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What gave the baby name Cornel a boost in the mid-1940s?

Actor Cornel Wilde in the movie "A Song to Remember" (1945)
Cornel Wilde in “A Song to Remember“

According to the U.S. baby name data, the rare name Cornel more than sextupled in usage in 1946 (which was the first year of the post-war baby boom):

  • 1948: 47 baby boys named Cornel
  • 1947: 59 baby boys named Cornel [rank: 907th]
  • 1946: 38 baby boys named Cornel
  • 1945: 6 baby boys named Cornel
  • 1944: 5 baby boys named Cornel

This jump qualified Cornel as the year’s fastest-rising boy name, in terms of relative increase. One year later, the name reached peak usage.

What was drawing attention to the name Cornel in the mid-1940s?

Hungarian-American actor Cornel Wilde, who attained stardom with his portrayal of Polish composer Frédéric Chopin in the early 1945 film A Song to Remember. (The role earned Wilde his first and only Academy Award nomination.)

The “muscular and dashing” actor went on to star opposite Gene Tierney in the late 1945 melodrama Leave Her to Heaven, the second-highest-grossing film of the year. He also played the lead roles in the swashbucklers A Thousand and One Nights (1945) and The Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1946).

Wilde was born Kornél Lajos Weisz in the Kingdom of Hungary in 1912. After his family immigrated to the United States in 1920, his name was Anglicized to Cornelius Louis Wilde.

What are your thoughts on the name Cornel?

P.S. A Song to Remember was what inspired young pianist Wladziu Liberace to start putting a candelabrum atop his piano…

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of A Song to Remember

How did the movie “Aladdin” influence U.S. baby names?

The title character from the movie "Aladdin" (1992)
Aladdin from “Aladdin“

The animated Disney movie Aladdin, based on the Middle Eastern folk tale of the same name, was released in theaters in November of 1992.

Set in the fictional desert city of Agrabah, the film followed a street urchin named Aladdin (voiced by Scott Weinger) who, with the help of a genie summoned from a magic lamp, set out to win the heart of the sultan’s daughter, Princess Jasmine (voiced by Linda Larkin).

Aladdin became the highest-grossing movie of 1992. It went on to win multiple Oscar and Grammy Awards in early 1993.

It also had an influence on U.S. baby names. The rare name Aladdin, for instance, quadrupled in usage the year after Aladdin came out:

  • 1995: 6 baby boys named Aladdin
  • 1994: 13 baby boys named Aladdin
  • 1993: 24 baby boys named Aladdin (peak usage)
  • 1992: 6 baby boys named Aladdin
  • 1988: 5 baby boys named Aladdin

The titular character’s name is a form of Ala al-Din, which means “excellence of the faith” in Arabic.

The character Jasmine from the movie "Aladdin" (1992)
Jasmine from “Aladdin“

The name Jasmine saw a significant increase in usage the same year:

  • 1995: 10,279 baby girls named Jasmine [rank: 25th]
  • 1994: 11,713 baby girls named Jasmine [rank: 23rd]
  • 1993: 12,062 baby girls named Jasmine [rank: 23rd]
  • 1992: 10,478 baby girls named Jasmine [rank: 28th]
  • 1991: 11,525 baby girls named Jasmine [rank: 24th]

Jasmine was one of the fastest-rising girl names of 1993, in fact.

In the original tale, the princess’ name was Badr al-Budur, which means “full moon of full moons” in Arabic. Disney decided to rename the character, choosing Jasmine “because of the popularity of the actress Jasmine Guy at the time.” (Guy was also behind the trendiness of the name in the late ’80s, incidentally.)

Princess Jasmine’s pet tiger Rajah (pronounced rah-zhah) seems to have been influential as well. The name Rajah (which derives from the royal title Raja) reached peak usage for both baby boys and baby girls in 1994:

Girls named RajahBoys named Rajah
1996.6
1995177
199420†24†
199357
1992.7
†Peak usage

The name Jafar, which refers to the film’s primary antagonist (voiced by Jonathan Freeman), similarly peaked in popularity in 1994:

  • 1996: 17 baby boys named Jafar
  • 1995: 14 baby boys named Jafar
  • 1994: 33 baby boys named Jafar (peak usage)
  • 1993: 13 baby boys named Jafar
  • 1992: 7 baby boys named Jafar

The Return of Jafar, a direct-to-video Aladdin sequel that was released in May of 1994, was likely drawing extra attention to the villain’s name that year.

Sources:

Images: Screenshots of Aladdin

Popular baby names in Uzbekistan, 2023

Flag of Uzbekistan
Flag of Uzbekistan

The landlocked Central Asian nation of Uzbekistan is fully surrounded by five other -stans: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan.

In 2023, Uzbekistan welcomed 968,140 babies — 466,563 girls and 501,577 boys.

What were the most popular names among all these babies? Soliha and Muhammadali, for the fifth year in a row.

Here are Uzbekistan’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2023:

Girl names

  1. Soliha, 24,365 baby girls
  2. Muslima, 15,918
  3. Yasmina, 19,911
  4. Hadicha, 10,759
    • The Cyrillic letter Kha can be transliterated several different ways, so Hadicha can also be spelled Khadicha and Xadicha.
  5. Imona, 10,310
  6. Shukrona, 9,330
  7. Sumayya, 9,279
  8. Ifora, 7,586
  9. Sa’diya, 6,639
  10. Mubina, 6,585

Boy names

  1. Muhammadali, 27,431 baby boys
  2. Mustafo, 22,880
  3. Abdulloh, 18,116
  4. Muhammad, 17,025
  5. Muhammadyusuf, 13,774
  6. Muhammadmin, 12,450
  7. Nurmuhammed, 9,017
  8. Muhammadjon, 8,843
  9. Imronbek, 8,591
  10. Muhammadziyo, 8,135

In 2018, Uzbekistan’s top baby names were Soliha and Mustafo. The year before that, the No. 1 names were Madina and Azizbek.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Flag of Uzbekistan (public domain)

Where did the baby name Tharon come from in 1919?

"The Crimson Challenge" advertisement (May 1923)
“The Crimson Challenge” advertisement

The name Tharon first appeared (as a girl name) in the U.S. baby name data in 1919:

  • 1924: 17 baby girls named Tharon
  • 1923: 32 baby girls named Tharon [peak]
  • 1922: 10 baby girls named Tharon
  • 1921: 6 baby girls named Tharon
  • 1920: 13 baby girls named Tharon
  • 1919: 6 baby girls named Tharon [debut]
  • 1918: unlisted
  • 1917: unlisted

It went on the reach peak usage in 1923.

What was drawing attention to the name Tharon around that time?

Initially, a story called Tharon of Lost Valley by Vingie E. Roe. It was published as a book during the second half of 1919, then serialized in various newspapers during the first half of 1920.

The main character, Tharon Last, was a rancher’s daughter who’d vowed to avenge the death of her father at the hands of a notorious cattle rustler.

Two hours each day she practised [sic] with the deadly revolvers of her murdered father, Jim Last, waiting the day when she should meet with [Buck] Courtrey, his murderer.

In April of 1922, The Crimson Challenge — a movie adaptation of Tharon of Lost Valley — was released. Described as a “romantic Western melodrama with a hard-riding, two-gunned heroine,” the silent film starred actress Dorothy Dalton as Tharon Last.

What are your thoughts on the name Tharon?

Sources:

Image: Clipping from the Alaska Daily Empire (24 May 1923)