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I was surfing my cable TV this morning and on Turner Classic Movies they were showing "The Saint in New York", a 1938 film featuring Simon Templar, the famous British crimefighter character, dealing with gangsters in New York.

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I just happened to come into the movie when Templar had discovered who had kidnapped a girl from a wealthy family for ransom. He said to one of the leaders of the kidnappers: "Don't you think a girl with a name like Viola Throckmorton has enough problems without being kidnapped?"

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I immediately thought that with Violet now being so popular as a baby name that that joke doesn't work as well as it might have in 1938. But then I checked on the popularity of Viola in the USA the last few years. It seems to have plateaued at a level of about 25 to 40 births fewer than it needs to break into the top thousand names.

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So why do you all think Viola hasn't had a big comeback in the USA yet despite the great popularity of Violet and the fashion for girls' names ending in -a?

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Does the joke from the 1938 film still work for you? And if not, what first name would you pair with Throckmorton to make it work for you in 2021?