Jaime Sommers (The Bionic Woman) - in Literature and Culture

In Literature and Culture

Unlike Steve Austin, Jaime Sommers did not appear in the novel Cyborg, the original story which started the first series. She was entirely a television invention of Kenneth Johnson, a writer of The Six Million Dollar Man, under the supervision of executive producer Harve Bennett. Sommers' only literary appearances to date have been in two novelizations of televised episodes released in the mid-1970s; Caidin had already concluded his series of Cyborg novels by the time her character was established on television.

Regarding the choice of the name "Jaime Sommers", Kenneth Johnson has said the following in a published interview.

She was named for a water skier I had met at Sea World, because I loved her name. —Kenneth Johnson, Starlog magazine, "Heroic Experiences," November 2007, page 60

The name "Jaime" was predominantly a male name (a derivative of "James") before the television series began. It is probably not a coincidence that in 1976 the name Jaime became one of the 100 most popular names of the year in every one of the 50 US states. The female name Jamie (a variant spelling) also gained enormous popularity at the same time.