How did Isis get popular?
I have to ask. I myself was named after The Isis Papers : The Keys to the Colors, but that book was made in 1982. (And technically my Father didn’t even read it until 1998) Isis officially entered the charts in 1994, but what exactly influenced that?
There was nobody especially popular named such at the time, and it definitely wasn’t the terrorist group because even THAT wouldn’t be created until 5 years later in 1999. Was it just one of those names that just caught on? So yeah, that’s my question.
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"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves." - William Shakespeare
![cottage](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/bd/14/4b/bd144b870a99b4a454724ecd7b273f0f.jpg)
There was nobody especially popular named such at the time, and it definitely wasn’t the terrorist group because even THAT wouldn’t be created until 5 years later in 1999. Was it just one of those names that just caught on? So yeah, that’s my question.
_______________________________________________________
![cottage](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/bd/14/4b/bd144b870a99b4a454724ecd7b273f0f.jpg)
Replies
It could have been from this Saturday morning TV show, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072516/ .
I think it was partly because of the rise of neopaganism, along with third-wave feminism. Followers of these movements wanted to name their daughters a nontraditional name that paid tribute to a powerful goddess. It's the same reason that names like Lilith and Athena have become more popular in recent years.
Isis first entered the top 1000 in the USA in 1994, which was the same year the video game called Isis was introduced:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5603838/
Isis was also helped by the general fashion for names starting with vowels and its looking like a short form of Isabel or Isabella, especially to Hispanics who were already very fond of names like Damaris and Odalys and using -is or -ys as a diminutive to create new girl's names such as Janelys and Anairis.
And it probably also had some boost in the African-American community where naming a child after an Egyptian goddess was seen as supporting African heritage.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5603838/
Isis was also helped by the general fashion for names starting with vowels and its looking like a short form of Isabel or Isabella, especially to Hispanics who were already very fond of names like Damaris and Odalys and using -is or -ys as a diminutive to create new girl's names such as Janelys and Anairis.
And it probably also had some boost in the African-American community where naming a child after an Egyptian goddess was seen as supporting African heritage.
This message was edited 10/8/2021, 8:56 AM