What gave the baby name Lanny a boost in 1949?

Actor Lanny Rees in the TV series "The Life of Riley" (1949-1950)
Lanny Rees in the TV series “The Life of Riley“

We already know that singer Lanny Ross popularized the baby name Lanny during the 1930s and early 1940s. But why did the name see a sudden jump in usage several years later, in 1949?

  • 1951: 409 baby boys named Lanny [rank: 336th]
  • 1950: 489 baby boys named Lanny [rank: 306th]
  • 1949: 498 baby boys named Lanny [rank: 303rd] (peak usage)
  • 1948: 298 baby boys named Lanny [rank: 392nd]
  • 1947: 335 baby boys named Lanny [rank: 376th]

Ross could still be heard on the radio in the late 1940s, but I think this renewed interest in the name was due to another Lanny: teenage actor Lanny Rees.

In 1949, Lanny Rees was featured in two different adaptations of the popular 1940s radio sitcom The Life of Riley. In both, he played the main character’s son, Chester A. Riley, Jr. (known simply as “Junior”).

The first adaptation, the film The Life of Riley, was released in theaters in April.

The second adaptation, the TV series The Life of Riley, started airing on NBC in October. Despite being proclaimed the “Best Film Made for & Viewed on Television” at the second-ever Emmy Awards in January of 1950, the show lasted only two-thirds of a season (ending in March).

Lanny Rees, the youngest of eight siblings, was born in Washington state in 1933. Given the year of his birth, it’s likely that he himself was an early Lanny Ross namesake.

P.S. The fictional Riley family also included a daughter named Barbara “Babs” Riley, who was older than Junior. Babs played a key part in the film (which featured her wedding) — this could could explain why the baby name Babs saw an uptick in usage in 1949.

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of the TV series The Life of Riley (Jan. 1950)

Where did the baby name Dusharme come from in 1992?

Du Sharme Carter, 4th runner-up at Miss America 1993
Du Sharme Carter

In 1992, the unique name Dusharme was a one-hit wonder in the U.S. baby name data:

  • 1994: unlisted
  • 1993: unlisted
  • 1992: 5 baby girls named Dusharme [debut]
  • 1991: unlisted
  • 1990: unlisted

Where did it come from?

Beauty queen Du Sharme Carter, who represented Oklahoma at Miss America 1993 (held in September of 1992). Though she didn’t win the pageant, she did place 4th runner-up.

I couldn’t find a clip of Du Sharme introducing herself, but pageant co-hosts Regis Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford consistently pronounced her first name doo-SHAYR-mee — middle syllable like the first part of Sharon.

In October, Jet magazine profiled Du Sharme and the three other African-American delegates in the pageant that year. (The most successful, Pamela McKelvy of Kansas, placed 3rd runner-up.)

It’s possible that Du Sharme Carter’s name was inspired by DuSharme hair care products, which were being advertised regularly in African-American magazines like Jet and Ebony during the early 1970s (when she was born).

What are your thoughts on the name Du Sharme?

P.S. The winner of Miss America 1993 was Leanza Cornett.

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of the TV broadcast of the 66th Miss America pageant

What popularized the baby name Lanny in the 1930s?

Radio singer Lanny Ross (1906-1988)
Lanny Ross

The name Lanny had popped up several times in the U.S. baby name data before re-emerging in 1933 with two dozen baby boys:

  • 1937: 174 baby boys named Lanny [rank: 429th]
  • 1936: 133 baby boys named Lanny [rank: 493rd]
  • 1935: 123 baby boys named Lanny [rank: 520th]
  • 1934: 93 baby boys named Lanny [rank: 620th]
  • 1933: 24 baby boys named Lanny
  • 1932: unlisted
  • 1931: 8 baby boys named Lanny
  • 1930: unlisted
  • 1929: unlisted

Usage of the name continued to climb over the rest of the decade and into the next; Lanny reached its highest-ever ranking (299th) in 1942.

So, what spurred the rise of Lanny during the 1930s?

