What gave the baby name Marisol a boost in 1970?

Marisol Malaret, Miss Universe 1970
Marisol Malaret

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Marisol saw a spike in usage in 1970:

  • 1972: 639 baby girls named Marisol [rank: 346th]
  • 1971: 806 baby girls named Marisol [rank: 327th]
  • 1970: 897 baby girls named Marisol [rank: 311th]
  • 1969: 398 baby girls named Marisol [rank: 487th]
  • 1968: 286 baby girls named Marisol [rank: 566th]

Why?

Because of Puerto Rican beauty queen Marisol Malaret, who was crowned Miss Universe in Miami Beach, Florida, in July of 1970.

Notably, she was the first delegate from Puerto Rico to win the title. (There have since been four more Puerto Rican winners.)

Close to 60% of the usage of the name occurred in New York and New Jersey — the two states in which “nearly three-quarters of all Puerto Ricans living in the U.S. resided” in 1970.

Girls named Marisol (NY)Girls named Marisol (NJ)
1971305112
1970395 (44.0%)130 (14.5%)
196917952

The Miss Universe pageant doesn’t include a talent competition, but it does feature a national costume competition. Marisol’s costume was inspired by the phrase La perla del Caribe (translation: “the pearl of the Caribbean”) — a poetic name for the island of Puerto Rico.

Speaking of the island, Marisol flew home about a week after the pageant. Here’s how the New York Times described the scene:

Thousands of proud, cheering Puerto Ricans jammed the Isla Verde airport today and lined the six-mile route to the capital building to welcome home Marisol Malaret Contreras, Miss Universe of 1970.

I suspect that the baby name Marisol saw higher usage in Puerto Rico as well in 1970, but I don’t know for sure, because the SSA’s data for Puerto Rico only goes back to 1998. (The name Zuleyka got a boost in Puerto Rico in 2006, the year Zuleyka Rivera became the country’s fifth Miss Universe winner.)

What are your thoughts on the name Marisol? (Do you like it more or less than Zuleyka?)

P.S. The first runner-up at Miss Universe 1970, Deborah Shelton (Miss USA), went on to become an actress. She’s best known for playing Amanda “Mandy” Winger on the TV series Dallas.

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of the TV broadcast of the 19th Miss Universe pageant

What gave the baby name Candida a boost in 1971?

Tony Orlando and Dawn's album "Candida" (1970)
Dawn album

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Candida — which comes from the Latin word candidus, meaning “shining white” — saw a jump in usage (and entered the top 1,000 for the first time) in 1971:

  • 1973: 163 baby girls named Candida [rank: 802nd]
  • 1972: 170 baby girls named Candida [rank: 798th]
  • 1971: 222 baby girls named Candida [rank: 687th]
  • 1970: 95 baby girls named Candida
  • 1969: 30 baby girls named Candida

What gave it a boost that year?

The song “Candida” (pronounced kan-DEE-dah), which was sung by Tony Orlando…but credited to a non-existent group called Dawn.

(Orlando, an executive at Columbia Records, recorded the song for a competitor, Bell Records. Not wanting to jeopardize his career, he asked that Bell not reveal his name. “Dawn” was chosen because it was the name of the daughter of Bell executive Steve Wax.)

“Candida” was released in July of 1970. It peaked at #3 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in early October.

Here’s what it sounds like:

In an interview, one of the co-writers of the song, Toni Wine, explained how she came up with the name Candida:

We knew we wanted a Spanish girl’s name. Rosita had been taken. Juanita was a hit. Maria had happened. We knew we wanted to write a Latin-flavored song […] We needed a three-syllable word, and all those girls were gone. So Candida had been a name that I had toyed with, and there she became a reality.

The name of the fictitious group also influenced expectant parents: Dawn, already a top-100 girl name, entered the girls’ top 20 for the first time in 1970.

Speaking of Dawn…after it scored a second #1 hit, “Knock Three Times,” Tony Orlando decided to give up his day job and make Dawn a reality. He recruited a pair of backup singers, Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson, and the three of them started touring.

Telma Hopkins, Tony Orlando, and Joyce Vincent Wilson on the "Tony Orlando and Dawn Show" (1975)
Telma Hopkins, Tony Orlando, and Joyce Vincent Wilson

Together, the trio scored two more #1 hits:

  • “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree” (1973), as Dawn featuring Tony Orlando, and
  • “He Don’t Love You (Like I Love You)” (1975), as Tony Orlando and Dawn.

They also hosted a musical variety series, The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show, which was broadcast on CBS from mid-1974 until late 1976. The New York Times described the series as “mildly hip, in a safe middle-of-the-road sort of way. It’s slick. It’s disarmingly hokey. Imagine, if you will, Sonny & Cher filtered through Lawrence Welk.”

