What gave the baby name Rebbie a boost in 1985?

Rebbie Jackson's debut album "Centipede" (1984)
Rebbie Jackson album

The rare baby name Rebbie both re-emerged in the U.S. data and saw peak usage in 1985:

  • 1987: 7 baby girls named Rebbie
  • 1986: 9 baby girls named Rebbie
  • 1985: 24 baby girls named Rebbie [peak]
  • 1984: unlisted
  • 1983: unlisted

Why?

Because of singer Rebbie (pronounced ree-bee) Jackson. Her biggest single, “Centipede,” was released in September of 1984 and peaked at #24 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in December.

Rebbie — born Maureen Reillette Jackson in Gary, Indiana, in 1950 — was the eldest of the ten Jackson siblings. Her famous younger brother, Michael Jackson, “wrote, produced, arranged and sang in the background” on “Centipede.”

Sisters Janet, Rebbie, and LaToya Jackson (in 1988)
Janet, Rebbie, and La Toya Jackson

Rebbie was the first Jackson sister to see success as a solo artist. By the time her follow-up album came out in late 1986, however, baby sister Janet had established herself as the biggest star of the three. (Janet Jackson’s breakthrough album Control had been released in February of that year.)

What are your thoughts on the name Rebbie?

Sources:

Second image: Clipping from Jet magazine (1 Feb. 1988)

What turned Daddy into a baby name in 2005?

Daddy Yankee's single "Gasolina" (2004)
Daddy Yankee single

Not long after the start of the 21st century, two curious noun-names — Daddy and Yankee — popped up briefly in the U.S. baby name data. Daddy debuted in 2005 and stuck around for two years, while one-hit wonder Yankee appeared only in 2007:

Boys named DaddyBoys named Yankee
2008..
2007.5*
20067.
200514*.
2004..
*Debut

Where did they come from?

Puerto Rican rapper Daddy Yankee (born Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez in 1977).

His most influential single, “Gasolina,” was released in October of 2004 and became an international hit. The song “irrevocably alter[ed] the business, sound and aesthetic of Latin music” by introducing reggaetón music to audiences worldwide.

Because so few Spanish-language stations played urban music at the time, “Gasolina” never rose past No. 17 on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart. But it got heavy airplay on mainstream stations — peaking at No. 32 on the Hot 100 — and its dembow beat carried over to Latin America, Europe and the Far East.

Here’s the music video:

A year later, Daddy Yankee released the single “Rompe,” which fared even better on the charts: it was the #1 Hot Latin Song for 15 consecutive weeks from late 2005 through early 2006, and it peaked at #24 on the Hot 100 in April of 2006.

So how did Daddy Yankee come up with his stage name?

He chose it at the age of 13 — before he’d even started rapping. At that time, he was a “pudgy young kid with no money” who was obsessed with rappers like Dr. Dre and Rakim. In Puerto Rican street slang, Daddy Yankee means “powerful man.”

Sources:

Where did the baby name Tarralyn come from in 2004?

Contestant Tarralyn Ramsey on the singing competition "Born to Diva" (2003)
Tarralyn Ramsey on “Born to Diva“

The name Tarralyn popped up in the U.S. baby name data for the first and only time in the early 2000s:

  • 2006: unlisted
  • 2005: unlisted
  • 2004: 5 baby girls named Tarralyn [debut]
  • 2003: unlisted
  • 2002: unlisted

Similar names like Taralyn and Taralynn were most popular during the ’80s…so why did the spelling Tarralyn suddenly emerge in 2004?

Because of singer Tarralyn Ramsey, the winner of VH1’s single-season singing competition Born to Diva, which aired from April to May, 2003.

Five of the eight episodes consisted of auditions held in each of five cities: Miami, New York, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and London. The city-wide winners (Tomey Sellars, Sasha Allen, Tarralyn Ramsey, Towanda Cofield, and Eno Uffort, respectively) then attended a week-long “Diva Boot Camp” in NYC. Finally, music executives whittled the field down to three finalists: Tomey, Tarralyn, and Towanda.

Online voting for the winner will begin on May 11 and will conclude during the opening moments of VH1’s live “VH1 Divas Duets” special on Thursday, May 22. A few minutes later, all of America — including the three finalists themselves — will learn the name of music’s next superstar Diva, who will then perform a song live onstage.

At the Diva Duets concert, which took place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Tarralyn got the chance to sing alongside headliners such as Whitney Houston, Beyoncé, Jewel, Chaka Khan, and Ashanti.

After the win, Tarralyn was featured in magazines like People, Seventeen, Ebony, and Jet. This print coverage would have helped draw attention to the specific spelling of her name.

What are your thoughts on the name Tarralyn? (Which spelling do you prefer?)

Sources: Born to Diva – VH1.com, About – Tarralyn Ramsey, Tarralyn Ramsey – Wikipedia, VH1 is Born to Diva – Daily Double, SSA

Image: Screenshot of Born to Diva

More “Year of the Tiger” baby names

tiger

A couple of years ago, we talked about how the baby name Tiger saw higher usage in the U.S. in 1998, 2010, and 2022 — the three most recent Tiger years, according to the Chinese zodiac.

Since writing that post, I’ve found three more names that track with Tiger years. One of them saw higher usage during the early 20th century, while the other two (like “Tiger” itself) were more popular during the early 21st century.

Torao

The Japanese name Torao is based on the traditional Japanese word for “tiger,” tora.

Torao was the highest-debuting baby name of 1914. During the next Tiger year, 1926, the name saw peak usage.

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

Here’s the data on Torao for those specific years:

  • In 1926, 27 U.S. baby boys were named Torao.
    • 19 [70%] were born in Hawaii, 6 in California
  • In 1914, 17 U.S. baby boys were named Torao.
    • 11 [65%] were born in Hawaii, 5 in California

The territory of Hawaii and the state of California both had relatively large numbers of Japanese-Americans at that time.

Other tora-names were also being bestowed during the early 1900s. In the Social Security Death Index, for instance, I found dozens of people — many born in 1902, 1914, or 1926 — with names like Toraichi, Torajiro, Torako, Toraki, Toraji, Torami, Torayo, Toragusu, Toramatsu, and Torashige.

Taiga

The pronunciation of the Japanese name Taiga (which can mean various things, depending upon the kanji being used the write the name) is similar to that of the English word tiger.

After debuting in the U.S. baby name data in 1997, Taiga saw an initial spike in usage in 1998. Twelve years later, it spiked again.

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

Here’s the data on Taiga for those specific years:

  • In 2010, 26 U.S. baby boys were named Taiga.
    • 8 were born in California, 5 in New York
  • In 1998, 18 U.S. baby boys were named Taiga.

Though it didn’t spike a third time in 2022, the name did debut on the girls’ list that year.

(Incidentally, this name coincides with the Russian word taiga, which refers to a biome.)

Kotaro

The Japanese name Kotaro can be created from various combinations of kanji, and the first element is sometimes written with a character (ko) that means “tiger.”

Kotaro saw its highest-ever usage (15 baby boys) in the Tiger year 2010.

(I discovered this name while writing about Japan’s top baby names of 2022; names pronounced “Taiga” and “Kotaro” saw elevated usage in Japan that year.)

What are your thoughts on these names?

P.S. My post about Dragon Year baby names also had a part 2. :)

Sources: Earthly Branches – Wikipedia, Tiger (zodiac) – Wikipedia, SSDI (via FamilySearch), SSA

Image: Adapted from Tiger from Ranthanbore Sawai Madhopur Rajasthan India 12.10.2014 by Dibyendu Ash under CC BY-SA 3.0.