Q 01/05

Which girls' name barely existed until a mermaid took it from a New York street sign in the 1984 film Splash?

A) Brooklyn

B) Madison

C) Addison

D) Mackenzie

Answer · why

B) Madison

Madison was meant as a joke: the mermaid reads it off a Madison Avenue sign and is told it is not a real name, yet by the 2000s it ranked second among...

Q 02/05

Which girls' name reached No. 1 in the US in 1947, the year a song named for a lawyer's baby daughter charted?

A) Barbara

B) Sandra

C) Carol

D) Linda

Answer · why

D) Linda

Linda was the one-year-old daughter of songwriter Jack Lawrence's attorney, Lee Eastman, and she grew up to become Linda McCartney, wife of Beatle Pau...

Q 03/05

Which girls' name was No. 1 in the US for the 2010s, having also ranked third back in the 1880s?

A) Ella

B) Grace

C) Emma

D) Lily

Answer · why

C) Emma

Emma spent the years between out of fashion, missing the decade top 200 for the 1950s through the 1980s before climbing all the way back to the summit...

Q 04/05

Which girls' name took off in Britain thanks to the heroine of J. M. Barrie's 1904 play Peter Pan?

A) Wendy

B) Alice

C) Matilda

D) Heidi

Answer · why

A) Wendy

Wendy is said to come from 'fwendy-wendy', the nickname a friend's small daughter, Margaret Henley, gave Barrie because she could not pronounce 'frien...

Q 05/05

Which girls' name entered the US top 1,000 in 2001 after a rock singer chose it for his daughter?

A) Jaslene

B) Kaydence

C) Nevaeh

D) Brielle

Answer · why

C) Nevaeh

Nevaeh is 'heaven' in reverse, and it was almost unknown until Sonny Sandoval of the band P.O.D. gave it to his daughter in 2000.