Babies named for Lorenzo Dow

American itinerant preacher Lorenzo Dow (1777-1834)
Lorenzo Dow

Connecticut-born itinerant preacher Lorenzo Dow traveled on foot throughout the United States, delivering sermons, for more than three decades — from the late 1790s until his death in 1834.

Here’s how Dow was described in one obituary:

He was one of the most remarkable men of this age for his zeal and labours in the cause of religion. (…) His eccentric dress, and style of preaching, attracted great attention; while his shrewdness, and quick discernment of character, gave him no inconsiderable influence over the multitudes that attended on his ministry.

The evangelist’s popularity was so great that it inspired thousands of early 19th-century American families to name their newborns “Lorenzo Dow.” Some examples…

  • Lorenzo Dow Gower, born in Tennessee in 1803.
  • Lorenzo Dow Brooks, born in Vermont in 1804.
  • Lorenzo Dow Young, born in New York in 1807.
    • He was the younger brother of Brigham Young.
  • Lorenzo Dow Booe, born in Kentucky in 1808.
  • Lorenzo Dow Rowell, born in Maine in 1811.
  • Lorenzo Dow Bentley, born in Connecticut in 1813.
  • Andrew Lorenzo Dow Gove, born in New Hampshire in 1816.
  • Lorenzo Dow Wait, born in New York in 1818.
  • Lorenzo Dow Driggs, born in Pennsylvania in 1822.
  • Lorenzo Dow Doty, born in Ohio in 1824.
  • Lorenzo Dow Hancock, born in Ohio in 1827.
  • Lorenzo Dow Patterson, born in Alabama in 1829.
  • Lorenzo Dow Monroe, born in Massachusetts in 1831.
  • Lorenzo Dow Colyer, born in New York in 1833.

Among Dow’s more famous namesakes were U.S. Congressman Lorenzo Dow Danford (b. 1829), sea captain and businessman Lorenzo Dow Baker (b. 1840), and Kansas governor Lorenzo Dow Lewelling (b. 1846).

Plus, there’s Lorenzo Dow Thompson — the only person to ever defeat Abraham Lincoln in a wrestling match. (The bout was held in 1832, while both men were serving in the Illinois Militia during the brief Black Hawk War.)

Do you have anyone in your family tree named Lorenzo Dow?

Sources:

Image: Clipping from Lorenzo Dow: The Bearer of the Word (1928) by Charles Coleman Sellers

How did the “The Mod Squad” influence baby names?

The character Lincoln "Linc" Hayes from the TV series "The Mod Squad" (1968-1973)
Lincoln “Linc” Hayes from “The Mod Squad“

The Mod Squad, a police drama that premiered on television in September of 1968, was one of the first prime-time shows to “acknowledge the existence of the hippie counterculture.”

Its protagonists were a diverse trio of streetwise youths — Peter “Pete” Cochran (Michael Cole), Julie Barnes (Peggy Lipton), and Lincoln “Linc” Hayes (Clarence Williams III) — who, after getting into trouble with the law, were given the chance to work as undercover detectives for the L.A.P.D. in lieu of going to jail. Their mentor was Capt. Adam Greer (Tige Andrews).

Notably, Linc — who had been arrested for participating the Watts riots prior to being recruited by Greer — was one of the few prominent African-American characters on television in the 1960s.*

The year after the series started airing, the baby names Linc and Lincoln saw increased usage, and Tige appeared for the very first time in the U.S. baby name data:

Boys named LincolnBoys named LincBoys named Tige
1971181 (rank: 618th)1638
1970146 (rank: 687th)2138
1969105 (rank: 766th)1428*
196871 (rank: 863rd)6.
196798 (rank: 747th)..
*Debut
Actor Tige Andrews in the TV series "The Mod Squad" (1968-1973)
Tige Andrews in “The Mod Squad“

Tige, the highest-debuting boy name of 1969, is pronounced like the first part of tiger — which makes sense, given that actor Tige Andrews was born Tiger David Androus in New York City in 1920. His parents, immigrants from Syria, had named him “after a strong animal to ensure good health, following a Syrian custom.”

*Two of the others were Lt. Uhura of Star Trek and Jemal David of The Outcasts.

Sources:

Images: Screenshots of The Mod Squad

What gave the baby name Brenton a boost in 1984?

