Baby born to circus performers, named after circus owner

Harry James in an advertisement (1942)
Harry James ad (1942)

Trumpet-playing bandleader Harry James — in full, Harry Haag James — was one of the most popular trumpeters of the big band era.

His parents were Maybelle and Everette James, “two of the principal performers in the Might Haag Shows,” which was “a traveling circus that only played small towns touring the South and Southeast.” His father, the director of the Mighty Haag band, was both a trumpeter and a cornetist. His mother was an aerialist who also rode horses and played the calliope.

Harry Haag James was born in early 1916 in Albany, Georgia — where the circus happened to be located at the time. His middle name was bestowed in honor of the circus’ owner, Ernest Haag.

Several sources claim that Harry James’ first name was actually “Henry,” but I found no proof of this. In fact, I noticed that his paternal grandfather’s name was also Harry.

P.S. Here’s a New England baby from the 1840s who was also named after a circus…

Sources:

Image: Clipping from Billboard magazine (21 Mar. 1942)

Baby born in Dooley, named Dooliette

Dooley, Montana (circa 1920)
Dooley, Montana (circa 1920)

In mid-1913, several towns were established in Sheridan County, Montana, along the “Soo Line” (the Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad).

One of these towns was named Dooley after homesteader W. D. Dooley.

In January of 1914, the town of Dooley welcomed its first baby. She was the daughter of Dooley’s first postmaster, Peter T. Hegseth, and his wife Inga.

What was she named? Dooliette, nickname “Doo.”

The town thrived for several years, and the population peaked at nearly 400 residents. After that, Dooley slowly declined. It was a ghost town by the 1960s.

(The Hegseth family — which included five more children named Jenkins, Maynard, Beatrice, Charlotte, and Marjorie — moved westward to Washington in the early 1920s.)

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Dooley on the Soo Line (Montana History Portal)

Celebrity baby name: True

American actor Forest Whitaker
Forest Whitaker

Actor Forest Whitaker and his late ex-wife, Keisha Nash, were the parents of four children:

  • Ocean, b. 1990 (Forest’s son from a previous relationship)
  • Autumn, b. 1991 (Keisha’s daughter from a previous relationship)
  • Sonnet, b. 1996 (daughter)
  • True, b. 1998 (daughter)

Their youngest, True Whitaker, was interviewed several days after the birth of Khloé Kardashian’s daughter True (in April of 2018). In the interview, she told the story behind her name:

Whitaker discovered that her parents originally planned to name her Truth before deciding on True, which was inspired by Lauryn Hill‘s version of “Can’t Take My Eyes off of You” by Frankie Valli. “I remember to this day my mother singing the lyrics ‘You’re just too good to be True’ to me in my little cradle.”

True Whitaker’s birth did not noticeably affect the usage of the baby name True in the late ’90s, but the birth of her older sister did give the rare name Sonnet a boost in 1997.

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Image: Adapted from Forest Whitaker by David Shankbone under CC BY 2.0.

Baby name story: Tokito

Wheelchair tennis player Tokito Oda
Tokito Oda

Wheelchair tennis player Tokito Oda, born in Japan in 2006, was “named after the Arc de Triomphe, the iconic monument in the heart of the city” of Paris.

In Japanese, the French monument is called gaisenmon:

gaisenmon

The first kanji in the word means “triumph, victory.” It can be pronounced several different ways, including gai, kai, and toki.

Tokito’s name features the same character, plus the kanji to, meaning “person.”

tokito

Tokito Oda began using a wheelchair while battling bone cancer as a child. He was inspired to take up wheelchair tennis at the age of 10, after seeing footage of Japanese player Shingo Kunieda at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London.

He went on to win four wheelchair tennis Grand Slam titles — two at the French Open — and make his own Paralympic debut last year, in Paris. (“This is a special place for me, and there’s no guarantee that there [will] be another Paralympics in Paris while I’m alive.”) When he triumphed over Great Britain’s Alfie Hewett in the final, he became the youngest-ever Paralympic gold medalist in men’s wheelchair tennis.

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Tokito Oda (2023 French Open) by Hameltion under CC BY-SA 4.0.