Where did the baby name Dwanna come from in 1936?

Illustration of Dwanna Lee Newman
Dwanna Lee Newman

The name Dwanna first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1936:

  • 1938: unlisted
  • 1937: 7 baby girls named Dwanna
  • 1936: 20 baby girls named Dwanna [debut]
  • 1935: unlisted
  • 1934: unlisted

Where did it come from?

A little girl who got hit by a train — and survived!

In October of 1933, a toddler named Dwanna Lee Newman — the daughter of Arvid and Tola Newman of Eureka, Utah — was struck by a train traveling at about 20 miles per hour.

The locomotive pilot knocked her 10 feet in the air, she alighted on the cross-ties exactly between the rails and the entire freight train passed over her. […] When picked up, she was found to be unconscious, but soon revived, and examination disclosed the fact that aside from a bump on forehead, she was uninjured.

Nearly three years later, in July of 1936, Dwanna’s story was featured in the nationally syndicated Ripley’s Believe It or Not newspaper panel.

Sadly, Dwanna died of pneumonia in late 1937, at the age of five. (Arvid and Tola went on to have two more children, daughters Linda Rae and Vicki Ann, in the 1940s.)

What are your thoughts on the baby name Dwanna?

P.S. Believe it or not, the weirdly similar name Dwala was also influenced by Believe It or Not…

Sources:

Image: Clipping from the Daily Colonist (16 Jul. 1936)

Where did the baby name Kida come from in 2002?

The character Kida from the movie "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" (2001)
Kida from “Atlantis: The Lost Empire“

The name Kida first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 2002:

  • 2004: 10 baby girls named Kida
  • 2003: 10 baby girls named Kida
  • 2002: 5 baby girls named Kida [debut]
  • 2001: unlisted
  • 2000: unlisted

Where did it come from?

A character in the animated Disney movie Atlantis: The Lost Empire, which was released in June of 2001.

Atlantis was a Jules Verne-inspired adventure film set in the mid-1910s. It followed Smithsonian linguist Milo Thatch (voiced by Michael J. Fox) as he led an underwater expedition to find the legendary kingdom of Atlantis.

Upon arriving, Milo encountered an Atlantean princess named Kidagakash “Kida” Nedakh (voiced by Cree Summer). Kida hoped that Milo could help her revive the kingdom, which had “fallen into apathy and disrepair” since sinking into the ocean thousands of years earlier.

Atlantis: The Lost Empire did not feature singing, dancing, or cute sidekicks — unlike many of Disney’s animated films of the previous decade (e.g., Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King). Perhaps because of this, it was not a big hit at the box office.

But it clearly had a small influence on expectant parents. And it may have affected the name Milo as well, though it’s hard to tell by the data.

What are your thoughts on the name Kida?

Sources: Atlantis: The Lost Empire – Wikipedia, Atlantis: The Lost Empire review – Roger Ebert, SSA

Image: Screenshot of Atlantis: The Lost Empire

What gave the baby name Ren a boost in 1984?

The character Ren McCormack from the movie "Footloose" (1984)
Ren McCormack from “Footloose“

The simple name Ren, after dropping out of the U.S. baby name data for a year in 1983, returned with nearly two dozen baby boys in 1984:

  • 1986: 22 baby boys named Ren
  • 1985: 32 baby boys named Ren
  • 1984: 21 baby boys named Ren
  • 1983: unlisted
  • 1982: 10 baby boys named Ren

What brought it back?

The main character of the movie Footloose, which was released February of 1984 and went on to become the seventh-highest-grossing film of the year.

Ren McCormack (played by Kevin Bacon) was a teenager who loved to dance. The problem? He’d recently moved from the big city to a rural town where dancing was banned, thanks to the efforts of a local preacher.

As Ren challenged the anti-dancing law (so that the town’s high school could hold a senior prom), he also became romantically involved with the preacher’s rebellious daughter Ariel* (played by Lori Singer).

Coincidentally, one of the fastest-rising boy names in the U.S. in 1984 was the similar name Ryne; the trendiness of Ryne could have influenced the usage of Ren as well.

What are your thoughts on the name Ren? Do you like it as a standalone name, or do you prefer it as a nickname for something longer (like Lorenzo, Terrence, Warren, or Reynold)?

*Ariel was apparently the inspiration behind the name of Disney’s Little Mermaid…

Sources: Footloose – Wikipedia, 1984 in film – Wikipedia, Footloose review – Roger Ebert, SSA

Image: Screenshot of Footloose

How did Colin Kelly influence baby names in 1942?

USAAF pilot Colin P. Kelly, Jr. (1915-1941)
Colin P. Kelly

On December 8, 1941, the Empire of Japan began its attack on the U.S. territory of the Philippines.

General Douglas MacArthur was aware that Pearl Harbor had been attacked hours earlier but, despite this, U.S. forces in the Philippines were not prepared. The Japanese ended up destroying most of the B-17s and pursuit planes at Clark Field, the U.S. Army Air Base on Luzon.

One of the U.S. pilots stationed in the Philippines at that time was Captain Colin P. Kelly, Jr. (whose first name was pronounced KOH-lin).

Two days after the attack, in one of the few remaining B-17s, Kelly and his crew of seven men took off from Clark Field in search of enemy warships.

Kelly spotted a Japanese ship off the north coast of the island and dropped three bombs in that location. (Though it was widely reported that he’d destroyed a battleship, in truth he damaged a cruiser.)

While attempting to return to Clark Field, Kelly’s plane was chased by Japanese Zeroes that, “in repeated firing runs, raked the aircraft with machine gun and cannon fire.” One crew member was killed instantly, and the B-17 was set ablaze.

Kelly ordered the surviving men to bail out while he stayed at the controls and struggled to keep the bomber level. Soon after, the plane exploded in mid-air.

Colin Kelly poster

At a time when nearly all war news was bleak, the story of Colin Kelly’s bravery and sacrifice “profoundly affected the American public.”

His name remained in the news for months. It also started popping up elsewhere: on posters, on trading cards, even in song [vid].

As a result, the usage of the baby name Colin more than quadrupled in 1942:

Boys named ColinBoys named Kelly
1944237 [rank: 394th]275 [rank: 363rd]
1943320 [rank: 345th]275 [rank: 369th]
1942349 [rank: 323rd]249 [rank: 385th]
194175 [rank: 713th]160 [rank: 470th]
194058 [rank: 822nd]142 [rank: 485th]

The usage of variant spellings like Collin and Colon also increased that year, as did the male usage of the name Kelly.

Records reveal that dozens of the babies named Colin in the early 1940s also got the middle name Kelly. For example, a boy born in Vermont in mid-1942 was named Colin Kelly Ducolon.

One of Colin Kelly’s later namesakes was his own nephew, Colin Kelly Howerton, born to his sister (Emmala) in 1948.

And at least one pre-existing Colin — former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell (b. 1937) — changed the pronunciation of his name from KAH-lin to KOH-lin in honor of Kelly.

What are your thoughts on the name Colin? (Which pronunciation do you prefer?)

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