What gave the baby name Delilah a boost in 2007?

The Plain White T's song "Hey There Delilah" (2005)
“Hey There Delilah” single

According to the U.S. baby name data, Delilah began rising in popularity around the turn of the century. The name finally broke into the girls’ top 100 in 2018.

Along the way, though, there was a conspicuous jump in usage from 2006 to 2008:

  • 2009: 1,704 baby girls named Delilah [rank: 191st]
  • 2008: 1,739 baby girls named Delilah [rank: 193rd]
  • 2007: 1,136 baby girls named Delilah [rank: 297th]
  • 2006: 539 baby girls named Delilah [rank: 547th]
  • 2005: 487 baby girls named Delilah [rank: 585th]
  • 2004: 473 baby girls named Delilah [rank: 595th]

Here’s a visual:

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

Several variant forms (including Delila, Dalilah, and Delyla) saw peak usage in 2008 specifically.

What was drawing extra attention to the name around that time?

The catchy love song “Hey There Delilah” by the band Plain White T’s.

The version of the song that became popular was released as a single in May of 2006. It didn’t appear on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart, however, until nearly a year later — April of 2007. The sleeper hit finally climbed to the #1 spot during the summer of 2007.

Here’s what it sounds like:

The band’s vocalist, Tom Higgenson, had written the song back in 2003 after meeting a woman named Delilah DiCrescenzo.

“I thought she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen,” he says. “I told her, ‘I have a song about you already.’ Obviously, there was no song. But I thought it was smooth.”

DiCrescenzo was in a relationship at the time, so she and Tom never dated. But they did attend the Grammy Awards together (as friends) in early 2008 when “Hey There Delilah” was nominated for both Song of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

The specific variant Dlila, which debuted in 2007, may also have a secondary influence: a celebrity baby. Rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs and his longtime girlfriend, Kimberly Porter, welcomed twin girls in December of 2006. The babies were named D’Lila Star and Jessie James after their great-grandmothers Lila Mae Star (Porter’s grandmother) and Jessie Smalls (Combs’ grandmother).

What are your thoughts on the name Delilah?

P.S. The name’s slightly higher usage in 1969 and 1970 could be due to another name-song performed by another Tom: “Delilah” by Tom Jones. The murder ballad was released at the end of 1967 and peaked at #15 on the Hot 100 in June of 1968.

Sources:

Where did the baby name Kayelani come from in 1987?

Kaye Lani Rae Rafko, Miss America 1988
Kaye Lani Rae Rafko

The rare name Kayelani debuted in the U.S. baby name data in 1987, reached peak usage in 1988, and hung around for three more years before disappearing again.

  • 1992: unlisted
  • 1991: 6 baby girls named Kayelani
  • 1990: 13 baby girls named Kayelani
  • 1989: 7 baby girls named Kayelani
  • 1988: 22 baby girls named Kayelani
  • 1987: 7 baby girls named Kayelani [debut]
  • 1986: unlisted

The similar name Kaylani also debuted in 1987.

What put these two names on the map?

Kaye Lani Rae Rafko, who was crowned Miss America 1988 in front of “a television audience estimated at 60 million” viewers in September of 1987.

(It’s hard to know how many of the babies above were named “Kaye Lani” specifically, as the SSA data omits/ignores spaces and internal capitalization.)

Kaye Lani Rae Rafko, Miss America 1988
Kaye Lani Rae Rafko

Kaye Lani Rafko, who represented the state of Michigan, was the first registered nurse to win the title.

She spent much of her tenure promoting the nursing profession and hospice care, which drew national attention. Her example would spawn official platform requirements for all contestants two years later.

For the talent portion of the competition, she donned a Barbie-pink grass skirt and performed a Tahitian dance that had “a little flavor of Hawaii thrown in,” according to the emcee.

And what motivated her to learn this particular style of dance in the first place?

Her Hawaiian-ish compound first name, which was said to be inspired by one of her mother’s friends. (Perhaps that friend had a more traditional Hawaiian name, like Kailani or Kalani. The second element of all three names, lani, is the Hawaiian word for “sky” or “heaven.”)

Kaye Lani’s three younger siblings were given the less-exotic names Kimberly, Nicholas, and Paul.

What are your thoughts on the baby name Kayelani?

P.S. A street in Kaye Lani Rafko’s hometown of Monroe is now called Kaye Lani Avenue.

Sources:

Images: Screenshots of the TV broadcast of the 61st Miss America pageant

Babies named for Sterling Price

American soldier Sterling Price (1809-1867)
Sterling Price

Sterling Price was an officer in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War.

He was born into a family of slave-owning planters in Virginia, and moved (with his family) to Missouri as a young man. He entered politics in the 1830s, fought in the Mexican-American War in the 1940s, and served a four-year term as governor of Missouri in the mid-1850s.

During the Civil War, he was initially the commander of the Missouri State Guard. He joined the Confederates as a Major-General in early 1862.

In terms of namesakes, I found a smattering born in the 1850s, and hundreds more born during the first half of the 1860s.

