The baby name Kaycee looks rather modern, but it first popped up in the U.S. baby name data way back in the 1950s:
- 1957: 13 baby girls named Kaycee
- 1956: unlisted
- 1955: 5 baby girls named Kaycee [debut]
- 1954: unlisted
- 1953: unlisted
The similar name Kayce appeared at the same time:
- 1957: 6 baby girls named Kayce
- 1956: 5 baby girls named Kayce
- 1955: 6 baby girls named Kayce [debut]
- 1954: unlisted
- 1953: unlisted
Where did they come from?
A singer called Kay Cee Jones.
She was born with the name Ruthie Reece in late 1929, and as a schoolgirl she sang on the radio in Phoenix, Arizona.
Her first singles came out under the stage name “Kay Cee Jones” in 1955. The one that got the biggest advertising push was called “The Japanese Farewell Song.” It peaked at #52 on Billboard‘s “Hot 100” chart in early 1956.
Here’s it is:
The song was also called “Sayonara” sometimes, which gets confusing once 1957 comes along and suddenly there’s another song called “Sayonara” on the airwaves. They’re different songs, though — Kay Cee’s “Sayonara” was created by Hasegawa Yoshida* (composer) and Freddy Morgan (lyricist), whereas the second “Sayonara,” written by Irving Berlin, was associated with the 1957 Marlon Brando movie of the same name.
It looks like Kay Cee released a few more singles over the next few years…but nothing after 1958.
What are your thoughts on the name Kaycee? Do you like it more or less than Ruthie?
Sources:
- Hosokawa, Shuhei. “Soy Sauce Music: Haruomi Hosono and Japanese Self-Orientalism.” Widening the Horizon: Exoticism in Post-War Popular Music, ed. by Philip Hayward, John Libbey Publishing, 1999, pp. 114-144.
- Kay Cee Jones Discography
- KOY – The voice of Phoenix since 1921
- Whitburn, Joel. Joel Whitburn’s Top Pop Singles 1955-2006. Menomonee Falls, WI: Record Research, 2007.
*According to one source, Hasegawa Yoshida “is supposedly a Japanese-American but the credit may be a pseudonym of an American because both Hasegawa and Yoshida are last names.”