What gave the baby name Renata a boost in 1980?

The character Renata Corelli Sutton from the TV series "Search for Tomorrow" (1951-1986)
Renata from “Search for Tomorrow“

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Renata saw an impressive spike in usage in 1980:

  • 1982: 146 baby girls named Renata
  • 1981: 224 baby girls named Renata [rank: 737th]
  • 1980: 720 baby girls named Renata [rank: 336th]
  • 1979: 229 baby girls named Renata [rank: 727th]
  • 1978: 47 baby girls named Renata

Here’s a visual:

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

The same year, the spelling Renatta also reached peak usage, and the spelling Rennata appeared for the first time in the data.

What was influencing these names around that time?

Television character Renata Sutton (played by French actress Sonia Petrovna), who was part of the long-running soap opera Search for Tomorrow — but only for a short time.

The character was introduced to viewers as Renata Corelli in August of 1979. (Despite being from Italy, Renata had a heavy French accent.) She married fellow character David Sutton during the spring of 1980. Just a few month later, though, pregnant Renata went into labor in the middle of a house fire. She didn’t survive.

Nationally syndicated soap opera columnist Jon-Michael Reed believed the show had made a big mistake by killing off Renata, who he described as “one of the most beautiful and unusual soap heroines in recent memory.”

What are your thoughts on the name Renata?

P.S. Renata’s baby girl, Mia, managed to survive the fire — and may have given the baby name Mia a slight boost in 1981, though it’s hard to tell.

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of Search for Tomorrow

Where did the baby name Leanza come from in 1992?

Leanza Cornett, Miss America 1993
Leanza Cornett

The rare name Leanza first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1992. It reached peak usage the very next year.

  • 1994: 15 baby girls named Leanza
  • 1993: 17 baby girls named Leanza
  • 1992: 8 baby girls named Leanza [debut]
  • 1991: unlisted
  • 1990: unlisted

Where did it come from?

Beauty queen Leanza Cornett, who was crowned Miss America 1993 in September of 1992.

The first Floridian to win the title, Leanza performed the song “A New Life” from the 1990 musical Jekyll & Hyde for the talent portion of the competition.

Her pageant platform was AIDS awareness.

Leanza Cornett, Miss America 1993
Leanza Cornett

She pronounced her name lee-AN-zah — middle syllable like the name Anne. Despite this, pageant co-host Kathie Lee Gifford mispronounced it lee-AHN-zah multiple times during the broadcast.

Leanza’s full name at birth was Eva Leanza Cornett. Like previous Miss America winner Kylene, and future Miss America winner Shawntel, she chose to go by her middle name.

What are your thoughts on the name Leanza? How would you pronounce it?

Sources:

Images: Screenshots of the TV broadcast of the 66th Miss America pageant

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

The character Jonah Baldwin from the movie "Sleepless in Seattle" (1993)
Jonah Baldwin from “Sleepless in Seattle“

The name Jonah saw a sharp increase in usage during the 1990s, according to the U.S. baby name data:

  • 1996: 1,569 baby boys named Jonah [rank: 197th]
  • 1995: 1,370 baby boys named Jonah [rank: 215th]
  • 1994: 1,178 baby boys named Jonah [rank: 245th]
  • 1993: 449 baby boys named Jonah [rank: 469th]
  • 1992: 225 baby boys named Jonah [rank: 693rd]
  • 1991: 246 baby boys named Jonah [rank: 649th]

What was behind the rise?

My guess is a young character from the classic rom-com Sleepless in Seattle, which was released in June of 1993.

In the movie, Jonah Baldwin (played by Ross Malinger) was the 8-year-old son of widowed Sam Baldwin (played by Tom Hanks) of Seattle.

On Christmas Eve, Jonah called in to a radio talk show and told the host that he wished his father could find a new partner. Minutes later, Sam joined Jonah on the line and talked to the host — who dubbed him ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ — about how much he missed his late wife. (“She made everything beautiful.”)

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, Baltimore Sun reporter Annie Reed (played by Meg Ryan) happened to hear the radio show while driving. Annie, despite having a fiancé, became captivated by Sam and set out to find him. (“What if this man is my destiny and I never meet him?”)

After some sleuthing, Annie found Sam’s address and wrote him a letter proposing that they meet atop the Empire State Building on Valentine’s Day. (Hundreds of other women had also written letters to Sam [via the radio show], but Jonah liked Annie’s letter best because it mentioned Baltimore baseball player Brooks Robinson.)

I won’t divulge the rest of the plot, but, as film critic Roger Ebert noted in his review, Sleepless in Seattle was essentially “about two people who are destined for one another.”

It was also the eighth-highest-grossing movie of 1993. (In tenth place that year was The Pelican Brief.)

The biblical name Jonah is derived from the Hebrew word yona, which means “dove.” (The similar name Jonas has the same origin.)

What are your thoughts on the name Jonah?

P.S. Sleepless in Seattle also managed to nudge the usage of the rare name Seattle above the SSA’s five-baby threshold for the first time ever in 1994.

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of Sleepless in Seattle

What gave the baby name Yancy a boost in the late 1950s?

The character Yancy Derringer from the TV series "Yancy Derringer" (1958-1959)
Yancy from “Yancy Derringer“

The curious name Yancy, after dropping out of the U.S. baby name data for a year in 1957, made a strong return in 1958 and reached peaked usage in 1959:

  • 1960: 67 baby boys named Yancy
  • 1959: 123 baby boys named Yancy (peak usage)
  • 1958: 25 baby boys named Yancy
  • 1957: unlisted
  • 1956: 6 baby boys named Yancy

Why?

Because of the single-season adventure TV series Yancy Derringer, which aired on CBS from October of 1958 to June of 1959.

The show was set in New Orleans during the late 1860s. The title character, Yancy Derringer (played by actor Jock Mahoney), was “a onetime wealthy plantation owner reduced to working as a professional gambler during the post-Civil War era.” But he wasn’t merely a gentleman gambler — he was also secretly working as a Federal agent, helping protect the city of New Orleans from crime and corruption.

Fittingly, the state that welcomed the most babies named Yancy in 1959 was Louisiana (with 12). In second place was New York (with 11).

The first name Yancy comes from the surname Yancy, which is of obscure origin. It might be based on any of various other surnames, such as Jansen (Dutch) or Jancey (English).

What are your thoughts on the first name Yancy?

Sources:

  • Yancy Derringer – Western Clippings
  • Yancy Derringer – Wikipedia
  • Brode, Douglas. Shooting Stars of the Small Screen: Encyclopedia of TV Western Actors, 1946–Present. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2009.
  • Hanks, Patrick, Simon Lenarcic and Peter McClure. (Eds.) Dictionary of American Family Names. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022.
  • SSA

Image: Screenshot of Yancy Derringer