How popular is the baby name Susan 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 Susan.

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Popularity of the baby name Susan


Posts that mention the name Susan

How has Halley’s Comet influenced U.S. baby names?

Photograph of Comet 1P/Halley (March 8, 1986)
Halley’s Comet (photographed in 1986)

In 1705, English astronomer Edmond Halley theorized that three historical comets that had appeared in 1531, 1607, and 1682 were actually the same comet returning over and over again. He calculated that the comet would return yet again in 1758.

And he was correct! The comet reappeared in 1758, just as Halley had predicted. So comet was named Halley in his honor in 1759.

Since then, Halley’s Comet has flown through the inner Milky Way three more times: in 1835, 1910 and 1986.

The U.S. Social Security Administration has been collecting baby name data since 1880, so let’s check out how the two most recent appearances have affected the usage of the baby name Halley…

Halley’s Comet in 1910

Halley appeared on the U.S. baby name data for the very first time, both for boys and for girls, in 1910. In fact, it was the top debut name for boys that year.

Boys named HalleyGirls named Halley
19126.
19115.
191012*11*
1909..
1908..
*Debut

The similar names Hallie and Haley also saw increased usage in 1910.

But the SSA data didn’t start reflecting real numbers until the ’30s. So I checked the Social Security Death Index (SSDI), which indicates that the total number of babies named Halley in 1910 was actually much higher:

  • 1912: 15 people named Halley born
  • 1911: 8 people named Halley born
  • 1910: 119 people named Halley born
  • 1909: 14 people named Halley born
  • 1908: 3 people named Halley born

Some of the Halleys named specifically for the comet include:

  • Halley Comett Johnston, boy, born on April 13, 1910, to Jessie Johnston and Addie Webb of North Carolina.
  • Halley Reed Palmer, boy, born on May 10, 1910, to Mr. and Mrs. John Palmer of Milton, Oregon.
  • Halley Couch, boy, born on May 21, 1910, in Stockbridge, Wisconsin. (The night of his birth, “his father and older brother watched Halley’s Comet fly over their home. They were so impressed with the sight that they named the baby Halley.”)

I also found 1910 babies named Halie Comet Wood (boy), Estyr Halley Abrams (girl), Comet Halley Briggs (boy), and Aerial Comet Roath (boy).

Speaking of Comet…the SSDI data reveals that at least 10 people were named Comet in 1910, and that one of these 10 happened to have the surname Halley. Also born in 1910: a Comette, a Cometniss, a Cometa, and two Comettas.

Halley’s Comet in 1986

Graph of the usage of the baby name Halley in the U.S since 1880
Usage of the baby name Halley

The name Halley was given another big boost by the comet in 1986:

Boys named HalleyGirls named Halley
1988.71
1987.69
198622†333†
198510146
1984.25
†Peak usage

The name saw peak usage for both baby boys and baby girls that year. In fact, the surge in usage among girls bumped Halley well into the girls’ top 1,000 (with a rank of ranking of 580th!) for the first (and, so far, only) time. American parents of the ’80s clearly thought of Halley as more of a female name than a male name.

The only Halley-baby I noticed in the newspapers in 1986 was from Canada: Halley Marie Mullen, a baby girl born to Susan and Brendan Mullen of Ottawa on January 4.

It’s hard to know how much the comet’s return affected the usage of other spellings of the name (like Hailey and Hayley) because the entire name-group was starting to become trendy around that time. That said, the graphs for Hallie and Hali show that these particular variants saw a discernible increase usage in 1986, while, very interestingly, the graph for Haley reveals a dip in usage that year.

Halley’s Comet in 2061

Halley’s Comet is due back in mid-2061. Do you think we’ll see a spike in the number of babies named Halley that year? Why or why not?

P.S. Though many people pronounce Halley to rhyme with the word “daily,” the surname is traditionally pronounced to rhyme with the word “valley.”

