The baby name Enola started out as a literary invention, and fiction continues to keep this name in the spotlight.
Thanks to Dotmyiis for suggesting our Baby Name of the Day.
E-N-O-L-A SPELLS ALONE … BACKWARDS
Back in 1886, author Mary Young Ridenbaugh used the name for her novel Enola; or, Her fatal mistake.
Ridenbaugh’s character, Enola Dale, spoke of her loneliness, musing that her parents “must have known of her future isolation” when they chose her name. The author clearly loved dramatic, one-of-one names. She called Enola’s children Alcia and Baring.
Enola wasn’t a stretch – and Ridenbaugh wasn’t the first to use it. Girl names ending with -ola were enjoying a burst of popularity in the 1880s. Viola, Lola, Leola, Nola, and just Ola were the Mia, Leah, and Thea of their day.
Sometime around 1883, Enola Miller was born in Pennsylvania. The surrounding town bears her name, and her historic home still stands. During her childhood, her father sold land to the railroad, which led to a rail yard named Enola, too.
So it’s not clear if the novel gets credit for the name’s rise – or if Ridenbaugh merely borrowed a rare, but on-trend name.
ENOLA GAY HAGGARD
In 1890, Enola Gay Haggard was born in Iowa. She married Paul Tibbets in 1912, and a few years later, they welcomed a son. Paul Jr. grew up to be a pilot.
If you know your World War II history, this should all be falling into place by now.
Tibbets joined the US Air Force, and named his B-29 bomber after his mom. The Enola Gay would eventually drop the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
It’s a heavy legacy for the name to carry.
In the immediate aftermath of World War II, the baby name Enola remained in sparing use, given to between a dozen and two dozen girls most years.
But in 1953, it rocketed up to an all-time high – 99 births, and the very last time the name would appear in the US Top 1000.
One possible reason? In 1953, the Enola Gay took its last flight, arriving at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.
The aircraft is now on display at the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia.
WATERWORLD
That might’ve been the end of the baby name Enola. It fell in use, and by the 1980s was given to fewer than five girls a year.
But in 1995, the big screen extravaganza Waterworld starred Kevin Costner as the Mariner, and a young Tina Majorino as Enola. It’s a post-apocalyptic vision of the future, where nearly everything is submerged – but Enola’s back is tattooed with a map leading to the last bit of actual above-water land on Earth.
In some ways, the movie was a spectacular failure – expensive, and nominated for half-a-dozen Golden Raspberry Awards. But it debuted at #1 in the US, and clearly was seen by plenty of people.
After all, in 1996, eight girls were named Enola.
CRIMSON PEAK
The name remained in sparing use, just a handful of girls every year. While -ola names remained mostly in style limbo, a few were heard, including Lola.
And fiction helped keep the name alive, too.
In 2015, horror flick Crimson Peak took us to turn-of-the-century America, where wealthy heiress Edith Cushing – played by Mia Wasikowska – falls for an Englishman with a title, a crumbling manor, and absolutely no money. She marries him – after all, he’s played by Tom Hiddleston – but you know it’s not going to end well. The creepy family mansion turns out to hold secrets, including the belongings of one of the Englishman’s former wives, Italian heiress Enola Sciotti.
So could it be Italian?
Names like Fabiola and Paola suggest that the -ola ending isn’t unknown. And there’s a town called Lenola in central Italy. But if it’s used as an Italian given name, it’s beyond rare.
NATIVE AMERICAN ROOTS
As several commenters have noted, Enola has Native American roots, too. If this matches up with your family’s heritage, it might make the name even more appealing. However, there’s reason to be cautious when considering Native American names.
While the baby name Enola might mean solitary, thanks to popular use, it has a different origin and meaning in Native American languages.
The famous Cherokee Chief Black Fox, born in the 1740s, was also known as Enola, Enoli, or Inali. Inola, Oklahoma, outside of Tulsa, is named for him, and several places are called Black Fox in his memory.
SHERLOCK’S LITTLE SISTER
But there’s only one reason we’re talking about this name now.
In 2006, author Nancy Springer gave the world Enola Eudoria Heddassa Holmes, (much) younger sister to Sherlock and Mycroft. The story sets her birth in 1874, making the name implausible but not impossible – certainly not for a family who named their boys Mycroft and Sherlock.
Enola’s mother disappears in the first book, and the girl detective is the one to crack the case.
The series is now up to six books, and Netflix has adapted two into movies, starring Millie Bobby Brown as the teenage sleuth.
Incidentally, the first Sherlock Holmes novel was published in 1887, the right time period for the appearance of the baby name Enola. The character tells us, though, that her mother chose Enola because it signals a solitary self-reliance that she hoped her daughter would possess.
BY the NUMBERS
Millie Bobby Brown, of course, became famous as Jane/Eleven/Elle on Netflix’s Stranger Things. While we haven’t seen rafts of girls named Eleven, it’s become a sometimes-heard name.
In 2019, a mere eight girls were named Enola.
The success of the first Netflix movie shifted the name’s image. Instead of the airplane and the pilot’s mom, or a broad sense of sadness, the baby name Enola now suggests a Han Solo-like independence.
