According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Shawnte reached the girls’ top 1,000 for the first and only time in 1977:
- 1979: 89 baby girls named Shawnte
- 1978: 113 baby girls named Shawnte
- 1977: 207 baby girls named Shawnte [rank: 745th]
- 1976: 32 baby girls named Shawnte
- 1975: 22 baby girls named Shawnte
A slew of other spellings also saw higher usage that year. Examples include Shante, Shawnta, Chante, Shaunte, Shaunta, Shonta, Shantae, Shawntay, Shauntay, Shawntee, Shonte, Shontay, and, most notably, Shawntae — the fastest-rising girl name of 1977.
What caused this sudden interest in the name Shawnte?
A Mouseketeer named Shawnte Northcutte.
She was part of The New Mickey Mouse Club — Disney’s attempt to revive the original Mickey Mouse Club of the 1950s.
The new version of the variety show featured disco-inspired music and a more ethnically diverse cast.
It premiered in January of 1977. (In fact, several days before it began, the new Mouseketeers were introduced to television audiences during the Disney-produced halftime show of Superbowl XI.)
The New Mickey Mouse Club “couldn’t recapture the magic of the original,” however, and was discontinued after just six months. Reruns finally stopped airing in January of 1979.
Interestingly, Shawnte Northcutte pronounced her first name two different ways. Sometimes she emphasized the first syllable (SHAWN-tay), as in the first episode [vid] of the show, and other times she emphasized the second syllable (shawn-TAY), as in the tenth episode [vid].
What are your thoughts on the name Shawnte? (How would you spell it?)
Sources:
- The Mickey Mouse Club – Wikipedia
- Mickey Mouse Club (television) – D23
- Armstrong, Jennifer. Why? Because We Still Like You: An Oral History of the Mickey Mouse Club. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2010.
- SSA
Image: Screenshot of The New Mickey Mouse Club