Baby name story: Jennifer Rebecca

Frederica von Stade's album "Song Recital" (1978)
Frederica von Stade album

Learning that Carrie-Anne Moss was not named after the song “Jenny Rebecca” led me to discover a baby who was named after “Jenny Rebecca.”

Before we get to that, though, let’s start with the fact that the song itself was named after a baby named Jenny Rebecca.

It was written by composer and lyricist Carol Hall for her friends Ilene and William Goldman upon the birth of their first child, Jenny Rebecca, circa 1962. The lyrics begin, “Jenny Rebecca, four days old / How do you like the world so far?”

The song was recorded first by Barbra Streisand in 1965, then later by other artists.

One of those other artists was classical singer Frederica von Stade, who recorded “Jenny Rebecca” [vid] in December of 1977 for her album Song Recital (1978). According to the album’s liner notes, von Stade was “so fond of [the song] that she named her first child, born just forty-eight hours after this record was recorded, Jenny Rebecca.”

Her daughter’s full first name was actually Jennifer, which makes sense, given that Jennifer was the top girl name in the nation at that time. (It ranked #1 for fifteen years straight, from 1970 to 1984.)

P.S. William Goldman was the screenwriter/novelist behind Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Princess Bride.

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Baby named for college basketball star, becomes college basketball star

College basketball player Azzi Fudd
Azzi Fudd

Last month, college basketball player Azzi Fudd led the University of Connecticut Huskies to victory in the NCAA women’s championship game (against the South Carolina Gamecocks). After the win, Azzi (pronounced ay-zee) was named Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.

Where did Azzi’s unique first name come from?

Her mother, Katie Smrcka-Duffy, had also played basketball in college. (She was drafted into the WNBA in 2001, in fact, but never ended up playing professionally.) So when Katie had a baby girl in late 2002, she named her daughter Azzi after Jennifer Azzi — a fellow female player she looked up to.

Jennifer Azzi had been a member of the undefeated U.S. women’s basketball team that won gold at the 1996 Summer Olympics. The team’s dominance helped launch the WNBA in 1997.

A few years before winning gold, though, the original Azzi had led the Stanford University Cardinal* to victory in the 1990 NCAA women’s championship game (against the Auburn Tigers). After the win, she was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.

What are your thoughts on Azzi as a first name? (Do you think Azzi will debut in the U.S. baby name data in 2025?)

*Cardinal is singular because it refers to the color, not the bird.

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Image: Adapted from Azzi Fudd free throw by John Mac under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Where did the baby name Rhondda come from in 1946?

Rhondda Kelly, Miss Australia 1946
Rhondda Kelly

In December of 1945, the Miss Australia beauty pageant was held in Sydney.

The winner was 19-year-old university student Rhondda Kelly, the representative from Queensland (fittingly).

At least one Australian baby girl — born in March to Mr. and Mrs. Mark Fellows at the Lady Musgrave Maternity Hospital in Maryborough, Queensland — was named Rhondda in her honor.

But I don’t think this baby was her only namesake.

Why? Because, in mid-1946, Rhondda Kelly embarked upon a six-month round-the-world trip that included an east-to-west crossing of the U.S. and Canada during October. Photographs of Miss Australia 1946 were published in various U.S. papers (including the New York Times) that month.

Right on cue, the name Rhondda surfaced in the U.S. baby name data:

  • 1948: unlisted
  • 1947: 6 baby girls named Rhondda
  • 1946: 5 baby girls named Rhondda [debut]
  • 1945: unlisted
  • 1944: unlisted

It remained there for just one more year before falling back below the five-baby threshold.

(Actress Rhonda Fleming — who kicked off the mid-century rise of Rhonda in the late ’40s — wasn’t given a leading role in a movie until 1947.)

So, where does the rare name Rhondda come from?

A Welsh place name (of unknown etymology) that refers to both a river, Afon Rhondda, and a valley, Cwm Rhondda, in South Wales.

What are your thoughts on the name Rhondda? Do you like this spelling, or do you prefer Rhonda?

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Image: Adapted from Rhondda Kelly (1945)

How did Carrie-Anne Moss get her name?

Canadian actress Carrie-Anne Moss
Carrie-Anne Moss

Canadian actress Carrie-Anne Moss, who portrayed the character Trinity in all four Matrix movies, was born to parents Barbara and Melvyn Moss of British Columbia in August of 1967.

Why was she named Carrie-Anne?

Her mother named her after the song “Carrie-Anne,” by the Hollies. It was a last-minute change. She almost got named Jenny Rebecca, after a Barbra Streisand hit of a previous summer. A disaster narrowly averted.

“Carrie Anne,” which was released in May of 1967, peaked at #9 on Billboard‘s U.S. Hot 100 chart a couple of weeks before Moss was born. (Billboard didn’t launch a Canadian Hot 100 chart until mid-2007.)

“Jenny Rebecca,” on the other hand, was never released as a single. But it was the third track on Streisand’s best-selling album My Name Is Barbra (1965).

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Image: Adapted from Carrie-Anne Moss at Peabody’s “Marvel’s Jessica Jones” Night by Jana Lynn French/Peabody under CC BY 2.0.