Baby name story: Wonderful Terrific

Baseball player Wonderful Monds III
Wonderful Monds III

In the late 1920s, Henry and Sallie Monds of Brooks County, Georgia, welcomed a baby boy and named him Wonderful Terrific.

According to Monds family history, Henry had fathered a number of daughters — some sources say 11, others say 12 — and longed for a son. When his wife finally delivered a boy, he was so overjoyed that he exclaimed, “Oh, this is wonderful! This is terrific!” And that’s how the name came about.

Wonderful Monds on 1930 U.S. Census
Wonderful Monds on the 1930 U.S. Census

Years later, when Wonderful Terrific Monds had a son, the unique name was passed down.

Wonderful Terrific “Wonder” Monds, Jr., was born in 1952. A talented athlete, he played football at the University of Nebraska in the mid-1970s. He went on to play professionally for four seasons: three in Canada, and one in the U.S. with the San Francisco 49ers.

When Wonder Monds had a son, the name was passed down again.

Wonderful Terrific Monds III was born in 1973. He played baseball at Tennessee State in the early 1990s. He went on to play in the minor leagues for seven seasons, mostly in the Atlanta Braves farm system. He told reporters in 1996 that he loved his name, and was “happy being Wonderful,” but also noted:

The fans get on you when you’re not playing well and your name is Wonderful. They’ll say, ‘I thought you were wonderful.’ I’ve heard it all.

Ready for the confusing part? Wonder Monds (the football player) also passed the name down a second time.

His fourth son, Wonderful Terrific Monds, was born in 1992 and played college football in the early 2010s. As far as I know, he’s the most recent Wonderful Terrific.

(The second and third sons got the not-as-wonderful names named Devin and Mario.)

What are your thoughts on the name Wonderful? How about just Wonder?

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Image: Wonderful Monds III trading card

Baby born on bridge, named Bridge

Sydney Harbour Bridge
Sydney Harbour Bridge

On October 27, 1945, Mrs. Juanita Dunlop gave birth to a baby boy while traveling in an ambulance across the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

“At the time Mrs. Dunlop said that she would not give the baby any fancy names,” but her husband later decided that he wanted to add the word “bridge” to the baby’s name.

So their son was christened Robert Bridge in late December at the Methodist Church in Manly, New South Wales.

The Dunlops’ two older children, both boys, were named Stephen and Richard.

Source: “Baby Named After Bridge Birthplace.” The Sun [Sydney, Australia] 23 Dec 1945: 6.

Image: Sydney Harbour Bridge by Diego Delso under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Baby born in England, named after entire soccer team (1973)

soccer game

In November of 1973, the Oatway family of London welcomed a baby boy.

The Oatways were big fans of Queens Park Rangers Football Club, so they decided to name the baby “Anthony Philip David Terry Frank Donald Stanley Gerry Gordon Stephen James” after QPR’s entire first team squad.

I wasn’t able to find any QPR players from 1973 named Stephen or James, but I did find players with the other names:

NamePlayer(s)
Anthony
Philip
David
Terry
Frank
Donald
Stanley
Gerry
Gordon
Stephen
James		Tony Hazell
Phil Parkes
Dave Clement or Dave Thomas
Terry Venables or Terry Mancini
Frank McLintock
Don Givens
Stan Bowles
Gerry Francis
Gordon Jago (manager)
?
?

Ironically, the baby was never known by any of those 11 given names. He simply went by “Charlie.” As he later explained,

Charlie is just a nickname. An aunt told my parents they couldn’t name me after the QPR team because I’d look a right Charlie — and the name just stuck.

Charlie Oatway — unlike the other people I know of who were named after soccer teams (Liverpool F.C., Leeds United F.C., Burnley F.C.) — grew up to become a professional footballer. He played on various teams during the 1990s and 2000s, though, unfortunately, he never played for Queens Park Rangers.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Portugal 2-3 Denmark, Football by José Goulão under CC BY-SA 2.0.

What gave the baby name Winnie a boost (three times) in the 1930s?

