Where did the baby name Nas come from in 1997?

Nas in the music video for "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)" (1996)
Nas in a music video

The name Nas debuted in the U.S. baby name data back in the late 1990s:

  • 1999: unlisted
  • 1998: 5 baby boys named Nas
  • 1997: 5 baby boys named Nas [debut]
  • 1996: unlisted
  • 1995: unlisted

What put it there?

New York rapper Nas (pronounced nahz).

His 1994 debut album Illmatic — today considered one of the best hip-hop albums ever made — didn’t meet commercial expectations.

But his second album, It Was Written (1996), saw mainstream success and produced two big singles. The first, “If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)” featuring Lauryn Hill, reached #53 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in August and received a Grammy nomination. The second, “Street Dreams,” peaked even higher (#22) in January of 1997.

Nas’ stage name is short for his legal first name, Nasir (which also rose in usage as Nas rose to fame). Here’s how he explained his name back in 1994:

My whole name is Nasir Bin Olu Dara Jones. Nasir is Arabic. It means “helper and protector.” Bin means “son of.” Jones is the slave part. N*ggas weren’t trying to say my name back in the days. When we used to tag up on trains and high places, we’d climb up — I didn’t want to write Nasir, you couldn’t even say it — I’d just write Nas or Kid Wave.

(“Kid Wave” was a name he used for breakdancing.)

Nas’ father, Mississippi-born jazz trumpeter Olu Dara, changed his name from Charles Jones III in the late 1960s. His new name is made up of the Yoruba words olu, short for oluwa, meaning “God” or “lord,” and dara, meaning “good.”

What are your thoughts on the name Nas?

P.S. From 2005 to 2010, Nas was married to singer Kelis. Their only child together was a son named Knight, born in 2009.

Sources:

  • Nas – Wikipedia
  • Dreisinger, Baz. “Nas and his dad’s jazz.” Los Angeles Times 5 Dec. 2004.
  • Garcia, Bobbito. “Streets Disciple.” Born to Use Mics: Reading Nas’s Illmatic, ed. by Michael Eric Dyson and Sohail Daulatzai, Basic Civitas Books, 2010, pp. 225-235.
  • Nas – Billboard
  • SSA

Image: Screenshot of the music video for “If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)”

Where did the baby name Erykah come from in 1997?

Erykah Badu's debut album "Baduizm" (1997).
Erykah Badu album

The baby name Erykah saw its highest-ever usage in 1997 — the same year it first appeared in the U.S. baby name data:

  • 1999: 130 baby girls named Erykah
  • 1998: 276 baby girls named Erykah [rank: 780th]
  • 1997: 279 baby girls named Erykah [rank: 757th] [debut]
  • 1996: unlisted
  • 1995: unlisted

It was the top debut name of the year. Not only that, but it also managed to rank inside the girls’ top 1,000 both that year and the next.

Here’s a visual:

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

Similar names saw higher usage in 1997 as well. Eryka and Eryk got a boost, while Arykah, Derykah, Terykah, and Jerykah all debuted. (Those last two ended up being one-hit wonders.)

What was influencing all these names?

Neo-soul singer-songwriter Erykah Badu.

Her debut single “On & On” (1996) peaked at #12 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in early 1997. It went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance the following year.

Her debut studio album, Baduizm (1997), also won a Grammy.

Badu was born Erica Wright in Texas in 1971. She began going by the name “Erykah Badu” as a teenager.

She altered the spelling of her first name to incorporate the Egyptian term kah, which she defined as “inner self.” (In ancient Egypt, the ka, or “life force,” was one of the three elements of the soul.)

And her new surname? “Badu comes from a jazz riff that I sing: ba-du, ba-du…,” she told English television host Julian “Jools” Holland in June of 1997.

What are your thoughts on the name Erykah? How about Erica? (What’s your preferred spelling of the name?)

Sources:

P.S. Erykah’s three children — one son and two daughters — are named Seven Sirius (b. 1997), Puma Sabti (b. 2004), and Mars Merkaba (b. 2009).

Where did the baby name Kelis come from in 2000?

