Another possibility that could have also contributed: Jennifer O’Neill in 1971’s “Summer of '42”
Not to many Hortences out there. Precious few Engleberts. I have yet to meet a Ruprecht. Nor do I know many Wilhelminas.
What’s the matter with this crazy world, anyway?
I overheard someone at work yesterday calling for a little girl. Named Savannah. I assume it’s after the city, but I just felt so sorry for the poor thing.
No cite, but I heard a while back that post Jacqueline Kennedy, the popularity of every first lady’s name has taken a nose dive as soon as her husband took office, particularly the name ‘Hillary.’
What is that song? You mean, there’s another song to torment us Lindas with?
FWIW, I’ve met exactly one other Linda in my entire life.
You must not have been around children lately, or girls at least. The trend as of late is ‘old fashioned’ names. The girls in my daughter’s music class include:
Ruth
Anne
Olivia (2 of them. It’s a hot name now)
Emily
Sarah
Other names I have seen a lot as of late:
Sophia
Emma
Hannah
Abigail
As to the whole Wendy name thing, being a Wendy I’ve researched my name. The oldest use of it, that people can document, is that it was a nickname for Wendell.
Add Wendy to the list of names that were once masculine.
If you look at the top ten names for children in the past few years, it does seem that traditional names are making a comeback.
* Females (2003)
1. Emily
2. Emma
3. Madison
4. Hannah
5. Olivia
6. Abigail
7. Alexis
8. Ashley
9. Elizabeth
10. Samantha
True. My co-worker, however, recently named his son Cain.
And yeah, he has a brother, but he’s not Abel. Would that make him Unable?
No, but naming him Abel might have made him Unstable.
Linda, oh Linda,
Have you met Linda,
Linda the Tattooed Lady…
A colleague of my father’s named his sons Thor, Sigurd and Tyr.
Was Thor the firstborn? Unexpected set of triplets, perhaps? Seems a lot more recognizable to the masses than the other two.
I’m trying to find some factors like this on my own, but it’s not going too well. The name ‘Vincent’ goes down several spots after the release of Pulp Fiction, but I’ll assume it’s unrelated.
However, in 1994, ‘Forrest Gump’ came out, and the name appeared as the 226th most popular name. It was at 303 the previous year. 
Then clearer heads prevailed, or maybe someone somewhere got that ‘Forrest Gump’ was a comedy-- Forrest dropped all the way to 313.
I’ll look for more substantial name-movie links. 
Thanks!
I would have named my boy Savannah had he not been, well, a boy. I didn’t get it from the city, though. I picked it up reading Pat Conroy’s Prince of Tides (way better than the movie, BTW.) Savannah was a truly screwed up book character, but she did have a lovely Southern-belle name, IMO.
Haven’t met anybody named Saint Paul. Yet.
That’s “Lydia” the Tattoed Lady
But, speaking of Lindas, I remember reading that Jack Lawrence wrote the song “Linda” for the daughter of Lee Eastman (an entertainment lawyer) and Linda Eastman later grew up to be Linda McCartney. It was a Top 10 record twice in 1947 and was remade by Jan and Dean in 1963. (cite) This explains Exapno’s info:
That’s a joke, son. Try and catch some of these. I swear, that boy’s about as sharp as a bowling ball…
I’ll try to be less literal (tough seeing as how I’m an engineer :)) if you’d consider that if I’m named after an Elven princess, I’m probably not a boy…
Well, them elves can be kinda funny that way…
This was the reference that stuyguy made earlier, when he posted part of the lyrics.
I have my doubts, though. Linda was a very minor hit, as culture-changing hits go. There have been dozens of other songs with girls’ names in the titles that were far huger but never jumped the name 308 spots.
And Ethilrist, I thought you were serious too. I still do. 
How did this Thread get this longer without a mention of Chelsea? If it wasn’t for Joni Mitchell’s “Chelsea Morning,” even Ms. Clinton the daugher wouldn’t have the name.
I know someone who named her son “Savion” (after naming her daughter “Savannah”) after Savion Glover, whose mother made up the name.
1995 – Jack is number #112
1996 – #92
1997 – #77 ← 'Titanic’s release
1998 – #61
1999 – #54
So the movie furthered a trend that was already on its way.
And oddly enough, the name ‘Ryan’ leapt five spots forward to 12th after ‘Saving Private Ryan’ came out. Of course, Private Ryan’s first name is James-- which has been sliding out of the top 20 very slowly. 
I would have though Osment’s character in ‘The Sixth Sense’ would have helped out the name “Cole” a bit, but not more than a few slots, which is really negligible. In fact, it actually was part of a trend promoting the name ‘Haley’-- for girls. :o
Thanks.