lead singer of The Supremes, and music executive Robert Ellis Silberstein.

Tracee’s birth was mentioned in the newspapers in late 1972, but, more importantly, photos of her family (which included older sister Rhonda Suzanne) were featured in Ebony magazine in January of 1973.

Today, Tracee — known professionally as Tracee Ellis Ross — is an actress best known for her role as Dr. Rainbow “Bow” Johnson on the sitcom Black-ish (2014-2022).

What are your thoughts on the name Tracee? (Do you like this spelling, or do you prefer Tracy?)

P.S. Diana Ross’ three other (biological) children are named Chudney Lane, Ross Arne, and Evan Olav.

Sources:

Image: Clipping from the cover of Ebony magazine (Jul. 1973)

What popularized the baby name Lanny in the 1930s?

Radio singer Lanny Ross (1906-1988)
Lanny Ross

The name Lanny had popped up several times in the U.S. baby name data before re-emerging in 1933 with two dozen baby boys:

  • 1937: 174 baby boys named Lanny [rank: 429th]
  • 1936: 133 baby boys named Lanny [rank: 493rd]
  • 1935: 123 baby boys named Lanny [rank: 520th]
  • 1934: 93 baby boys named Lanny [rank: 620th]
  • 1933: 24 baby boys named Lanny
  • 1932: unlisted
  • 1931: 8 baby boys named Lanny
  • 1930: unlisted
  • 1929: unlisted

Usage of the name continued to climb over the rest of the decade and into the next; Lanny reached its highest-ever ranking (299th) in 1942.

So, what spurred the rise of Lanny during the 1930s?

Radio singer Lanny Ross (born Lancelot Patrick Ross in Seattle in 1906).

Lanny Ross first sang over the airwaves as a member of the Yale Glee Club in 1928. Over the next few years, while attending law school at Columbia University, he gave solo performances on radio shows like Troubadour of the Moon.

When he completed his law degree in 1931, NBC offered him a radio show of his own, at a salary five times greater than that offered by a law firm that was also courting him.

He could be heard on several shows, in fact.

One of them, Maxwell House Show Boat, was a weekly, hour-long program notable for “combining a dramatic plot with music and comedy” and having a cast of more than fifty performers. Show Boat, which premiered in October of 1932, quickly became one of the top radio shows in the country — and Lanny Ross was its breakout star.

By the end of the first year, Ross was the sensation of Radio Row, propelled into front ranks by his boyish good looks (as radio fans could see on every heartthrob magazine) and his clear tenor voice.

In the summer of 1934, the readers of Radio Stars magazine voted for their favorite artists, and Lanny Ross placed second in the “male popular singer” category (after Bing Crosby).

During and after his time on Show Boat, Lanny Ross was featured on various other programs, including The Packard Hour, Your Hit Parade, and Camel Caravan. He could be heard regularly on the radio until the mid-1950s.

He also released dozens of recordings over the course of his career. For instance, here’s his rendition of the 1934 song “Stay As Sweet As You Are”:

Remarkably, several hundred of the boys named “Lanny” during the 1930s, 1940s, and early 1950s were given the middle name “Ross.” Some examples:

What are your thoughts on the name Lanny? Do you like it as a standalone name, or do you prefer it as a nickname (for names like Landon, Lance, Orlando, and Leonard)?

P.S. In the late 1940s, Lanny Ross hosted a television program called The Swift Show. It aired weekly on NBC — just like Girl About Town, hosted by Kyle MacDonnell.

Sources:

Image: Clipping from Radio Stars magazine (Aug. 1934)

What popularized the baby name Jonah in the mid-1990s?

The character Jonah Baldwin from the movie "Sleepless in Seattle" (1993)
Jonah Baldwin from “Sleepless in Seattle“

The name Jonah saw a sharp increase in usage during the 1990s, according to the U.S. baby name data:

  • 1996: 1,569 baby boys named Jonah [rank: 197th]
  • 1995: 1,370 baby boys named Jonah [rank: 215th]
  • 1994: 1,178 baby boys named Jonah [rank: 245th]
  • 1993: 449 baby boys named Jonah [rank: 469th]
  • 1992: 225 baby boys named Jonah [rank: 693rd]
  • 1991: 246 baby boys named Jonah [rank: 649th]

What was behind the rise?

My guess is a young character from the classic rom-com Sleepless in Seattle, which was released in June of 1993.

