Where did the baby name Nellora come from in 1919?

Nellora Powell (1895-1919)

The name Nellora appeared in the U.S. baby name data for the first and only time in 1919. Notably, all of those baby girls were born in Kansas, which was the 24th-most-populated U.S. state at that time (roughly).

  • 1921: unlisted
  • 1920: unlisted
  • 1919: 5 baby girls named Nellora
    • All 5 born in Kansas
  • 1918: unlisted
  • 1917: unlisted

Where did the name come from?

The influence was the accidental suicide (!) of a popular Wichita society girl named Nellora Powell.

She was the energetic, outdoorsy, and “public spirited” daughter of John L. Powell, who was both the mayor of Wichita and the also president of the Wichita Wholesale Grocery Company.

On November 4, 1919 — having recently returned from a trip to Honolulu, and just weeks away from her 24th birthday — Nellora spent the day volunteering for the Red Cross.

When she got home that evening, she had a headache. The pain was bad enough that she couldn’t finish dinner, so she excused herself and headed to her bedroom to lie down. Along the way, she stopped to take some medicine.

Miss Powell had gone upstairs to an unlighted bath room and, believing that she knew just where the medicine she desired was located in the medicine closet, she reached for the bottle and swallowed some of its contents without turning on a light. She quickly discovered that she had taken carbolic acid.

She hurried back to the dining room, where her parents were still seated at the table, and said something along the lines of: “I have taken the wrong medicine; call the doctor!”

Her family started administering first aid, but by the time the doctor arrived fifteen minutes later, she’d lapsed into unconsciousness. Not long after that (at 7:40 p.m.) she was declared dead.

Her sudden death from poisoning was front-page news in Wichita the next day, and her name stayed in the Kansas papers for days to come.

Nellora’s name — which reminds me a lot of various names in the “Eleanor” family (e.g., Nell, Nora, Lenore, Lenora) — had come from her mother’s side of the family. It was the name of her maternal grandmother (b. New York, 1826) and also one of her aunts (b. Illinois, 1867).

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

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How did Elvis Presley influence U.S. baby names?

Elvis Presley's self-titled debut album (1956)
Elvis Presley’s debut album

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Elvis — which regularly ranked inside the boys’ top 1,000 during the first half of the 20th century — saw a steep rise in usage in 1956, and reached peak popularity in 1957:

  • 1959: 264 baby boys named Elvis [rank: 480th]
  • 1958: 372 baby boys named Elvis [rank: 405th]
  • 1957: 604 baby boys named Elvis [rank: 312th]
  • 1956: 417 baby boys named Elvis [rank: 362nd]
  • 1955: 65 baby boys named Elvis [rank: 924th]
  • 1954: 47 baby boys named Elvis

Here’s a visual:

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

What was influencing the name Elvis in the mid-1950s?

The King of Rock and Roll, of course. :)

Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1935. He was named after his father, Vernon Elvis Presley.

After graduating from high school (in Nashville, Tennessee) in 1953, he went to work as a truck driver — and also began recording songs at Sun Records.

By 1955, he’d become a regional star in the South. He was playing shows with country acts like Faron Young and The Carter Sisters.

But 1956 was the year Elvis became a national phenomenon.

He released “Heartbreak Hotel” in January. It became the best-selling song in the U.S. for eight weeks straight (from April to June). Among his other 1956 singles were “Hound Dog,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” and “Love Me Tender” — each of which took turns in the top-selling spot for a stretch of 16 weeks (from August to December).

Elvis also performed on various TV shows throughout 1956. He appeared on Stage Show six times (from January to March), the Milton Berle Show twice (in April and June), the Steve Allen Show once (in July), and the Ed Sullivan Show twice (in September and October). His September 9th appearance on the nation’s most popular variety show attracted 60 million viewers — over 82% of the television-viewing audience of the day — making it “the most-watched TV broadcast of the 1950s.”