The first movie was released late in 2020. By 2021, 90 girls received the baby name Enola. That’s not quite a record – there were 99 births in 1953. But with a second movie coming out in late 2022, it’s possible that Enola will continue to catch on.
What do you think of the baby name Enola?
First published on November 1, 2011, this post was revised and re-published on September 20, 2020 and again on October 12, 2022.
I don’t think it’s Italian – I’ve never heard of it outside of history books about WWII, not even as a nickname for Eleonora (Ele, Nora, Lea, Lenora, Leonora, Lena are all Eleonora nicknames in Italy, Enola isn’t). Also, the Italian -ola names you suggested sound very different because of the accent: Fabiola is pronounced Fah-bee-ola and the accent goes on the “bee”. Same with Paola, the accent goes on the first A so the O sound is not as strong as it is in the English Paula pronunciation.
The -ola sound you can find in Enola isn’t common at all in Italian names, really. Online I read it might have Arabic origin, but I have no way of knowing if that information is correct.
Thanks, Arianna. My guess is that it sounded just vaguely Italian enough for the scriptwriters, and it fit the storyline, so they used it …
I just saw the Netflix movie and ended up liking the movie. The name is explained as “alone backwards” because the Holmes children’s mother likes cyphers and wants her daughter to stand alone and make her own decisions for her life in Victorian society. I don’t necessarily view the Enola Gay as a negative reference. As tragic as Hiroshima was, dropping the atomic bomb ended WWII decisively and likely prevented many, many more war deaths.
As for its other origins, it does also appear to be a Cherokee name meaning “Black Fox.” There was a chief by the name (1746-1811) whose name was variously spelled as Enola, Inola, Inole, etc. A town in Oklahoma called Inola is named for him, all according to Wikipedia. I assume some of the early 19th century Enolas could be named for him. The name is used for both men and women.
I LIKE the idea of Enola.
It would be a beautiful thing to tell a daughter, “Your name spelled backwards is ‘alone’… what that means is that you are the OPPOSITE of alone! You are so loved and wanted; you’ll never be truly alone all your life.”
I mean, really. How utterly comforting is that?! And Enna is a darling nickname.
That’s a lovely thought – thank you!!
I’m surprised no one has brought this up?
Enola Sciotti, a character (and major plot point) in Guillermo del Toro’s Gothic drama “Crimson Peak”.
In the movie it is explained as an Italian diminutive of Eleonora (the character’s full name it might have been mentioned) I think?
But yes, actually it features quite prominently. The name itself is kind of key, but I won’t give too much away. When I heard it there, it sounded very melodious on the tongue. Very pretty; mysterious which fit perfectly with the tone of the movie.
(Great film by the way! It was mis-marketed, sadly, but the settings are breathtaking and the costumes are so swoon worthy! If you like the supernatural I recommend!)
Hi Dee – Actually, I wrote this post four years before the movie came out! My husband and I actually saw it in the movie theater (which is kind of crazy – we see a non-kid friendly flick as a family about once a year) and loved it. It seems like the writers MUST have drawn on Enola/alone when they chose that character name, right? Also, I noticed that this post is broken, so the content isn’t showing – updating it now! – Abby
I won’t lie, the name immediately struck me as rhyming with granola, but since I’ve an obsession with the stuff, I’m not surprised.
Lana spelt backwards means something altogether more difficult to live with than alone, but she’s had rather more success when it comes to popularity than Enola, so I wouldn’t write the name off yet.
Thank you so much for profiling Enola! I was very curious as to how “alone backwards” translated into a name, and now that I know about the book it all makes a little more sense. 🙂
I love the sound of it, but the history is a pretty huge drawback… I love reading all of the opinions on this one. 🙂
Enola is pretty, but she has far too many drawbacks. Even if I were able to overcome the depressing alone-backwards meaning, the historical connections are simply too horrific — I had a very hard time reading that interview with Brigadier General Tibbets. Also, the whole rhymes-with-ebola aspect doesn’t help make the name any more appealing. Good, young adult historical fiction notwithstanding, I don’t think I’ll find myself recommending this one any time soon.
Also didn’t know about the WWII story – history isn’t really ‘my thing’.
Instead the name makes me think of my depressed teenage years and listening to a song called “Enola / Alone” by the Manic Street Preachers. I guess I thought it was really cool that it was ‘alone backwards’. Good job I was just writing bad poetry and not naming children back then!
I really really liked the name Enola when I heard it in Waterworld. It has such a sweet and unique sound to it. I didn’t know about the WWII association, nor did I notice it spelled “alone” backwards. The spelling doesn’t bother me too much, but the WWII association ruins the name for me. Maybe a pet could get away with it though!
I’ve liked the name Enola ever since I came across it in world history but for some reason I mis-remembered it as the name for Amelia Earhart’s plane :\ I knew that Enola ment solitary so maybe that translated into solo flight and Amelia Earhart.
I’ve also heard that it was a name used by the native american’s but knowning how well my memory is treating me that may be incorrect.
I can’t find any evidence that it is Native American, but the naming possibilities are vast, and I can’t say I’ve done a comprehensive search. Amelia Earhart flew an Electra – but it wasn’t the plane’s name, it was the model. It seems like her aircraft didn’t have names. I don’t know much about aviation history – did all planes typically receive names? Or only those flown in war? I’m going to quiz my pilot friends …