Here are some of the Missouri boys who were named after their state’s governor:

And here are more than a dozen of the boys (also mostly from Missouri) who were named in honor of Price during the Civil War era:

So…how could a baby be named “Robert Lee Sterling Price Stephenson” after a pair of famous Civil War generals if he was born more than two years before the conflict started?

He wasn’t named right away — like many of the children born during that time period.

In fact, Sterling Price Robbins — the namesake just below Stephenson on the list — was born in late 1860, but not baptized until mid-1862. And his name proved to be controversial among locals in St. Louis:

In June 1862, [Rev. Samuel McPheeters] baptized a baby with the name the parents selected — Sterling Price Robbins, in honor of the Confederate leader at Wilson’s Creek. After some church members complained, federal officials banished McPheeters.

Similarly, Ohio baby girl Emancipation Proclamation Coggeshall wasn’t named until she was 2 years old.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Sterling Price (public domain)

Where did the baby name Jheri come from in the 1980s?

Michael Jackson's Jheri curl hairstyle on the cover of the 1982 album "Thriller"
Michael Jackson’s Jheri curl

The Jerry-like name Jheri appeared regularly in the U.S. baby name data from 1980 until the mid-1990s:

  • 1996: unlisted
  • 1995: 7 baby girls named Jheri
  • 1994: 11 baby girls named Jheri
  • 1993: 10 baby girls named Jheri
  • 1992: 8 baby girls named Jheri
  • 1991: 12 baby girls named Jheri
  • 1990 9 baby girls named Jheri
  • 1989: 8 baby girls named Jheri
  • 1988 10 baby girls named Jheri
  • 1987 12 baby girls named Jheri
  • 1986: 9 baby girls named Jheri
  • 1985: 13 baby girls named Jheri (peak usage)
  • 1984: 8 baby girls named Jheri
  • 1982: 12 baby girls named Jheri
  • 1981: 8 baby girls named Jheri
  • 1980: 6 baby girls named Jheri (debut)
  • 1979: unlisted

Why?

Because of the Jheri curl, a hairstyle featuring loose, glossy curls that was trendy among African-Americans primarily during the 1980s. Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Rick James, and other famous men and women of the era sported Jheri-curled hair.

Where did the style come from?

The “curl” originated with hairdresser/entrepreneur Jheri Redding, who developed a chemical process to make straight hair curly. Salons started offering the Jheri Kurl (as it was often spelled in advertisements) in the early 1970s.

Then, African-American hairdresser/entrepreneur Willie Lee Morrow adapted the process for African-American hair. His two-step method involved straightening the hair before adding a looser curl. (He also introduced “curl activator” to add moisture to the style.) Salons began offering Morrow’s California Curl in the late 1970s.

Some salons, in fact, offered both perms:

Newspaper advertisement for California Curl and Jheri Kurl (Feb. 1979)
(Feb. 1979)

Finally, African-American entrepreneur Comer Cottrell made Morrow’s perm both less expensive and more widely available by developing the do-it-yourself Curly Kit.

His kits were advertised heavily in Jet magazine throughout 1980:

Magazine advertisement for Curly Kit (Aug. 1980)
(Aug. 1980)

In mid-1981, Forbes magazine declared the Curly Kit “the biggest single product ever to hit the black cosmetics market.” Numerous copycat kits (with names like Classy Curl, S-Curl, and Super Curl) soon followed.

Despite the crucial contributions of Morrow and Cottrell, though, it was Jheri Reddings’s distinctive first name — associated with the curl since the start — that became the generic term for the style.

So, where did “Jheri” come from?

Redding coined it himself.

He was born Robert William Redding on a farm in Illinois in 1907. He became a licensed cosmetologist after noticing, during the Depression, that hairdressers were still being paid well.

Redding was an innovative marketer — he introduced the concept of “pH balanced” shampoos, for instance — and he created the eye-catching name for himself at some point before 1950, because he’s listed as “Jheri R Redding” on the 1950 U.S. Census:

Jheri Redding on 1950 U.S. Census

He launched his first company, Jheri Redding Products, six years later.

What are your thoughts on the baby name Jheri?

Sources:

  • Johnston, David Cay. “Jheri Redding Is Dead at 91; A Hair Products Entrepreneur.” New York Times 21 Mar. 1998: A-13.
  • Folkart, Burt A. “Jheri Redding; Beauty Products Pioneer.” Los Angeles Times 18 Mar. 1998.
  • Mack, Toni. “Caution + Daring = 82% Returns.” Forbes 8 Jun. 1981: 101-103.
  • Byrd, Ayana and Lori Tharps. Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America. NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2002.
  • Ford, Tanisha C. Dressed in Dreams: A Black Girl’s Love Letter to the Power of Fashion. NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2019.
  • Moore, Jennifer Grayer. Fashion Fads Through American History: Fitting Clothes Into Context. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2015.
  • SSA

Images: Clipping from Chula Vista Star-News (25 Feb. 1979); clipping from Jet magazine (14 Aug. 1980); clipping of the 1950 U.S. Census