Finally, in November, he was featured in his first movie, Love Me Tender. (His love interest was played by Debra Paget.) In its first week, the movie ranked in #2 at the box office behind James Dean’s final film, Giant.

In 1957, Elvis continued putting out best-selling singles (such as “Too Much,” “All Shook Up” and “Jailhouse Rock”). He appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show a third time (in January) and starred in two more movies: Loving You (released in July) and Jailhouse Rock (released in November).

A handful of the hundreds of baby boys named Elvis during these years were also given the middle name Presley. Some examples…

  • Elvis Presley White (b. May 1956, in Texas)
  • Elvis Presley Imes (b. July 1956, in North Carolina)
  • Elvis Presley Williams (b. October 1956, in Texas)
  • Elvis Presley Arrington (b. November 1956, in North Carolina)
  • Elvis Presley Hart (b. November 1956, in Ohio)
  • Elvis Presley Nettles (b. January 1957, in North Carolina)
  • Elvis Presley Weaver (b. January 1957, in Alabama)
  • Elvis Presley Day (b. June 1957, in North Carolina)
  • Elvis Presley Jamerson (b. August 1957, in Texas)

The original Elvis Presley went on to record hundreds of songs — 149 of which made an appearance on the pop charts — and star in 31 movies over the course of his career.

Sadly, that career was cut short when, in August of 1977, Elvis was found unconscious in his Memphis mansion, Graceland. He’d suffered a heart attack (“brought on largely by drug abuse”) and doctors were unable to revive him.

Elvis’ death at the age of 42 triggered not only a national outpouring of grief, but also a second spike in usage of the baby name Elvis:

  • 1980: 229 baby boys named Elvis [rank: 571st]
  • 1979: 274 baby boys named Elvis [rank: 504th]
  • 1978: 365 baby boys named Elvis [rank: 404th]
  • 1977: 299 baby boys named Elvis [rank: 467th]
  • 1976: 148 baby boys named Elvis [rank: 678th]

What are your thoughts on the name Elvis?

P.S. Mike Stoller, one of the songwriters behind “Hound Dog,” survived the sinking of the Andrea Doria in mid-1956.

Sources: Elvis Presley – Wikipedia, Elvis Presley – Britannica, Elvis – Television Appearances & Specials – Graceland.com, Elvis Presley’s 1956 – Graceland.com, List of Billboard number-one singles of 1956 – Wikipedia, Elvis Presley makes first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” – History.com, FamilySearch.org, Mike Stoller recalls day he survived a wreck and discovered his Elvis hit – Elvis Australia, SSA

What popularized the baby name Celine in the 1990s?

Céline Dion's first English-language album, "Unison" (1990)
Céline Dion album

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Celine saw a steep rise in the usage during the 1990s:

  • 1999: 394 baby girls named Celine [rank: 617th]
  • 1998: 565 baby girls named Celine [rank: 456th]
  • 1997: 443 baby girls named Celine [rank: 537th]
  • 1996: 271 baby girls named Celine [rank: 774th]
  • 1995: 231 baby girls named Celine [rank: 846th]
  • 1994: 247 baby girls named Celine [rank: 815th]
  • 1993: 157 baby girls named Celine
  • 1992: 121 baby girls named Celine
  • 1991: 77 baby girls named Celine
  • 1990: 52 baby girls named Celine
  • 1989: 43 baby girls named Celine

The name entered the top 1,000 in 1994, and even reached the top 500 (briefly) in 1998. That 1998 spike remained the name’s highest overall usage until the late 2010s.

Here’s a visual:

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

What was behind the rise?

Quebec-born singer Céline Dion, who became one of the dominant pop divas of the mid-to-late 1990s (along with Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey).

She’d been putting out French-language music in Canada for a decade before finally releasing her first English-language album, Unison, in 1990. The album featured the song “Where Does My Heart Beat Now,” which reached #4 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in March of 1991.

