What popularized the baby name Janelle in the late 1970s?

Janelle Commissiong, Miss Universe 1977
Janelle Commissiong

According to the U.S. baby name data, the name Janelle saw a relatively steep rise in usage beginning in 1977 and continuing through 1978. In 1979, the name reached its highest-ever usage (in terms of number of babies):

  • 1980: 1,396 baby girls named Janelle [rank: 194th]
  • 1979: 1,415 baby girls named Janelle [rank: 186th]
  • 1978: 1,384 baby girls named Janelle [rank: 186th]
  • 1977: 1,069 baby girls named Janelle [rank: 232nd]
  • 1976: 760 baby girls named Janelle [rank: 302nd]
  • 1975: 733 baby girls named Janelle [rank: 311th]

What kicked off the rise?

Trinidadian beauty queen Janelle Commissiong, who was crowned Miss Universe in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in July of 1977.

Notably, she was the first Black woman to win the title of Miss Universe. She was also the first Black woman to be voted Miss Photogenic (by the press photographers covering the event).

Janelle Commissiong on the cover of "Jet" magazine (Sept. 1, 1977)
Janelle Commissiong on the cover of “Jet“

Several months after the pageant, Janelle was featured on the cover of Jet magazine. In her interview with Jet, Janelle joked about the fact that Miss Universe does not include a talent competition:

“If there was (the talent segment) I really can’t think of anything that I do to entertain people that I could go on a show and do. If talent was involved I really don’t know if I would have entered,” she said with a chuckle.

Miss Universe pageant does, however, feature a national costume competition. Janelle’s costume — a loose gown of iridescent silk and a pair of massive, shimmering wings — was inspired by the hummingbird, a symbol of the island of Trinidad.

In another interview, Janelle mentioned the origin of her first name: “My mother found my name, Janelle, in a book.”

What are your thoughts on the name Janelle?

P.S. In 2017, a street in Port of Spain (the capital of Trinidad and Tobago) was renamed Queen Janelle Commissiong Street.

Sources:

Images: Screenshot of the TV broadcast of the 26th Miss Universe pageant; clipping from the cover of Jet magazine (1 Sept. 1977).

What popularized the baby name Brandy in the early 1970s?

Looking Glass single "Brandy" (1972)
Looking Glass single

The baby name Brandy — which comes from the name of the alcoholic beverage — first appeared in the U.S. data as a girl name during the WWII era.

Over the next few decades, usage of the name slowly increased with some help from pop culture. The films Two of a Kind (1951), Destry (1954), and Hatari! (1962) all featured female characters named Brandy, and several early TV shows (such as The Untouchables, The Defenders, and Tales of Wells Fargo) likewise included minor female characters with the name.

Then, in the early 1970s, the usage of Brandy suddenly tripled:

  • 1974: 3,831 baby girls named Brandy [rank: 80th]
  • 1973: 3,714 baby girls named Brandy [rank: 82nd]
  • 1972: 2,082 baby girls named Brandy [rank: 140th]
  • 1971: 704 baby girls named Brandy [rank: 353rd]
  • 1970: 610 baby girls named Brandy [rank: 385th]

Other spellings (such as Brandi, Brandie, Brandee, Brande, and Brandye) also got a boost.

Why?

Because of the soft-rock song “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” [vid] by the New Jersey band Looking Glass.

It was released as a single in May of 1972 and reached the #1 spot on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in late August.

The song was about a female bartender named Brandy who, though she served many of the sailors passing through her harbor town, pined for a particular one (who’d left her to return to the sea).

Band member Elliot Lurie wrote the song. How did he choose Brandy’s name?

The name was derived from a high school girlfriend I had whose name was Randy with an “R.” Usually when I write […] I strum some guitar and kind of sing along with the first things that come to mind. Her name came up. Then I started writing the rest of the song, and it was about a barmaid. I thought Randy was an unusual name for a girl, it could go either way, and (the song was about) a barmaid, so I changed it to Brandy.

Thanks to the song, the name Brandy entered the girls’ top 100 in 1973.

But that’s not the end of the story. Later the same decade, the name got another boost from another song:

  • 1980: 6,410 baby girls named Brandy [rank: 42nd]
  • 1979: 6,775 baby girls named Brandy [rank: 39th]
  • 1978: 6,699 baby girls named Brandy [rank: 37th] (peak ranking)
  • 1977: 5,477 baby girls named Brandy [rank: 51st]
  • 1976: 5,232 baby girls named Brandy [rank: 55th]

This time it was the R&B song “Brandy” [vid] by the vocal group The O’Jays.

It was released as a single in July of 1978 and went on to peak at #79 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart in October.

The song was about a dog named Brandy that had run away from home, believe it or not. An advertisement for the song in Billboard magazine offered the following visual:

Detail of an advertisement for the song "Brandy" from Billboard magazine (Aug. 1978)
“Brandy” advertisement

Future R&B singer Brandy Norwood, who was born in early 1979, might have been named with the O’Jays tune in mind.

