See also Beatlettes and Timmy and the Persianettes

Vera Carey and Lucille Dunbar were two of the original Persianettes, with a revolving third person who was Frances Wallace until she thought she could not make the commitment because she was married. The third member of the group was ultimately Helen Hutchinson, who graduated from Camden High School, like Vera Carey and Lucille Dunbar, but earlier.

Lucille Dunbar made the contact with Timmy Carr, born Carstarphan, who was looking for background singers for his music career. Vera Carey picked the name because “all of us knew we had to get a name because we had been told that we might be recording. So we sat down to think of something that sounded good. I had a paper with me which was turned to the travel section with features on places to go and I happened to glace at it upside down and saw ‘Persia’. Every group at the time had an ‘ettes’ at the end, the Marvelettes…And I just said ‘Persia-ettes, Persian-ettes, hey the Persianettes!’ It sounded great to me. I knew nothing about Persia or what it represented at that moment but it sounded good, certainly better than the Spain-ettes or Ital-ettes! People though the group had been named because of a cat or something, but no. I don’t even like cats.”