Baby name story: Nira

Nyra Monsour in TV Guide (Jan. 1959)
Nyra Monsour

Actress Nyra Monsour, who was primarily active during the latter half of the 1950s, and who made “a specialty of playing exotic beauties on TV,” wasn’t really a Nyra — she was a Nira.

She was born to Syrian parents in California in January of 1934.

Her father, an unemployed movie-studio carpenter in Santa Monica when she was born, named her Nira Rose Monsour out of respect for the government checks that paid the hospital bills.

She was one of the many babies named after the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA). Because of her name, her family was invited to Washington to meet the president. (They didn’t end up going, though.)

Columbia Pictures altered the spelling of her name prior to her first move, The Saracen Blade (1954). The studio “felt that Nyra looked better” than the original spelling, the actress said.

Source: “Named for an Act of Congress.” TV Guide 31 Jan.-6 Feb. 1959: 20-22.

Baby born aboard steamship Georgic, named George

SS Georgic
SS Georgic

In 1933, during the second week of May, the ocean liner Georgic traveled west across the Atlantic from Ireland to the United States.

One day into the trip, a pregnant passenger named Alice Nolan welcomed a son — the first baby ever born aboard the Georgic (which had been launched earlier in the 1930s).

The baby’s name? George, in honor of the ship.

Sources:

  • “Baby, Born at Sea, Georgic Attraction.” Boston Globe 15 May 1933: 2.
  • “Baby Born on Liner Georgic.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch 15 May 1933: 9.

Baby named Twifia, family gets free internet

"18 years free internet" (Twifi's baby name offer)

A baby girl born in Graubünden, Switzerland, in either late September or early October was given the second middle name Twifia.

Why?

Because Swiss internet provider Twifi was offering 18 years of free internet to any family willing to name their baby either Twifia (if a girl) or Twifius (if a boy).

The parents wish to remain anonymous, and have not revealed the baby’s first two given names.

But the father was quoted as saying, “The longer I thought about it, the more unique the name became for me, and that was when the thing got its charm.”

And what if the company — which was launched in August, and has just four employees — goes belly-up before the baby turns 18? Twifi CEO Philippe Fotsch promised he would continue to pay for the family’s internet personally. “It’s a matter of honor.”

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of Twifi’s “18 years free internet” page

Baby born aboard steamship Northland, named Northland

In October of 1912, as the steamship Northland was traveling northward along the west coast of the U.S. from California to Oregon, an 8-pound baby was born to passenger Mrs. Daniel Boone Conover.

The baby boy was named Orford Northland Conover.

The second cognomen given him indicates that he was born on the Northland while the first means that his birth took place off Orford reef.

Orford Reef is located off Cape Blanco, which is on the southern coast of Oregon.

Sources: