I’m a Quaker from
South Jersey with a love of
outreach and ministry.
More bio and my contact information in my
about Martin
post. My other sites: QuakerQuaker.org, a
social networking site for Quaker bloggers and
MartinKelley.com, my
technology blog and freelance web services site. Tumbld Rants collects my social media life: Twitter, Flickr, Del.icio.us, Youtube, etc.
Unpopular Baby Names: Avoiding the Jacob's, Emily's and Madison's
My wife has now finished the first trimester of her pregnancy so we can let people know that our little Theo's going to be a big brother this fall. That means it's time to think of baby names.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Most new parents want to give their child unique names and want to steer clear of the most over-used names. Yet if you tell your friends you're naming your boy Jacob or Joshua, they'll all cheer you on. If your little girl goes by Emily, Emma or Madison, they'll think that's darling. Yet those are the top three boy and girl names for 2003.
They are tens of thousands of kids getting these top names every year. All of the kids with these names are going to be getting nicknames to differentiate them from one another: just hope your little angel isn't the one that gets tagged "The Ugly Emily" or "The Stupid Joshua" by their third grade classmates!
There are definite trends in names. Certain names tend to sound fresh and daring even when they're overused and trite. The only way to train your ear away from such trends is to methodically study the data (the New York Times had a fasincating article on all this when we were pondering Theo's name, Where Have All the Lisas Gone?).
Fortunately the U.S. Social Security Administration provides a list of the most popular baby names by year, going back to the turn of the twentieth century. Using this, my wife and I were able to choose "Theodore" for our first child's name; born in 2003, he name is the 313th most popular boy's name and dropping. Yet it's a known name and there have been great twentieth century folks who have answered to it (e.g., Dr. Suess, Theodore Geisel).
How is a parent to choose? One recent afternoon I cut and pasted the top fifty boy and girl names of the first decade of the Twentieth Century. I looked up their current status (the 2003 data) to see what movement has occured in their placement. The old names are still known but some have fallen far out of use. Herbert, for example, was the 32nd most popular boy's name in the first decade of the Twentieth Century, but now ranks a dismal 930! If you want a name everyone knows but no one is giving their kid, Herbert's your choice for boy's and Edna's your choice for girls.
Now these fallen names probably sound awkward. But that's the point: they run counter to the trends. I'll admit that some deserve their reduced status; I cannot imagine saddling a little girl with "Edna." But in the list are some gems which have been unduly demoted by the trend-setters.
We've been very happy with "Theodore," the 26th most fallen name of the Twentieth Century. He's officially named after his great-great uncle. The social security datebase assured us that the name was safe from trendiness.
So what will the new baby be named? Check in soon!! The due date is the end of August.
Update: drumroll please.... Our new son's name is Francis.
25 Comments
Life Stream: See Tumbld Rants for more or to comment.
Feed Subscription:
You can also sign up to get daily posts delivered by email. Enter email address:
Congratulations! "joe" isn't such a bad name...{ahem}
Well "Joe" _is_ right next to Theodore on the unpopularity charts. Unfortunately "Joseph" is right there at number 6 (I'm sure it's even higher in our town where every third male seems to be named "Joe.")
I get the feeling I'm going to get a lot of comments telling me that "Amanda," "Liz," and "Pokie Mon" aren't such bad names....
If Jo(e) is good, then Jo(han) might also be okay. But if you're not Norwegian you'd be better off spelling it with two n's: Johann, because the second n will be added anyway more often than not. Except when people think you're John or Joanne or (I'm not making this up) Jolican. The last error was on a mailing from Internal Revenue.
I still like Alvin. Please consider it. I don't think it will become trendy. It was 512 in 2003, 329 in 1900.
A little brother Alvin for Theodore, hmm? The problem is that "Simon" is 240 and going up (it was 354 a decade ago) so that we'd risk trendiness on number three by trying to single-handedly spawn "The Chipmunks":http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-2827/. I'll _suggest_ it to Julie but don't hold your breath.
Congratuations! As a member of Norristown MM said on the birth of our Jakob, "another hope for the world"!
We picked Jakob because it's a family name. Its popularity STUNNED me; I'd checked the list only to see how unpopular it was! But I couldn't name him Emanuel, and I wasn't naming him George or James. Considering his birthday, we could have picked Phil. I say, pick a name you like, no matter how popular or unpopular.
-- S
Hi Sue, Well at least you shouldn't have to worry that your little one will be another generic Jakob!
My husband talked me into naming our now three year old son Silas (which he picked out of the Book of Acts). I wasn't sure whether that was in the same category with Herbert and Edna or not. (I thought it wouldn't matter since I was sure we were going to have a girl and name her Mary Alice, which I thought would go well with big brother Henry.) But now I know another woman with a three year old blond boy named Silas - who almost went to the same preschool. You never know when a name is going to come back.
Robin, I'd prefer to say that your husband was led by the Holy Spirit to open the Book of Acts to find the name of Silas staring up at him. If Silas was good enough for the Apostle Paul, he's good enough for me, I thought. Anyway, it was the right name for our most precious and thoroughly sturdy younger son. (Perhaps some day he too will be wandering around Croatia converting people!)
There are many Google hits for Silas because a hunky participant on the first edition of the TV show "Survivor" was named Silas. And there's a Christian rock band called Something Like Silas. (Haven't listened to any of their songs, doesn't really appeal to me.)
Many people first hear "Cyrus." Many people associate it with Eliot's "Silas Marner" (which I read for the first time only six months ago, and what a lovely Christian story it is!). A very few associate it with "Paul and Silas sitting in jail/with no one to go their bail."
And above all, many many blessings to Martin, Julie and Theo!
