It's time for another dip into the pool of one-hit wonders, names that ranked among the 1000 most popular in the United States for exactly one year, never to appear again.
But first, a quick note. After a recent installment of this one-hit series, a reader pointed me to another set of one-hit names on the website "Nancy's Baby Names." Who'd have guessed anybody else had been obsessive enough to run that data? (A tip of the cap to Nancy, the calculations are a royal pain!) Since different writers bring different angles to any story, I'm going to continue offering my take on this odd and intriguing set of names.
In a previous post I rounded up names based on familiar surnames, and some peaks and valleys of fashion potential. Today's focus is "meaning names" which take their impact from associations in the wide world outside of name dictionaries.
The one-hit wonder list includes dozens of common English words, as well as names of places and cultures. Meaning and place names are hot today, too, so some of the older one-hits seem to foreshadow contemporary trends. Take Indian tribal names, a hot trend of the 1990s when Dakota was a top-100 name for boys and Cheyenne a top-100 girl's name. Flash back 50 years and you discover that Cheyenne hit the boys' charts in 1957, when gunslinger Cheyenne Bodie roamed America's tv sets. ("Navajo" also pops up as a one-hit name from 1891. Judging from census records, that probably reflected actual Navajo Indians recorded with names like "Navajo Pete.")
Other meaning names highlight differences between past and present. For better or worse, we're no longer likely to name our sons Welcome, Jolly or Friend. A selection of one-hit meaning names (sex in parentheses):
The Happy
Bliss (M)
Constant (M)
Friend (M)
Jolly (M)
Lucky (M)
Welcome (M)
The Exalted
Fount (M)
Haven (M)
Omega (F)
Temple (F)
Worthy (M)
The Winners
Fleet (M)
Profit (M)
Speed (M)
Victory (F)
Wealthy (F)
The Ruling Class
Council (M)
Gentry (M)
Governer (M)
The Atlas
Alabama (F)
Ceylon (M)
Maryland (M)
North (M)
Vienna (F)
The Great Outdoors
Grove (M)
Maple (F)
Sable (F)
Swan (M)
Wing (M)
The Spice Rack
Cinnamon (F)
Pepper (F)
Spicy (F)
...and in the spirit of Cheyenne Bodie, some one-hit names of the cowpoke genre:
Boone
Branch
Bunk
Hosey
Kid
Link
Red
Ruff
Comments
My mother named me Emily in 1976, and she didn't graduate from college. She is, however, extremely clever.
Post new comment