What popularized the baby name Marlene in the 1930s?

Actress Marlene Dietrich in the film "The Blue Angel" (1930)
Marlene Dietrich in “The Blue Angel“

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Marlene was the fastest-rising baby name of 1931. It went on to see its highest-ever usage several years later, in the mid-1930s:

  • 1937: 5,037 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 40th]
  • 1936: 5,331 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 39th] – peak usage
  • 1935: 4,830 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 39th]
  • 1934: 3,755 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 57th]
  • 1933: 4,045 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 50th]
  • 1932: 3,218 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 78th]
  • 1931: 2,586 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 95th]
  • 1930: 306 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 388th]
  • 1929: 129 baby girls named Marlene [rank: 605th]

Here’s a visual:

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

What was popularizing Marlene during the the 1930s?

German actress Marlene Dietrich (pronounced mar-LAY-nah DEET-rikh).

She became an international star upon the release of Der blaue Engel (translation: The Blue Angel), Germany’s first feature-length sound film, in April of 1930.

Directed by Josef von Sternberg, the movie told the story of a respectable school teacher (played by Emil Jannings) whose obsession with a seductive cabaret singer named Lola Lola (Dietrich) led to his downfall.

Actress Marlene Dietrich in the film "The Blue Angel" (1930)
Marlene Dietrich in “The Blue Angel“

Following the success of Der blaue Engel, both von Sternberg and Dietrich moved to Hollywood to continue “what would become one of the most legendary partnerships in cinema history.”

Over the course of six films produced by Paramount in the 1930s, the pair refined their shared fantasy of pleasure, beauty, and excess. Dietrich’s coolly transgressive mystique was a perfect match for the provocative roles von Sternberg cast her in — including a sultry chanteuse, a cunning spy, and the hedonistic Catherine the Great.

Those six films were…

Dietrich continued to appear on the big screen for decades to come, but reached the height of her fame — in terms of bankability as a movie star — during the 1930s.

She was born Marie Magdalene Dietrich in Berlin in 1901. Her earliest nicknames were Leni and Lene, but, while still a child, she voiced her preference for the contraction Marlene. Here’s her account of the story:

When I created my name, the first person I told was my sister [Elisabeth]. I told her that I didn’t like my name because it was too common a name in Germany.

I told Liesel I had decided to combine Marie and Magdalene to make a new name for myself, Marlene.

My sister said I would have a very peculiar name. No one else in school would have a name like Marlene. That’s just what I wanted to hear.

Dietrich also noted that she saw Marlene as a “glamorous name” with “a kind of French aura.”

What are your thoughts on the name Marlene?

Sources:

Images: Screenshots of The Blue Angel

What turned Blade into a baby name in the early 1980s?

The character Rick Deckard (played by Harrison Ford) from the movie "Blade Runner" (1982)
Rick Deckard from “Blade Runner”

The name Blade first emerged in the U.S. baby name data in 1982:

  • 1984: 8 baby boys named Blade
  • 1983: unlisted
  • 1982: 7 baby boys named Blade [debut]
  • 1981: unlisted
  • 1980: unlisted

Why?

I think the influence was the 1982 movie Blade Runner, which was based on the dystopian sci-fi novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) by Philip K. Dick.

The movie was set in Los Angeles in 2019. The main character, Rick Deckard (played by Harrison Ford), worked as a “blade runner” — a police officer tasked with tracking down and killing genetically-engineered humans known as “replicants” (which were designed to work in space colonies, but sometimes escaped to Earth).

This is one of several cases in which a baby name seems to have been inspired by a movie title as opposed to a movie character. Another example is Seattle, which debuted the year after Sleepless in Seattle came out.

The baby name Blade went on to see a steep rise in usage during the first half of the 1990s, no doubt thanks to the Young and the Restless character Alexander “Blade” Bladeson (played by Michael Tylo). The character appeared on the soap opera from early 1992 to late 1995.

The character Blade (played by Wesley Snipes) from the movie "Blade" (1998)
Blade from “Blade”

Blade never managed to crack the boys’ top 1,000, but it did reach and maintain its highest level of popularity from the mid-’90s through the first years of the 2000s.

  • 2003: 89 baby boys named Blade
  • 2002: 112 baby boys named Blade (peak popularity)
  • 2001: 103 baby boys named Blade
  • 2000: 95 baby boys named Blade
  • 1999: 99 baby boys named Blade

During most of this period, the primary pop culture influence would have been the movie character Blade, who was featured in a trilogy of superhero/horror films: Blade (1998), Blade II (2002), and Blade: Trinity (2004).

