What gave baby name Kazuko a boost 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 Kazuko saw a distinct spike in usage in 1927 — the one and only year it reached the U.S. top 1,000.

  • 1929: 20 baby girls named Kazuko
  • 1928: 28 baby girls named Kazuko
  • 1927: 63 baby girls named Kazuko [rank: 958th]
    • 31 born in California, 21 in Hawaii, 6 in Washington state
  • 1926: 14 baby girls named Kazuko
  • 1925: 15 baby girls named Kazuko

Nearly 83% of the usage came from California and Hawaii — states with relatively large numbers of Japanese-Americans.

We saw a very similar pattern of usage when looking at Shoji, which was influenced by the start of Japan’s Showa era in the waning days of 1926. So I suspected that Kazuko was likewise influenced by the Showa era. For years, though, I was unable to figure out how the name and the era were connected.

Then I discovered a key fact about the second kanji (i.e., Chinese character) in the word Showa.

Kanji character for "peace"
“peace”

This kanji, which means “peace” or “harmony,” is usually pronounced “wa.” But it can also pronounced in other ways. And one of those others ways is “kazu” — a nanori reading used exclusively in Japanese personal names.

The SSA’s data doesn’t reveal how Japanese names are rendered in Japanese, but my hunch is that most of the 1927 Kazukos wrote their names using this particular character. (And the “-ko” portion of their names was almost certainly represented by the kanji meaning “child” that was so trendy during that period for girl names, e.g., Yoshiko, Chiyoko, Mitsuko, Haruko, Yoko.)

Soon after leaning about the “kazu” pronunciation, I noticed that the Japanese girl name Kazue (pronounced kah-zoo-eh) doubled in usage the same year, no doubt for the same reason:

  • 1929: 7 baby girls named Kazue
  • 1928: 5 baby girls named Kazue
  • 1927: 24 baby girls named Kazue
    • 13 born in Hawaii, 9 in California
  • 1926 12 baby girls named Kazue
  • 1925: 13 baby girls named Kazue

Do you have any thoughts on the name Kazuko? How about Kazue?

Sources: Showa era – Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Kazuko – Behind the Name, SSA

Images: Adapted from Emperor Showa (public domain)

Where did the baby name Rhondda come from in 1946?

Rhondda Kelly, Miss Australia 1946
Rhondda Kelly

In December of 1945, the Miss Australia beauty pageant was held in Sydney.

The winner was 19-year-old university student Rhondda Kelly, the representative from Queensland (fittingly).

At least one Australian baby girl — born in March to Mr. and Mrs. Mark Fellows at the Lady Musgrave Maternity Hospital in Maryborough, Queensland — was named Rhondda in her honor.

But I don’t think this baby was her only namesake.

Why? Because, in mid-1946, Rhondda Kelly embarked upon a six-month round-the-world trip that included an east-to-west crossing of the U.S. and Canada during October. Photographs of Miss Australia 1946 were published in various U.S. papers (including the New York Times) that month.

Right on cue, the name Rhondda surfaced in the U.S. baby name data:

  • 1948: unlisted
  • 1947: 6 baby girls named Rhondda
  • 1946: 5 baby girls named Rhondda [debut]
  • 1945: unlisted
  • 1944: unlisted

It remained there for just one more year before falling back below the five-baby threshold.

(Actress Rhonda Fleming — who kicked off the mid-century rise of Rhonda in the late ’40s — wasn’t given a leading role in a movie until 1947.)

So, where does the rare name Rhondda come from?

A Welsh place name (of unknown etymology) that refers to both a river, Afon Rhondda, and a valley, Cwm Rhondda, in South Wales.

What are your thoughts on the name Rhondda? Do you like this spelling, or do you prefer Rhonda?

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Rhondda Kelly (1945)

Where did the baby name Yoenis come from in 2015?

Baseball player Yoenis Céspedes
Yoenis Céspedes

The rare name Yoenis has appeared in the U.S. baby name data just once so far, in 2015:

  • 2017: unlisted
  • 2016: unlisted
  • 2015: 7 baby boys named Yoenis [debut]
  • 2014: unlisted
  • 2013: unlisted

What put it there?

Professional baseball player Yoenis Céspedes (pronounced yo-EHN-eess SES-peh-des).

Yoenis, an outfielder and power hitter, played on four different Major League Baseball teams from 2012 to 2020.

He saw the most success in the mid-2010s, when he was named an All-Star twice (in 2014 and 2016) and won both a Gold Glove Award (in 2015) and a Silver Slugger Award (in 2016).

Yoenis was born in Cuba in 1985, and is therefore part of Cuba’s Generación Y (i.e., one of the many Cubans who were given Y-names during the 1970s and ’80s). In fact, Yoenis was “[p]erhaps the best-known example” of this trend in the MLB, according to a New York Times article from mid-2016.

(The article also mentioned the high proportion of Y-names on the roster of Cuba’s national baseball team, which had played an exhibition game against the Tampa Bay Rays in Havana that spring. Of the 30 players, ten had Y-names: Yoandry, Yoanni, Yorbis, Yordan, Yordanis, Yosvani #1, Yosvani #2, Yunier, Yunior, and Yurisbel.)

What are your thoughts on the name Yoenis?

P.S. Céspedes’ younger half-brother, Yoelqui, currently plays in the minor leagues.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Yoenis Cespedes talks to reporters on WSMediaDay by Arturo Pardavila III under CC BY 2.0.

Where did the baby name Iyanla come from in 1998?

Iyanla Vanzant on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" (Aug. 1999)
Iyanla Vanzant on “The Oprah Winfrey Show“

The curious name Iyanla first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1998:

  • 2000: 41 baby girls named Iyanla
  • 1999: 49 baby girls named Iyanla
  • 1998: 10 baby girls named Iyanla [debut]
  • 1997: unlisted
  • 1996: unlisted

Where did it come from?

Self-help expert Iyanla (pronounced ee-YAHN-lah) Vanzant, who was featured on 20 episodes of The Oprah Winfrey Show from 1998 to 1999.

According to Oprah.com, Iyanla doled out “some of the best no-nonsense, hard-hitting advice Oprah had ever heard.”

Iyanla’s humorous style and life-changing advice struck a chord with women everywhere. Her message was simple: To live better, you’ve got to love yourself.

She went on to host two of her own talk shows, the most successful of which, Iyanla: Fix My Life, aired on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) from 2012 to 2021.

Iyanla’s birth name was Rhonda Eva Harris. In her late 20s, she decided to reinvent herself — and adopt a new name, to symbolize her new life. Here’s how she tells the story:

Like Saul on the road to Damascus, I too had a spiritual awakening. Saul became Paul, and Rhonda became Iyanla, which, in the language of the Yoruba people of Nigeria, means “great mother.” It’s not even a name, it’s a title — it’s a title with a purpose.

The Yoruban title Ìyá nlá is made up of the words ìyá, meaning “mother,” and nlá, meaning “big, large.”

What are your thoughts on the name Iyanla?

Sources: Iyanla Vanzant – Wikipedia, Iyanla Vanzant Returns to The Oprah Show – Oprah.com, Iyanla Explains The Origin Of Her Name – Oprah.com [vid], SSA

Image: Screenshot of The Oprah Winfrey Show