What gave the baby name Cadel a boost in the early 2010s?

Australian cyclist Cadel Evans
Cadel Evans

Last week, the Los Angeles Times profiled a 12-year-old girl named Evan Kim who ran the Ventura Marathon and placed second among all females with a time of 2 hours and 58 minutes.

How did she come to have the (typically male) name Evan?

Born into a family of athletes in 2012, she was named after Cadel Evans, the cyclist who won the Tour de France the year prior.

Cadel (pronounced kuh-DEL) Evans is the only Australian to have ever won the Tour de France. I don’t know how many other U.S. babies were named “Evan” after Evans, but dozens were named Cadel:

  • 2013: 10 baby boys named Cadel
  • 2012: 19 baby boys named Cadel [peak usage]
  • 2011: 17 baby boys named Cadel
  • 2010: 12 baby boys named Cadel
  • 2009: 12 baby boys named Cadel
  • 2008: 14 baby boys named Cadel
  • 2007: 14 baby boys named Cadel
  • 2006: 8 baby boys named Cadel
  • 2005: 6 baby boys named Cadel [debut]
  • 2004: unlisted

In fact, usage of the name tracks with Cadel Evans’ Tour de France career: He first participated in 2005, he placed second in both 2007 and 2008, and he finally won in 2011.

His first name is a simplified spelling of the Welsh name Cadell, which can be traced back to the Old Welsh word cat, meaning “battle.” (One of Evans’ great-grandfathers immigrated to Australia from Wales.)

What are your thoughts on the name Cadel? (How about on Evan as a girl name?)

P.S. Another young runner we’ve talked about is Nasiya Jobe, and another professional cyclist we’ve talked about is Lance Armstrong.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from CadelEvans by troye owens under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Where did the baby name Neleh come from in 2002?

Neleh Dennis, a contestant on the reality TV show "Survivor: Marquesas" (2002)
Neleh Dennis

The name Neleh first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 2002:

  • 2004: 7 baby girls named Neleh
  • 2003: 6 baby girls named Neleh
  • 2002: 26 baby girls named Neleh [debut]
  • 2001: unlisted
  • 2000: unlisted

Where did it come from?

Neleh (pronounced nuh-LEE-uh) Dennis, a 21-year-old from Utah who was featured on the competitive reality TV show Survivor: Marquesas during the first half of 2002.

She had a “charming, sunny disposition” and was known for her frequent use of the Utah Mormon expression “Oh my heck.” Neleh made it all the way to the final episode, but ended up losing the title of Sole Survivor to fellow contestant Vecepia “Vee” Towery.

Neleh’s first name was Helen — the name of her maternal grandmother — spelled backwards. (The similar name Nevaeh, a backwards spelling of Heaven, was extremely trendy in the early 2000s.)

Following her success on Survivor, Neleh Dennis worked as a morning news reporter at Utah television station KUTV. After that, she became a stay-at-home mom. (She has two sons named Kai and River and a daughter named McKay.)

What are your thoughts on the name Neleh? How would you pronounce it?

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of Survivor: Marquesas

How did Japan’s Showa era influence U.S. baby names in 1927?

Emperor Hirohito, a.k.a. Emperor Showa (1901-1989)
Emperor Hirohito of Japan

According to the U.S. baby name data, the Japanese name Shoji saw a distinct spike in usage in 1927 — the one and only year it reached the U.S. top 1,000.

  • 1929: 8 baby boys named Shoji
  • 1928: 6 baby boys named Shoji
  • 1927: 81 baby boys named Shoji [rank: 725th]
    • 35 born in Hawaii, 34 in California, 6 in Washington state
  • 1926: unlisted
  • 1925: unlisted

Here’s a visual:

Graph of the usage of the baby name Shoji in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Shoji

The fact that over 85% of the usage came from the states of Hawaii and California strongly suggests that this name was being used primarily (if not entirely) by Japanese-Americans.

Unlike the Japanese names Tatsuo and Torao, though, Shoji’s pattern of usage doesn’t correspond to the Chinese zodiac (which follows a repeating 12-year cycle).

Instead, I think the most plausible theory regarding the single spike has to do with a different sort of calendar system: the Japanese “era” calendar, in which an “era name” is assigned to the reign of each emperor.

Japan’s four most recent eras are:

  • Taisho (1912-1926), under Emperor Yoshihito
  • Showa (1926-1989), under Emperor Hirohito
  • Heisei (1989-2019), under Emperor Akihito
  • Reiwa (2019-present), under Emperor Naruhito

The Showa era began in the final days of 1926, when Yoshihito passed away (on December 25) and was succeeded by his eldest son, Hirohito (who’d been the de facto ruler of the empire since late 1921, due to Yoshihito’s declining mental and physical health).

