What gave the baby name Taliana a boost in 2008?

Taliana Vargas, 1st runner-up at Miss Universe 2008
Taliana Vargas

According to the U.S. baby name data, the rare name Taliana nearly tripled in usage in 2008:

  • 2010: 9 baby girls named Taliana
  • 2009: 14 baby girls named Taliana
  • 2008: 23 baby girls named Taliana (peak usage)
  • 2007: 8 baby girls named Taliana
  • 2006: 7 baby girls named Taliana

Why?

Because of Colombian beauty queen Taliana Vargas.

She placed first runner-up at Miss Universe 2008, which was held in Vietnam in July of that year.

Notably, four of the top five finalists at Miss Universe 2008 were Latin American women. The overall winner of the pageant was Dayana Mendoza of Venezuela.

What are your thoughts on the name Taliana?

Sources: Miss Universe 2008 – Wikipedia, SSA

Image: Screenshot of the TV broadcast of the 57th Miss Universe pageant

Where did the baby name Johnse come from in 2013?

The character Johnse Hatfield from the TV miniseries "Hatfields & McCoys" (May 2012)
Johnse Hatfield from “Hatfields & McCoys“

The curious name Johnse first popped up in the U.S. baby name data in 2013:

  • 2016: unlisted
  • 2015: 9 baby boys named Johnse
  • 2014: 12 baby boys named Johnse
  • 2013: 8 baby boys named Johnse
  • 2012: unlisted

Where did it come from?

The three-part TV miniseries Hatfields & McCoys, which aired on the History Channel in May of 2012.

The Emmy-winning show was (of course) about the legendary feud between the Hatfield family of West Virginia and the McCoy family of Kentucky.

One of the subplots focused on the doomed romance between Johnson “Johnse” Hatfield (played by Matt Barr) and Roseanna McCoy (played by Lindsay Pulsipher). The nickname Johnse was pronounced JAHN-zee.

(Confusingly, the patriarch of the Hatfield clan — William Anderson “Devil Anse” Hatfield [played by Kevin Costner in the miniseries] — had a nickname with a similar ending, but a different pronunciation: Anse rhymed with “dance.”)

What are your thoughts on the name Johnse? Would you use it as a standalone name?

P.S. The Johnse/Roseanna romance was highlighted in the 1949 film Roseanna McCoy…

Sources: Hatfields & McCoys (miniseries) – Wikipedia, SSA

Image: Screenshot of Hatfields & McCoys

How did Alanis Morissette influence baby names in the mid-1990s?

Canadian singer Alanis Morissette in the music video for the song "You Oughta Know" (1995)
Alanis Morissette

The name Alanis first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1995:

  • 1998: 108 baby girls named Alanis
  • 1997: 148 baby girls named Alanis
  • 1996: 172 baby girls named Alanis
  • 1995: 15 baby girls named Alanis [debut]
  • 1994: unlisted
  • 1993: unlisted

The following year, Alanis was one of the fastest-rising baby names in the country, and the spelling variants Alannis and Alanys both debuted in the data.

What was influencing these names in the mid-1990s?

Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis (pronounced uh-LAN-iss) Morissette.

Alanis Morissette's album "Jagged Little Pill" (1995)
Alanis Morissette album

Her third studio album, the alt-rock juggernaut Jagged Little Pill (1995), won “Album of the Year” at both the Grammy Awards and the Juno Awards. It was the best-selling album of 1996 and went on to become one of the best-selling albums of all time.

Jagged Little Pill, which had twelve tracks, spawned six hit singles:

  • “You Oughta Know,” which peaked at #6 in both the U.S. and Canada
  • “You Learn,” which peaked at #1 in Canada
  • “Hand in My Pocket,” which peaked at #1 in Canada
  • “Ironic,” which peaked at #4 in the U.S. and #1 in Canada
  • “Head over Feet,” which peaked at #1 in Canada
  • “All I Really Want,” which peaked at #2 in Canada

Isn’t it ironic (don’t you think) that the music video I’m embedding below is the one for the song “Ironic”?

