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Help[Facts] My column on Lainey and Laney
Here is the link to today's column:
https://omaha.com/life-entertainment/local/cleveland-evans-laineys-cool-again-as-country-star-drives-names-new-popularity/article_0881cf04-9562-11ef-b129-e7367c12efc1.html
Once again I have a name which has a much longer history that I expected when I looked at the census records, at least in the "Laney" spelling. And the common explanation that Laney is just a pet form of Elaine is not correct, according to these records. As I state in the column, Elaine just does not seem to have existed as a name for real girls before "Idylls of the King", and yet there are hundreds of women listed as Laney in the 1850 census, before that poem was published. Helena, Helene, Delaney, and Magdalena all seem to have led to Laney before Elaine was in use.
https://omaha.com/life-entertainment/local/cleveland-evans-laineys-cool-again-as-country-star-drives-names-new-popularity/article_0881cf04-9562-11ef-b129-e7367c12efc1.html
Once again I have a name which has a much longer history that I expected when I looked at the census records, at least in the "Laney" spelling. And the common explanation that Laney is just a pet form of Elaine is not correct, according to these records. As I state in the column, Elaine just does not seem to have existed as a name for real girls before "Idylls of the King", and yet there are hundreds of women listed as Laney in the 1850 census, before that poem was published. Helena, Helene, Delaney, and Magdalena all seem to have led to Laney before Elaine was in use.
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Replies
Great column! I have never thought Delaney was older than Elaine, nor that Laney's usage was influenced by many fictional characters. Another fictional bearer who may have slightly boosted the name's popularity is Lainey Lewis, from the sitcom The Goldbergs.
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