While the show was on the air, the baby names Tony, Orlando, Telma, and Candida all saw discernible (if slight) upticks in usage.

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

P.S. The name Telma saw another uptick while Telma Hopkins, who went on to become an actress, was starring on the sitcom Getting By (1993-1994).

Sources:

Second image: Screenshot of The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show (episode from 1975)

What popularized the baby name Tracy in the mid-20th century?

Actress Diana Lynn rehearsing for "The Philadelphia Story" (Dec. 1959)
Diana Lynn rehearsing “Philadelphia Story”

According to the U.S. baby name data, the usage of Tracy increased for both boys and girls during the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s.

The boys’ rise was probably bolstered by a pair of masculine associations: leading man Spencer Tracy (who’d become famous in the mid-1930s) and comic strip character Dick Tracy (who first appeared in the papers in the early ’30s).

The girls’ rise was likely influenced by fictional character Tracy Lord, the protagonist of the play The Philadelphia Story (1939), which was adapted for the big and small screens multiple times. Tracy Lord — a beautiful but self-centered heiress — was portrayed by Katharine Hepburn in 1940 (film), Barbara Bel Geddes in late 1950 (TV), Dorothy McGuire in late 1954 (TV), Grace Kelly in 1956 (film), and Diana Lynn in late 1959 (TV).

Notably, the 1959 televised production of The Philadelphia Story featured original music, including “Tracy’s Theme” [vid] — an instrumental song that peaked at #13 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in February of 1960.

Another influence on the girls’ usage may have been AP columnist Hal Boyle, who often wrote about his daughter Tracy Ann (from the time she was adopted in 1953 until the early 1970s). Photos of Tracy Ann Boyle occasionally ran in the newspapers.

Six-year old Tracy Ann Boyle interviewing actor Chuck Connors (Sept. 1959)
Tracy Ann Boyle (in 1959)

The name Tracy was being given more often to baby girls than to baby boys by 1954, and the girls’ usage was more than double the boys’ usage by the end of the 1950s:

Girls named TracyBoys named Tracy
19628,308 (rank: 55th)3,340 (rank: 111th)
19616,987 (rank: 64th)3,185 (rank: 119th)
19605,767 (rank: 84th)2,584 (rank: 137th)
19593,367 (rank: 131st)1,450 (rank: 199th)
19582,110 (rank: 178th)1,249 (rank: 212th)
19571,966 (rank: 183rd)1,156 (rank: 223rd)
19561,386 (rank: 219th)773 (rank: 261st)
1955936 (rank: 280th)526 (rank: 323rd)
1954612 (rank: 348th)445 (rank: 338th)
1953326 (rank: 477th)327 (rank: 387th)

Do you know of anything else (e.g., famous people, characters, news stories) that might have helped popularize the name Tracy in the mid-20th century? (Did I miss anything?)

Sources: The Philadelphia Story (play) – Wikipedia, Tracy’s Theme – Wikipedia, Billboard Hot 100 for the week of 22 Feb. 1960, SSA

Images: Clippings from the Oakland Tribune (6 Dec. 1959) and the Meriden Journal (17 Sept. 1959)

What gave the baby name Dawn a boost in 1964?

The Four Seasons' album "Dawn (Go Away) and 11 Other Great Songs" (1964)
Four Seasons album

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Dawn saw a significant increase in usage in the mid-1960s:

  • 1966: 13,602 baby girls named Dawn [rank: 24th]
  • 1965: 13,341 baby girls named Dawn [rank: 26th]
  • 1964: 12,614 baby girls named Dawn [rank: 33rd]
  • 1963: 8,416 baby girls named Dawn [rank: 52nd]
  • 1962: 8,980 baby girls named Dawn [rank: 50th]

Why?

Because of the Four Seasons song “Dawn (Go Away),” in which the narrator speaks to a female named Dawn (who’s as “pretty as a midsummer’s morn”).

Here’s what it sounds like:

The song was released as a single in January of 1964. From late February to early March, for three weeks straight, it ranked #3 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart. (The two songs that prevented it from climbing any higher were both Beatles songs: “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You.”)

What are your thoughts on the name Dawn? (Do you like it more or less than Sherry?)

Update, Feb. 2025: Thank you to Randi for mentioning a second possible influence: actress Dawn Wells, who played Mary Ann on the sitcom Gilligan’s Island, which premiered in September of 1964.

Sources: Dawn (Go Away) – Wikipedia, Billboard Hot 100 for the week of 22 Feb. 1964, Gilligan’s Island – Wikipedia, SSA