What revived the baby name Rita in the early 1940s?

Actress Rita Hayworth in the movie "Only Angels Have Wings" (1939)
Rita Hayworth in “Only Angels Have Wings“

The baby name Rita became a top-100 girl name in the U.S. in the mid-1910s.

Rita remained popular during the 1920s, but usage declined in the 1930s. The name probably would have slipped out of the top 100 if usage hadn’t started increasing again in 1940:

  • 1942: 4,706 baby girls named Rita [rank: 55th]
  • 1941: 3,879 baby girls named Rita [rank: 63rd]
  • 1940: 3,442 baby girls named Rita [rank: 70th]
  • 1939: 3,188 baby girls named Rita [rank: 78th]
  • 1938: 3,357 baby girls named Rita [rank: 74th]

Here’s a visual:

Graph of the usage of the baby name Rita in the U.S. since 1880
Usage of the baby name Rita

What revived expectant parents’ interest in the baby name Rita around 1940?

My guess is glamorous film star Rita Hayworth.

Hayworth, whose birth name was Margarita Carmen Cansino, was born into a family of dancers (the “Dancing Cansinos”) and performed professionally as a child.

She began acting in films in the mid-1930s, and found fame upon the success of Only Angels Have Wings (1939) — the first movie in which she played a prominent role (“as an unfaithful wife who tries to seduce Cary Grant”).

She went on to portray femmes fatale in melodramas like The Lady in Question (1940), Blood and Sand (1941), and The Strawberry Blonde (1941), and she exhibited her dancing skills in musicals like You’ll Never Get Rich (1941), You Were Never Lovelier (1942), and Cover Girl (1944).

Rita Hayworth in Life magazine (Aug. 1941)
Rita Hayworth in Life magazine

In August of 1941 — four months before the attack on Pearl Harbor — Life magazine published a photo of Hayworth wearing a “black-and-white nightgown,” kneeling “on her own bed in her own home.” That photo went on to become one of the most popular pin-up images of World War II.

How do you feel about the name Rita? Would you use it as-is, or do you prefer it as a nickname for Margarita?

P.S. The name Rita reached its highest-ever ranking (42nd) in 1930, no doubt thanks to the musical comedy Rio Rita (1929), which starred actress Bebe Daniels.

Sources:

Images: Screenshot of Only Angels Have Wings; clipping from Life magazine (11 Aug. 1941)

What brought the baby name Aloma back in the early 1940s?

Movie poster for "Aloma of the South Seas" (1941)
“Aloma of the South Seas” poster

In 1941, the name Aloma re-emerged in the U.S. baby name data after a brief absence. It went on to achieve peak usage the very next year:

  • 1944: 40 baby girls named Aloma
  • 1943: 103 baby girls named Aloma [rank: 762nd]
  • 1942: 147 baby girls named Aloma [rank: 616th]
  • 1941: 47 baby girls named Aloma
  • 1940: unlisted
  • 1939: unlisted

It also managed to reach the girls’ top 1,000 twice.

What was drawing attention to the name Aloma around that time?

The movie Aloma of the South Seas, which was released in August of 1941.

The main character was Tanoa (played by Jon Hall), a young man from a tropical island in the Pacific Ocean. After spending many years abroad, Tanoa returned home upon the death of his father, the chief. Soon after, Tanoa fell in love with a fellow islander named Aloma (Dorothy Lamour). But Tanoa also had a villainous cousin named Revo (Philip Reed), who coveted both the lady and the throne…

Plot-wise, the movie didn’t have much in common with the 1926 silent film of the same name, which featured dancer Gilda Gray as Aloma. The original film was based on the Broadway play Aloma of the South Seas (1925) by LeRoy Clemens and John B. Hymer.

The 1941 version did, however, end with a spectacular volcanic eruption. It also earned a pair of Academy Award nominations (for cinematography and special effects). Oh, and one of the screenwriters happened to be former actress Seena Owen.

What are your thoughts on the baby name Aloma?

