What popularized the baby name Elle in 2002?

The character Elle Woods from the movie "Legally Blonde" (2001)
Elle Woods from “Legally Blonde“

The baby name Elle, which had been rising slowly since the mid-1990s, more than doubled in usage in 2002:

  • 2004: 596 baby girls named Elle [rank: 494th]
  • 2003: 497 baby girls named Elle [rank: 556th]
  • 2002: 418 baby girls named Elle [rank: 612th]
  • 2001: 197 baby girls named Elle
  • 2000: 181 baby girls named Elle

What gave Elle a boost that year?

My guess is the bubbly main character of the movie Legally Blonde, which came out in July of 2001.

At the beginning of the film, Elle Woods (played by Reese Witherspoon) — a sorority girl obsessed with the color pink — got dumped by her blue-blooded boyfriend, Warner. (“Elle, If I’m going to be a senator, well, I need to marry a Jackie, not a Marilyn.”)

Elle decided to win Warner back by following him to Harvard Law School. She managed to gain admission, but struggled to fit in once she arrived. Eventually — thanks to her positivity and determination — Elle made friends, found success, and forgot all about Warner.

Legally Blonde was a surprise hit at the box office, and its main character proved so memorable that, twenty years later, the New York Times stated: “She remains an emblem for challenging stereotypes and embracing female empowerment in the face of misogyny.”

The movie was based on the 2001 novel of the same name by Amanda Brown, who attended Stanford Law School for two years in the mid-1990s. While there, she “spent her class time thumbing through Elle magazine and lampooning her classmates in letters home.” Those letters were the basis of Legally Blonde, the protagonist of which was named after the French fashion magazine. (The French pronoun elle means “she.”)

What are your thoughts on the name Elle?

P.S. The acceleration of the rise of Ella in 2002 may have been spurred by the movie as well.

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Image: Screenshot of Legally Blonde

What brought the baby name Devoe back in 1990?

American singer/rapper Ronnie DeVoe
Ronnie DeVoe of Bell Biv DeVoe

The rare name Devoe re-emerged in the U.S. baby name data in 1990:

  • 1992: unlisted
  • 1991: unlisted
  • 1990: 9 baby boys named Devoe
  • 1989: unlisted
  • 1988: unlisted

What brought it back that year?

The R&B/hip hop trio Bell Biv DeVoe, made up of Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, and Ronnie DeVoe — three former members of the ’80s boy band New Edition.

BBD’s two most successful singles, “Poison” and “Do Me,” both peaked at #3 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in 1990 (in June and September, respectively).

The group described its sound — and, in a sense, new jack swing itself — in the music video for “Poison”:

Our music is mentally hip-hop smoothed out on the R&B tip with a pop appeal to it.

The surname DeVoe has several possible derivations. In many cases, it can be traced back to the French surname DeVaux, which originally referred to someone from one of the various locations in France called Vaux, meaning “valleys.”

What are your thoughts on Devoe as a first name?

P.S. Michael Bivins went on to discover and manage both Boyz II Men (which included Wanyá Morris) and Another Bad Creation (whose biggest hit was “Iesha“).

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of the music video for “Poison”

How did Daryle Lamonica influence baby names?

Football player Daryle Lamonica (1941-2022)
Daryle Lamonica

California-born quarterback Daryle Lamonica played professional football for twelve seasons (1963-1975).

He spent seven of those seasons with the Oakland Raiders, leading the team to four consecutive division titles (from 1967 to 1970) and its first Super Bowl appearance (in January of 1968). He was also named the AFL’s Most Valuable Player twice, in 1967 and 1969. (The winner in 1968 was Joe Namath, incidentally.)

Lamonica ended up influencing both boy names and girl names during the late ’60s and early ’70s.

Usage of boy name Daryle (one of the various spellings of the top-100 name Darrell) increased in both 1968 and 1970, while usage of the girl name Lamonica more than tripled in 1968 and nearly doubled in 1971 (the year that Monica reached the girls’ top 50 for the first time).

Boys named DaryleGirls named Lamonica
197271 [rank: 960th]78
1971119 [rank: 749th]103†
1970142† [rank: 697th]56
196988 [rank: 824th]55
196895 [rank: 762nd]40
196762 [rank: 919th]12
196672 [rank: 854th]16
†Peak usage

The Italian surname Lamonica may have sounded particularly appealing to African-American parents, as adding prefixes like “La-” to traditional names was becoming fashionable among African-Americans during the latter years of the civil rights movement. (Perhaps L’Tanya Griffin helped kick off the trend in the late 1940s…?)

Speaking of Lamonica, one of the few baby boys to get the name was actor LaMonica Garrett, who was born in San Francisco in 1975. (He went on to name his own son Montana after San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana.)

What are your thoughts on the names Daryle and Lamonica? Which one would you be more likely to use?

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Image: Daryle Lamonica trading card

What gave the baby name Kathlyn a boost in 1914?

The character Kathlyn from the film serial "The Adventures of Kathlyn" (1913)
Kathlyn from “The Adventures of Kathlyn“

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Kathlyn saw a steep rise in usage in the mid-1910s:

  • 1916: 86 baby girls named Kathlyn [rank: 731st]
  • 1915: 108 baby girls named Kathlyn [rank: 633rd]
  • 1914: 101 baby girls named Kathlyn [rank: 559th]
  • 1913: 28 baby girls named Kathlyn
  • 1912: 12 baby girls named Kathlyn

Why?

Because of fictional character Kathlyn Hare, protagonist of the story The Adventures of Kathlyn. She was a young American woman who traveled to India to rescue her father, a wild animal collector.

William N. Selig, founder of the Chicago-based motion picture company Selig Polyscope, had commissioned novelist Harold MacGrath to write the tale.

It was serialized in print and on the big screen concurrently, from the very end of 1913 until June of 1914, thanks to an innovative collaboration between Selig Polyscope and the Chicago Tribune newspaper.

"The Adventures of Kathlyn" by Harold MacGrath
“The Adventures of Kathlyn“

In the newspapers — the Tribune as well as dozens of affiliated papers across the country — a new chapter of The Adventures of Kathlyn was released every week, on Sunday, for 26 weeks.* The chapters were illustrated with films stills and sketches.

In the movie theaters, 13 installments of The Adventures of Kathlyn were released in two-week increments. Notably, at the end of each installment, Kathlyn was left “in some dangerous predicament designed to lure the audience back to see how she would extricate herself.” Cliffhangers — utilized for the very first time (by American filmmakers) in The Adventures of Kathlyn — went on to become a defining feature of motion picture serials.

The film’s heroine was portrayed by, and named after, Selig player Kathlyn Williams (born Kathleen Mabel Williams in Montana in 1879). Its exotic animals (leopards, lions, and elephants, and more) came from William Selig’s extensive animal collection.

Kathlyn Williams Perfume advertisement
Kathlyn Williams Perfume advertisement

The partnership between the newspaper and the motion picture company proved very successful. “Chicago Tribune Sunday circulation jumped almost 80,000, while the motion picture theaters showing Kathlyn were packed.”

As a result, Kathlyn Williams’ name and likeness were used to promote a variety of products (including a perfume, a face powder, a shirtwaist, a waltz, a cocktail, a cigar, and a “watch charm for single men”) throughout 1914, continuing to draw attention to the name Kathlyn even after the synchronized serializations had ended.

What are your thoughts on the name Kathlyn?

*The 26 chapters of The Adventures of Kathlyn were finally published as a standalone book in June of 1914.

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Images Clippings from Photoplay Magazine (Apr. 1914), Chicago Sunday Tribune (31 May 1914), and Photoplay Magazine (Sept. 1914)