In the movie, Jonah Baldwin (played by Ross Malinger) was the 8-year-old son of widowed Sam Baldwin (played by Tom Hanks) of Seattle.

On Christmas Eve, Jonah called in to a radio talk show and told the host that he wished his father could find a new partner. Minutes later, Sam joined Jonah on the line and talked to the host — who dubbed him ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ — about how much he missed his late wife. (“She made everything beautiful.”)

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, Baltimore Sun reporter Annie Reed (played by Meg Ryan) happened to hear the radio show while driving. Annie, despite having a fiancé, became captivated by Sam and set out to find him. (“What if this man is my destiny and I never meet him?”)

After some sleuthing, Annie found Sam’s address and wrote him a letter proposing that they meet atop the Empire State Building on Valentine’s Day. (Hundreds of other women had also written letters to Sam [via the radio show], but Jonah liked Annie’s letter best because it mentioned Baltimore baseball player Brooks Robinson.)

I won’t divulge the rest of the plot, but, as film critic Roger Ebert noted in his review, Sleepless in Seattle was essentially “about two people who are destined for one another.”

It was also the eighth-highest-grossing movie of 1993. (In tenth place that year was The Pelican Brief.)

The biblical name Jonah is derived from the Hebrew word yona, which means “dove.” (The similar name Jonas has the same origin.)

What are your thoughts on the name Jonah?

P.S. Sleepless in Seattle also managed to nudge the usage of the rare name Seattle above the SSA’s five-baby threshold for the first time ever in 1994.

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of Sleepless in Seattle

How did “Poldark” influence U.S. baby names in the late 1970s?

The characters Ross Poldark and Demelza Carne from the British TV series "Poldark" (1975-1977).
Ross and Demelza from “Poldark“

The curious name Demelza first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1978:

  • 1980: unlisted
  • 1979: 6 baby girls named Demelza
  • 1978: 6 baby girls named Demelza [debut]
  • 1977: unlisted
  • 1976: unlisted

Where did it come from?

The character Demelza Carne from the BBC television series Poldark, which aired in the U.S. — as part of Masterpiece Theater, on PBS — from 1977 to 1978. (It was originally broadcast in the UK from 1975 to 1977.)

The 29-episode series, based on the Poldark novels by author Winston Graham, was set in Cornwall during the last two decades of the 1700s.

The protagonist was Ross Poldark (played by Robin Ellis), who, at the start of the story, had just returned to Cornwall after fighting for the British in the American Revolutionary War.

The character Demelza Carne from the British TV series "Poldark" (1975-1977).
Demelza Carne from “Poldark“

In the second episode, Ross impulsively hired 13-year-old Demelza Carne (played by actress Angharad Rees) as a housemaid.

Over the next several episodes (which cover several years), Demelza grew to become a “smart and vivacious and charming” young woman. She and Ross eventually got married.

Demelza’s name is not a traditional Cornish personal name. Instead, it’s a Cornish place name. The meaning isn’t known for certain, but one theory holds that it refers to an “eel house” (which would be a fitting definition, given the history of the fishing industry in Cornwall).

Other Poldark characters also influenced U.S. baby names. Thanks to Ross Poldark, for instance, the baby name Ross started rising again in 1977. And Ross’s cousin, the good-natured Verity Poldark, boosted the virtue name Verity to then-peak usage the same year.

Boys named RossGirls named Verity
19791,002 [rank: 227th]17
1978919 [rank: 229th]13
1977823 [rank: 250th]20
1976680 [rank: 279th]7
1975678 [rank: 283rd].

During the second half of the 2010s, the BBC released a brand new, five-season adaptation of Poldark.

The name Demelza re-emerged in the U.S. data (after a absence of nearly four decades) in 2018. The same year, the name Verity, which was already on the rise, saw a higher-than-expected increase in usage.

And in 2020, the traditional Cornish name Morwenna, which is based on an Old Cornish word meaning “maiden,” made its first appearance in the U.S. data:

  • 2022: unlisted
  • 2021: 8 baby girls named Morwenna
  • 2020: 16 baby girls named Morwenna [debut]
  • 2019: unlisted
  • 2018: unlisted

Character Morwenna Chynoweth, introduced at the start of the third season, was the governess of one of Ross Poldark’s young relatives.

What are your thoughts on these Poldarkian names? Would you use any of them?

P.S. An earlier BBC show, The Forsyte Saga, also had an influence on U.S. baby names…

Sources:

Images: Screenshots of Poldark