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What gave the baby name Scotty a boost in 1971?

Bobby Goldsboro's single "Watching Scotty Grow" (1970)
The single “Watching Scotty Grow”

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Scotty saw its highest-ever usage in the early 1970s:

  • 1973: 696 baby boys named Scotty [rank: 268th]
  • 1972: 757 baby boys named Scotty [rank: 260th]
  • 1971: 1,118 baby boys named Scotty [rank: 210th]
  • 1970: 574 baby boys named Scotty [rank: 330th]
  • 1969: 607 baby boys named Scotty [rank: 308th]
Graph of the usage of the baby name Scotty in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Scotty

Why?

Because of the song “Watching Scotty Grow” [vid] by Bobby Goldsboro. It was released in October of 1970 and peaked at #11 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in February of 1971.

Songwriter Mac Davis wrote “Watching Scotty Grow” about his young son, Scotty. He’d taken Scotty to the office with him one day, and that’s when inspiration struck:

He was a typical 5-year-old and was in my hair with questions, “Daddy” this and “Daddy” that.

Finally, I gave him a yellow legal pad and a felt tip pen. I said, “Draw Daddy a picture.” So he started drawing, and I’m trying to write a song. All of a sudden he shows me this picture that he’d drawn. It was a crude little rocket ship, and on the side of it, it had “P-R-L-F-Q.” I said, “Well, what does that spell?” And he said “Mom and Dad.” Yikes!

The song (as Mac Davis sings it) starts with the lyrics:

There he sits with a pen and a yellow pad
He’s a handsome lad
That’s my boy
PRLFQ spells mom and dad
Well that ain’t too bad
‘Cause that’s my boy

Singer Bobby Goldsboro asked if he could change the name in the song from “Scotty” to “Danny” — the name of his own son — but Davis wouldn’t give him permission:

I said, “Nope.”

[…]

I said, “I just can’t do it.” He said, “Well, OK, then.” … I just couldn’t do that to my son. I wanted it to be his name.

The song also managed to nudge the name Scott (which we talked about in the Lancer post earlier this week) into the boys’ top 10 for the first and only time:

  • 1973: 18,982 baby boys named Scott [rank: 18th]
  • 1972: 22,857 baby boys named Scott [rank: 11th]
  • 1971: 30,919 baby boys named Scott [rank: 10th] (peak usage)
  • 1970: 28,588 baby boys named Scott [rank: 12th]
  • 1969: 28,668 baby boys named Scott [rank: 12th]
Graph of the usage of the baby name Scott in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Scott

What are your thoughts on the name Scotty? (How about Scott?)

Sources:

Popular baby names in Portugal, 2022

Flag of Portugal
Flag of Portugal

The country of Portugal, located in southwestern Europe, shares a border with only Spain.

Last year, Portugal welcomed more than 95,000 babies. The most popular names among these babies? Maria and Francisco.

Here are Portugal’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2022:

Girl Names

  1. Maria, 5,047 baby girls
  2. Alice, 1,304
  3. Leonor, 1,213
  4. Matilde, 1,183
  5. Benedita, 973
  6. Carolina
  7. Beatriz
  8. Margarida
  9. Francisca
  10. Camila

Boy Names

  1. Francisco, 1,761 baby boys
  2. Afonso, 1,284
  3. João, 1,263
  4. Tomás, 1,244
  5. Duarte, 1,230
  6. Lourenço
  7. Santiago
  8. Martim
  9. Miguel
  10. Gabriel

The news release noted that Camila was new to the girls’ top 10, and that the names at the bottom of the girls’ top 100 were Áurea, Kiara, Vera, and Raquel.

It also mentioned that Manuel, José, and António ranked 20th, 21st and 28th (respectively) on the boys’ list.

The last time I posted rankings for Portugal, in 2015, the top two names were Maria and João.

Sources: Confira os nomes mais populares de 2022 – IRN, Saiba quais os nomes mais escolhidos para os bebés portugueses em 2022 – CNN Portugal

Image: Adapted from Flag of Portugal (public domain)

What brought the baby name Lancer back in 1968?

The characters Johnny Madrid Lancer and Scott Lancer from the TV series "Lancer" (1968-1970).
Johnny Madrid and Scott from “Lancer“

The name Lancer returned to the U.S. baby name data (after a long absence) in 1968, and two years later it reached peak usage:

  • 1971: 17 baby boys named Lancer
  • 1970: 31 baby boys named Lancer [peak]
  • 1969: 19 baby boys named Lancer
  • 1968: 10 baby boys named Lancer
  • 1967: unlisted
  • 1966: unlisted

What brought it back?

