Where did the baby name Diamante come from in 1991?

Mitsubishi Diamante
Mitsubishi Diamante

The name Diamante first appeared in the U.S. baby name data — for both genders, notably — in the early 1990s:

Boys named DiamanteGirls named Diamante
19933517
1992379
199130*6*
1990..
1989..
*Debut

What caused this dual-gender debut?

The Mitsubishi Diamante, a luxury sedan that went on sale in the U.S. in the spring of 1991. (It had been introduced in Japan a year earlier.)

Write-ups about the new car noted that diamante was the Spanish word for “diamond.” Despite this, “Diamante” was pronounced dee-ah-MAHN-tee (as opposed to dee-ah-MAHN-teh) in television commercials.

The car’s name was inspired by Mitsubishi’s emblem, which features three red diamonds.

What are your thoughts on the name Diamante?

P.S. Did you know that “Mitsubishi” essentially means “three diamonds”? It’s made up of the Japanese words mitsu, meaning “three,” and hishi, which denotes “a rhombus or diamond shape.” (The literal meaning of hishi is “water chestnut.”)

Sources:

Image: Clipping from Popular Mechanics (May 1991)

Babies named for Cuthbert Collingwood

Vice-admiral Cuthbert Collingwood (1748-1810)
Cuthbert Collingwood

When Admiral Horatio Nelson was killed during the day-long Battle of Trafalgar in late 1805, Nelson’s second-in-command, Vice-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, assumed control of the British fleet. About an hour later, the Royal Navy won the battle.

Over the next few years, dozens of baby boys in England (and elsewhere) were named in honor of Collingwood. Most were given his surname as either a first or middle name, but others received his full name:

  • Cuthbert Collingwood Hope, b. 1805 in England
  • Cuthbert Collingwood Beazley, b. 1806 in England
  • Cuthbert Collingwood Quimby, b. 1806 in the U.S. (Massachusetts)
  • Cuthbert Collingwood Medcalf, b. 1807 in England
  • Cuthbert Collingwood Gordon, b. 1808 in the U.S. (New Hampshire)
  • Cuthbert Collingwood Hall, b. 1809 in England
  • Cuthbert Collingwood Oxley, b. 1810 in Canada

Several of his namesakes were also named after Nelson:

  • Nelson Collingwood Marselis, b. 1806 in the U.S. (New York)
  • Collingwood Nelson Simmonds, b. circa 1806 in England
  • Nelson Collingwood Robins, b. 1809 in England

The rare name Cuthbert (which last appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1955) derives from the Old English words cuþ, meaning “known,” and beorht, meaning “bright.”

Sources: Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood – Wikipedia, Battle of Trafalgar Timeline – National Maritime Museum, FamilySearch.org, Wiktionary

Image: Adapted from Cuthbert Collingwood, Baron Collingwood by Henry Howard

Where did the baby name Mulan come from in 1998?

The title character from the movie "Mulan" (1998)
Mulan from “Mulan“

The name Mulan first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1998:

  • 2000: 6 baby girls named Mulan
  • 1999: 7 baby girls named Mulan
  • 1998: 16 baby girls named Mulan [debut]
  • 1997: unlisted
  • 1996: unlisted

Where did it come from?

The animated Disney movie Mulan, which was released in June that year. Mulan went on to become the seventh-highest-grossing film of 1998.

The titular character (voiced by Ming-Na Wen) was a young woman who lived with her parents and grandmother in ancient China.

When China was suddenly invaded by the Huns, the emperor ordered that one man from every family join the Imperial Army. Mulan, wanting to spare her ailing father from having to serve, dressed in her father’s armor and, posing as a man, enlisted in his place. (She was accompanied on her military adventures by a diminutive Chinese dragon named Mushu.)

The movie was based on the Chinese folk song Mùlán Cí, which can be traced back to the Northern Wèi dynasty (386-535).

The legendary female warrior Mùlán was named after a type of magnolia tree, the word for which comprises two characters — the first (mù) meaning “wood,” the second (lán) meaning “orchid.”

What are your thoughts on the baby name Mulan?

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of Mulan

What gave the baby name Ariel a boost in 1982?

The character Ariel Aldrin from the TV series "As The World Turns" (1956-2010)
Ariel from “As The World Turns“

In 1981, the unisex name Ariel was given to roughly the same number of girls and boys.

Just one year later, it was given to almost twice as many girls as boys:

Girls named ArielBoys named Ariel
1984636 [rank: 362nd]281 [rank: 504th]
1983650 [rank: 348th]315 [rank: 471st]
1982584 [rank: 394th]294 [rank: 497th]
1981228 [rank: 721st]236 [rank: 553rd]
1980181 [rank: 853rd]239 [rank: 554th]

What caused this sudden interest in Ariel as a girl name?

My guess is a television character.

In February of 1982, Swedish-born Ariel Aldrin (played by actress Judith Blazer) was introduced on the long-running CBS soap opera As The World Turns.

During her time on the show, Ariel worked as a model at the local fashion emporium (“Fashions, Ltd.”) and married two different men: Dr. John Dixon (who she’d mistakenly believed was wealthy) and Burke Donovan (who’s son, she’d discovered, was the heir to a fortune). Neither relationship lasted very long. She “left town to pursue a European count” in 1984.

P.S. Earlier in the ’80s, the name may have been influenced (slightly) by Princess Ariel, one of the main characters of the Saturday morning cartoon Thundarr the Barbarian (1980-1981).

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of As The World Turns