# Elvis as a first name **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 29, 2013, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elvis-as-a-first-name/672556 "2013-10-29T15:38:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2013, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elvis-as-a-first-name/672556/41 "2013-11-01T00:29:59Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > A more recent example is Madison. It’s now a well-known name (it was the second most popular name for baby girls in the US in 2001). But it was virtually unknown as recently as thirty years ago. > > Then the movie _Splash_ was released. Daryl Hannah’s character was a mermaid who became human and needed a name. She saw a sign for Madison Avenue and named herself from that. Tom Hanks had a line in the movie about how Madison isn’t a name, which sounds archaic now. Two of my high school classmates married shortly after our 1981 graduation, and several years later, they had a daughter named Madison. Huge mismatch, and they eventually divorced, but that was the first time I heard of a girl with that name. I bet she gets asked all the time if she’s Madison’s mother. I also know a woman in her 80s named Jennifer, and she’s been asked that same question for the past 40 or so years. One of the “Five Sullivan Brothers”, the five brothers who were on the same ship and died after it was torpedoed during WW II, was named Madison. I could totally see kids learning about it, and all of them saying, “One of them had a girl’s name!” :smack: I find it interesting that some of the really old-fashioned names are coming back, especially for girls. Several movie stars named their daughters Lola or Ava, and there’s the singer for Florence + The Machine, so I can see where those names came from. Dorothy, Evelyn, and Betty seem to be making comebacks too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elvis-as-a-first-name/672556.md?page=2)