Mercedes

Mercedes has been around in America for a lot longer than we would have guessed. In fact the name predates the German auto here in America; actually it predates the invention of the automobile. We can find Mercedes on the U.S. female naming charts as far back as the government has been tracking name data (1880). The name was only used moderately back at the turn of the 20th century and as the decades progressed it started to slip in popularity. This is generally contrary to what we see with other names of Spanish origin since the Hispanic-American population is constantly on the rise. So it seemed that Mercedes was going out of style and Spanish-speaking parents were no longer showing her any “mercy”. Then things started to turn around abruptly in the late 1980s and early 90s when Mercedes started to ascend. This was probably owing to actress Mercedes Ruehl whose career was reaching its peak popularity around this time (Ruehl is part Cuban from a Catholic family). She apparently put her unusual name on the American radar for a few years; the name reached #164 on the charts in 1991 (which is a pretty respectable position all things being equal). Since 1992 however, Mercedes has gone backwards in popularity consistently every year and is now down to levels of pretty low usage. Most people think of the highfalutin German-made automobile when they hear this name. Ironically, Mercedes really has rather humble origins.