Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his December 28th column, he discusses the name “Marlon”.

Marlon brings in Omaha’s new year with laughs next weekend.

Marlon Wayans, first featured on older brother Keenen Ivory Wayans’ sketch comedy show, “In Living Color” (1992-1993), became a star with brother Shawn on “The Wayans Bros.” (1995-1999). He headlines at Omaha’s Funny Bone Comedy Club Jan. 2, 3 and 4.

Marlon began as a respelling of two different names. Marlin is a French and English surname derived from Merlin, name of King Arthur’s magician. Merlin’s a French version of Welsh Myrddin, itself from Celtic Moridunum, “sea fort.” Like many other family names, Marlin began to be used as a first name in the late 18th century.

Marlin peaked as a first name in the United States in 1935 at 276th. The most famous example was Marlin Perkins (1905-1986), zoologist host of “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom” (1963-1985).

In New England, New York and New Jersey, Marlon was also a respelling of Mahlon. A biblical name of uncertain meaning, Mahlon’s the name of Ruth’s first husband in the Old Testament book of Ruth.

Marlon was a respelling of Mahlon because in the 19th century most New Englanders had “non-rhotic” accents. Even today many Bostonians don’t pronounce “r” at the end of syllables, saying “pahk the cah” for “park the car.”

Two centuries ago, people across the Northeast pronounced “Marlon” and “Mahlon” identically. One example was Marlon Damon (1816-1903) of Goshen, Massachusetts. On his tombstone he’s “Marlon,” but his death certificate says “Mahlon.”

The most famous Marlon, Omaha-born film star Marlon Brando (1924-2004), was named after his father. Marlon Sr.’s father Eugene’s older brother was Marlon H. Brando (1843-1900). They were from Oswego County in upstate New York, so for the Brandos, Marlon may have come from Mahlon.

Eugene was 3 years old and Marlon H. 16 when their father, James, died in 1860, so Marlon was Eugene’s father figure. Marlon Brando Sr. named his first daughter Jocelyn after grandmother Nancy Jocelyn Brando’s maiden name. Jocelyn Brando (1919-2005) also had an acting career.

When Brando became a star playing Stanley Kowalski in “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1951), Marlon surged as a baby name. In 1955, Marlon ranked 344th and Marlin 428th.

The name then plateaued until 1970, when the Jackson Five became a musical sensation. Marlon Jackson’s fame exploded his name. 231 Marlons were born in 1969, and 1,029 in 1972, the year Wayans was born. Ever since, Marlon’s been especially popular with African-American parents.

Marlon dropped off quickly after 1972. Wayans’ career may have helped the name a bit. It plateaued at about 0.022% of births in the 1990s when he first became famous. There was even a slight uptick in 2006 when the film “Little Man,” where through the magic of special effects Wayans played a dwarf jewel thief pretending to be a baby, was a box office hit, despite being slammed by critics.

Marlon Lucky (born 1986) was a star running back for the Nebraska Cornhuskers from 2005 to 2009. Second baseman Anderson (1974) and outfielder Byrd (1977) are Marlons with baseball fame.

Jamaican-born novelist Marlon James (1970) won the Man Booker Prize in 2015 for “A Brief History of Seven Killings.”

Since 2006 Marlon’s steadily fallen as a baby name, leaving the top thousand in 2024. Despite that, Brando, Jackson and Wayans’ fame will keep Marlon well known for decades to come.

Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his December 14th column, he discusses the name “Ebenezer”.

Ebenezer learns to love Christmas in Omaha for another week.

“A Christmas Carol,” based on Charles Dickens’ 1843 novella where skinflint, Christmas-hating Ebenezer Scrooge transforms into a generous Christmas-lover after visits from four ghosts, concludes its 50th anniversary run at Omaha Community Playhouse on Dec. 21.

In the Old Testament, prophet Samuel sets up a stone after Israel’s victory over Philistines near Mizpah. He calls the monument Ebenezer, “stone of help,” commemorating the aid God gave the Israelites.

