The baby name Tuesday stepped out of a nursery rhyme on to the silver screen … but never quite caught on as a given name.
Thanks to Meredith for suggesting our Baby Name of the Day.
TIW’S DAY
We don’t often think about it, but our calendar keeps a host of old gods present in our daily lives.
Tuesday might be among the more obscure. (At least compared to the Thor of Thursday and Freya of Friday.) But Tiw, Tiu, Tiwaz, or Týr was an ancient Germanic god. It means “sky god” and might ultimately come from a root meaning “to shine.”
That might make Tiw the mythological equivalent of Zeus. Instead, he’s typically understood as the counterpart to Mars, the Roman god of war.
Which is why Tiw’s Day is Tuesday in English – but martes in Spanish; mardi in French; and martedì in Italian. Same idea, but different source for the god in question. In Swedish, it’s tisdag; Finnish, tiistai; German, Dienstag; and Dutch, dinsdag.
In brief, English-speakers took the Latin dies Martis and translated it to Tiw’s Day.
TUESDAY’S CHILD
The old nursery rhyme tells us that Tuesday’s child is full of grace.
Grace means kindness, so it’s a positive statement. The rhyme has been around in written form since the nineteenth century, but is almost certainly far older. It attempts to predict a child’s fate based on her date of birth.
The most famous use? Wednesday Addams, of course, because “Wednesday’s child is full of woe.” While the character appeared in Charles Addams’ comic strip as early as the 1940s, she was officially named for the television series in 1964.
But how did Tuesday make the leap from calendar page to baby name?
TUESDAY WELD
Born Susan, actress Tuesday Weld adopted a childhood nickname for her stage name.
Weld started her career as a child, and was playing adult roles by the 1950s.
Peak success came in the 1970s and 80s. She was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress in 1977’s Looking for Mr. Goodbar.
RUBY TUESDAY
The Rolling Stones released “Ruby Tuesday” in 1967. It went to #1 in the US. Keith Richards has said it was inspired by Linda Keith, his girlfriend at the time.
The song asked “Who could hang a name on you? When you change with every new day …”
Weld plus the song meant that Tuesday would’ve felt like a given name – at least on the fringes.
BY the NUMBERS
In fact, the baby name Tuesday debuted in the US Top 1000 as early as 1945, with five girls receiving the name.
A few theories?
- Day names have always been traditional in some cultures. And it’s not a huge leap from naming a child June to naming her Tuesday.
- A more intriguing possibility: Victory Day in Europe – also known as VE Day – marks the date that Germany surrendered to the Allies. The date? May 8, 1945 – a Tuesday.
The latter theory makes sense, in part because the next time Tuesday appears in the popularity data is 1959, with thirteen births – early in the career of Tuesday Weld.
The baby name Tuesday peaked in 1966, with 74 births.
It continued to enjoy modest, but slowly declining use, over the coming decades.
In 2023, just 15 girls received the name.
FRESH WORD NAME POSSIBILITY
This is the golden age of word names.
While the baby name Tuesday has never cracked the US Top 1000, it sounds just a little bit retro – credit the actress and the song for lending it a sort of twentieth century vibe.
With names like Autumn and Willow ranked in the US Top 1000, word name Tuesday has just as much potential.
The fact that Tuesday’s child is full of grace? That’s a bonus.
What do you think of the baby name Tuesday?
First published on May 13, 2008, this post was revised and re-published on July 10, 2024.
It was a Stones song, Ruby Tuesday. I’ve heard of girls called that in Oz too. (And we DO have the restaurant)
Anyway, I still prefer Wednesday (despite it being full of woe) May, Winter, and Autumn for girls, and I have a thing for traditional August and not-as-traditional December and September for boys.
Friday reminds me of an extremely explicit and somewhat strange science fiction novel I read in my youth, where it was the name of the female protagonist. Robert Heinlein handed out to his fictional girls-of-the-future some interesting names including: Friday, Wyoming, Podkayne, Pallas Athene…
There were a handful a little girls named Ruby-Tuesday here in England&Wales last year, which I think is a rather sweet, if surprising combination.
Oh wow. That immediately brings to mind the restaurant chain Ruby Tuesday. I’m guessing this restaurant isn’t anywhere to be found in Europe? I admit it does have a certain ring to it, but I could never name a daughter that over here. :/