Old-Time Radio Names: Zenith, Zero and Tao
I’m sure you’re all really busy making preparations to celebrate National Radio Day tomorrow, the day set aside to commemorate old time radio—I but hope you can take some time out to look at these interesting vintage radio character names we’ve dug up.
They date back to a time, from the 1930s to the fifties, when listening to the radio was the only home entertainment there was, aside from harmonizing around the piano. Moms tuned in to their daily soap operas— often only fifteen minutes long—as they feather-dusted and darned Junior’s socks, before Junior rushed home from school to hear the latest adventure of Don Winslow of the Navy. And in the evening the whole family would gather around the big console to laugh at Baby Snooks or shudder at Suspense Theater.
Many of these shows were populated with great old names you don’t hear any more, from exotic flowers like Geranium (used not once but in two different shows), Gardenia, Lotus and Tulip, to unusual word names like Fury, Casino and Tweed.
Here are some of the most interesting examples, with the titles of the mostly long-forgotten soaps and space odysseys they appeared in:
Girls
Ardala Valmar, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Birdie Lee Coggins—The Great Gildersleeve
Casino—Home of the Brave
Charity Amanda Dyke—Amanda of Honeymoon Hill
Corliss Archer—Meet Corliss Archer
Ebba Fielding—Against the Storm
Eula Sherman—Dan Hardin’s Wife
Geranium—The Judy Canova Show, Amos ‘n’ Andy
Inza Burrage—Frank Merriweill
Lillums—Harold Teen
Lorelei Kilbourne—Big Town
Marilly—Mayor of the Town
Mercy—Backstage Wife
Portia Blake Manning—Portia Faces Life
Sapphire Stevens—Amos ‘n’ Andy
Tulip Valentine Elson—Hilltop House
Zenith Sambrini—Ma Perkins
Boys
Ajax Cassidy—The Fred Allen Show
Alabama Randall—The Jack Pearl Show
Ballard Brandon, John’s Other Wife
Bronco Thompson, The Great Gildersleeve
California Carlson—The Hopalong Cassidy Show
Cleve Harrington—Evelyn Winters
Cosmo Topper—The Adventures of Topper
Eben Crowell—Four Corners, U.S.A
Goodman Ace—Easy Aces
Greyling Dennis—The Brighter Day
Kyron Welby—Pretty Kitty Kelly
Nero Wolfe—The Adventures of Nero Wolfe
Oogie Pringle—A Date With Judy
Pagan Zeldschmidt—A Man Called X
Pascal Tyler—Against the Storm
Pepper (born Lawrence) Young—Pepper Young’s Family
Philo Sands—The Story of Mary Marlin
Phineas T. Grant—The Man I Married
Robespierre—The Baby Snooks Show
Scotson Webb—Girl Alone
Socrates Mullen—The Fred Allen Show
Tweed Parker-The Romance of Helen Trent
Ulysses Hink—Dear Mom
Anything here that strikes your fancy?
Plus! Hurry on over and vote for the Nameberry Awards.
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6 Responses to “Old-Time Radio Names: Zenith, Zero and Tao”
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Mego0801 Says:
niteowl13 Says:
These seem like they could be celebrity baby names from 2013! 
CaraMichelle Says:
niteowl13, that’s exactly what I was thinking! Some of these are nice, but others, like Pagan, are just no-nos!
Poppy528 Says:
I like Eben. and (gasp) Poindexter. Eula is neat – a mix of the almost hip Elula & the horrific Beulah (which I actually quite like). Fun list!
Saracita00 Says:
Kyron seems so modern! So similar to Myron, I wonder if the radio folks just changed a letter. It makes a tremendous difference, though, taking the name well out of “old man” territory.
Tao is one that should definitely be getting attention, with that clipped, one-syllable sound and O ending.
Bronco is another O ending that might find some modern love, also fitting into the “animal” and “adventure” name categories.
I’m not into the Grey names but I wonder if Greyling would have appeal as a follow up to Greyson.
Oogie is hilarious. I wouldn’t recommend it as a given name but it would be a great family nickname…maybe for Hugo
On the girls side, my favorite is Inza. Though it’s probably not usable IRL…she would be teased for having influenza.
Corliss is a good answer to Katniss.
And Lillums would be a great nickname for a Lily-variant name, or even an Elizabeth.
Fun post.
sabrinafair Says:
I actually like these:
Girls
Casino— I really like this, but doubt I’d use it.
Gardenia— havee this down for middle name
Geranium— love this
Oriole— on my list
Pixie – cute
Sapphire – like
Sunday— for a boy
Tulip – as middle name
Zenith – neat for either
Boys
Alabama – like on a boy!
California – neat on a boy. I know girl named this.
Cosmo – middle name
Cullen – girl
Ichabod – middle name
Pascale – this way and girl
Pepper – used to like on girl
Robespierre—kind of neat
Socrates – always liked this
Tao – like
Ulysses – always liked
Zero – love this because Nightmare beofre Christmas
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Corliss is a great name! I’d be worried they’d get called ‘Cordless’, I have a feeling that wasn’t an issue in Radio Days
Lorelei is really cute!
I really like Lansing, Pagan, and Thatcher.
I didn’t expect all these unusual names to come out of ‘Radio Days’, I wonder if any of these names became a little more popular after they had their radio debut, the way book name and movie names can get popular these days.
This was a great post, thank you, I really enjoyed it