What gave the baby name Nile a boost in 1940?

College football player Nile Kinnick, Jr. (1918-1943)
Nile Kinnick, Jr.

According to the U.S. baby name data, the uncommon name Nile saw an uptick in usage in 1940:

  • 1942: 25 baby boys named Nile (6 born in Iowa)
  • 1941: 25 baby boys named Nile
  • 1940: 39 baby boys named Nile (12 born in Iowa)
  • 1939: 28 baby boys named Nile (7 born in Iowa)
  • 1938: 21 baby boys named Nile

Why?

Because of Nile Clarke Kinnick, Jr., who played football at the University of Iowa.

The Iowa Hawkeyes — after winning a single game in 1937, and another single game in 1938 — had an unexpectedly successful 1939 season. Under new coach Eddie Anderson, the team compiled a 6-1-1 record overall and finished second in the Big Ten Conference.

Leading the charge was senior Nile Kinnick, a halfback who — by “passing, running or kicking” — “was directly involved in 107 of Iowa’s 130 points that season.”

Thanks to his stellar performance on the field, Nile Kinnick won almost every major national award, including the Heisman Trophy, the Walter Camp Memorial Trophy, and the Maxwell Award.

Kinnick’s celebrity became so strong, he was named 1939’s top male athlete in the country by the Associated Press. The honor was particularly noteworthy considering his competition included Joe DiMaggio, Joe Louis and Byron Nelson.

Among his namesakes were Nile Clarke Andersen, born in Iowa in late 1939, and Nile Kinnick Clarke, born in Washington state in 1946 (to Nile Kinnick’s first cousin, Fred).

After college, Nile Kinnick turned down an offer to join the NFL. Instead, he went to law school.

But a year later, when it seemed likely that the U.S. would enter World War II, he left law school and enlisted in the Naval Air Corps Reserve. He died during a training flight off the coast of Venezuela in 1943.

In 1972, Iowa’s football stadium, simply called Iowa Stadium, was renamed Kinnick Stadium in honor of Nile Kinnick. And by the early 2000s, enough babies were being named after the stadium every year that the name Kinnick began popping up in the U.S. baby name data.

What are your thoughts on the name Nile? (Do you like it more or less than the similar name Niles?)

Sources:

Image: Clipping from the Imperial Valley Press (11 Dec. 1939)

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.

Sources:

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

What gave the baby name Miles a boost in 1986?

The characters Gordon, Susan, and baby Miles from the TV series "Sesame Street" (in late 1985)
Gordon, Susan, and Miles from “Sesame Street“

According to the U.S. baby name data, the usage of Miles rose slowly during the first half of the 1980s, then saw a higher-than-expected increase in 1986 specifically:

Boys named MilesBoys named Myles
1988887 [rank: 265th]385 [rank: 464th]
1987835 [rank: 262nd]411 [rank: 434th]
1986777 [rank: 275th]382 [rank: 440th]
1985456 [rank: 397th]213 [rank: 602nd]
1984409 [rank: 408th]162 [rank: 681st]

The spelling Myles saw a similar increase the same year.

Why?

My guess is a character from the children’s TV series Sesame Street, which was “the most-watched program on public television” in the mid-1980s. (Fourteen million people — five million of whom were adults — tuned in to the daily program at least once per week.)

In December of 1985, two of the show’s main characters, married couple Susan and Gordon (played by actors Loretta Long and Roscoe Orman), adopted a baby boy named Miles. He was played by Roscoe Orman’s own 1-year-old son, Miles Orman.

The real Miles continued portraying the fictional Miles on Sesame Street for about eight years. The role was then handed off to child actor Imani Patterson.

What are your thoughts on the baby name Miles?

P.S. A year before joining the cast of Sesame Street, Roscoe Orman played the title character in the movie Willie Dynamite…

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of Sesame Street

What gave the baby name Yasiel a boost in the 2010s?

Baseball player Yasiel Puig
Yasiel Puig

According to the U.S. baby name data, the rare name Yasiel saw a relatively steep increase in usage from 2012 to 2014. Much of this new usage took place in the state of California specifically.

  • 2015: 48 baby boys named Yasiel, 12 (25%) born in CA
  • 2014: 69 baby boys named Yasiel, 20 (29%) born in CA
  • 2013: 39 baby boys named Yasiel, 15 (38%) born in CA
  • 2012: 12 baby boys named Yasiel
  • 2011: 18 baby boys named Yasiel

What accounts for the increase?

Cuban-born professional baseball player Yasiel Puig (yah-see-el pweeg), who played all but one of his seven MLB seasons (2013-2019) with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Yasiel, an outfielder, had an impressive rookie season. (In June, his very first month in the Majors, he won two National League awards: Rookie of the Month and Player of the Month.) The following year, he was a starter in the 2014 All-Star Game.

The usage of his name rose again in 2017 and 2018, corresponding to the two years Yasiel made it all the way to the World Series with the Dodgers. (They lost to the Houston Astros and the Boston Red Sox, respectively.)

What are your thoughts on the name Yasiel?

P.S. Another Cuban ballplayer with a Y-name, Yoenis Céspedes, had a (small) influence on baby names around the same time…

Sources: Yasiel Puig – Wikipedia, SSA

Image: Adaped from Yasiel Puig during game against Yankees 9-13-16 (5) by Arturo Pardavila III under CC BY 2.0.