• Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Request a Name

Appellation Mountain

Where every name has a story

  • Baby Name Advice & More
  • Master List: Girl Names
  • Master List: Boy Names
  • Private Baby Name Consulting

Baby Name of the Day: Nolia

January 20, 2011 By appellationmountain 24 Comments

University Club Entryway Pilaster Letter N (New York, NY)

Photo by takomabibelot via Flickr.

She’s vaguely botanical, slightly invented, a little bit hip hop, too.

Thanks to Emily of It’s All In The Name for suggesting Nolia as our Baby Name of the Day.

You might have stumbled across Nolia on Namberry’s Lost Names of 1880 list. Along with Letta and Rella and a long list of others, Nameberry describes them as “lopped-off pieces of longer names.”

Rella stumps me, but in the case of Nolia, Magnolia comes immediately to mind. Nolia ranked in the US Top 1000 just three times – 1880, 1897, and 1901, but Magnolia was relatively common.

Check the US Census records, and there’s no shortage of women named Nolia. One of the interesting quirks is that a number of Nolias seem to have made names for themselves in Oklahoma. One that stands out was Mrs. Nolia Johnson, the wife of Nolia, Oklahoma’s first postmaster – the town was named in her honor. Not so far away, Durant, Oklahoma hosts the Magnolia Festival every June and calls itself the Magnolia Capital of Oklahoma.

Another notable Nolia was the mother of Alabama-born Dean Jones, the actor who played race car driver Jim Douglas in Disney’s Love Bug movies.

Magnolias do conjure up the American South, with or without moonlight and hoop skirts. 1989’s enduring Steel Magnolias was set in Louisiana. Nolia, too, conjures up Louisiana, but not necessarily in a positive light.

New Orleans’ CJ Peete Projects were long known as the Magnolia Projects – or just Nolia. Nolia was notorious for crime and violence, but also for launching a number of hip hop artists. A trio of rappers known as UTP scored a Top Ten on the Rap and Hip Hop charts with “Nolia Clap.”

It’s catchy, but not much in the way of inspiration for a child’s name. Neither is Nolia Chapman, an obscure actress with one credit to her name – a bit role in 1962’s Satan in High Heels. The movie is remembered partially because it was an early role for actress was Grayson Hall. She had a long career in television and film, even garnering an Oscar-nomination.

And yet it almost doesn’t matter. Nola has been on an upswing. Pronounced NO lee ah or no LEE ah, she fits with classic three-syllable names like Julia. Or pronounce her NOL yah, and she works as well as up-and-coming two-syllable choices like Anya.

According to Nancy’s 2009 list, there were fewer than five Nolias born in the US in 2009. The Spanish Noelia – a feminine version of Noel – was given to 200 girls. With more parents saying yes to No- names, from Noemi to Noa, it seems like the kind of choice that more parents could discover.

More names you might like:

  • Name of the Day: AnniaName of the Day: Annia
  • Name of the Day: NolaName of the Day: Nola
  • Name of the Day: SanneName of the Day: Sanne
  • Names from Twilight: Not Just for Vampires AnymoreNames from Twilight: Not Just for Vampires Anymore
  • 25 Sensible Names for Girls25 Sensible Names for Girls

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • Print

Comments

  1. Noka Craft says

    April 23, 2018 at 10:37 PM

    Hello,
    My name is Noka. Don’t try to look it up. You wont be able to find it any where. Except maybe in Russian. the word noka means “Hello”, at least according to Google. I have always hated my name. Too me it is just too strange. I wish my mother had named me Nolia that name is so feminine and lovely.
    Noka

    Reply
  2. Nolia says

    October 16, 2013 at 10:04 PM

    My name happens to be nolia and I heard that it means to be “full of grace” an grace is my middle name!

    Reply
  3. delfina says

    January 25, 2011 at 12:02 AM

    I have a 3 yr old daughter named Nola. We call her Noli & Nolia interchangeably. Never thought of Nolia as a name on its own before, but think it could work nicely.

    Reply
  4. Lyndsay says

    January 21, 2011 at 12:35 AM

    Oh I love Nolia! Magnolia used to be high on my list, and I would have used Nolia/Nolie as nicknames. I would be happy to meet a Nolia, but I think Magnolia is more striking. Hmm, you’ve got me thinking, maybe Magnolia needs to be on my list again.

    Oh, and I say it NO-lee-ah

    Reply
  5. Charlotte Vera says

    January 21, 2011 at 12:32 AM

    I, too, am liking the layout change! Much more vibrant.

    As for this name, it’s pretty, but I hear “No, Leah” when I say it out loud. Despite that, I prefer the no-lee-ah sound to that of nol-yah. With friends naming their babies Nova and Nora, I could certainly see Nolia catching on.

    Reply
    • Lyndsay says

      January 21, 2011 at 12:37 AM

      LOLing at “No, Leah” !