I haven't seen my name on there in a while... I am female and it is pronounced No L... as in the christmas song... although... I love my name because it's unique, I neither find it on the unpopular or on the popular list so I guess it's basically non-existant..
We had so much trouble picking our daughter's name. We considered Carris, but it sounded too much like my mother's maiden name of Garris. We finally decided to saddle her with Kayla but to give her an unusural middle name in case there were too many Kaylas in her class. Her middle name is Eden.
Hi Staci,
It's hard to find a good name these days. All the KA- names are big now, aren't they, in all sorts of permutations and spellings. Are you calling her "Kayla Eden" or just keeping "Eden" in backup as a plan B? We've gone the known-but-unused naming route but even so it's amazing how many people stutter over "Theo" or ask us how to spell it. The surprise with "Francis" is how many people have smiled and shared the story of a favorite grandparent with that name.
kayla is awesome thats the name ive picked if i ever have a girl but i cant figure out a middle name with it ,
My name is VERY unpopular (KERiley)I love it.My name is not Emily for shure.
Our son is a Theo too (born in 2001, so as there are more and more Theos these days [so it seems]) we are at the beginning of the trend. I think most people these days use the census data provided by thinkbabynames.com and look for more unique, less trendy names. So everyone seems to find the more traditional names unique, but this seems to now be a trend.
Hi Laura: You're seeing a lot of Theo's? "Theodore" was the 306th most popular baby boy's name in 2001, when you named your baby and the 305th most popular last year. The numbers aren't showing a trend yet. It'd be smart of parents to use the census data (provided originally by the Social Security Administration of course) but I 'm not sure they are...
Thank you for blogging this. My name is Emily and when I grew up in the 80's and 90's in New York City, I didn't know anyone with my name. I loved being the only Emily my life. When I was in class I hated it when we had to differentiate between which Jennifer or which Michael. Now, I will have to dread when all these little Emily's grow up and cause everyone confusion. I will probably be described as Old Emily. *sigh*
I have a Mabel and a Lucy. Where was this list when I was looking for names? Good luck naming yours!
Hi Lauren: oh those are great names! Both of ours have been boys but Lucy's one we talked about. We haven't known the sex either time; time we face the decision we had settled on a girl name of Dorothy or Dorothea (right next to Lucille on the list!).
For those reading this, the 2006 figures debuted a few weeks ago. "Theodore" is up about six places in popularity, while "Francis" has dropped another 25 or so.
Just a note on the "Ka" names that Martin is mentioning. I work with small children daily (and older ones too, for that matter). Yesterday I had a gymnastics class with the following. No joke. I always get tongue-tied:
Kayleigh
Bailey
Kaitlin
Katie
McKinleigh
I also have the following, sometimes in multiples:
Kayla (MANY)
Kylie
Carly
Kasey
Katrina
Cailene (say "Kay-leena")
Kimmy
Cassidy
Cara
Karla
And also:
Alissa/Alyssa/Yuleza (pronounced Jah-lissa) (multiple)
Marissa
Mia (a few)
Maia (a couple)
Madison/Madysen/Maddy/etc. (MANY)
McKenna/Michal/Myangel/McKinleigh (one each, but you get the picture)
Amanda (a few)
Samantha/Sam (and also Sara/h) (a few)
Larissa
Lissa
Brianna
Lianna
Arianna (a couple)
Alexandra
Hanna(h)
Hailey
Ashley
Jordan (multiple)
Taylor (many)
Tabitha
Eve/Eva
Emily (many)
Abby/Abigail (MANY)
Gabby/Gabriella/Gabrielle (MANY)
Julie/Julianna/Julia
Jessica/Jesika
Chloe/Zoe
Grace
Olivia
Nicole/Nicolina/Nicki/Nicolette
Brooke (a couple older ones)
Brittany/Britney/Brittney/etc.
That's a sampling. As a general note, few people deviate from the above list. Most of the kids I teach have one of the above names, embracing names that end with the "anna," "abby," "ah," and "issa" and/or begin with "Kah," "Kay," or a similar sound. You also see place names as popular, gender neutral type names, and the whole "last names as first names" trends. I have well over one hundred students and know several dozen more, and teach birthday parties for dozens more. That means most of these names are excessively (IMO) repeated.
I notice that a lot of people think they're being original with their name choices when in actuality, they're not. So that said, if I were to give my baby a plain name (John), am I being original by giving him this name? With all the Jacobs and Madisons and Taylors and Haleys out there, could "John" actually be the more unusual choice? "John" seem to place around #20 on the Social Security site--this seems odd to me as I've never heard "John" around the playground and furthermore, when I google "John", most people lump it under in the "boring" category.
Anyway, just want to see what people have to say about using "boring" names to be original.
Well this is interesting - my dad is 1 of 6 children, 5 boys and 1 girl. All the boys are on that list, with Fred the most 'fallen' and James and Jack the least. I guess Geraldine wasn't popular in the early 1900s (they were all born a few decades after that).
I find it curious that you didn't put the girls' names that have completely fallen off the list at the top of "most fallen", but hey, it's your method, you decide! :^) Also interesting to note that none of the boys' names completely fell off - I've read in various places that girls' names seem more subject to trends and fashion. This seems to reinforce that!
@Tricia: yes, scientific method might have dictated that I put the off-the-list girls up top. I originally compiled this as an aid to choosing a name for my second-born and just couldn't bring myself to consider a name that had gone so far out of popularity that it was out of the top 1000!
I'm Bernadette. My father named me after a Saint. There are not that many Bernadette's out there...
im only 11 and i want to know what my name meens.theres only shanice on websites like these does my name meen the same?