How popular is the baby name Sioux 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 Sioux.
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A few years ago, a San Francisco newspaper ran a profile of fallen soldier Sgt. Cheyenne Willey (1969-2005), who’d died in combat near Baghdad. The profile noted that Cheyenne had been “[n]amed for the helicopter that helped his father out of a scrape in Vietnam.”
That helicopter must have been the Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne attack helicopter, which was used by the Army in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
(This story makes me wonder if the baby name Sioux, which started popping up in the U.S. data in the ’50s, wasn’t influenced by the Korean War’s “Angel of Mercy” Bell H-13 Sioux helicopter.)
Last week, Becca commented with some interesting Jeopardy! contestant names (e.g., Hobie, Dorcas) and mentioned J! Archive, which lists tens of thousands of Jeopardy! contestants going back to 1984, when the show premiered.
I skimmed through all the contestants from 1984 to 2015 (as we don’t have baby name data for 2016 yet) and spotted hundreds of unusual names. And it looks like at least two of them got a boost thanks to the show.
Alancia
The name Alancia was a one-hit wonder that popped up in the U.S. baby name data in 2000:
2002: unlisted
2001: unlisted
2000: 9 baby girls named Alancia [debut]
1999: unlisted
1998: unlisted
One-time player Alancia Wynn, a family practice physician from Virginia, was on Jeopardy! in October of 1999.
Brannon
The name Brannon saw an increase in usage in 1998:
2000: 116 baby boys named Brannon
1999: 118 baby boys named Brannon
1998: 158 baby boys named Brannon [peak]
1997: 113 baby boys named Brannon
1996: 114 baby boys named Brannon
One-time player Brannon Denning, a graduate student from Connecticut, was on Jeopardy! in September of 1998. (Looks like Brannon Denning is now a law professor at Samford University.)
Alaric & Ezgi …?
These two names may have gotten a slight boost as well, though it’s hard to tell.
Alaric, in 2005. One-time player Alaric Smith was on the show in October of 2005.
Ezgi, in 2015. One-time player Ezgi Ustundag was on the show in October of 2015.
Ezgi is a female name that means “melody” in Turkish.
Anjali (false positive)
“Kids Week” contestant Anjali Tripathi was on the show in September of 1999. The same year, the baby name Anjali more than doubled in usage:
2001: 222 baby girls named Anjali
2000: 230 baby girls named Anjali
1999: 202 baby girls named Anjali
1998: 93 baby girls named Anjali
1997: 80 baby girls named Anjali
But this was a suspiciously steep rise. And it was accompanied by the debut of an alternate spelling (Anjalie). And usage didn’t drop back to normal levels the next year, as one would expect. These facts pointed me to something more high-profile than a Jeopardy! contestant.
Turns out the very successful Hindi coming-of-age romantic comedy Kuch Kuch Hota Hai had been released in 1998. The movie featured not one but two main characters named Anjali.
More names!
Here are the rest of the names that caught my eye, sorted by year:
Like Gone with the Wind and How Green Was My Valley, High Hat was a story that influenced U.S. baby names not once but twice: first in written form, then in movie form.
Originally called High Hat: A Radio Romance, the story was written by Alma Sioux Scarberry. (Her middle name was originally “Sue,” but she changed it when she learned she was part Native American — Cherokee specifically, not actually Sioux.) It was serialized in the newspapers in 1930 — from March to May, in most of them. It was published as a standalone book over the summer.
The main character, Elanda Lee, was a singer with “high hat” ambitions: she worked in radio, but wanted to become an opera star. Her love interest was popular radio star Suwanee Collier, who she initially dismissed because he was “only a ukulele player.” In the end, “[s]he stoops to conquer by becoming the most popular girl on the radio programs singing the praises of complexion soap.” (Here’s a longer synopsis of High Hat, if you’re interested.)
And in 1930, right on cue, the baby name Elanda debuted in the U.S. baby name data:
1932: unlisted
1931: 6 baby girls named Elanda
1930: 19 baby girls named Elanda [debut & peak usage]
1929: unlisted
1928: unlisted
A number of these Elandas also got the middle name Lee. (Here are examples from graveyards in Kansas, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Alabama.)
…But it doesn’t end there. Because in early 1937, the movie High Hat was released. (Here’s a complete copy of High Hat up at the Internet Archive, if you’d like to watch.) And it seems that, in the movie, Swanee — now being spelled like the Gershwin song — was the central character. He ultimately helped classically trained singer Elanda adapt to the trend of “swing” music.
The same year, the baby name Swanee was a one-hit wonder in the data, showing up as a girl name. (This is one of several baby names that came from male character, yet popped up on the girls’ side of the list. Another example is Kookie.)
1939: unlisted
1938: unlisted
1937: 5 baby girls named Swanee [debut]
1936: unlisted
1935: unlisted
Curiously, the baby name Elanda did not re-emerge in ’37. That said, the name “Landa” did pop up the next year…perhaps there’s a connection?
What are your thoughts on the names Elanda and Swanee?
Please note that I did include names in the gray area between one syllable and two syllables. The deciding factor on these particular names will be your own interpretation/accent, so be sure to test the names out loud before making any final decisions. (“Hayle,” for instance — would you say it like Hale, or like Hailey? Or “Rise” — is it rize, or ree-sah?)
Many of these names also happen to be unisex, so they appear on the one-syllable boy names list as well.
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