Sources:

  • Halley’s Comet – Wikipedia
  • “Names Baby After the Comet.” Spokesman-Review 22 May 1910: 1.
  • “Parents hope Halley sees comet’s return.” Ottawa Citizen 7 Jan. 1986: B2.
  • “A Rotarian named Halley.” Rotarian Apr. 1986: 9, 11.
  • “Semi-Weekly News.” Deseret Evening News 20 May 1910: 12.
  • “Squints Slip on the ‘Scope.” Los Angeles Times 20 May 1910: I2.
  • U.S. SSDI (current as of February 28, 2014)

Babies named via radio in the 1920s

Antique cathedral radio

Since the 1990s, expectant parents have been using the internet to ask complete strangers for baby name suggestions.

Crowdsourcing via cutting-edge technology — seems thoroughly modern, doesn’t it? It’s been going on for a few decades now, sure, but it’s a distinctly “information age” sort of practice, right?

That’s what I would have said…before discovering that expectant parents were using cutting-edge technology to crowdsource for baby names over 80 years ago.

How?

Radio!

During the first years of the 20th century, radio was used by the military for two-way wireless communication. Around 1920, it began to be used for one-way communication to larger audiences. This was called “broadcasting” (as opposed to “narrowcasting”).

Before long, expectant parents began asking radio stations for help coming up with baby names.

Early radio wasn’t recorded, so there’s no telling how many babies were named via radio. Luckily, newspapers ran stories on at least a handful of these radio-named babies. (That’s how I learned about them.)

The first instances I know of occurred in early 1923. This is long before the founding of broadcast networks such as NBC (1926) and CBS (1927), which were radio-based before making the jump to television years later.

Here’s what I’ve found so far:

1923: Winifred Susan Beatrice

Mr. and Mrs. J. S. Coker of Atlanta welcomed a baby girl in February, 1923. Two months later, they wrote to local station WSB, owned by the Atlanta Journal, for help naming their daughter.

The station didn’t broadcast the request. Instead, station manager Lambdin Kay came up with “Winifred Susan Beatrice,” based on the call letters of the station.

1923: William Grady Moseley

Mr. and Mrs. George F. Pollock of Atlanta welcomed a baby boy in March, 1923. Two months later, they wrote to local station WGM, owned by the Atlanta Constitution, for help naming their son.

William’s name also wasn’t crowdsourced. The station came up with “William Grady Moseley,” based on the call letters of the station. (William was for the baby’s grandfather; Grady was for orator Henry W. Grady; Moseley was for station director Lass O. Moseley.)

1923: Jean…?

Ok, here’s our first real case of crowdsourcing.

R. R. Brown, pastor of the Omaha Gospel Tabernacle in Omaha, Nebraska, welcomed a baby girl on Saturday, April 21, 1923. He delivered a sermon by radio on Sunday, April 22. During the broadcast, he told listeners he’d “decided to let radio fans do the naming.”

The papers, reporting Brown’s call for baby names the following day, noted that “already he has received by telephone a number of suggestions. One of them was that he call her “Radioana.””

According to the 1930 Census, Brown’s three children were named Robert, Lois and Jean. Jean was born right around 1923.

I’m not sure whether her name came from a radio listener’s suggestion, though.

1926: Unknown

An unidentified couple wrote to radio station WOC in Davenport, Iowa, in October, 1926. They wanted radio listeners to help them name their baby girl.

The detail-deficient article didn’t reveal the outcome, but it did include a flippant flapper joke:

Wants Name From Fans article 1923

1927: Mary Lou

Proper crowdsourcing and a known name. Finally!

Lawrence and Ethel Webb Bartley of Whitesburg, Kentucky, welcomed a baby girl in January, 1927. Several weeks later, they wrote to a local radio station for help naming their daughter.

The request was broadcast. Listeners in 38 U.S. states and in Canada submitted more than 1,000 name suggestions, some of which were read on-air.