This first English-language hit was followed by many more, including…

  • “Beauty and the Beast” (1991), a duet with Peabo Bryson
    • theme song from the 1991 Disney movie Beauty and the Beast
  • “If You Asked Me To” (1992)
  • “The Power of Love” (1993)
  • “Because You Loved Me” (1996)
    • theme song from the 1996 movie Up Close & Personal
  • “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” (1996)
  • “All by Myself” (1996)
  • “My Heart Will Go On” (1997)
    • theme song from the 1997 movie Titanic

“My Heart Will Go On” was Céline Dion’s biggest hit, and today it’s considered her signature song. Here’s a live performance:

The 5-time Grammy winner was born in March of 1968 in the town of Charlemagne, a suburb of Montreal. Her parents, Adhémar and Thérèse Dion, had a total of fourteen children:

  1. Denise
  2. Clément
  3. Claudette
  4. Liette
  5. Michel
  6. Louise
  7. Jacques
  8. Daniel
  9. Ghislaine
  10. Linda
  11. Manon
  12. Paul (twin)
  13. Pauline (twin)
  14. Céline

Céline, the baby of the family, was more than two decades younger than her oldest sibling, Denise.

How did she come to be named Céline?

Her mother had chosen the name after hearing the song “Céline,” written by the French writer and singer-songwriter Hugues Aufray, who had had great success in Quebec and France during the time Céline’s mother was pregnant with her. “Céline” told the story of a good-hearted, well-behaved girl, the oldest of a large family, whose mother died giving birth to the youngest. The Céline of the song sacrificed her youth to care for her brothers and sisters, and the years had passed without her ever knowing the joys of love.

Hugues Aufray’s song “Céline” [vid] was released in 1966.

Quebec’s baby name data, which only goes back to 1980, doesn’t reveal whether or not the song made the name Céline trendy in Quebec in the late 1960s. But it does show the name declining in usage during the 1980s — despite the fact that a teenage Céline Dion was racking up French-language hits in Quebec throughout the decade.

The French name Céline can be traced back (via the Roman family names Caelinus and Caelius) to the Latin word caelum, which means “heaven.”

What are your thoughts on the name Céline?

Sources:

Babies named for Horatio Alger

American author Horatio Alger (1832-1899)
Horatio Alger

During the last three decades of the 19th century, American author Horatio Alger (1832-1899) wrote dozens of young adult novels. All of them were about boys who overcame poverty — through honesty, hard work, “cheerful perseverance,” and a bit of luck — to attain wealth and respectability.

Alger’s most successful rags-to-riches tale was Ragged Dick (1868), about a quick-witted bootblack named Dick (who began to go by “Richard” after his position in society had improved).

His subsequent novels featured similar plots and protagonists. They had titles like Mark, the Match Boy (1869); Ben, The Luggage Boy (1870); and Dan, the Newsboy (1893). These stories “influenced several generations of young readers, future achievers, and memoir-writers, from Andrew Carnegie to Malcolm X.”

No doubt many baby boys in the U.S. were named after Alger’s various main characters, but I’ve also found a handful named after Alger himself. Some examples…

Several others were born conspicuously early:

The first one — just seven years younger than Alger, and born in the same town — must have been named in honor the author’s father, Unitarian minister Horatio Alger, Sr.

The next three may not have been named until they were several years old (à la Emancipation Proclamation). Or perhaps they were named as babies, but their parents were inspired by Alger’s earlier work. His poem “Gone to the War” appeared on the front page of a Minnesota newspaper in 1861, for instance, and his short story “Edward’s Temptation” ran in its entirety on the front page of an Ohio paper in 1864.

Interestingly, Charles Alger Hiss, whose father was “a great admirer of Horatio Alger,” was, in turn, the father of Alger Hiss — the U.S. State Department official accused of being a Soviet spy in the late 1940s. The Hiss case helped advance the careers of noted anti-communists Richard Nixon and Joseph McCarthy.

Sources:

Image: Horatio Alger Jr.