Radio singer Lanny Ross (born Lancelot Patrick Ross in Seattle in 1906).

Lanny Ross first sang over the airwaves as a member of the Yale Glee Club in 1928. Over the next few years, while attending law school at Columbia University, he gave solo performances on radio shows like Troubadour of the Moon.

When he completed his law degree in 1931, NBC offered him a radio show of his own, at a salary five times greater than that offered by a law firm that was also courting him.

He could be heard on several shows, in fact.

One of them, Maxwell House Show Boat, was a weekly, hour-long program notable for “combining a dramatic plot with music and comedy” and having a cast of more than fifty performers. Show Boat, which premiered in October of 1932, quickly became one of the top radio shows in the country — and Lanny Ross was its breakout star.

By the end of the first year, Ross was the sensation of Radio Row, propelled into front ranks by his boyish good looks (as radio fans could see on every heartthrob magazine) and his clear tenor voice.

In the summer of 1934, the readers of Radio Stars magazine voted for their favorite artists, and Lanny Ross placed second in the “male popular singer” category (after Bing Crosby).

During and after his time on Show Boat, Lanny Ross was featured on various other programs, including The Packard Hour, Your Hit Parade, and Camel Caravan. He could be heard regularly on the radio until the mid-1950s.

He also released dozens of recordings over the course of his career. For instance, here’s his rendition of the 1934 song “Stay As Sweet As You Are”:

Remarkably, several hundred of the boys named “Lanny” during the 1930s, 1940s, and early 1950s were given the middle name “Ross.” Some examples:

What are your thoughts on the name Lanny? Do you like it as a standalone name, or do you prefer it as a nickname (for names like Landon, Lance, Orlando, and Leonard)?

P.S. In the late 1940s, Lanny Ross hosted a television program called The Swift Show. It aired weekly on NBC — just like Girl About Town, hosted by Kyle MacDonnell.

Sources:

Image: Clipping from Radio Stars magazine (Aug. 1934)

What gave the baby name Valencia a boost in 1927?

The character Valencia from the movie "Valencia" (1926)
Valencia from “Valencia“

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Valencia saw a spike in usage in 1927:

  • 1929: 11 baby girls named Valencia
  • 1928: 22 baby girls named Valencia
  • 1927: 65 baby girls named Valencia [rank: 934th]
  • 1926: 18 baby girls named Valencia
  • 1925: 5 baby girls named Valencia

It reached the girls’ top 1,000 for the first time that year, in fact.

What gave it a boost?

Both a song and a film.

The song, “Valencia,” was originally composed by José Padilla for the 1924 Spanish operetta La bien amada.

A couple of years later, the song — with lyrics translated into English — was introduced to Americans in the musical The Great Temptations, which ran on Broadway from May to November, 1926.

Sheet music for the song "Valencia (A Song of Spain)" (1926)
“Valencia” sheet music

“Valencia” became very popular in the U.S. that year. Various orchestras made recordings of the song, but it was the version [vid] by Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra (featuring vocalist Franklyn Baur) that became the top single of 1926, reaching the #1 spot in early July and staying put for over 2 months.

In December of the same year, a silent film called Valencia was released. One reviewer, unimpressed, stated:

The popularity of the song seems to have been a sufficient excuse for M-G-M’s picture, which adopts the name but is not so fortunate in the story that purports to be “Valencia.”

The movie’s main character, Valencia (played by actress Mae Murray), was a Spanish dancer in love with a sailor named Felipe. But she was also being pursued by Don Fernando, the local governor, who threw Felipe in jail. Valencia made “the usual sacrifice to secure Felipe’s freedom.”

While the movie wasn’t a box office hit, it contributed to the trendiness of the baby name Valencia in 1927.

What are your thoughts on the name Valencia?

P.S. In 1950, the name — which was just starting to rise again, perhaps due to the baby boom — got another nudge from “Valencia,” sung this time by crooner Tony Martin. His rendition peaked at #18 on the charts that year.

Sources:

Top image: Film still of Valencia