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ArchivesMy column on Stacy
Here is the link to today's column:
https://omaha.com/life-entertainment/local/cleveland-evans-stacy-has-been-a-first-name-for-hundreds-of-years-peaking-for-us/article_4d18b6f8-1d73-11ef-a488-b341bb8c172b.html
It's interesting to me that just like Tammy a month ago, I found that Stacy has been used as a name for girls longer than I suspected, with there being enough of them in the 1850 U.S. census to call it "established" if rare.
For boys I was fascinated to be able to see the connection of Stacy as a boys' name with New Jersey and be able to link it to Mahlon and Robert Stacy, early Quaker settlers of West Jersey. I think that among the original 13 colonies New Jersey's history is among the least known outside its own home state.
And it is really unusual that I could not find examples of real or fictional women or girls named Stacy that could account for its sudden huge increase in use in the United States during the 1960s. Perhaps there is still some figure forgotten today who was the cause of this.
https://omaha.com/life-entertainment/local/cleveland-evans-stacy-has-been-a-first-name-for-hundreds-of-years-peaking-for-us/article_4d18b6f8-1d73-11ef-a488-b341bb8c172b.html
It's interesting to me that just like Tammy a month ago, I found that Stacy has been used as a name for girls longer than I suspected, with there being enough of them in the 1850 U.S. census to call it "established" if rare.
For boys I was fascinated to be able to see the connection of Stacy as a boys' name with New Jersey and be able to link it to Mahlon and Robert Stacy, early Quaker settlers of West Jersey. I think that among the original 13 colonies New Jersey's history is among the least known outside its own home state.
And it is really unusual that I could not find examples of real or fictional women or girls named Stacy that could account for its sudden huge increase in use in the United States during the 1960s. Perhaps there is still some figure forgotten today who was the cause of this.
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Replies
Yes, that precise point is made in the third to the last paragraph of my column. :)
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I think you have a typo for Stacy Harris's year of death, "(1918-1873)".
I've looked into Stacy and Tracy before too and both seem to have been used as much for girls as boys in the 1850s in the US. Stacy trending for girls in the 60s when all popular examples were men is probably explained by the perception that they are surnames as first names. Surname style names are perceived as unisex, so even if they are only used by one gender as first names, they can trend for the other gender if they are more common as a surname (See Tatum). This ignores their actual origin as nicknames or archaic forms of first names.
I've looked into Stacy and Tracy before too and both seem to have been used as much for girls as boys in the 1850s in the US. Stacy trending for girls in the 60s when all popular examples were men is probably explained by the perception that they are surnames as first names. Surname style names are perceived as unisex, so even if they are only used by one gender as first names, they can trend for the other gender if they are more common as a surname (See Tatum). This ignores their actual origin as nicknames or archaic forms of first names.
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