When Protestant parents began searching the Bible for names after the Reformation, boys named Ebenezer appeared. Though it was unusual for a biblical place name to be given to children, Ebenezer’s meaning commended it to Puritan parents hoping God would help them in battles with Anglicans and Catholics.

In 1851, the British Census found 5,273 Ebenezers. The 1850 U.S. Census, when populations were about equal, found 10,602. The difference in short form Eben was even greater – 124 in Britain vs. 2,619 in America. Puritan descendants in New England were even fonder of Ebenezer than those in Old England.

Dickens probably chose Ebenezer because it was a stereotypical Puritan name. England’s Puritan-controlled Parliament had tried to suppress Christmas celebrations between 1644 and 1659. In 1843 readers would have expected parents who named a son Ebenezer to be skeptical of Christmas.

Interestingly, Dickens’ character seems to have stabilized Ebenezer in Britain while its decline accelerated in the United States. In 1901, there were 6,635 Ebenezers and Ebens in the United Kingdom, out of almost 37 million residents, while the 1900 United States census found 7,021 out of over 76 million.

American author O. Henry didn’t help when his 1907 story “The Ransom of Red Chief” featured Ebenezer Dorset, a rich man who refuses to ransom his young son from kidnappers and instead insists they pay him to take the overly active brat back.
Several homes originally owned by Ebenezers are tourist attractions, including the Ebenezer Avery house in Groton, Connecticut (where wounded soldiers were taken after the 1781 Battle of Groton Heights), and the 1859 Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion in Philadelphia, a gem of Victorian architecture.

Ebenezers who should be remembered include Ebenezer Bassett (1833-1908), the first African-American diplomat, ambassador to Haiti 1869-1877. Geologist Ebenezer Emmons (1799-1863) named New York’s Adirondack Mountains in 1838.

“Scrooge” was Dickens’ invention; there seem to be no real people with the surname. British researcher Ruth Richardson says there was a shop called “Goodge & Marney’s” in London’s Marylebone district when Dickens lived there in the early 1830’s, and he probably altered that to Scrooge and Marley for the miser’s and his ghostly business partner’s names. There was a grocer named William Goodge living in Marylebone in Britian’s 1841 census.Miserly cartoon character Scrooge McDuck was created by Carl Barks in 1947. Despite that, no examples of real people with Scrooge as a first name have been found.

Ebenezer hasn’t been among the top thousand names for American boys since 1885, and Eben hasn’t since 1896. They both had minor rises a decade ago, with Eben peaking at 100 births in 2012 and Ebenezer at 55 in 2017. They’ve receded since and remain quite rare. Most Ebenezers living in America today were born in West African nations like Ghana and Nigeria, far away from Scrooge’s Victorian London home.

Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his October 5th column, he discusses the name “Chester”.

 

Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his July 27th column, he discusses the name “Frank”.

Between the 11th and 14th centuries, Frank was common as a boys’ name in England. Like many medieval names, it then largely disappeared.

Frank came back as a nickname for Francis, English form of Italian Francesco, “a Frenchman,” when the fame of St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) spread his name across Europe.

It’s hard to tell exactly when Frank started being used separately from Francis again, but this started by 1800. Jane Austen’s 1815 novel “Emma,” featuring handsome genial wealthy Frank Churchill, helped spread the name.

The 1850 United States census, first listing all free residents by name, found 17,228 male Franks, along with 71,733 Francises and 37,257 Franklins. English surname Franklin (“freeman”) became an American given name in honor of founding father Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790).

A decade later the 1860 census found 88,681 Francises, 57,854 Franklins and 106,459 Franks. Some Franks were officially Francis or Franklin, though it’s difficult to know how many. Still, the over six-fold increase in Franks shows the name was skyrocketing in use.

In 1880, when Social Security’s yearly baby name lists begin, 2.738% of boys were named Frank, ranking it sixth. That was Frank’s peak. The percentage of boys named Frank has declined almost every year since — but it’s done so extremely slowly. Frank was among the top ten names until 1923, the top fifty until 1971 and the top hundred until 1989.