The character Philadelphia Gordon from the TV miniseries "All the Rivers Run" (1983)
Philadelphia Gordon from “All the Rivers Run“

In October of 1983, the miniseries All the Rivers Run premiered on Australian television.

The program’s main character, a free-spirited young Englishwoman named Philadelphia “Delie” Gordon (played by Sigrid Thornton), was orphaned in a shipwreck off the coast of Victoria in 1892. She was taken in by extended family living near Echuca, a port town on the Murray River, and eventually began a relationship with a paddle-steamer captain named Brenton Edwards (played by John Waters).

All the Rivers Run proved very popular and, as a result, many expectant parents in Australia decided to name their baby boys Brenton in the mid-1980s. The name reached peak usage in both in New South Wales and Queensland, for instance, in 1984.

Rank of Brenton in NSWRank of Breton in Qld.
1986.71st (56 boys)
198599th (71 boys)70th (60 boys)
198466th*† (122 boys)54th*† (86 boys)
1983..
1982..
*Debut in boys’ top 100, †Peak usage

Actor John Waters remembers meeting young boys named Brenton. He said,

The fact that [Brenton Edwards] was a popular character and the name was also new to people was probably one of those deciding factors — “I’ll call my kid Brenton, he’ll be the only one in his class.” Little did they know there’d be five of them.

The character Brenton Edwards from the TV miniseries "All the Rivers Run" (1983)
Brenton Edwards from “All the Rivers Run“

In January of 1984, several months after its initial broadcast, All the Rivers Run aired in the United States.

The miniseries had a similar effect upon expectant parents in America; the name Brenton more than tripled in usage nationally in 1984, and the name Philadelphia appeared for the first time in the U.S. baby name data the same year.

Boys named BrentonGirls named Philadelphia
1986601 (rank: 330th)5
1985603 (rank: 328th)5
1984799 (rank: 260th)†8*
1983250 (rank: 527th).
1982255 (rank: 534th).
*Debut, †Peak usage

Brenton, a Cornish surname, can be traced back to any of various place names, all of which derive from Bryningtun, meaning “settlement associated with Bryni” in Old English. Byrni, a personal name, is based on the word bryne, meaning “burning, fire.”

(Interestingly, while Brenton became a top-100 name for the first time in several regions of Australia in the mid-1980s, it had long been been a top-100 name in South Australia specifically. Why? Likely because of the relatively high number of Cornish Australians in South Australia.)

Philadelphia Gordon’s first name was inspired by the U.S. city of Philadelphia. In the 1958 novel upon which the TV miniseries was based, Delie explained: “Father was always planning to go to the States, before he ever thought of Australia.”

Sources:

Images: Screenshots of All the Rivers Run

What gave the baby name Luci a boost in the mid-1960s?

Luci Baines Johnson, daughter of Lyndon Baines Johnson
Luci Baines Johnson

The name Lucy had been on the decline for about a decade when, in 1964, the uncommon spelling Luci nearly quadrupled in usage:

  • 1966: 78 baby girls named Luci
  • 1965: 81 baby girls named Luci
  • 1964: 42 baby girls named Luci
  • 1963: 11 baby girls named Luci
  • 1962: 8 baby girls named Luci

(Lucy itself also saw an uptick in usage that year.)

What was influencing the name Luci in the mid-1960s?

Luci Baines Johnson, the younger daughter of president Lyndon Baines Johnson and his wife Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Johnson.

Luci was regularly in the headlines while she was campaigning for her father in 1964. She was, for instance, the queen of an Apple Blossom Festival in Virginia in April, the narrator of a Peter and the Wolf concert in Michigan in July, and the guest of honor at a barbecue in Beverly Hills (attended by the likes of Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen) in August.

She was featured on the cover of Life in mid-May. In the accompanying article, the magazine noted that Luci was “the first teen-aged daughter in the White House since William Howard Taft’s 17-year-old, Helen, lived there a half-century ago.”

Lucy Baines Johnson, who was born in July of 1947, began going by “Luci” soon after moving into the White House (in late 1963). Decades later, she explained:

It was a small way to establish my independence. I didn’t have a name like Elizabeth that I could shorten, so I just changed the spelling.

What are your thoughts on the name Luci? (Which spelling do you prefer?)

P.S. Bader Howar, the flower girl at Luci’s 1966 wedding, also ended up influencing U.S. baby names…

Sources:

Image: Clipping from the cover of Life magazine (15 May 1964)