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What brought the baby name Peola back in 1935?

The character Peola Johnson from the movie "Imitation of Life" (1934)
Peola Johnson from “Imitation of Life“

After popping up in the U.S. baby name data once in the 1910s, the rare name Peola (pronounced pee-OH-lah) returned to the data during the second half of the 1930s, starting in 1935:

  • 1937: 10 baby girls named Peola
  • 1936: 8 baby girls named Peola
  • 1935: 9 baby girls named Peola
  • 1934: unlisted
  • 1933: unlisted

Why?

Because of a character in the melodrama Imitation of Life, which was released in theaters in November of 1934.

The film’s main characters were Beatrice “Bea” Pullman (played by Claudette Colbert), who was white, and Delilah Johnson (played by Louise Beavers), who was Black.

At the start of the story, Bea and Delilah were single mothers struggling to make ends meet. They formed a business partnership and, over the next fifteen years, became wealthy together — all thanks to Delilah’s secret family pancake recipe.

The characters Delilah and Peola from the movie "Imitation of Life" (1934)
Delilah and Peola from “Imitation of Life“

The movie’s “most central, compelling conflict,” however, involved Delilah’s light-skinned daughter Peola (played by Fredi Washington).

Peola, who had wished to “pass” as white since she was a child, chose to repudiate both her mother and her Blackness as a young adult. (As she told Delilah, “I want to go away. And you musn’t see me, own me, or claim me, or anything. I mean, even if you pass me on the street, you’ll have to pass me by.”) This decision, which left Delilah heartbroken, ended up having tragic consequences.

Imitation of Life was popular with movie-going audiences — particularly Black audiences. It was also nominated for three Academy Awards in early 1935.

The film was based on the 1933 novel of the same name by Fannie Hurst. The book may have been influenced by Hurst’s friendship with fellow writer Zora Neale Hurston.

What are your thoughts on the name Peola?

Sources:

Images: Screenshots of Imitation of Life

The 5 siblings of the Wright brothers

Wilbur and Orville Wright (in 1904)
Wilbur and Orville Wright

Clergyman Milton Wright and his wife, Susan, married in 1859 and welcomed seven children.

Two of those children, Wilbur and Orville, went on to design, build, and fly the world’s first engine-powered, heavier-than-air flying machine in late 1903.

So, how did Wilbur and Orville come to have their names?

Their father, believing the family surname was “too common, was determined to give his children distinctive first names.” Here are those distinctive first names, in order from oldest child to youngest:

  1. Reuchlin (born in 1861) was named after German theologian Johannes Reuchlin (1455-1522).
    • His nickname was Reuch, pronounced roosh.
  2. Lorin (b. 1862) was “named for a town selected at random on a map” because his parents “thought it sounded nice.”
  3. Wilbur (b. 1867) was named after American minister Wilbur Fisk (1792-1839).
  4. Otis (b. 1870, twin) died in infancy.
  5. Ida (b. 1870, twin) died in infancy.
  6. Orville (b. 1871) was named after American minister Orville Dewey (1794-1882).
  7. Katharine (b. 1874), whose grandmothers were both named Catherine, was likely given a family name.
    • “Variant spellings of her name were common on both sides of the family. The choice of Katharine suggests that her parents wanted to commemorate the family name while giving this child the same sense of distinction as their sons.”

Out of just Wilbur and Orville, which name do you prefer? Why?

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Wilbur and Orville Wright with Flyer II at Huffman Prairie (public domain)

Where did the baby name Sturgill come from in 2017?

Country music singer Sturgill Simpson
Sturgill Simpson

The rare name Sturgill first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 2017:

  • 2019: unlisted
  • 2018: unlisted
  • 2017: 6 baby boys named Sturgill [debut]
  • 2016: unlisted
  • 2015: unlisted

Where did it come from?

Kentucky-born singer-songwriter Sturgill (pronounced STUR-jil) Simpson, who is “typically classified as a country artist in the outlaw tradition.”

His singles — which include a cover of Nirvana’s “In Bloom” [vid] — have never topped the country charts. But his third album, A Sailor’s Guide To Earth (2016), did win a Grammy Award for Best Country Album in early 2017.

Interestingly, Sturgill Simpson (whose full name is John Sturgill Simpson) has since distanced himself from “Sturgill.” He now goes by the stage name Johnny Blue Skies. In mid-2024 he explained,

I got to this point where, I don’t know, like, I kind of wanted my name back for myself. I felt like my identity had just become a brand. (…) And then I realized I was always a big fan of the Derek and The Dominos record. And I thought that was a really neat concept that he hid behind a character to make a very vulnerable rock and roll record of love songs. And I don’t know if he would have done it with his name on it.

(Eric Clapton’s short-lived blues-rock band Derek and the Dominos put out a single album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, in late 1970.)

What are your thoughts on Sturgill as a first name?

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Sturgill Simpson photo 2016 by Atlantic Records under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Babies named for Lorenzo Dow

American itinerant preacher Lorenzo Dow (1777-1834)
Lorenzo Dow

Connecticut-born itinerant preacher Lorenzo Dow traveled on foot throughout the United States, delivering sermons, for more than three decades — from the late 1790s until his death in 1834.

Here’s how Dow was described in one obituary:

He was one of the most remarkable men of this age for his zeal and labours in the cause of religion. (…) His eccentric dress, and style of preaching, attracted great attention; while his shrewdness, and quick discernment of character, gave him no inconsiderable influence over the multitudes that attended on his ministry.

The evangelist’s popularity was so great that it inspired thousands of early 19th-century American families to name their newborns “Lorenzo Dow.” Some examples…

  • Lorenzo Dow Gower, born in Tennessee in 1803.
  • Lorenzo Dow Brooks, born in Vermont in 1804.
  • Lorenzo Dow Young, born in New York in 1807.
    • He was the younger brother of Brigham Young.
  • Lorenzo Dow Booe, born in Kentucky in 1808.
  • Lorenzo Dow Rowell, born in Maine in 1811.
  • Lorenzo Dow Bentley, born in Connecticut in 1813.
  • Andrew Lorenzo Dow Gove, born in New Hampshire in 1816.
  • Lorenzo Dow Wait, born in New York in 1818.
  • Lorenzo Dow Driggs, born in Pennsylvania in 1822.
  • Lorenzo Dow Doty, born in Ohio in 1824.
  • Lorenzo Dow Hancock, born in Ohio in 1827.
  • Lorenzo Dow Patterson, born in Alabama in 1829.
  • Lorenzo Dow Monroe, born in Massachusetts in 1831.
  • Lorenzo Dow Colyer, born in New York in 1833.

Among Dow’s more famous namesakes were U.S. Congressman Lorenzo Dow Danford (b. 1829), sea captain and businessman Lorenzo Dow Baker (b. 1840), and Kansas governor Lorenzo Dow Lewelling (b. 1846).

Plus, there’s Lorenzo Dow Thompson — the only person to ever defeat Abraham Lincoln in a wrestling match. (The bout was held in 1832, while both men were serving in the Illinois Militia during the brief Black Hawk War.)

Do you have anyone in your family tree named Lorenzo Dow?

Sources:

Image: Clipping from Lorenzo Dow: The Bearer of the Word (1928) by Charles Coleman Sellers