In news that will make baby boomers feel old, Allison Mackenzie and Rosemary Woodhouse turn 80 today.
Actress Mia Farrow was born as Maria de Lourdes Villiers Farrow on Feb. 9, 1945. She became a star in 1964 as pretty bookish Allison on primetime soap "Peyton Place." In 1968, her fame was cemented by smash horror film "Rosemary's Baby," in which Rosemary's betrayed into becoming the mother of Satan's child. In 1974, she played Daisy Buchanan opposite Robert Redford in "The Great Gatsby."
Mia's originally a nickname, most often for Maria, but also from Amelia, Emilia or other names.
Before the 20th century, Mia was almost nonexistent as a name in its own right. Possibly the only example in the 1850 U.S. Census is Mia Webster (1833-1902) of Lapeer County, Michigan. She married Virgil Parmlee and later records, including her tombstone, spell her name "Mya."
That points out that Mia is often confused with Maya or Maia, which have other origins. In Britain, Princess Anne's granddaughter, Mia Tindall, often has media figures pronounce her name "My-uh" even though her parents say it's "Mee-uh."
To confuse things further, occasionally Mia's been given because of Italian word "mia," meaning "my." The first year more than five Mias were born in the United States -- 1938 -- was just after several British singers recorded love song "Rosa Mia" ("My Rose"). In 1954, "Cara Mia," where "Cara Mia fair, here are my arms only you will share," ranked No. 4 on Billboard's chart. After that, the number of Mias born jumped 50%. Romantic parents probably misinterpreted "Cara Mia" as a name.
It was Farrow's fame, though, that vaulted Mia into the top thousand in 1964 -- 104 were born in 1963, and 1,054 in 1965, ranking it 267th.
"Rosemary's Baby" and its Satanic theme may have hurt the name. It receded until "Mamma Mia," ABBA's 1975 hit, helped it rise again.
Another upswing began in 1986 when actress Mia Sara (born 1967) played Sloane Peterson in hit teen comedy "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."
Uma Thurman's Oscar-nominated turn as beautiful mob wife Mia Wallace in 1994's "Pulp Fiction" helped. An even bigger influence was soccer star Mia Hamm (born Mariel Hamm in 1972), who was instrumental in the United States' Olympic gold medal wins in 1996 and 2004. Nintendo's "Mia Hamm Soccer 64," released in 1999, was the first sports video game featuring only female athletes.
Another boost came from "The Princess Diaries," the 2001 film based on Meg Cabot's best-selling young adult novels, where American teen Amelia "Mia" Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway) learns she's heir to the throne of Genovia.
The biggest pop culture influence on the name, though, was the 2004-2006 Mexican-made telenovela "Rebelde" ("Rebel"), where singer Anahí played Mia Colucci, a wealthy Mexico City teen who endures her father falsely claiming her mother's dead, and her boyfriend surviving a coma, while forming a rock band with five friends. That band, RBD, itself became a hit group all over Latin America.
"Rebelde" made Mia a top name for Hispanic babies in the United States, propelling it into the overall top 10, where it's been since 2009. Mia ranked seventh in 2023, when 11,562 American girls received it.
Though Mia may start declining soon, the hundreds of thousands born the last 30 years will keep it dear to our hearts for the rest of the century.
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