Evans: Playwright Coward a prominent Noel but certainly not the first

Wednesday is the 110th anniversary of the birth of Noel Coward. Coward, who died in 1973, was an English playwright, actor and songwriter.

Coward’s best known play is his 1941 comedy “Blithe Spirit,” about a British author who is mischievously haunted by the ghost of his first wife. The 2009 Broadway revival won Angela Lansbury a Tony for her performance as the eccentric medium Madame Arcati.

Coward was named Noel because he was born so close to Christmas. Noel, a French term for Christmas derived from the Latin natalis, “birthday,” came to England with the Normans in 1066.

Coward’s parents weren’t the first to use the name. In medieval England and France, both boys and girls born at Christmas were named Noel, which led to Noel and Nowell becoming last names.

For more than nine centuries, Noel has remained in regular use without ever becoming popular. In the 19th century, it survived better on this side of the Atlantic than it did in England. Though the population of Great Britain and the United States were then about the same, the 1851 Census of Britain found only 135 Noels, while there were 582 in the United States, according to the 1850 Census.

Noel Coward was one of the first international celebrities, spending about equal time acting and directing in London and New York. His fame gave his name a small boost. Its top rank for newborn boys in this country was No. 266 in 1938, when Coward was at the top of his Broadway success.

Since 1941, Noel has usually ranked between No. 300 and No. 500 in the United States, only barely getting back into the top 300 names in 1968 and 1970. Singer Noel Harrison had a hit with the Oscar-winning song “The Windmills of Your Mind” in 1968; 1970 was the year Queen Elizabeth knighted Sir Noel Coward.

Though most Noels today are male, the medieval use of the name for girls revived a bit in the 20th century. Noel was one of the top thousand names for girls in the United States between 1932 and 1955, and then again between 1965 and 1998.

Noelle, the French feminine form of the name, first became a top 1,000 name for American girls in 1964, starting at the fairly high rank of No. 775. It looks like Noelle/Noel got some publicity as a name for girls around 1964 that made a lot of parents notice it. So far, though, I haven’t been able to discover what that was.

It’s obvious who’s responsible for the recent popularity of the new feminine form Noelia. In 1999, Puerto Rican singer Noelia (full name Noelia Lorenzo Monge) had a big hit with her debut Spanish-language album, itself called “Noelia”.

Hispanic parents propelled Noelia onto the top names list that same year at No. 720. The name’s ups and downs since have coincided with the ups and downs of Noelia’s career.

No matter what your name is, here’s wishing a joyous Noel to all!

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