The Bartleys ended up naming their daughter Mary Lou.

In March, an op-ed writer commenting on the Bartley story praised the “innovation of appealing to radioland to name a new member of the family.” She went on to say, “We hope the custom of having radioland pick the baby’s name flourishes and spreads.”

[UPDATE, Feb. 2015: Was Mary Lou Bartley’s original first name Seroba?!]

1927: Robert Edward

Mr. Kenneth Smith of Des Moines, Iowa, welcomed a baby boy, his 8th child, in late 1927. He asked local radio station KSO for help naming his son.

He also offered “a fur robe to the radio listener who would suggest the best name.”

More than 200 names were suggested. The winning name, Robert Edward, was submitted by “Mrs. Thompson of Bedford.”

Baby Named By Radio Listeners

A prize? Some free advertising? Happened 84 years ago, but sounds utterly modern to me.

Sources:

  • “Baby Named by Radio Listeners.” Carroll Herald 11 Jan 1928: 9.
  • “Rites are held for Mary Lou Bartley.” Mountain Eagle 19 Aug. 2009.
  • “Mrs. Beatrice C. Hale, ‘WSB Baby’ who was named by radio station.” Atlanta Journal-Constitution 3 Oct. 1985: D11.
  • “‘Old Reliable’ Christens Baby Via Radiophone.” Atlanta Constitution 15 May 1923: 6.
  • Pehkoff, Suzanne. “Naming the Baby.” Los Angeles Times 19 Mar. 1927: A4.
  • “‘Radioana’ Baby’s Name.” Spokane Daily Chronicle 23 Apr. 1923: 1.
  • “Radio Helps Name Baby.” Los Angeles Times 6 Mar. 1927: 2.
  • Radio Programming – Wikipedia
  • Ryan, Quin A. “Inside the Loud Speaker.” Chicago Tribune 6 Feb. 1927: D11.
  • “Wants Name from Fans.” Evening Independent [St. Petersburg] 11 Oct. 1926: 3-A.

Baby name story: Miles

running legs

World-class ultra-marathoner Susan Olsen of Minnesota ran a 62.9-mile race one weekend in June of 1995. Oh, and she was heavily pregnant at the time.

She went into labor that Sunday night and gave birth to her first baby, a boy, on Monday. The baby was named John Miles Olsen.

“I figure he deserves that name for all the running he’s been through,” Susan said several days after the birth. She estimated they’d run more than 1,500 miles together during the pregnancy.

Sources:

  • “Birth on the Run.” Wilmington Morning Star 29 Jun. 1995: 4C.
  • Youngblood, Kent. “Grandma’s: The Olsen team returns…13 years later.” Star Tribune [Minneapolis] 19 Jun. 2008.

Image: Adapted from Moving legs by Micael 106 under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Where did the baby name Sooner come from in 1975?

The character Sooner from the TV movie "A Girl Named Sooner" (1975).
Sooner from “A Girl Named Sooner“

Here’s an odd name: Sooner. It debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1975, and it was only on the list for two years before disappearing again:

  • 1977: unlisted
  • 1976: 5 baby girls named Sooner
  • 1975: 5 baby girls named Sooner [debut]
  • 1974: unlisted
  • 1973: unlisted

What inspired a handful of parents to name their baby girls named Sooner in the mid-1970s?

A TV movie called A Girl Named Sooner (1975), which was set in 1930s Indiana.

Title of the TV movie "A Girl Named Sooner" (1975)
“A Girl Named Sooner” (1975)

The main character, Sooner (played by actress Susan Deer), was an 8-year-old orphan who had been “born too soon” and hence named Sooner.

(This reminds me of Speedy Long, the U.S. Representative who was also born early and named accordingly.)

The telefilm was based on a Suzanne Clauser novel of the same name. If you’d like to watch it, a copy of A Girl Named Sooner has been uploaded to the Internet Archive.

Source: A Girl Named Sooner – Wikipedia