How popular is the baby name Shalako in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Find out using the graph below! Plus, check out all the blog posts that mention the name Shalako.

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Popularity of the Baby Name Shalako


Posts that Mention the Name Shalako

Blogiversary: NBN’s sweet sixteen

birthday cake

Nancy’s Baby Names was launched on March 6, 2006. So today is the blog’s birthday.

In fact, it’s the blog’s sweet sixteen!

Happy birthday, NBN. :)

Image by diapicard from Pixabay

Interesting one-hit wonder names in the U.S. baby name data

tulips

They came, they went, and they never came back!

These baby names are one-hit wonders in the U.S. baby name data. That is, they’ve only popped up once, ever, in the entire dataset of U.S. baby names (which accounts for all names given to at least 5 U.S. babies per year since 1880).

There are thousands of one-hit wonders in the dataset, but the names below have interesting stories behind their single appearance, so these are the one-hits I’m writing specific posts about. Just click on a name to read more.

1890s

1900s

  • (none yet)

1910s

1920s

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

  • (none yet)

As I discover (and write about) more one-hit wonders in the data, I’ll add the names/links to this page. In the meanwhile, do you have any favorite one-hit wonder baby names?

P.S. You might also be interested in this list of the top one-hit wonder baby names since 1880…

Where did the baby name Shalako come from in 1970?

Movie poster for "Shalako" (1968)
“Shalako” movie poster

The unusual name Shalako was a one-hit wonder in the U.S. baby name data in 1970:

  • 1972: unlisted
  • 1971: unlisted
  • 1970: 6 baby boys named Shalako [debut]
  • 1969: unlisted
  • 1968: unlisted

Where did it come from?

The movie Shalako, released toward the end of 1968. It was a Western starring Sean Connery as main character Moses Zebulon “Shalako” Carlin, a tracker and former cavalry officer. (Shalako’s love interest was played by Brigitte Bardot.)

In the story, set in New Mexico in 1880, Shalako had to rescue a group of European aristocrats that had decided to go hunting on reservation land and, as a result, gotten in trouble with the local Apaches.

The film was based on a 1962 novel by Louis L’Amour. Here’s how Shalako explained his unusual name in the book:

Name of the Zuni rain god. Seemed like every time I showed up in their country it rained, so they called me that for a joke.

For a time during the 1960s, L’Amour and others tried to build a working Old West town called Shalako in southwestern Colorado, but the town never materialized.

What are your thoughts on Shalako as a baby name?

Source: Shalako by Louis L’Amour – Internet Archive, Shalako (1968) – TCM.com