Sources: Aloma of the South Seas (1941 film) – Wikipedia, Aloma of the South Seas (1941) – TCM, SSA

Image: Movie poster for Aloma of the South Seas

What gave the baby name Gilda a boost in the 1920s?

Actress Gilda Gray as the character Aloma in the silent film "Aloma of the South Seas" (1926)
Gilda Gray in “Aloma of the South Seas“

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Gilda achieved peak popularity (in terms of ranking) in 1927:

  • 1929: 257 baby girls named Gilda [rank: 414th]
  • 1928: 291 baby girls named Gilda [rank: 393rd]
  • 1927: 321 baby girls named Gilda [rank: 381st]
  • 1926: 293 baby girls named Gilda [rank: 401st]
  • 1925: 200 baby girls named Gilda [rank: 497th]

What was drawing attention to the name around that time?

Actress Gilda Gray, who began her career as a vaudeville dancer in the late 1910s. She was famous for doing the shimmy — a shoulder-shaking dance move that was somewhat controversial at the time.

She went on to appear in several movies, the most successful of which was the 1926 silent film Aloma of the South Seas, in which she played the title character. Here’s how one newspaper advertisement described the picture:

A fiery romance of the tropics in which Gilda, as a native dancing girl, vies with a lovely woman of fashion for the love of a derelict young white man. Drama! Beauty! Thrills!

(The baby name Aloma saw higher usage in 1927 as well.)

Gilda Gray was born Marianna Michalska in Poland around the turn of the century. Her family immigrated to the U.S. when she was a child.

Her stage name was initially Mary Gray, but singer Sophie Tucker suggested that she change “Mary” to “Gilda” on account of her golden hair.

What are your thoughts on the name Gilda?

P.S. The word “shimmy” is of unknown origin, but one theory posits that it derives from the French word chemise.

Sources:

Image: Clipping from the book Aloma of the South Seas (1926)

Where did the baby name Jkwon come from in 2004?

J-Kwon's single "Tipsy" (2004)
J-Kwon single

Did you know that Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” — one of the most successful country songs of 2024 — borrows heavily from a 20-year-old rap song?

That song, “Tipsy” by J-Kwon, has been described by Rolling Stone as “a raucous rap ode to underage drinking.” It was released in January of 2004 (when J-Kwon was just 17) and peaked at #2 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in April.

The same year, the baby name Jkwon made its first appearance in the U.S. baby name data:

  • 2006: 27 baby boys named Jkwon
  • 2005: 30 baby boys named Jkwon
  • 2004: 100 baby boys named Jkwon [debut]
  • 2003: unlisted
  • 2002: unlisted

(These babies were likely named “J-Kwon,” but the SSA’s data excludes hyphens and ignores internal capitalization.)

Jkwon was the highest-debuting boy name of the year. In fact, it currently ranks 11th on the list of top boy-name debuts of all time. Other spellings (such as Jquan, Jakwon, Jaquan, Jaykwon, and Jayquan) also saw higher usage in 2004.

The name dropped back out of the data (i.e., below the five-baby threshold) before the end of the decade, though, because the rapper’s subsequent singles weren’t as successful as “Tipsy” [vid].

J-Kwon was born Jerrell Jones in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1986.

His stage name was initially J-Rell, but he changed it to J-Kwon in the year 2000.

The new name was inspired by the movie Jerry Maguire (1996), in which professional football player Rod Tidwell (played by Cuba Gooding, Jr.) used the invented word kwan — a French pronunciation of the English word “coin” — to refer to something more than money. (“You know, some dudes might have the coin, but they’ll never have the kwan.”) Rod explained the concept to his agent Jerry (played by Tom Cruise) by saying, “It means love, respect, community, and the dollars too — the entire package. The kwan.”

What are your thoughts on the name Jkwon?

P.S. Shaboozey was born Collins Obinna Chibueze to Nigerian immigrants living in Virginia in 1995. When he was a freshman in high school, his football coach misspelled his surname “Shaboozey.” The misspelling turned into a nickname, and the nickname became his stage name.

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