What gave the baby name Davey a boost in 1929?

The character Sonny (played by Davey Lee) from the movie "The Singing Fool" (1928)
Davey Lee in “The Singing Fool“

According to the U.S. baby name data, both Davey and David saw sizeable increases in usage in 1929:

Boys named DaveyBoys named David
193145 [rank: 985th]11,783 [rank: 13th]
193054 [rank: 911th]12,275 [rank: 15th]
192989 [rank: 655th]11,301 [rank: 17th]
192899,992 [rank: 19th]
1927.9,426 [rank: 21st]

Davey was the fastest-rising boy name of the year in terms of relative increase, and David was the second-fastest-rising boy name of the year (after Donald) in terms of absolute increase.

The names Davy and Davie also saw upticks in usage in 1929.

What was influencing these names?

Child actor Davey Lee (born David Lea in Hollywood, California, in late 1924).

Davey Lee appeared in six feature films between 1928 and 1930. (He was credited as “David Lee” in two of the films.)

His first movie, The Singing Fool, was a partial-talkie released in September of 1928. He played the part of Sonny, the son of main character Al Stone (played by Al Jolson), an entertainer who’d been deserted by his wife. Here’s how one film critic summarized the young actor:

This little David Lee playing the Jolsons’ kid is a perfect wonder. He plays sick, dead, happy, asleep, affectionate and sad, and talks, in his wee voice that gets over without a blemish.

The Singing Fool was the highest-grossing film of 1928, and one of the film’s songs, “Sonny Boy,” was also a best seller.

The song’s title was used for one of Davey Lee’s subsequent movies, Sonny Boy, which was another partial-talkie released in April of the following year. Here’s how the film critic for the New York Times described the experience of seeing Lee on the big screen:

There was many a rousing outburst [of] laughter [from the audience] at a word or two from the diminutive Davey. His childish speech was not always distinct, but (…) whether or not one understood his lines, they nevertheless carried a strong appeal to one’s heart.

What are your thoughts on the name Davey? (Do like this spelling?)

P.S. The baby name Davey went on to reach peak usage in the mid-1950s, thanks to the Davy Crockett craze…

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of The Singing Fool

What gave the baby name Thomasina a boost in 1964?

Title of the movie "The Three Lives of Thomasina" (1963)
“The Three Lives of Thomasina“

According to the U.S. baby name data, usage of the name Thomasina (pronounced tom-ah-SEE-nah) increased in 1964 and peaked two years later:

  • 1967: 59 baby girls named Thomasina
  • 1966: 85 baby girls named Thomasina (peak usage)
  • 1965: 75 baby girls named Thomasina
  • 1964: 76 baby girls named Thomasina
  • 1963: 46 baby girls named Thomasina
  • 1962: 51 baby girls named Thomasina

What was influencing this name in the mid-1960s?

The live-action Disney movie The Three Lives of Thomasina (1963), which went into wide release in June of 1964.

The Three Lives of Thomasina was set in early 20th century Scotland and featured an orange tabby cat named Thomasina (whose voice-overs were performed by English actress Elspeth March).

At the start of the film, Thomasina lived with 7-year-old Mary MacDhui and Mary’s widowed father. After going through a traumatic experience, though, Thomasina not only became separated from Mary, but also lost her memory. Would she ever find her way back home?

In November of 1965, over the course of three weeks, The Three Lives of Thomasina was broadcast on television as part of Disney’s popular anthology series (known as Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color during most of the ’60s).

What are your thoughts on the name Thomasina?

P.S. The name Perri was also influenced by an animal in a live-action Disney movie…

Sources: The Three Lives of Thomasina – Wikipedia, List of Walt Disney anthology television series episodes (seasons 1–29) – Wikipedia, SSA

Image: Screenshot of The Three Lives of Thomasina

How did “The Little Mermaid” influence baby names?

The character Ariel from the movie "The Little Mermaid" (1989)
Ariel from “The Little Mermaid“

The Little Mermaid — which marked a return to the Walt Disney company’s tried-and-true formula of creating animated musical adaptations of folktales, fairy-tales, and other well-known stories (e.g., Pinocchio, Cinderella) — was released in theaters in November of 1989.

It went on to become the ninth-highest-grossing film of the year, and kicked off the “Disney renaissance” of the 1990s.

