What gave the baby name Michelle a boost in 1966?

The Beatles' album "Rubber Soul" (1965)
Beatles album

The French name Michelle was already a top-20 girl name in the U.S. when it suddenly saw a massive increase in usage in the mid-1960s:

  • 1968: 33,222 baby girls named Michelle [rank: 2nd]
  • 1967: 30,826 baby girls named Michelle [rank: 3rd]
  • 1966: 27,158 baby girls named Michelle [rank: 4th]
  • 1965: 16,215 baby girls named Michelle [rank: 18th]
  • 1964: 16,182 baby girls named Michelle [rank: 23rd]

Michelle’s jump of nearly 11,000 baby girls from 1965 to 1966 easily qualifies as the steepest girl-name rise of the year. In fact, the jump currently ranks 10th on the list of top girl-name rises of all time.

So, what was drawing extra attention to the name Michelle in 1966?

“Michelle” by the Beatles. The love ballad — and the only Beatles song to feature French lyrics — was a track on the British band’s sixth studio album, Rubber Soul, which came out in December of 1965.

Here’s what “Michelle” sounds like:

“Michelle” was never released as a single in the U.S., so it never ranked on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart. Despite this, it was played frequently on the radio, and ended up winning the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in March of 1967.

The song started out as a French-sounding ditty that Paul McCartney would play at parties in Liverpool during the late 1950s (when Left Bank bohemian culture was trendy in England). In the mid-1960s, at the suggestion of John Lennon, Paul developed the ditty into a proper song. He wrote the lyrics around the French feminine name Michelle, and came up with the rhyming phrase ma belle (“my beauty”) and the lyrics sont les mots qui vont très bien ensemble (“are the words that go very well together”) with some help from a French-speaking friend.

Thanks largely to the song, the name Michelle was one of the top five girl names in the nation from 1966 to 1974. Though it ranked second a total of four times, it never managed to take the top spot. (It was denied by Lisa during the late 1960s, then Jennifer during the early 1970s.)

What are your thoughts on the name Michelle? (Do you know anyone named after the song “Michelle”?)

P.S. Coincidentally, Paul McCartney was married for nearly three decades to Linda Eastman, whose first name inspired the 1946 song “Linda,” which turned Linda into the fastest-rising girl name of all time from 1946 to 1947.

Sources: Michelle (song) – Wikipedia, Michelle – The Beatles Bible, SSA

What gave the baby name Gilda a boost in the mid-1940s?

The title character from the movie "Gilda" (1946)
Gilda from “Gilda“

The baby name Gilda achieved its highest ranking in 1927, thanks to shimmying Gilda Gray. But it didn’t reach peak numerical usage until two decades later:

  • 1948: 281 baby girls named Gilda [rank: 479th]
  • 1947: 346 baby girls named Gilda [rank: 441st]
  • 1946: 305 baby girls named Gilda [rank: 442nd]
  • 1945: 68 baby girls named Gilda [rank: 920th]
  • 1944: 61 baby girls named Gilda [rank: 994th]

Why did the usage of Gilda more than quadruple in 1946 (which, admittedly, was the first year of the baby boom)?

Because of the hit movie Gilda, which was released in April of that year.

The movie was a “dark and twisted love story” set in Buenos Aires. It involved gambler Johnny Farrell (played by Glenn Ford), who worked for casino owner Ballin Mundson (played by George Macready), whose new wife just so happened to be Johnny’s ex-lover Gilda (played by Rita Hayworth).

A classic of film noir, Gilda featured Hayworth as the quintessential “noir woman,” a duplicitous temptress and an abused victim in equal measure.

Hayworth’s portrayal of the the seductive Gilda turned the actress “into one of the cinema’s most unforgettable and enduring sex goddesses.”

Several months after the release of Gilda, the world’s fourth atomic bomb detonation (the first during peacetime) occurred above Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Servicemen had nicknamed the bomb Gilda — a nod to Hayworth’s status as a bombshell — and stenciled “Gilda” on the side of the explosive. They even affixed an image of Rita Hayworth (cut out of Esquire magazine) below the stenciled name.

This spontaneous tribute earned Miss Hayworth nearly as much international publicity as the fearsome “Gilda” got for itself by exploding on schedule. To Miss Hayworth’s studio it amounted to the most literally earth-shaking free plug in the history of the world.

Which name do you like more, Gilda or Rita?

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of Gilda

What gave the baby name Keysi a boost in 2018?

Keysi Sayago, top 5 at Miss Universe 2017
Keysi Sayago

The rare name Keysi saw peak usage in 2018, according to the U.S. baby name data:

  • 2020: 17 baby girls named Keysi
  • 2019: 10 baby girls named Keysi
  • 2018: 29 baby girls named Keysi
  • 2017: 5 baby girls named Keysi
  • 2016: 18 baby girls named Keysi

Why?

Because of Venezuelan beauty queen Keysi (pronounced kay-see) Sayago.

She placed in the top 5 at Miss Universe 2017, which was held in Las Vegas, Nevada, in November of that year.

The Miss Universe pageant doesn’t include a talent competition, but it does feature a national costume competition. Keysi’s costume consisted of a metallic silver jumpsuit with metallic wings in the colors of Venezuela’s flag (yellow, blue, and red).

What are your thoughts on the name Keysi?

Sources: Keysi Sayago – Wikipedia, Miss Universe 2017 – Wikipedia, SSA

Image: Screenshot of the TV broadcast of the 66th Miss Universe pageant

What brought the baby name Dearra back in 2017?

YouTube creator De'arra Taylor
De’arra Taylor

After an absence of more than a decade, the name Dearra re-emerged in the U.S. baby name data in 2017:

  • 2019: 37 baby girls named Dearra
  • 2018: 40 baby girls named Dearra
  • 2017: 40 baby girls named Dearra
  • 2016: unlisted
  • 2015: unlisted

What was influencing this name in the late 2010s?

Influencer De’arra (pronounced dee-AYR-uh) Taylor, who made YouTube videos with her boyfriend Ken Walker.

The Atlanta-based couple began both dating and posting photos to Instagram in mid-2014. Their content quickly found an audience, and “[w]hen they hit 600,000 Instagram followers, someone told them to get a YouTube account.”

They launched their primary YouTube channel, De’arra & Ken 4 Life (“DK4L”), in December of 2014.

In August of 2016 — when their channel had 1.3 million subscribers — they posted a video in which they attempted to put on 100 layers of clothing. (They made it to 50 before giving up.) Articles about the video ran in media outlets like Today, US Weekly, and Teen Vogue.

The following year, De’arra and Ken were profiled in New York Magazine in August (when they had 3.6 million subscribers) and appeared in the Tyler Perry movie Boo 2! A Madea Halloween, which was released in October (when they had 3.8 million subscribers).

In September of 2019 — when their channel had 5.7 million subscribers — they posted a video of Ken proposing to De’arra while the couple was vacationing on the Greek island of Santorini. A detailed description of the video was published by Essence a day later.

But in August of 2021, the pair announced — to their 6.17 million subscribers — that they were separating and would stop making videos together. News of their breakup was covered by outlets like Bossip and BET. (I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the baby name De’arra saw its highest-ever usage this particular year.)

What are your thoughts on the name De’arra?

P.S. The girl name that re-emerged most impressively in the data in 2017 was Brennley.

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of a DK4L YouTube video