So, did Alanis Morissette influence baby names in her home country as well?

Yes — in 1996, her name debuted in the Canadian data. In fact, it reached the Canadian girls’ top 1,000 for the first and only time that year:

  • 1998: 7 baby girls named Alanis in Canada
  • 1997: 13 baby girls named Alanis in Canada
  • 1996: 23 baby girls named Alanis in Canada [rank: 867th]
  • 1995: unlisted
  • 1994: unlisted
  • 1993: unlisted

(There may have been a handful of earlier namesakes as well: she’d been famous in Canada since the early ’90s, when she was a teen pop star known mononymously as “Alanis.”)

Alanis Nadine Morissette was born to parents Alan and Georgia Morissette in Ontario in 1974. She was born 12 minutes after her twin brother, Wade Imre Morissette.

If “Imre” in association with Alanis Morissette rings a bell for you, that’s because Alanis’ first child, born in late 2010, was named Ever Imre. She has since welcomed two more children: a daughter named Onyx Solace, and a second son named Winter Mercy.

What are your thoughts on name Alanis?

P.S. We’ve also checked out the Canadian usage of the names Crosby, Sidney, and Tamia…

Sources:

Top image: Screenshot of the music video for “You Oughta Know”

What popularized the baby name Tamia in the mid-1990s?

Tamia's self-titled debut album (1998)
Tamia album

According to the U.S. baby name data, the uncommon name Tamia jumped straight into the girls’ top 500 in 1996:

  • 1998: 742 baby girls named Tamia [rank: 380th]
  • 1997: 579 baby girls named Tamia [rank: 440th]
  • 1996: 483 baby girls named Tamia [rank: 498th]
  • 1995: 67 baby girls named Tamia
  • 1994: 33 baby girls named Tamia
  • 1993: 39 baby girls named Tamia

Tamia went on to see peak usage during the first years of the 2000s. Here’s a visual:

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

What was influencing this name?

Canadian R&B singer Tamia Washington — known mononymously as Tamia (pronounced tah-MEE-ah) — who became famous in the mid-1990s thanks to her association with music producer Quincy Jones.

In late 1995, Jones released the album Q’s Juke Joint, which featured dozens of established artists (e.g., Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Brandy, Coolio, Babyface, Queen Latifah) on various tracks.

Two of the tracks featured newcomer Tamia, and, as it happened, both songs — “You Put a Move on My Heart” (1995) and “Slow Jams” (1996) — were chosen as singles. Each one reached Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart, and each one also received a Grammy nomination.

Later in 1996, yet another song featuring Tamia both reached the Hot 100 (peaking at #25) and received a Grammy nomination. This one — “Missing You” by Brandy, Tamia, Gladys Knight, and Chaka Khan — came from the soundtrack of the movie Set If Off.

Tamia finally released her first album in 1998. To date, her most successful solo single is “Stranger in My House,” which was released in 2001 and reached #10 on the charts. Two years later, she was featured on the Fabolous single “Into You,” which peaked at #4.

So has Tamia influenced baby names in her home country as well?

Yes — her name debuted in the Canadian data in 1997, and made its first and only appearance in the Canadian girls’ top 1,000 in 2004:

  • 2006: 12 baby girls in Canada named Tamia
  • 2005: 20 baby girls in Canada named Tamia
  • 2004: 25 baby girls in Canada named Tamia [rank: 883rd] – peak usage
  • 2003: 15 baby girls in Canada named Tamia
  • 2002: 18 baby girls in Canada named Tamia
  • 2001: 12 baby girls in Canada named Tamia
  • 2000: 11 baby girls in Canada named Tamia
  • 1999: 11 baby girls in Canada named Tamia
  • 1998: 17 baby girls in Canada named Tamia
  • 1997: 10 baby girls in Canada named Tamia [debut]
  • 1996: unlisted
  • 1995: unlisted

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

Sources: Tamia – Wikipedia, Q’s Juke Joint – Wikipedia, Baby Names Observatory – Statistics Canada, SSA