According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Venetia — which was the fastest-rising baby name of 1956 — saw its highest usage in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
- 1963: 28 baby girls named Venetia
- 1962: 45 baby girls named Venetia
- 1961: 56 baby girls named Venetia
- 1960: 89 baby girls named Venetia
- 1959: 84 baby girls named Venetia
- 1958: 99 baby girls named Venetia
- 1957: 84 baby girls named Venetia
- 1956: 45 baby girls named Venetia
- 1955: 7 baby girls named Venetia
- 1954: 11 baby girls named Venetia
What was drawing attention to the name during those years?
Pin-up model and actress Venetia (pronounced ven-EE-sha) Stevenson.
In August of 1955, several memorable photos of 17-year-old Venetia and her boyfriend, actor Russ Tamblyn, were published in Life magazine. (In all four photos, acrobatic Russ was upside-down, usually in mid-air.)
Several months later, on Valentine’s Day of 1956, the couple got married at the Wayfarers Chapel in Palos Verdes, California.
They were in the news again when they divorced in April of the following year.
In mid-1957, television host Ed Sullivan teamed up with Popular Photography magazine to find the “Most Photogenic Girl in the World.” The winner? Venetia Stevenson, who beat out 1,691 other contenders. She was presented with an award on an episode of The Ed Sullivan Show in early August, then featured on the cover of Popular Photography in September.
From 1958 to 1961, Venetia appeared on about a dozen TV shows (including Cheyenne, Colt .45, and 77 Sunset Strip) and in around 10 films (including one in which she co-starred with Audie Murphy).
She quit acting upon marrying Don Everly of The Everly Brothers in 1962. (She’d met Don and Phil on Ed Sullivan.)
Venetia Stevenson was born Joanna Venetia Invicta Stevenson in London in 1938 to film director Robert Stevenson and actress Anna Lee. (Her birth was reported in the papers, and there was a corresponding spike in the number of baby girls named Venetia in England and Wales that year.) The Stevenson family relocated to Hollywood in 1939.
The Latin word “Venetia” originally referred to an ancient region in northeastern Italy (roughly equivalent to the modern region of Veneto). The region was named after its inhabitants, the Veneti.
What are your thoughts on name Venetia?
P.S. During the 1960s, Venetia Stevenson and Don Everly welcomed three children: Stacy Dawn, Erin Invicta, and Edan Donald. Erin, who was in a tumultuous relationship with Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose for several years, inspired Rose to write the hit song “Sweet Child o’ Mine” (1988).
P.P.S. Here’s a suspicious fact: In the spring of 1959, Don Everly and his first wife, Mary Sue, welcomed a baby named Venetia Ember. Where did her first name come from? “Venetia Stevenson, whom Don had met in New York when the brothers were there for an Ed Sullivan gig in 1957.”
Sources:
- Barnes, Mike. “Venetia Stevenson, Actress Once Called “The Most Photogenic Girl in the World,” Dies at 84.” Hollywood Reporter 27 Sept. 2022.
- Venetia Stevenson – Wikipedia
- “Head over Heels in Love.” Life 1 Aug. 1955: 8-9.
- “Venetia Stevenson is the most photogenic girl in the world.” Popular Photography Sept. 1957: 76-79, 102.
- Ribowsky, Mark. Crying in the Rain: The Perfect Harmony and Imperfect Lives of the Everly Brothers. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2024.
- Venetia – Name of the Week – British Baby Names
- Venetia – Behind the Name
- SSA
Images: Clippings from Silver Screen magazine (Oct. 1956), Life magazine (1 Aug. 1955), and Popular Photography magazine (Sept. 1957)
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