Where did the baby name Syriana come from in 2005?

Movie poster for "Syriana" (2005)
“Syriana” poster

The name Syriana first appeared in the U.S. baby named data in 2005:

  • 2007 62 baby girls named Syriana
  • 2006 119 baby girls named Syriana [peak usage]
  • 2005 16 baby girls named Syriana [debut]
  • 2004: unlisted
  • 2003: unlisted

A year later, Syriana reach peak usage and the spellings Syrianna and Cyriana both debuted in the data.

What was inspiring parents to name their daughters Syriana in the mid-aughts?

The geopolitical thriller Syriana, which came out in theaters in November of 2005.

The movie’s complicated plot wove together numerous storylines and characters, “from the players brokering back-room deals in Washington to the men toiling in the oil fields of the Persian Gulf.” Film critic Roger Ebert described Syriana as being “about oil and money, America and China, traders and spies, the Gulf States and Texas, reform and revenge, bribery and betrayal.”

The ensemble cast included actors George Clooney (who played a veteran CIA officer) and Matt Damon (who played an energy analyst based in Switzerland).

How did the movie come to be named Syriana? Here’s how writer and director Stephen Gaghan explained it:

While ‘Syriana’ is a very real term used by Washington think-tanks to describe a hypothetical reshaping of the Middle East, as our title it is used more abstractly. ‘Syriana,’ the concept – the fallacious dream that you can successfully remake nation-states in your own image – is a mirage. Syriana is a fitting title for a film that could exist at any time and be about any set of circumstances that deal with man’s unchecked ambition, hubris, and the fantasy of empire.

What are your thoughts on Syriana as a baby name?

Sources:

Image: Movie poster for Syriana

Where did the baby name Trindon come from in 2008?

Football player Trindon Holliday
Trindon Holliday

The uncommon name Trindon first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 2008. It remained in the data for exactly one decade, then dropped back below the SSA’s 5-baby threshold.

  • 2010: 15 baby boys named Trindon
  • 2009: 10 baby boys named Trindon
  • 2008: 11 baby boys named Trindon [debut]
    • 5 born in Louisiana
  • 2007: unlisted
  • 2006: unlisted

What was influencing this name?

Diminutive football player Trindon Holliday, who was a wide receiver and kick returner in the NFL during the first half of the 2010s. At 5’5″, he was one of the shortest players in NFL history.

His name debuted in the data the year his college football team, the Louisiana State University Tigers, won the national championship.*

He was selected by the Houston Texans in the 2010 NFL draft, and played with the Texans until being claimed off waivers by the Denver Broncos in October of 2012.

Described as “tiny and speedy” by the Denver Post, Trindon played his two most successful professional seasons, 2012 and 2013, with the Broncos (and quarterback Peyton Manning). Correspondingly, the usage of his name peaked at 20 baby boys in both 2013 and 2014. Five of the babies named Trindon in 2013 were born in Colorado specifically.

What are your thoughts on the name Trindon?

*Among the various awards won by the LSU Tigers that season was the Grantland Rice Trophy…

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Trindon Holliday Broncos 2013 by Jeffrey Beall under CC BY-SA 3.0.

What gave the baby name Mercedes a boost in 1989?

The character Mercedes Lane from the movie "License to Drive" (1988)
Mercedes Lane from “License to Drive“

The name Mercedes, which has featured in the U.S. baby name data since the very beginning, saw a steep rise in usage during the late 1980s and early 1990s:

  • 1992: 1,729 baby girls named Mercedes [rank: 178th]
  • 1991: 1,798 baby girls named Mercedes [rank: 164th]
  • 1990: 1,654 baby girls named Mercedes [rank: 176th]
  • 1989: 1,219 baby girls named Mercedes [rank: 224th]
  • 1988: 609 baby girls named Mercedes [rank: 395th]
  • 1987: 427 baby girls named Mercedes [rank: 501st]
  • 1986: 385 baby girls named Mercedes [rank: 530th]

What triggered the increase?

