How popular is the baby name Sylvia 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 Sylvia.

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Popularity of the baby name Sylvia


Posts that mention the name Sylvia

Where did the baby name Millette come from in 1967?

millette alexander, actress, 1960s, baby name
Millette Alexander

So here’s an interesting semi-mystery.

Millette Alexander was an American actress who had the most success on TV soap operas. She started with small parts on The Edge of Night in the ’50s and ’60s, moved on to a nurse character on As the World Turns from 1964 to 1966, and finally played a doctor on The Guiding Light from 1969 to 1983.

It was while she was on As the World Turns playing nurse Sylvia Hill (who suffered from lupus) that the usage of the baby name Millette was nudged upward just enough to debut in the U.S. baby name data:

  • 1969: unlisted
  • 1968: 8 baby girls named Millette
  • 1967: 68 baby girls named Millette [peak]
  • 1966: unlisted
  • 1965: 5 baby girls named Millette [debut]
  • 1964: unlisted
  • 1963: unlisted

So…what the heck happened in 1967?

I’m still trying to figure that out. It was definitely something audio, because a bunch of variant spellings also popped up that year (and only that year, notably):

Name196619671968
Millette.688
Malette.20*.
Milette.17*.
Melette.13*.
Mellette.6*.
Molette.5*.

Five (*) out of six of these variants were one-hit wonders. (Malette was the top one-hit wonder of the year, in fact.)

Anyone know/remember what shined a spotlight on the name Millette in 1967 specifically? Was it a TV commercial perhaps?

Source: Millette Alexander – IMDb

Five-name Friday: Girl name containing the letter V

You’re sitting alone at a table in a restaurant, waiting for the rest of your friends to arrive. To fend off boredom, you strike up a conversation with a woman similarly stranded at a nearby table (her friends have all left to use the restroom). She mentions that she’s pregnant and on the hunt for a baby name. Here’s the gist of what she’s looking for:

I want my daughter’s name to have a V in it, but not start with the letter V. So I’m looking for names like Sylvia, not like Victoria.

“Do you have any suggestions?”

You’re a name lover, and you could potentially give her dozens of suggestions on the spot. But her friends will be back soon, and yours will show up eventually, so you only have time to give her five baby name suggestions.

But here’s the fun part: Instead of blurting out the first five names you come up with (which is what you’d be forced to do in real life) you get to press a magical “pause” button, brainstorm for a bit, and then “unpause” the scenario to offer her the best five names you can think of.

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you brainstorm:

  • Be independent. Decide on your five names before looking at anyone else’s five names.
  • Be sincere. Would you honestly suggest these particular baby names out loud to a stranger in public?
  • Five names only! All names beyond the first five in your comment will be either deleted or replaced with nonsense words.

Finally, here’s the request again:

I want my daughter’s name to have a V in it, but not start with the letter V. So I’m looking for names like Sylvia, not like Victoria.

Which five baby names are you going to suggest?

Where did the baby name Nomar come from in 1998?

Baseball player Nomar Garciaparra
Nomar Garciaparra

The name Nomar first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in the late 1990s:

  • 2000: 30 baby boys named Nomar
  • 1999: 17 baby boys named Nomar
  • 1998: 12 baby boys named Nomar [debut]
  • 1997: unlisted
  • 1996: unlisted

It went on to see peak usage in 2004.

Where did it come from?

Professional baseball player Nomar Garciaparra.

Garciaparra spent more than half of his Major League career (1996-2009) with the Boston Red Sox. While in Boston, he was voted AL Rookie of the Year (1997), became the AL batting champion twice in a row (in 1999 and 2000), and played in the All-Star Game five times.

Though he was traded to the Cubs several months before the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004, his former teammates voted to give him a World Series ring anyway.

So how did California-born Nomar Garciaparra get his unusual given name?

[It was] the brainchild of his father, Ramon, who decided that his son would not carry his name, merely the letters in it. So just before the boy was born, Ramon experimented by jotting those letters on a napkin. Armon? Romna? Onram? Manro? And finally, Nomar! Ramon’s wife, Sylvia, insisted that their son be named Anthony. Alas, Anthony Nomar Garciaparra chose to go by Nomar, because, as he says, “when somebody yells out ‘Nomar,’ you don’t have to worry about five people answering.”

What are your thoughts on the baby name Nomar? Do you like it more or less than Ramon?

(And, if you’d like to see more pairings like Nomar/Ramon, here are lists of palindromic names and 5-letter anagram names.)

Sources:

Image: Nomar 2002

Gaiety Girl names: Gertie, Gaby, Ellaline

English actress Lily Elsie (1886-1962)
Lily Elsie

Before there were Follies girls, there were Gaiety Girls.

The Gaiety Girls were showgirls who appeared in Edwardian musical comedies at London’s Gaiety Theatre during the 1890s.

English actress Gabrielle Ray (1883-1973)
Gabrielle Ray

There’s no definitive list of all the Gaiety Girls, but here are the stage names (and birth names) of several dozen of them:

Stage NameBirth Name
Alice DelysiaAlice Lapize
Billie CarletonFlorence Stewart
Blanche MasseyBlanch Massey
Camille CliffordCamilla Clifford
Cicely CourtneidgeEsmerelda Cicely Courtneidge
Connie GilchristConstance Gilchrist
Constance CollierLaura Constance Hardie
Denise OrmeJessie Smither
Dorothy MintoDorothy Scott
Eleanor “Nellie” SourayEllen Mary Souray
Ellaline TerrissMary Ellaline Terriss
Evelyn LayeElsie Evelyn Lay
Florence SmithsonFlorence Smithson
Gaby DeslysMarie-Elise-Gabrielle Caire
Gabrielle RayGabrielle Cook
Gertie MillarGertrude Millar
Gina PalermeMarie Louise Irène de Maulmont
Gladys CooperGladys Cooper
Irene Desmond(unknown)
Irene Richards(unknown)
Jessie Matthews(unknown)
José CollinsCharlotte Josephine Collins
Kitty GordonConstance Blades
Lily ElsieElsie Hodder
Mabel LoveMabel Watson
Mabel RussellMabel Russell
Mamie Watson(unknown)
Marie StudholmeCaroline Maria Lupton
May EtheridgeMay Etheridge
May Gates(unknown)
Moya NugentMoya Nugent
Olive MayOlive Mary Meatyard
Phyllis DarePhyllis Constance Haddie Dones (sister of Zena)
Rosie BooteRose Boote
Sylvia GreySylvia Grey
Sylvia StoreySylvia Storey
Zena DareFlorence Hariette Zena Dones (sister of Phyllis)

Which of the above names do you like best?

Sources: Gaiety Girls – Wikipedia, Gaiety Girls exhibition – National Portrait Gallery