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ArchivesSouth Africa too!
in reply to a message by Lumia
I have taught a South African Chinese girl whose given names were Nikita Bonnie. Also a white South African girl, at another school. I suspect that the -a ending makes people think it's feminine, as you say, and it's also a welcome change from all the Nicole little girls without moving too far away from Nicole/Nicola. I rather suspect also that the Elton John song might mislead people into thinking he was singing to a woman rather than a man ... that would amuse him, I think!
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I was in school with a Nikita and she was born before the Elton John song came out. I wonder did her parents call her after Khrushkhev.
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I've known at least one female Nikita in the US too.
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Would it have been an immigrant name in the 19th century? Perhaps that would explain firstly its use and then, when the families had assimilated, its disuse. Only if there were enough Slavic immigrants to make an impression on the statistics, though!
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I think you misunderstood my saying "it's never been on the SSA list since 1880." 1880 is the very first year the SSA list starts. So we don't have that data before that year, and can't say anything about the use of Nikita in the USA before that date, one way or the other, from that data alone. So my statement does NOT imply that Nikita was among the top 1000 names for boys before 1880. :)
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