Rhonda

The name derives from the Rhondda Valley in South Wales, where the river's Celtic root likely signified rough waters. It first appeared in American records in 1910, occasionally used in place of Rhoda. Hollywood popularized the spelling in the nineteen-forties when studio publicists chose it for actress Rhonda Fleming. American parents adopted it heavily over the next two decades, severing any ties to Welsh geography.

The name carries the unmistakable crackle of mid-nineteen-sixties transistor radio. A Rhonda tends to be pictured running logistics at a regional utility company with zero patience for revised agendas. With an average age of sixty-one, the name belongs almost entirely to late baby boomers and Generation X. It has quietly retired from nurseries, having survived sixty years of strangers humming the Beach Boys chorus.