What gave the baby name Rashaan a boost in 1995?

Football player Rashaan Salaam (1974-2016)
Rashaan Salaam

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Rashaan reached the boys’ top 1,000 for the first and only time in 1995:

  • 1997: 52 baby boys named Rashaan
  • 1996: 62 baby boys named Rashaan
  • 1995: 140 baby boys named Rashaan [rank: 940th]
  • 1994: 38 baby boys named Rashaan
  • 1993: 19 baby boys named Rashaan

What was drawing attention to the name that year?

College football player Rashaan Salaam, who won the Heisman Trophy in December of 1994.

As a junior at the University of Colorado, Salaam (a running back) rushed for 2,055 yards — becoming the fourth player in college football history to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a single season — and scored 24 touchdowns. The Colorado Buffaloes ended up with an overall record of 11–1, placing third in the NCAA rankings.

Salaam forewent his senior year to enter the 1995 NFL draft. After a successful rookie season with the Chicago Bears, his performance declined, and he left the league several years later.

Sadly, after battling with depression (which was fueled by his belief that he’d failed to live up to expectations), Salaam committed suicide in 2016.

What are your thoughts on the name Rashaan?

P.S. Runner-up in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1994 was Ki-Jana Carter…

Sources:

Image: Rashaan Salaam trading card

What gave the baby name Joanna a boost in 1984?

James "J.T." Taylor and "Joanna" in the music video for the song "Joanna" (1983)
James “J.T.” Taylor and “Joanna”

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Joanna reached peaked usage — and entered the girls’ top 100 for the first time — in 1984:

  • 1986: 2,227 baby girls named Joanna [rank: 126th]
  • 1985: 2,772 baby girls named Joanna [rank: 99th]
  • 1984: 3,330 baby girls named Joanna [rank: 88th]
  • 1983: 2,120 baby girls named Joanna [rank: 139th]
  • 1982: 1,834 baby girls named Joanna [rank: 161st]

(The spelling Johanna also saw higher usage that year.)

What gave Joanna a boost?

The song “Joanna” by Kool & The Gang.

The R&B love ballad was the second track on the group’s 15th studio album, In The Heart. It was released as a single in November of 1983 and peaked at #2 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in February of 1984.

The music video for “Joanna” featured a motherly woman who worked at a diner:

The video makes more sense when you learn that the song was originally entitled “Dear Mom.” Here’s the story behind the name change, from Jim Bonnefond (co-producer and chief engineer of In The Heart):

When they wrote “Joanna,” they wrote it as a song called “Dear Mom.” And I listened to the song and I liked it, but I couldn’t see how they would be able to work with that title. So I suggested that they pick a girl’s name. I said, “It’s a shame that ‘Rosanna‘ has just been used, but something that has the same flow and sound as ‘Rosanna.'” I stopped short of saying ‘Joanna,’ but somebody figured that out on their own.

(Jim later specified that the band’s trombone player, Clifford Adams, was the one who suggested ‘Joanna.’)

What are your thoughts on the name Joanna?

P.S. James “J.T.” Taylor, who became Kool & The Gang’s lead singer in 1979, added the “J.T.” to his name when people started confusing him with folk-rock singer-songwriter James Taylor.

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of the music video for “Joanna”

What gave the baby name Tracy a boost in 1970?

The Cuff Links' album "Tracy" (1969)
The Cuff Links album

After rising for decades, the usage of Tracy (as a girl name) looked like it might plateau in the late 1960s. Instead, it rose steeply for two years in a row, reaching the girls’ top 10 for the first and only time in 1970:

Girls named TracyBoys named Tracy
197211,436 [rank: 19th]2,538 [rank: 111th]
197114,329 [rank: 13th]2,076 [rank: 144th]
197018,465† [rank: 10th]1,777 [rank: 162nd]
196915,108 [rank: 17th]2,169 [rank: 141st]
196812,742 [rank: 25th]2,655 [rank: 111th]
†Peak usage

Interestingly, when the female usage spiked, the male usage dipped. You can see both the spike and the corresponding dip on the name’s popularity graph:

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

Several other spellings (Tracey, Traci, and Tracie) also saw peak usage in 1970.

So, what was drawing attention to the name Tracy in the late 1960s?

The bubblegum pop song “Tracy,” which was performed by The Cuff Links (a studio band) and released in July of 1969. It peaked at #9 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in late October.

Here’s what the song sounds like:

Another influence may have been the character Contessa Teresa “Tracy” di Vicenzo (played by actress Diana Rigg) from the James Bond movie On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, which was released in December of 1969. (Thank you to Sharky for letting me know about this character!)

What are your thoughts on the name Tracy?

P.S. Diana Rigg also played the part of Olenna Tyrell on Game of Thrones…

Sources: Tracy (The Cuff Links song) – Wikipedia, Billboard Hot 100 for the week of 25 Oct. 1969, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (film) – Wikipedia, SSA

What gave the baby name Cherylene a boost in 1946?

Cherylene Robison and her mother, Rona
Rona and Cherylene Robison

The baby name Cherylene saw peak usage in the U.S. in 1946:

  • 1948: 11 baby girls named Cherylene
  • 1947: 20 baby girls named Cherylene
  • 1946: 56 baby girls named Cherylene
  • 1945: unlisted
  • 1944: 7 baby girls named Cherylene

The name Cheryl was very trendy in the mid-1940s, and 1946 happened to be the first year of the post-war baby boom. But I think there’s a more specific reason for Cherylene’s impressive usage.

The reason?

A two-month-old Australian baby named Cherylene Robison, whose picture was published in a number of U.S. newspapers that January.

Doctors in Australia had determined that Cherylene needed life-saving cranial surgery. (Her fontanelle had not closed.)

So Cherylene and her mother, Rona, took a multi-leg “mercy flight” from Perth to Oakland (via Brisbane and Honolulu) courtesy of the U.S. military.

While they traveled east by plane, Cherylene’s father, American ex-serviceman Robert J. Robison, traveled west by train (from Kansas) to meet them.

Soon after the baby arrived, she was examined by doctors at the University of California Hospital in San Francisco. They concluded that she did not need an operation after all.

At the time of the 1950 U.S. Census, the Robison family was living together in San Mateo, California, and 4-year-old Cherylene had two younger siblings, Teresa and Reginald.

What are your thoughts on the name Cherylene?

P.S. Some of the 1960s usage of the name may have been influenced by child actress Cherylene Lee (b. 1953). She had a role in the 1963 John Wayne movie Donovan’s Reef, for instance.

Sources:

Image: Clipping from the Press Democrat (24 Jan. 1946)