      Reply
    • appellationmountain says

      January 21, 2011 at 5:57 AM

      No, Leah makes me think of the Donnie Iris song “Ah, Leah” … which will be stuck in my head all day!

      Nova, Nora, Nolia … I do think there’s something to the idea that short, ends-in-a, N-names are having a moment. There’s also Noa, Nola, Nina, Neva.

      Reply
  6. liz says

    January 20, 2011 at 11:54 PM

    Reminds me of the Irish Nuala, which we considered….

    Reply
  7. Lemon says

    January 20, 2011 at 7:27 PM

    Oh, this is quite the striking layout, Abby! Nolia is fun. I’m generally a fan of -lia names, I think – Adelia, Amelia, Aurelia, Celia, Cornelia, Cordelia, Dahlia, Eulalia, Julia, Lilia, Magnolia, Natalia, Ophelia, Rosalia, Thalia. So many different styles, but they all sound glamorous and feminine, right?

    By the way, I just checked out that 1880s list on NB, and the first name on the list, Alcie, struck me as a cute, unique nickname for Alice!

    Reply
    • appellationmountain says

      January 20, 2011 at 7:43 PM

      Ooh … Alcie is great.

      Reply
  8. Bek says

    January 20, 2011 at 6:33 PM

    I’m a huge Nola fan (mostly as a NN to Finola), but I’m having a hard time with Nolia. I want to say Nola, so it comes out with a lazy tongue – Nol-ya in stead of Nol-ee-uh. And I could see how it would easily be that way for most people.

    Reply
    • Bek says

      January 20, 2011 at 6:33 PM

      ps – meant to add, much easier on the eyes today ๐Ÿ˜‰ thanks! (because of course you changed it just for me, HA!)

      Reply
      • appellationmountain says

        January 20, 2011 at 7:43 PM

        You’re welcome. ๐Ÿ˜‰ I’m happier with some things here, but there’s still work to do on the header and the sidebar, so … stay tuned!

        Reply
      • Lemon says

        January 21, 2011 at 12:16 AM

        Abby – I did just want to comment on one thing about the layout. I love how the names themselves look. They’re modern and easy on the eye, yet they have a clean vintage look about them, too. It’s the title header that I’m not sure about – it looks a little harsh whereas I’d expect something a bit softer, maybe? Don’t get me wrong, it looks good, but I wasn’t sure what vibe you were going for…

        Reply
        • appellationmountain says

          January 21, 2011 at 5:47 AM

          The title header is too much, I agree – it is a lot of big, bold letters. I fell in love with how each post looked, with the date in the circle, and the sidebars shaded, so I decided to try the theme and see if I could customize the header and the sidebars. It might take some doing …

          Reply
      • British American says

        January 21, 2011 at 9:42 PM

        Much smoother on my eyes too – thanks! ๐Ÿ™‚

        Reply
  9. Wrenn says

    January 20, 2011 at 2:49 PM

    I say Nol-yah but it feels like I should be saying Nol-ee-a. I like it ok. But I LOVE Magnolia and prefer Nola or Noli as nicknames. Funny that I don’t mind the “yah” ending on the longer Magnolia but I don’t really like it on the shortened version.

    Reply
  10. MrsS says

    January 20, 2011 at 1:57 PM

    I recently heard of a set of twins named Nolia and Eliza. I had never heard the name, and didn’t make the magnolia connection, but I thought it was a pretty sister set.

    Reply
  11. Sarah A says

    January 20, 2011 at 1:22 PM

    Nolia is really quite pretty. I would say it NO lee ah like Julia, accent on the first syllable. I would not have thought of it as a part of Magnolia, but a kind of mash-up of Nola and Lia.

    I think Nolia could be a nice pick for parents who want a name their daughter won’t share with others but that doesn’t sound too ‘out there’.

    Reply
  12. C in DC says

    January 20, 2011 at 11:11 AM

    Rella = Cinderella?

    Reply
    • Panya says

      January 20, 2011 at 4:13 PM

      That, Mirella, and Estrella came to mind for me.

      Reply
      • appellationmountain says

        January 21, 2011 at 5:52 AM

        I love Estrella, but I was heartbroken to realize it sounds like eh STRAY eh. And we’ve watched way too much Dora to imagine that we could say it like Stella with a few extra sounds.

        Reply
    • appellationmountain says

      January 20, 2011 at 7:42 PM

      Maybe! That’s a good thought.

      Reply
    • cheliesther says

      January 27, 2011 at 11:47 AM

      I like Neila-Nelly

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter


POPULAR POSTS

Tweets by @appmtn
Visit Appellation Mountain's profile on Pinterest.

Copyright © 2021 ยท AppellationMountain.net on Genesis Framework ยท Privacy Policy ยท Log in

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.