Kelis' album "Kaleidoscope" (late 1999).
Kelis album

The name Kelis debuted very impressively in the U.S. baby name data in the year 2000:

  • 2003 88 baby girls named Kelis
  • 2002 71 baby girls named Kelis
  • 2001 54 baby girls named Kelis
  • 2000: 108 baby girls (and 6 baby boys) named Kelis [debut]
  • 1999: unlisted
  • 1998: unlisted

Not only was it the top debut name of the year, but it currently ranks 26th (between Cotina and Izamar) on the list of top girl-name debuts of all time.

It also gave a boost to the similar names Kelise, Kalis, Kalise, and Calise.

So, where did Kelis come from?

Mononymous singer-songwriter Kelis (pronounced kuh-LEESE).

Her first album, Kaleidoscope, was released in late 1999. The album’s most successful single, “Caught Out There,” reached Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart (peaking at #54 in early 2000).

Perhaps more importantly, though, Kelis’ vocals were featured in the song “Got Your Money” by Ol’ Dirty Bastard (who, like Raekwon, was a founding member of the Wu-Tang Clan). She sang that memorable hook: “Hey, Dirty / Baby, I got your money / Don’t you worry, I said hey / Baby, I got your money.”

Here’s Kelis in the “Got Your Money” music video (which borrows heavily from the movie Dolemite, incidentally):

Kelis in the music video for ODB's song "Got Your Money" (1999).
Kelis (center) in ODB music video

The name saw spikes in usage in both 2004 and 2007. (It reached the girls’ top 1,000 for the first and only time in 2007, in fact.) These high points line up with notable moments in Kelis’ career:

  • Her biggest single, “Milkshake” (2003) reached #3 on the Hot 100 and was nominated for a Grammy. (It was written and produced by The Neptunes, one-half of which is Pharrell Williams.)
  • Her second-biggest single, “Bossy” (2006), reached #16 on the Hot 100. It was the lead single from the album Kelis Was Here (2006), which earned her a second Grammy nomination.

The singer’s full name is Kelis Rogers. Her parents, Kenneth and Eveliss, created her first name by combining their own names.

What are your thoughts on the name Kelis?

Sources: Kelis – Billboard, Kelis – Wikipedia, SSA

What gave the baby name Baylee a boost in 1995?

Infant Baylee Almon and firefighter Chris Fields after the Oklahoma City bombing (Newsweek, May 1995)
Baylee Almon (and firefighter Chris Fields)

In 1995, the baby name Baylee — which had been slowly rising in usage for girls, but rarely given to boys — suddenly shot straight into the girls’ top 500, and debuted as a boy name:

Girls named BayleeBoys named Baylee
1997968 [rank: 296th]73
1996853 [rank: 331st]42
1995696 [rank: 379th]29*
1994173.
1993151.
*Debut

Here’s a visual:

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

Most other versions of the name (Bailey, Bailee, Baylie, Bayley, Bailie, Baleigh, Bayleigh, Baily, Bayli, Baylea, Bailea, Bayle, and Bailley) also saw higher-than-expected usage in 1995, and the rare variants Balee and Bailye both debuted in the data that year.

What caused all this interest in the name Baylee?

A famous photograph — one of a firefighter carrying a baby’s body out of the rubble of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995.

To this day, the Oklahoma City bombing remains “the worst act of homegrown terrorism in the nation’s history.” The bombing killed 168 people — including 19 children — and injured hundreds more.

The baby in the photo, Baylee Almon, had celebrated her first birthday just one day earlier (on April 18).

Baylee’s life was cut very short, but the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo ensured that people all over the country knew her name. And, once they knew it, they began to use it.

Here’s what Baylee Almon’s little sister Bella Kok recently said about the phenomenon:

Over the years we’ve met people from different states that have named their kids after my sister. It’s really nice knowing people will always remember, that she won’t just be a face, and that she means something.

In fact, babies are still being named for Baylee Almon.

An Oklahoma woman named Kayla Dearman — who was born just two days after Baylee Almon, and who grew up feeling a connection to her — had a baby girl on the first day of 2014. In honor of Almon, she named her daughter Bailey.

Sources:

Image: Clipping from the cover of Newsweek magazine (1 May 1995)