The movie’s protagonist, a teenage mermaid named Ariel (pronounced AIR-ee-el), was the daughter of King Triton, ruler of the undersea kingdom of Atlantica.

Ariel, who had long been fascinated by the human world, fell in love with a human prince — right before rescuing him from a shipwreck.

When Ariel’s father found out that she’d had contact with a human — something that was “strictly forbidden” for merfolk — he became enraged and destroyed her large collection of human artifacts (e.g., a dinner fork, a tobacco pipe).

Distraught, Ariel decided to make a deal with Ursula the sea witch. She would be transformed into a human for three days, and, if she could get the prince to fall in love with her during that time, she would remain a human forever. If not, she would return to the ocean and become Ursula’s prisoner.

A year after The Little Mermaid came out, not only did the name Triton debut in the U.S. baby name data, but the name Ariel — which was already on the rise for baby girls (thanks to a song, a soap opera, and another soap opera) — entered the girls’ top 100 for the very first time:

Girls named ArielBoys named Ariel
19923,961 [rank: 87th]456 [rank: 472nd]
19915,411† [rank: 66th]666† [rank: 360th]
19903,607 [rank: 94th]408 [rank: 482nd]
19891,284 [rank: 209th]383 [rank: 489th]
1988911 [rank: 277th]345 [rank: 493rd]
†Peak usage

A year after that, Ariel reached peak usage (for both genders, interestingly).

Also peaking in 1991 were slew of other spellings: Aerial, Aeriel, Aeriell, Aireal, Airiel, Airielle, Areial, Areil, Arial, Arieal, Ariele, Arielle, Arriel, Arrielle, Auriel, and Ayriel.

So, how did the character come to be called Ariel?

The film’s co-director, Ron Clements, wrote a two-page treatment of The Little Mermaid in January of 1985. His treatment was based on the like-named 19th-century fairy-tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. In the original story, the mermaid was nameless; in the treatment, Clements referred to the mermaid as Ariel.

Years later, Clements deduced that he’d been influenced by the 1984 film Footloose, which featured a female character named Ariel (who, like the mermaid, was a rebellious teenager).

What are your thoughts on the name Ariel? Do you like it better as a girl name or as a boy name?

P.S. The nine other Disney films released during the “renaissance” period were The Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Mulan, and Tarzan.

P.P.S. Another mermaid movie from the 1980s that influenced U.S. baby names was Splash…

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of The Little Mermaid

What gave the baby name Elaine a boost in 1915?

The character Elaine Dodge from the motion picture serial "The Exploits of Elaine" (1914)
Elaine Dodge from “The Exploits of Elaine”

The baby name Elaine, which was already on the rise in the early 1900s, more than doubled in usage in 1915 specifically:

  • 1917: 1,281 baby girls named Elaine [rank: 160th]
  • 1916: 1,236 baby girls named Elaine [rank: 161st]
  • 1915: 1,212 baby girls named Elaine [rank: 155th]
  • 1914: 568 baby girls named Elaine [rank: 221st]
  • 1913: 411 baby girls named Elaine [rank: 238th]

Why?

Because of fictional character Elaine Dodge — the protagonist of a trio of weekly Hearst-Pathé serials that came out one after the other:

  • The Exploits of Elaine (14 installments released from December of 1914 to March of 1915),
  • The New Exploits of Elaine (10 installments released from April to June of 1915), and
  • The Romance of Elaine (12 installments released from June to August of 1915).

Just like The Perils of Pauline, the three “Elaine” serials could be read in print and seen on film concurrently. Installments were published in the newspapers on Sundays, then premiered at the motion picture houses on Mondays.

Elaine Dodge, an adventurous young woman, teamed up with scientist/detective Craig Kennedy and reporter Walter Jameson to track down various bad guys — a shadowy criminal called “the Clutching Hand” in the first serial, a Chinese gang leader named Wu Fang in the second, and a foreign agent named Marcius Del Mar in the third.

In all three pictures, Elaine was played by actress Pearl White (who’d become famous as the star of The Perils of Pauline).

What are your thoughts on the name Elaine?

P.S. In mid-1915, The Exploits of Elaine was published as a standalone book. The second and third serials were combined into a single volume in 1916.

Sources:

Image: Clipping from Moving Picture World (16 Jan. 1915)