Right away, this news appeared in the U.S. papers. For example, here’s a December 26 headline from the Japanese American News (which was headquartered in San Francisco):

Showa headline

And here’s a quote from the article:

Upon ascending to the throne of Japan […] the Prince Regent who became the 124th Emperor, issued the rescript naming the new era to begin today “Showa,” meaning brilliant peace.

The word Showa — which has also been defined as “enlightened peace” and “bright peace” — consists of two kanji characters: sho, meaning “bright” or “enlightened,” and wa, meaning “peace” or “harmony.”

According to data from Japan’s Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company, era names influenced baby names in Japan during the early 1900s. Specifically, many babies born during the early part an emperor’s reign were given names that incorporated a kanji from the new era name.

So it follows that Japanese-Americans would likewise be influenced by new era names.

And this would explain the conspicuous spike in the usage of Shoji [sho+ji] in 1927.

In fact, it would also explain the rise in usage of the name Shoichi [sho+ichi] the same year.

(In Japanese names, the elements ichi and ji — meaning “one” and “two,” respectively — are typically associated with first- and second-born sons.)

Do you have any thoughts on the name Shoji?

P.S. The Reiwa era began in May of 2019, but it didn’t inspire very many people in either Japan or the U.S. to chose baby names featuring rei or wa. (That said, the girl name Rei did happen to reach peak usage in the U.S. in 2020, and more than a third of that usage came from California…)

Sources:

Images: Adapted from Emperor Showa (public domain); clipped from the Japanese American News (26 Dec. 1926)

How did “Poldark” influence U.S. baby names in the late 1970s?

The characters Ross Poldark and Demelza Carne from the British TV series "Poldark" (1975-1977).
Ross and Demelza from “Poldark“

The curious name Demelza first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1978:

  • 1980: unlisted
  • 1979: 6 baby girls named Demelza
  • 1978: 6 baby girls named Demelza [debut]
  • 1977: unlisted
  • 1976: unlisted

Where did it come from?

The character Demelza Carne from the BBC television series Poldark, which aired in the U.S. — as part of Masterpiece Theater, on PBS — from 1977 to 1978. (It was originally broadcast in the UK from 1975 to 1977.)

The 29-episode series, based on the Poldark novels by author Winston Graham, was set in Cornwall during the last two decades of the 1700s.

The protagonist was Ross Poldark (played by Robin Ellis), who, at the start of the story, had just returned to Cornwall after fighting for the British in the American Revolutionary War.

The character Demelza Carne from the British TV series "Poldark" (1975-1977).
Demelza Carne from “Poldark“

In the second episode, Ross impulsively hired 13-year-old Demelza Carne (played by actress Angharad Rees) as a housemaid.

Over the next several episodes (which cover several years), Demelza grew to become a “smart and vivacious and charming” young woman. She and Ross eventually got married.

Demelza’s name is not a traditional Cornish personal name. Instead, it’s a Cornish place name. The meaning isn’t known for certain, but one theory holds that it refers to an “eel house” (which would be a fitting definition, given the history of the fishing industry in Cornwall).

Other Poldark characters also influenced U.S. baby names. Thanks to Ross Poldark, for instance, the baby name Ross started rising again in 1977. And Ross’s cousin, the good-natured Verity Poldark, boosted the virtue name Verity to then-peak usage the same year.

Boys named RossGirls named Verity
19791,002 [rank: 227th]17
1978919 [rank: 229th]13
1977823 [rank: 250th]20
1976680 [rank: 279th]7
1975678 [rank: 283rd].

During the second half of the 2010s, the BBC released a brand new, five-season adaptation of Poldark.

The name Demelza re-emerged in the U.S. data (after a absence of nearly four decades) in 2018. The same year, the name Verity, which was already on the rise, saw a higher-than-expected increase in usage.

And in 2020, the traditional Cornish name Morwenna, which is based on an Old Cornish word meaning “maiden,” made its first appearance in the U.S. data:

  • 2022: unlisted
  • 2021: 8 baby girls named Morwenna
  • 2020: 16 baby girls named Morwenna [debut]
  • 2019: unlisted
  • 2018: unlisted

Character Morwenna Chynoweth, introduced at the start of the third season, was the governess of one of Ross Poldark’s young relatives.

What are your thoughts on these Poldarkian names? Would you use any of them?

P.S. An earlier BBC show, The Forsyte Saga, also had an influence on U.S. baby names…

Sources:

Images: Screenshots of Poldark