Welcome to mystery week! This is the first of 5 posts featuring baby names that saw sudden popularity increases that I can’t quite figure out. Maybe you guys can help?
In 1980, over 100 baby girls were suddenly given the name Sumiko (or some variant thereof):
Name | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Sumiko | 5 | 31 | 7 | 5 |
Semiko | – | 23* | 8 | – |
Samika | 7 | 22 | 20 | 14 |
Sameka | 12 | 21 | 12 | 9 |
Sumeka | – | 14* | – | – |
Sumika | – | 11* | – | – |
Semeka | – | 8 | 7 | 6 |
Sameko | – | 7* | – | – |
Samica | – | 7 | – | – |
Semico | – | 7* | – | – |
Simeko | – | 7* | – | – |
Sumeko | – | 7* | – | – |
Semeko | – | 6* | – | – |
Semika | – | 6 | 7 | 7 |
Sameika | – | 5* | – | – |
What prompted the Sumiko spike? I’m not sure.
The various spellings suggest that people were hearing the name, but not seeing it written down (as with Kasara and Deirdre). So the source is likely to be a song, a movie, or a TV show.
The only possibility I’ve come up with so far is a minor character from The Young and The Restless named Sumiko. According to various soap opera websites, Sumiko was a cult leader (!) who began appearing on the show in early 1980.
Do you have any other ideas?