A TV western called Lancer (1968-1970), logically enough.

It was set in the 1870s, and the main characters were adult half-brothers named Johnny Madrid (played by James Stacy) and Scott (played by Wayne Maunder). They shared a father, but were otherwise unalike: Johnny was a gunfighter and drifter from Mexico; Scott was an educated Civil War veteran from New England.

They met for the first time in the first episode, when their father, Murdoch Lancer, summoned them to his 100,000-acre ranch in California and offered them each one-third of the ranch in exchange for help protecting the land and livestock from bandits.

Title of the TV series "Lancer" (1968-1970)
“Lancer“

The series only lasted two seasons, but was popular enough to during that time to affect several other baby names as well.

The Lancer-like name Lance saw a sharp rise in usage while the show was on the air:

  • 1971: 3,180 baby boys named Lance [rank: 98th]
  • 1970: 4,166 baby boys named Lance [rank: 76th] (peak)
  • 1969: 3,030 baby boys named Lance [rank: 103rd]
  • 1968: 1,995 baby boys named Lance [rank: 144th]
  • 1967: 1,804 baby boys named Lance [rank: 152nd]
Graph of the usage of the baby name Lance in the U.S. since 1880.
Usage of the baby name Lance

The name Johnny, which was generally declining in usage during the second half of the 20th century, saw a brief turnaround in 1969 and 1970:

  • 1971: 3,939 baby boys named Johnny [rank: 74th]
  • 1970: 4,440 baby boys named Johnny [rank: 65th]
  • 1969: 4,217 baby boys named Johnny [rank: 67th]
  • 1968: 4,053 baby boys named Johnny [rank: 69th]
  • 1967: 4,170 baby boys named Johnny [rank: 70th]
Graph of the usage of the baby name Johnny in the U.S. since 1880.
Usage of the baby name Johnny

And the name Scott, which was about to experience a similar slide, saw increased usage for several years before its decline began:

  • 1971: 30,919 baby boys named Scott [rank: 10th]
  • 1970: 28,588 baby boys named Scott [rank: 12th]
  • 1969: 28,668 baby boys named Scott [rank: 12th]
  • 1968: 26,029 baby boys named Scott [rank: 14th]
  • 1967: 25,537 baby boys named Scott [rank: 16th]
Graph of the usage of the baby name Scott in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Scott

But there’s more to the story on Scott. See how the usage popped up even higher in 1971? That extra uptick has a separate explanation, which we’ll get to in a few days…

Sources: Lancer – TV Western – Six-gun Justice, SSA

Baby name stories: Parthenope and Florence

Florence and Frances Parthenope Nightingale (painted circa 1836 by William White)
Florence and Frances Parthenope Nightingale

Wealthy British couple William Nightingale and Frances “Fanny” Smith married in June of 1818. The Napoleonic Wars had ended several years earlier, so, now that it was safe to travel through Europe again, they decided to spend the first part of their marriage on the Grand Tour.

While abroad, they welcomed two daughters:

  1. Frances Parthenope (pronounced pahr-THEN-oh-pee), born in April, 1819
  2. Florence, born in May, 1820

Both baby girls were named after their birthplaces.

Frances Parthenope was born in Naples, which had been founded — as Neápolis, in the 6th century BC — in roughly the same spot as an earlier Greek colony known as Parthenope. Because of this, “Parthenope” is sometimes used as a poetic synonym for Naples. The Greek settlement was named after the Siren Parthenope, whose name was derived, in part, from the ancient Greek word parthenos, meaning “maiden, girl” or “virgin.”

Florence was born in Florence (of course), which is located about 300 miles northwest of Naples. The city’s name is based on the Latin word florens, meaning “flowering” or “flourishing.”

(Nowadays, both of these cities are part of Italy. During that era, however, Naples was part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Florence was part of Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and the unification of Italy was still 40 years away.)

The sisters, who went by the nicknames “Parthe” (PAHR-thee) and “Flo,” returned with their parents to England in 1821.

Younger sister Florence, who went on to become a nurse (despite her family’s opposition), rose to prominence in the mid-1850s while caring for wounded soldiers during the Crimean War. Today, Florence Nightingale is considered the founder of modern nursing.

Which name do you prefer, Parthenope or Florence?

Sources: Florence Nightingale – Wikipedia, Parthenope (Siren) – Wikipedia, Parthénos – Wiktionary, William Nightingale – Wikipedia

Image: Florence Nightingale; Frances Parthenope, Lady Verney by William White