I think the answer is a combination of two different things.

The initial influence was the Pebbles song “Mercedes Boy” [vid], in which the singer repeatedly asks, “Do you wanna ride in my Mercedes, boy?” The song was released as a single in March of 1988 and ranked #2 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart for two weeks in July.

Pebbles' single "Mercedes Boy" (1988)
Pebbles single

The second influence was a character from the teen comedy License to Drive, which came out in theaters in July of 1988. Mercedes Lane (played by Heather Graham) was the crush of main character Les Anderson (played by Corey Haim) — who wasn’t going to let the fact that he’d failed his driver’s exam stop him from taking Mercedes out on a date in his grandfather’s prized Cadillac.

The License to Drive soundtrack didn’t include “Mercedes Boy,” but viewers could hear more than a minute of the song during a scene in which Les was out driving with his father.

The name Mercedes means “mercies” in Spanish. It comes from Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, one of the many titles of the Virgin Mary.

The name came to be associated with cars in the first years of the 1900s. Austrian businessman Emil Jellinek ordered a racing car (built to his specifications) from German manufacturer Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in 1900, and he dubbed the car “Mercedes” in honor of his daughter Mercédès (b. 1889). The car became so successful that, in 1902, DMG began using “Mercedes” as the official trade name of its entire line of cars.

What are your thoughts on the name Mercedes?

Sources: Mercedes Boy – Wikipedia, Billboard Hot 100 for the week of 9 Jul. 1988, License to Drive – Wikipedia, Emil Jellinek – Wikipedia, SSA

Top image: Screenshot of License to Drive

What popularized the baby name Wanya in the 1990s?

Singer Wanyá Morris
Wanyá Morris

The name Wanya first appeared in the U.S. baby name data in 1992. It reached peak usage four years later:

  • 1997: 24 baby boys named Wanya
  • 1996: 95 baby boys named Wanya [peak]
  • 1995: 77 baby boys named Wanya
  • 1994: 10 baby boys named Wanya
  • 1993: 7 baby boys named Wanya
  • 1992: 7 baby boys named Wanya [debut]
  • 1991: unlisted
  • 1990: unlisted

Other spellings that popped up in the mid-1990s include Wanye, Wanyae, Wonya, Juanya, Juanye, and Juanyae.

So, what was influencing the name Wanya?

Singer Wanyá (pronounced wahn-yay) Morris, who was born in Philadelphia in 1973.

Wanyá is a founding member of the Philly-based vocal harmony group Boyz II Men — one of the most successful musical acts of the 1990s.

The group’s first two singles, “Motownphilly” and “It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday,” both became top-5 hits on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart during the latter months of 1991.

Among Boyz II Men’s other hits were…

  • “End Of The Road” (1992), which became the first song to rank #1 for 13 weeks straight,
  • “I’ll Make Love To You” (1994), which ranked #1 for 14 weeks straight, and,
  • with Mariah Carey, “One Sweet Day” (1995), which became the first song to rank #1 for 16 weeks straight.

Both “End of the Road” and “I’ll Make Love To You” also won Grammy Awards for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals (in 1993 and 1995, respectively).

Singer Wanyá Morris in the "Brokenhearted" music video
Wanyá Morris in the “Brokenhearted” video

Another song that would have drawn particular attention to Wanyá Morris’ first name in the mid-’90s was “Brokenhearted,” a duet with Brandy that peaked at #9 on the Hot 100 in October of 1995.

What are your thoughts on the name Wanya? (How would you spell it?)

P.S. Wanyá’s middle name is Jermaine…

Sources: Wanya Morris – Wikipedia, Boyz II Men – Wikipedia, Boyz II Men – Billboard, List of Billboard Hot 100 chart achievements and milestones – Wikipedia, SSA

Images: Screenshots of the music videos for “Water Runs Dry” and “Brokenhearted”