Babies named for Fay Wray

Actress Fay Wray in the movie "King Kong" (1933)
Fay Wray in “King Kong“

Canadian-American actress Fay Wray appeared in films regularly from the 1920s to the 1950s. Her most memorable role was that of Ann Darrow, the object of King Kong’s affection in the now-classic monster movie King Kong (1933).

Dozens of U.S. baby girls have been named “Fay Wray” over the years, and it’s likely that those born during Wray’s career — particularly the early part of her career — were named with her in mind. Some examples…

Fay Wray was born Vina Fay Wray in Alberta, Canada, in 1907. She said in her autobiography:

That “Fay” is almost as a punctuation mark to the longer, fancier names my mother favored. She had been disappointed not to have had a boy, so my father took the opportunity to name me after both his wife and a former lady friend.

Because she never used Vina (the name she shared with her mother), she was known by the self-rhyming name Fay Wray throughout her life.

In her 80s, she observed, “People always ask me if Fay Wray is really my name.”

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Image: Screenshot of King Kong

Where did the baby name Cavett come from in 1973?

Talk show host Dick Cavett (in 1971)
Dick Cavett

The surname Cavett made its first and only appearance in the U.S. baby name data in the early 1970s:

  • 1975: unlisted
  • 1974: unlisted
  • 1973: 5 baby boys named Cavett [debut]
  • 1972: unlisted
  • 1971: unlisted

What put it there?

My guess is Dick Cavett, host of The Dick Cavett Show.

Different versions of Cavett’s Emmy-winning talk show were broadcast on television from the late ’60s to the early 2000s, but the most popular incarnation aired late-night on ABC — opposite Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show on NBC — from 1969 to 1974.

What differentiated Cavett from Carson? Cavett had a more intellectual approach to comedy, and also interviewed a wider range of guests — not just movie stars and musicians, but also filmmakers, athletes, authors, journalists, politicians, activists, scientists, artists, and so forth. Cavett’s guests included Alfred Hitchcock, Arthur C. Clarke, Bobby Fischer, Christiaan Barnard, Harland Sanders, Hugh Hefner, Jackie Robinson, Jacques Cousteau, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon (and Yoko Ono), Louis Armstrong, Muhammad Ali, Orson Welles, and Salvador Dalí.

Cavett’s Scottish surname was derived from a similar French surname, Cavet, which originally referred to either someone who worked with a cavet (a type of hoe) or someone who lived near or in a cave.

What are your thoughts on Cavett as a first name?

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Image: Screenshot of The Dick Cavett Show

Why did Torii debut as a boy name in 2003?

Baseball player Torii Hunter
Torii Hunter

According to the U.S. baby name data, the rare name Torii was used primarily as a girl name during the late 20th century. In 2003, however, it popped up as a boy name:

Girls named ToriiBoys named Torii
20056.
2004.5
200376*
2002..
2001..
*Debut

Why?

Likely because of Major League center fielder Torii Hunter, who was playing for the Minnesota Twins at the time.

He’d started his professional baseball career in the ’90s, but didn’t win his first Gold Glove Award until 2001, and wasn’t selected for his first All-Star game until 2002. (He went on to win eight more Gold Gloves and play in four more All-Star games over the course of his career.)

He was born Torii (pronounced TOR-ee) Kedar Hunter in Arkansas in 1975. The spelling of his first name was apparently unintentional; Hunter has been quoted as saying that he thinks his mom “accidentally put two I’s” while filling out paperwork after he was born.

(Coincidentally, his name is spelled the same as the Japanese word torii, pronounced toh-REE, which refers to the traditional gate found at Shinto shrines.)

What are your thoughts on the name Torii? Do you like this spelling, or do you prefer more common spellings (like Tori and Tory)?

Sources: Torii Hunter – Wikipedia, Torii Kedar Hunter – Encyclopedia of Arkansas, SSA

Image: Adapted from Torii Hunter by Keith Allison under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Where did the baby name Krisily come from in 2005?

American TV personality Krisily Kennedy
Krisily Kennedy

The rare name Krisily was a one-hit wonder in the U.S. baby name data in 2005:

  • 2007: unlisted
  • 2006: unlisted
  • 2005: 11 baby girls named Krisily [debut]
  • 2004: unlisted
  • 2003: unlisted

Where did it come from?

The Bachelor runner-up Krisily Kennedy.

Krisily (pronounced KRIS-ih-lee) was a contestant on the show’s seventh season, which aired during the spring of 2005 and featured bachelor Charlie O’Connell, younger brother of actor Jerry O’Connell.

During the show’s 3-hour finale — the first in which a bachelor made his final decision on live TV — Charlie chose the other remaining contestant, Sarah Brice, over Krisily.

Krisily (who was Miss Rhode Island USA in 2003, incidentally) went on to participate in the first season of Bachelor Pad in 2010.

What are your thoughts on the name Krisily?

P.S. One of Charlie’s twin nieces was named after him. (The other twin was named after Dolly Parton.)

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