What gave the baby name Jolene a boost in 1974?

Dolly Parton's album "Jolene" (1974)
Dolly Parton album

The baby name Jolene had been on the decline for more than a decade when, all of a sudden, usage more than tripled in 1974:

  • 1976: 766 baby girls named Jolene [rank: 301st]
  • 1975: 999 baby girls named Jolene [rank: 248th]
  • 1974: 1,052 baby girls named Jolene [rank: 245th]
  • 1973: 293 baby girls named Jolene [rank: 562nd]
  • 1972: 266 baby girls named Jolene [rank: 599th]

Here’s a visual:

What gave the name a boost that year?

Dolly Parton’s memorable song “Jolene,” which was released as a single in October of 1973.

It reached the #1 spot on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart in February of 1974. It even crossed over to the pop charts, peaking at #60 on the Hot 100 chart in March.

The narrator of the Grammy-nominated song begs a beautiful woman named Jolene not to steal her man. (“You could have your choice of men / But I could never love again / He’s the only one for me, Jolene.”)

Here’s what the song sounds like:

The song’s antagonist was (loosely) based on a real person: A particularly pretty bank teller who would flirt with Dolly’s husband Carl during the early days of their marriage.

The character’s name, however, came from a different source. Here’s how Dolly explained it:

One night, I was on stage, and there was this beautiful little girl — she was probably 8 years old at the time. And she had this beautiful red hair, this beautiful skin, and beautiful green eyes, and she was looking up at me, holding, you know, for an autograph. And I said, “Well, you’re just the prettiest little thing I’ve ever seen.” I said, “What is your name?” And she said, “Jolene.” And I said, “Well, Jolene, Jolene. Jolene.’ I said, “That is pretty.” I said, “That sounds like a song. I’m gonna write a song about that.”

What are your thoughts on the name Jolene?

Sources:

What popularized the baby name Deron in the mid-1960s?

Baseball player Deron Johnson (1938-1992)
Deron Johnson

The baby name Deron, which first appeared in the U.S. baby data in the mid-1950s, hit peak popularity in the mid-1960s:

  • 1968: 185 baby boys named Deron [rank: 556th]
    • 24 (13%) born in Ohio
  • 1967: 212 baby boys named Deron [rank: 516th]
    • 38 (18%) born in Ohio
  • 1966: 270 baby boys named Deron [rank: 465th]
    • 58 (21%) born in Ohio
  • 1965: 263 baby boys named Deron [rank: 479th]
    • 65 (25%) born in Ohio
  • 1964: 127 baby boys named Deron [rank: 683rd]
    • 27 (21%) born in Ohio
  • 1963: 26 baby boys named Deron
  • 1962: 26 baby boys named Deron
  • 1961: 48 baby boys named Deron
  • 1960: 20 baby boys named Deron

The usage of the name tracks with the career of baseball player Deron Johnson, a power hitter who played for nine different teams during his 16 seasons in the major leagues.

After graduating from high school in 1956, Johnson signed with the New York Yankees — though he didn’t get called up from the minor leagues until 1960.

During the short time he was with the Yankees (and being touted as the next Mickey Mantle), there was an uptick in the usage of the name.

Usage was highest while Johnson was playing for the Cincinnati Reds, from 1964 to 1967. His second season in Ohio was one of his best: he hit 32 homers and drove in 130 runs to become that year’s National League RBI leader.

A final uptick in 1973 — while the name was on the decline — correlates to the year Johnson became a World Series Champion with the Oakland Athletics.

What are your thoughts on the name Deron?

Sources:

Image: Deron Johnson trading card

What popularized the baby name Latoya?

La Toya Jackson's album "Heart Don't Lie" (1984)
La Toya Jackson album

The name Latoya first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in the 1960s. After rising quickly during the ’70s — and seeing upticks in usage in both 1977 and 1981 — the name achieved peak popularity in 1984:

  • 1985: 3,402 baby girls named Latoya [rank: 81st]
  • 1984: 5,051 baby girls named Latoya [rank: 60th] (peak usage)
  • 1983: 3,151 baby girls named Latoya [rank: 90th]
  • 1982: 3,200 baby girls named Latoya [rank: 91st]
  • 1981: 4,267 baby girls named Latoya [rank: 69th]
  • 1980: 2,505 baby girls named Latoya [rank: 123rd]
  • 1979: 1,880 baby girls named Latoya [rank: 148th]
  • 1978: 2,040 baby girls named Latoya [rank: 135th]
  • 1977: 2,321 baby girls named Latoya [rank: 125th]
  • 1976: 2,052 baby girls named Latoya [rank: 135th]

Here’s a visual:

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

What fueled the rise of Latoya?

The career of singer La Toya Jackson.

(The SSA removes spaces and ignores internal capitalization, which explains why the name is rendered “Latoya” in the dataset.)

Though she wasn’t a member of The Jackson 5 — the pop-soul vocal group featuring her five brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Michael — La Toya was often mentioned in write-ups about the Jackson family during the early 1970s.

By 1974, La Toya and the remaining Jackson siblings (Rebbie, Randy, and Janet) were participating in the group’s live performances.

Television audiences were introduced to La Toya in the musical variety series The Jacksons (1976-77), which featured all of the siblings except for Jermaine.

In 1980, she launched her solo career. She didn’t become as commercially successful as either Michael or Janet, but her single “Heart Don’t Lie” [vid] — a reggae duet with Howard Hewett of Shalamar — did reach #56 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in June of 1984.

The singer was born La Toya Yvonne Jackson on May 29, 1956 — the sixth birthday of her eldest sibling, Rebbie, coincidentally. In her autobiography, La Toya said that her mother, who had a “fondness for unusual names,” claimed to have coined “La Toya.”

What are your thoughts on the name La Toya?

Sources:

What gave the baby name Tal a boost in 1963?

The character Tal Garrett from the TV series "Empire" (1962-1963)
Tal Garrett from “Empire“

According to the U.S. baby name data, the simple name Tal saw peak usage in 1963:

  • 1965: 28 baby boys named Tal
  • 1964: 48 baby boys named Tal
  • 1963: 87 baby boys named Tal [rank: 817th]
  • 1962: 12 baby boys named Tal
  • 1961: 7 baby boys named Tal

That year, Tal was one of the fastest-rising boy names in the country, and it managed to reach the top 1,000 for the first and only time.

What was influencing it?

The single-season TV western Empire (1962-63), which featured a character named Tal.

Empire was set on a modern-day ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The main character was ranch foreman Jim Redigo (played by Richard Egan), but one of the other important characters was Tal Garrett (played by Ryan O’Neal), the adult son of the owner of the ranch.

I don’t know if Tal’s name was short for something more formal, like Talmadge or Talbot, but it rhymed with similarly spelled names, such as Cal and Hal.

Ryan O’Neal’s recurring role on Empire also gave a nudge to the baby name Ryan in 1963:

  • 1964: 515 baby boys named Ryan
  • 1963: 647 baby boys named Ryan
  • 1962: 397 baby boys named Ryan

What are your thoughts on the name Tal? Would you use it as-is, or only as a nickname?

Sources: Empire (1962 TV series) – Wikipedia, SSA

Image: Screenshot of Empire