Blade (played by Wesley Snipes) was an African-American dhampir (half-human, half-vampire) whose mission was to hunt and kill vampires. His birth name was Eric Brooks; his nickname was a reference to his proficiency with bladed weapons such as swords and daggers. (Like Black Panther, Blade originated as a Marvel comic book character.)

What are your thoughts on the baby name Blade? Would you use it?

Sources: Blade Runner – Wikipedia, List of The Young and the Restless characters (1990s) – Wikipedia, Blade (character) – Wikipedia, Blade (Eric Brooks) – Marvel, SSA

Images: Screenshots of Blade Runner and Blade

What popularized the baby name Kiana in the 1990s?

Fitness instructor Kiana Tom
Kiana Tom on “Kiana’s Flex Appeal“

The baby name Kiana started picking up steam in the late 1980s. The name’s rise accelerated through the first half of the 1990s, and it reached peak popularity in 1996:

Girls named Kiana (U.S.)Girls named Kiana (HI)
19981,371 [rank: 226th]49 [rank: 9th]
19971,507 [rank: 198th]47 [rank: 11th]
19961,585† [rank: 190th]56 [rank: 8th]
19951,535 [rank: 192nd]41 [rank: 17th]
19941,117 [rank: 249th]39 [rank: 23rd]
1993712 [rank: 358th]36 [rank: 31st]
1992633 [rank: 402nd]38 [rank: 25th]
1991333 [rank: 658th]20 [rank: 65th]
†Peak usage

The name was particularly trendy in the state of Hawaii.

Here’s a visual of the national usage:

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

What was drawing attention to the name Kiana during those years?

Fitness personality Kiana Tom.

It all started in the mid-1980s, when ESPN began broadcasting fitness shows. Their first, Bodies in Motion hosted by Gilad Janklowicz, premiered in 1985. Their second, Getting Fit with Denise Austin, followed two years later.

Their third, BodyShaping, started airing in 1988 and was originally hosted by 6-time Ms. Olympia Corinna “Cory” Everson. As the series evolved, though, hosting duties were transferred to Kiana Tom (who’d been one of Cory’s assistants) and bodybuilder Rick Valente.

Kiana Tom — who is of Chinese, Hawaiian, and Irish descent, and who typically did her beach workouts in a bikini — proved so popular with viewers that, in 1995, she was given her own fitness show: Kiana’s Flex Appeal on ESPN2.

She also hosted several other programs (such as ESPN Summer Sizzle) and gave acting a try (appearing in the fourth Universal Soldier film with Jean-Claude Van Damme, for instance) during the 1990s.

In a 2001 interview, she mentioned that she knew about dozens of her namesakes:

[A]t least 83 children have been named Kiana now — that’s the ultimate compliment!

She was born Joanne Kiana Tom in Hawaii in 1965. Her middle name is the Hawaiian form of the name Diana.

What are your thoughts on the name Kiana? (Do you like it more or less than the homophone Qiana?)

P.S. DePrise Brescia was another BodyShaping regular…

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of Kiana’s Flex Appeal

What gave the baby name Tovah a boost in the late 1970s?

Actress Tovah Feldshuh in the TV miniseries "Holocaust" (1978)
Tovah Feldshuh in “Holocaust“

The name Tovah appeared for the first time in the U.S. baby name data in 1976. It saw its highest-ever usage several years later, in both 1979 and 1980:

  • 1981: 31 baby girls named Tovah
  • 1980: 37 baby girls named Tovah
  • 1979: 37 baby girls named Tovah
  • 1978: 31 baby girls named Tovah
  • 1977: unlisted
  • 1976: 6 baby girls named Tovah [debut]
  • 1975: unlisted

What was drawing attention to the name around that time?

Stage and screen actress Tovah Feldshuh, who began appearing on Broadway, on television, and in the movies (in that order) during the 1970s.

The name’s 1976 debut could be due to Feldshuh’s dozen appearances (as supporting character Martha McKee) on the popular daytime soap opera Ryan’s Hope from May to August of that year.

The name’s peak usage followed Feldshuh’s Emmy-nominated role as Helena Slomova, a Jewish resistance fighter from Prague, in the memorable TV miniseries Holocaust. The four-part miniseries was originally broadcast in April of 1978, and then rebroadcast in September of 1979.

Tovah Feldshuh was born Terri Sue Feldshuh in New York City in 1952. The first part of her stage name comes from her Hebrew name, Tovah, which is the Hebrew word for “good.” (The feminine form of the word/name can also be transcribed Tova. The masculine form is Tov.)

What are your thoughts on the name Tovah?

P.S. The director of the TV miniseries Holocaust, Marvin J. Chomsky, also co-directed the TV miniseries Roots (1977).

Sources: Tovah Feldshuh – Wikipedia, Holocaust (miniseries) – Wikipedia, SSA

Image: Screenshot of the miniseries Holocaust