Aviator Wiley Post standing in front of the airplane Winnie Mae (July, 1933)
Wiley Post in front of the Winnie Mae

Usage of the baby name Winnie was generally on the decline in the U.S. from the 1920s to the 1980s. But there were several upticks here and there, including a series of three in the early 1930s:

  • 1937: 254 baby girls named Winnie [rank: 406th]
  • 1936: 263 baby girls named Winnie [rank: 393rd]
  • 1935: 346 baby girls named Winnie [rank: 344th]
  • 1934: 306 baby girls named Winnie [rank: 362nd]
  • 1933: 354 baby girls named Winnie [rank: 333rd]
  • 1932: 328 baby girls named Winnie [rank: 350th]
  • 1931: 348 baby girls named Winnie [rank: 341st]
  • 1930: 297 baby girls named Winnie [rank: 393rd]
  • 1929: 320 baby girls named Winnie [rank: 376th]

You can see the three upticks — almost like three points of a little crown — on the popularity graph:

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

What caused them?

I think the answer has to do with aviation. Specifically, with a record-breaking airplane called the Winnie Mae that became famous at the height of the Great Depression.

The Winnie Mae — in full, the Winnie Mae of Oklahoma — was a single-winged, seven-passenger Lockheed Vega. It was purchased in June of 1930 by Oklahoma oilman Florence Charles “F. C.” Hall, who named the plane after his adult daughter Winnie Mae.

Hall’s personal pilot was a one-eyed man named Wiley Post. (He’d lost his left eye in an oil-rig accident in the mid-1920s, but the injury payout allowed him to purchase an aircraft and learn how to fly.)

1931

In 1931, Wiley Post attempted an around-the-world flight in the Winnie Mae. The trip was sponsored by Hall.

Accompanied by navigator Harold Gatty, Post set off from New York on June 23. The duo landed back in New York on July 1. They’d flown the Winnie Mae around the world in record time: eight days, fifteen hours, and fifty-one minutes. (The previous record of over twenty-one days had been set by a Graf Zeppelin in 1929.)

The two men were honored with a ticker-tape parade in New York City the following day.

Winnie Mae Fain (née Hall), Wiley Post, Harold Gatty, and F. C. Hall (July, 1931)
Winnie Mae christening the Winnie Mae

1933

In 1933, after having purchased the Winnie Mae from Hall, Wiley Post decided to fly around the world again. This time, though, he would do it alone. In place of a human navigator, he installed an autopilot device (which he dubbed “Mechanical Mike“) and a radio compass.

Post set off from New York on July 15. He landed back in New York on July 22. Amazingly, he’d set another record: seven days, eighteen hours, and 49 minutes.

This flight made Post the first aviator to fly solo around the world, and also the first aviator to fly around the world twice.

Post was honored with a second ticker-tape parade in New York City several days later.

1935

The Winnie Mae was in the news for various reasons during 1935.

From February to June, Wiley Post attempted to make a transcontinental flight through the lower stratosphere. (The plane’s cabin wasn’t pressurized, so Post developed the world’s first pressurized flight suit in order to fly at high altitude.) Unfortunately, all four of his attempts were cut short due to mechanical issues. He subsequently retired the Winnie Mae.

Then, on August 15, tragedy struck: Wiley Post and Will Rogers perished in a plane crash while traveling through Alaska together. The very next day, the federal government purchased the Winnie Mae from Post’s widow (whose first name happened to be Mae). In November, the Winnie Mae was dismantled and transported, via railway boxcar, from Oklahoma to Washington, D.C.

The compound name “Winnie Mae” has never appeared in the U.S. baby name data before, but records reveal that a sizeable number of the baby girls named Winnie during the 1930s also got the middle name Mae. Many of those Winnie Maes were likely named with the airplane in mind.

Winnie Mae Kuempel, for instance, was born in Austin, Texas, on August 5, 1931. Here’s how she told the story of her name (at the age of 84):

I was named after a famous plane, the Winnie Mae. The day before I was born Wiley Post had just flown it around the world. The next day headlines told about Wiley Post’s adventure, and my dad said, “Let’s name her Winnie Mae.”

What are your thoughts on the baby name Winnie? How about the combo Winnie Mae?

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