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[Opinions] Looking for Names That Were Popular in 1950s Georgia (U.S.)
by bluesmoral
4/15/2025, 6:14 PM
Hi all,I am looking for names that were popular in the 1950s for a black woman who was born in Georgia. I know the Social Security Administration has lists of popular names based on states, but it doesn't go back far enough. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

This message was edited 4/15/2025, 6:53 PM

Replies

- NelleR   +1
4/16/2025, 9:33 AM
I found two yearbooks online from a Black high school in a state bordering Georgia. The 258 students were born in the early 1950s.16 Linda
10 Mary
9 Patricia
7 Annie, Carolyn, Dorothy, Brenda
6 Christine, Joyce
5 Evelyn, Gloria, Betty
4 Margaret, Cynthia, Gwendolyn, ShirleyThese 16 names add up to 106, about 40% of the total names.I noticed a couple of trends.
Feminine forms of masculine names
3 Willie, one each of Bobbydyne, Bernadette, Cecile, Geraldine, Georgialene, Jimmie, Jessie, Johnsie, LaMaurice, Paula, Patricia, Paulette, Ernestine
The ending sounding like "een"
Bobbydyne, Christine, Darlene, Ernestine, Geraldine, Georgialene,Hazelene, Jordean, Magdelene, Maxine, Nathalene, Sherelene, RaceneSome interesting ones
Aurelya, Channie, Hopella, Mellimae, Marva, Rozena, Theriata, Lysaundria

This message was edited 4/16/2025, 2:44 PM

- Manipura (glaucous)
4/16/2025, 2:34 PM
I like Hopella, Theriata, and Mellimae.Hopella + Marva reminds me I have met a (black, Southern) Marvella about this age.

This message was edited 4/16/2025, 5:52 PM

- clevelandkentevans   +1
4/16/2025, 8:42 AM
The British name expert Leslie Dunkling has a chapter on Black American names in his book "First Names First". In it he includes a list of the top 20 names of students at all-Black universities or colleges in the USA in 1975, which would for the most part be names of persons born between 1953 and 1957. His list of the top women's names is:Deborah
Sandra
Patricia
Beverly
Cynthia
Barbara
Mary
Denise
Jacqueline
Catherine
Betty
Janice
Carolyn
Linda
Marsha
Gail
Joyce
Brenda
Gwendolyn
Constance
Karen
MarilynNow, you must remember that since the above are the names of college students they are the names favored by middle class or educated Black parents in the 1950s and not necessarily identical to a list that would include names given by less educated parents. However, it is true, as others have stated, that back in the 1950s the names of Blacks and Whites in general were more similar in the USA than they were after the 1960s.The one name in the above list which is probably the most different from the population as a whole in its popularity was Gwendolyn. Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1950, making her the first African-American to win a Pulitzer Prize, which made her incredibly well-known by educated Black parents in the USA, and inspired many of them to name their daughters Gwendolyn or Gwen, which then became much more popular names for Blacks than Whites in the US for a few decades. This is sort of ironic given the etymology of Gwendolyn.
- New_Chloë (New_Chloe)
4/16/2025, 11:25 AM
That is so interesting regarding the popularity of Gwendolyn and Gwen among Black parents!
- RoxStar   +1
4/15/2025, 7:06 PM
The earliest state lists are from 1960, so the names that were popular in the fifties wouldn't be much different from those. The SSA doesn't have separate lists based on ethnicity, but again, back then there wasn't a huge difference. So-called "black names" didn't really get to be a thing till the seventies, near as I can tell, so I wouldn't expect to see an Ebony or a Shaniqua or an Imani from the 1950s. I'd expect ames like Mary, Deborah, Sandra, Linda, Gloria, Charlene, Patricia, Wanda, Yolanda, Anita and Jacqueline/Jackie.
- Manipura (glaucous)
4/16/2025, 12:37 AM
Ivory and *monia names like Edmonia seem like pre-1970s "black names" to me. I don't have actual data on them (just going by people I have met, those are patterns that came to mind), but I'm pretty sure it's a category that exists. I guess it'd include Creole names and Gullah naming patterns. And supposedly the name Bailey was used by African Americans in the 1800s based on Belali (one example being Frederick Douglass who changed his name).But yeah, I'd think they weren't as common in the early/mid 1900s as before or after.

This message was edited 4/16/2025, 1:29 AM

- NelleR   +1
4/15/2025, 6:42 PM
Is this for creative writing? People born in 1950s or grown women in 1950s?
- bluesmoral
4/15/2025, 6:52 PM
Yes, creative writing. People born in the 1950s, I should probably edit that into my post.