So, how did the liquor come to be known as “brandy” in the first place? The word derives from the Dutch term brandewijn, meaning “burnt wine” (as brandy is created from wine that has been distilled via heat). It’s possible that Brandy’s emergence as a baby name in the mid-20th century was inspired by the trendiness of Sherry (which, in turn, was likely influenced by the rise of Cheryl).

What are your thoughts on the name Brandy?

Sources:

Second image: Clipping from Billboard magazine (5 Aug. 1978)

Where did the baby name Amerie come from in 2002?

Amerie's album "All I Have" (2002)
Amerie album

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

  • 2006: 110 baby girls named Amerie
  • 2005: 162 baby girls named Amerie
  • 2004: 67 baby girls named Amerie
  • 2003: 111 baby girls named Amerie
  • 2002: 51 baby girls named Amerie [debut]
  • 2001: unlisted
  • 2000: unlisted

It was one of the highest-debuting names of the year, in fact.

Where did it come from?

Mononymous R&B singer Amerie (pronounced AY-mer-ee), born Amerie Rogers in 1980 to a Korean mother and an African-American father.

Her first solo single, “Why Don’t We Fall in Love” (2002), peaked at #23 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart that August.

Here’s the music video for “Why Don’t We Fall in Love”:

Three years later, her memorable single “1 Thing” [vid] became a top-ten hit. The song was also featured on the soundtrack of the Will Smith movie Hitch, nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, and “paved the way for the decade of pop that followed,” according to Rolling Stone.

The success of “1 Thing” accounts for the rise in usage of the name Amerie from 2004 to 2005.

In 2010, Amerie changed the spelling of her name to “Ameriie.” Why? Here’s how she explained it (in early 2015):

It was just something that I did for me, personally. People thought it was just my new stage name, but I legally added the extra “i.” Just cause I wanted to.

Since then, she seems to have reverted to the original spelling — at least publicly. (I’m not sure about legally.)

What are your thoughts on the name Amerie?

Sources:

Babies named for Fletcher’s Castoria

Fletcher's Castoria newspaper advertisement (Jun. 1915)
Castoria newspaper ad (1915)

In yesterday’s post about the name Castara I mentioned a medicine called Castoria, which was a senna-based laxative made for children.

Castoria was developed in the mid-19th century by Massachusetts doctor Samuel Pitcher, who patented the medicine in 1868 and sold it as “Pitcher’s Castoria.” Three years later, the formula was purchased by the Centaur Company (headed by Charles H. Fletcher) and renamed “Fletcher’s Castoria.”

Advertising was the key to Castoria’s success. The Centaur Company “became a pioneer in mass marketing […] distributing millions of printed trade cards, running long-standing advertisements in newspapers and magazines, and painting the sides of hundreds of buildings.” (Case in point: You can see a massive Fletcher’s Castoria ad on the side of a building during the opening seconds of this clip of a train ride on the Brooklyn Bridge, recorded in 1899 by none other than Thomas Edison.) Castoria’s ubiquitous advertisements were so effective that the medicine continued to sell well for many decades — long after its patent had expired in 1885.

Fletcher's Castoria newspaper advertisement (Dec. 1923)
Castoria newspaper ad (1923)

So, was Castoria ever used as a human name?

Yes! In fact, Castoria popped up in the U.S. baby name data for the first and only time in 1919:

  • 1921: unlisted
  • 1920: unlisted
  • 1919: 5 baby girls named Castoria [debut]
  • 1918: unlisted
  • 1917: unlisted

But the SSA’s data doesn’t give a full picture of the name’s actual usage.

Records reveal that hundreds of U.S. babies were named Castoria, and that the majority of these babies were born after the medicine was put on the market. Some examples…

So, how did the medicine come to be called Castoria?

The inventor (Dr. Pitcher) named it after castor oil, a well-known laxative. (Marketing copy from the mid-1870s states, “Castoria is more than a substitute for Castor Oil.”) Castor oil, in turn, was likely named after an older medicine, castoreum — an oily fluid produced by beavers. And castoreum’s name is simply based on castor, the Latin word for “beaver.”

Interestingly, Fletcher’s Castoria remains on the market to this day, though it’s now called “Fletcher’s Laxative.”

P.S. Some of the earliest Castoria ads were rhymed verse that invariably paired “Castoria” with the name “Victoria.” One poem, for instance, included the lines: “The darling girls all named Victoria / And with the boys, they have Castoria.”

P.P.S. Speaking of babies named for laxatives, here’s Laxative Bromo Quinine Crim…

Sources:

Images: Clipping from the Holly Chieftain (18 Jun. 1915); clipping from the Chicago Tribune (16 Dec. 1923)