How popular is the baby name Rufus 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 Rufus.
The graph will take a few moments to load. (Don't worry, it shouldn't take 9 months!) If it's taking too long, try reloading the page.
Tuesday’s post about the Victorian-style Tylney Hall Hotel reminded me of a list of Victorian-era names that I’ve had bookmarked forever.
The list was created by amateur genealogist G. M. Atwater as a resource for writers. It contains names and name combinations that were commonly seen in the U.S. from the 1840s to the 1890s. Below is the full list (with a few minor changes).
| Victorian Era Female Names | Victorian Era Male Names |
|---|---|
|
|
Which female name and male name do you like best?
When Grammy-winning singer Chaka Khan was born in Chicago in 1953, her name was Yvette Marie Stevens.
During her teens, Yvette “met a Yoruba priest who gave her a new name…based on her orishas, or guiding spirits.” Her new names, in order, were Chaka, Adunne, Aduffe, Yemoja, Hodarhi, and Karifi.
A few years later, she married for the first time and took her husband’s surname, Khan.
Hence, the stage name Chaka Khan.
Chaka joined the funk band Rufus in 1972.
In 1975, they released their fourth studio album, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, which included the popular single “Sweet Thing.”
That year and the next, the compound name Chakakhan appeared in the U.S. baby name data:
Very likely these parents wrote the name with the space and the capital “K,” but it’s not rendered that way in the data because the SSA strips out things like spaces and internal capitalization.
The baby name Chaka also became more popular, but only for baby girls (many of whom were probably given Khan as a middle name):
| Girls named Chaka | Boys named Chaka | |
| 1977 | 87 | 16 |
| 1976 | 147 (rank: 899th) | 20 |
| 1975 | 120 | 18 |
| 1974 | 15* | 18 |
| 1973 | . | 18 |
It has since dropped off the list entirely for both genders.
Chaka Khan eventually left Rufus and began a solo career, and in 2011 she was given the 2,440th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Source: Ollison, Rashod D. “Through the Fire.” Sun [Baltimore] 28 Oct. 2003: 1E.
Did you know that many dozens of U.S. babies were given names inspired by the Klondike Gold Rush (1896-1899)?
Though the baby name Klondike has never appeared in the U.S. baby name data, it certainly would have (in both 1897 and 1898) had complete sets of data been collected during those years.
Here’s a list of many of the Klondikes (and Klondykes) I was able to find in the records. Most of the below were born in the U.S., but I threw in a couple of Canadians as well. :)
I love how some parents took the theme even further with additional given names like “Goldy” and “Alaska.” Others decided to commemorate war hero George Dewey or U.S. President William McKinley.
The alternative spelling, Klondyke, was almost as prevalent in the records as the standard spelling. No doubt the newspapers — which regularly spelled the word with a “y” for some reason — were an influence here.
So, how did the Klondike River — after which Klondike Gold Rush is named — come to be called “Klondike”?
The word is derived from the river’s original name: Tr’ondëk in the Hän language. Tr’ondëk means “hammerstone,” which refers to the large stones used to hammer stakes into the riverbed to create fishing weirs (which trapped fish such as salmon).
What are your thoughts on the name Klondike?
Sources: The Dawson City Museum – South Gallery, SSA, FamilySearch.org
Image: Klondikers ascending to the summit of Chilkoot Pass, Alaska, 1898 (public domain) by Eric A. Hegg
Want a boy name that’s not popular, but also not unheard of?
I looked through all the names at the bottom of SSA’s 2011 mega-list and found a bunch of hidden gems:
(In some cases, a different spelling of the name is more popular than what’s shown here. For instance, Laurence is rare, but Lawrence is moderately popular.)
Like any of these?
Spot any other good names at the end of the list?
P.S. Here’s the girls’ list.
Image: Adapted from Birmanian rock crystals by Mauro Cateb under CC BY-SA 3.0.
.jpeg){kind=link}
