What gave the baby name Pauline a boost in 1915?

The character Pauline from the film serial "The Perils of Pauline" (1914)
Pauline from “The Perils of Pauline“

The rise of the baby name Pauline during the early decades of the 20th century accelerated in the mid-1910s. Pauline reached its highest-ever ranking in 1915, in fact:

  • 1917: 6,896 baby girls named Pauline [rank: 33rd]
  • 1916: 6,655 baby girls named Pauline [rank: 33rd]
  • 1915: 6,334 baby girls named Pauline [rank: 32nd]
  • 1914: 4,698 baby girls named Pauline [rank: 34th]
  • 1913: 3,636 baby girls named Pauline [rank: 35th]
  • 1912: 3,163 baby girls named Pauline [rank: 38th]

What was drawing attention to the name around that time?

Fictional character Pauline Marvin, protagonist of the story The Perils of Pauline, which was serialized in print and on film concurrently throughout most of 1914 (from March to December).

The co-serialization came about through a collaboration between newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst and motion picture company Pathé.

Hearst had commissioned Charles Goddard to write the story, in which the main character, a young heiress, set out to “have thrills, adventures, see people, [and] do daring things” before settling down with her sweetheart, Harry. Pauline’s escapades kept going awry, though, due to the scheming of a murderous man intent on stealing her fortune.

The serial’s twenty installments were released biweekly — every other Sunday in the newspapers, and every other Monday in the motion picture houses.

Notably, marketing for the serial included a weekly contest in which Hearst newspaper readers could win sizeable cash prizes for correctly guessing upcoming plot twists.

"The Perils of Pauline" advertisement (Mar. 1914)
“The Perils of Pauline” advertisement

The motion picture version of The Perils of Pauline quickly became the most famous of all movie serials. It didn’t utilize cliffhangers to the degree that The Adventures of Kathlyn did, but each episode featured exciting footage such as “the wrecking of a real aeroplane” (in episode 2), a ride in a sabotaged hot air balloon (episode 6), a car crash during a cross-country automobile race (episode 15), and an escape from a sunken submarine (episode 18).

The star of the picture was Missouri-born actress Pearl White, who performed most of her own stunts. The worldwide success of The Perils of Pauline turned White into one of the first international movie stars.

What are your thoughts on the name Pauline? (Do you like it more or less than Pearl?)

P.S. The Perils of Pauline was published as a standalone book in early 1915.

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Images: Screenshot of The Perils of Pauline (1914), clipping from the New York Times (14 Mar. 1914)

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“).

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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