baby names - Jezebel

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Name Games
Latin & Hispanic Names: "Doomed"
Do You Judge People By Their First Names?
Is It Okay To Change Your Baby's Name?
"Modern" Baby Names Actually Pretty Old
What's In A Name?
Bebe Gorilla Needs A Name
Obamarama
What's In A Name?

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angelheadedhipster
10/13/09

In reply to Name Games
Damn, my name was number 1 from 1890-1930...I would have been so unoriginal back in the day.
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clevernamehere
10/13/09

In reply to Name Games
I think new parents generally have no idea what is popular. There aren't many 30 year old Ava's or Aidan's running around, but there are tons of 2 year olds running around with those names.

Social Security keeps a list [www.ssa.gov] but there are trends you wouldn't catch on that list because they aren't nationally popular, just popular with your local PTA.
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PaintedTrollop
10/13/09

In reply to Name Games
My granddaughter (born last week!) is Lucy. Mercifully it's not on the list!
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Bunsen Honeydew
10/13/09

@PaintedTrollop: Congrats!
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PaintedTrollop
10/13/09

@Bunsen Honeydew: Thank you! And thank NuvaRing for failing. :)
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KLondike5
10/13/09

In reply to Name Games
I seem to have a knack for anticipating future popular girls' names. I like Brittany when I was a tween in the early 80s, then it became huge...I liked Hannah and Emma in the early 90s, same thing...Grace and Lily about 10 years ago...

I'm liking the sound of Lydia and Bryony lately, so those will either be big in a couple of years, or I will have broken my streak.
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AcadianDriftwood
10/13/09

@KLondike5: Lydia's such a pretty name.
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LBB
10/13/09

@KLondike5: I wonder if Atonement will help or hurt Bryony's chances of becoming trendy......
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KLondike5
10/13/09

@LBB: Dunno, it wasn't a huge film in the US. I was wondering if Saoirse Ronan (the actress who played Briony in Atonement) will make her first name popular at all, esp after she appears in The Lovely Bones.

My daughter went to day care with a Saoirse in 2002, but I'm inclined to think it's just too hard for Americans to spell or pronounce without help to catch on.

Of course I think Nevaeh is a bitch to spell and pronounce too, and that caught on, but it has that pop-Christian thing behind it.
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Shelwood
10/13/09

@AcadianDriftwood: I know a woman in her 70s with the given name of Lydia Fern [lastname], which I think is lovely. Her mother-in-law started calling her "LaFerne" (like Laverne with an F) in the '50s, so she doesn't go by Lydia. Such a pity.
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Aesop's Foibles. YES.
10/13/09

In reply to Name Games
Ooh! This is something I think about often lately, since I started coming down with Baby Fever. I like what I consider to be unusual names, but not nonsensical ones. For example: I like Vivian for a girl. The only Vivians I know of are old ladies, but I'm ok with that. I just think it sounds so pretty. Also, Victoria, but not Vicky, and Madeline, but not Maddie.

Note/cringe worthy: Mr. Foibles wants to name our first boy Rocco. I wish I was kidding. He also likes Skylar. Both sound, to me, like Jerry Springer types. Do not want.
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LBB
10/13/09

If I was going to have kids, I would give them the full traditional name for whatever I wanted their nickname to be... rather than their legal given name being Maddie or whatever. That way if they don't like the nickname they can switch when they're older. [Personal experience talking... conventional given name, very diminutive-sounding nickname, changed to one that suited my personality more around age 10.]
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Wenchette
10/13/09

@Aesop's Foibles. YES.: Consider Genevieve. Elegant, classy and posh. It worked well on my grandmother.
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SarahMC
10/13/09

@..now it's just Aesop's Foibles.: Oooh I know one little girl named Vivian. I dig it.
My parents' dog is Vivian too but they call her Vivi.
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Penny_Esq
10/13/09

@Aesop's Foibles. YES.: One of my friends is about to have a baby girl named Vivian. I think it's growing in popularity.
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AmericanSplendor
10/13/09

In reply to Name Games
Or you could do like my parents did and chose a name that's bee in the 900 levels of rankings for the past fifty years.

Thanks, Mom.
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Penny_Esq
10/13/09

@AmericanSplendor: Ha, mine is up there too! Number 669 the year I was born, and pretty much out of the top 1000 most years now. Also, for being a three-letter palindrome, there are about a thousand ways to pronounce it, so the number of people who have MY name exactly is probably even smaller. I've only met one in my 28 years, and heard of a couple others through the grapevine.
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rckoala
10/13/09

In reply to Name Games
I've got two friends with daughters named Ruby, two with daughters named Paloma, three with middle names a variation on the Latin root for sea (Mar, Maris, and Marisa) one each with daughters Sadie, Clementine and Stella. And yeah, we're all over 30 and university educated. Our originality is such a cliche.
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emilyanne
10/13/09

@rckoala: ha i hear you. I have friends with pretty similar names for their daughters plus my own daughter has one of the names mentioned by you. Plus i know two Kittys as well, an Edie and two Evies. We are also all over 30 university educated, and clearly unable to come up with original names. The trick is to move somewhere where the name isn't popular - thus my son's name is barely heard of in the US but rising in popularity in Ireland (my husband who is Irish insisted on an Irish name) which makes us look more creative here then we actually are.
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BiteMeMitchell!
10/13/09

@rckoala: It's funny to me that Sadie has ended up being such a cool name as growing up as I did, in very working class, Protestant Northern Ireland, the name Sadie is like the biggest cliche of working class, Northern Irish, Protestant grannies. I think it's quite cute, but if I ever named a child that I would never hear the end of it!
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clevernamehere
10/13/09

@BiteMeMitchell!: I never would have guessed Sadie was a big NI name. I lived in the Republic for a little while and never heard it.

Sadie sounds like a Jewish grandma to me. And her husband's name is Sol.
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BiteMeMitchell!
10/13/09

@clevernamehere: Oh yeah, my grannie (a Peggy, which I also think is cool!) knew about a hundred Sadies! It does have kind of a Jewish ring to it I guess, but it was all the rage in Belfast circa 1920!
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rckoala
10/13/09

@emilyanne: That's really funny because another friend's daughter is Edie and my niece is Eve! And, full disclosure, i'm the one with the daughter named Sadie. Oddly enough, I have Irish in me from grandmothers on both sides, and was raised Protestant. Wonder if the affinity for the name is in the genes?
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ragingdichotomy
10/13/09

In reply to Name Games
My son is named Sebastian, which can be pronounced by either the Mexican or the American grandparents, and it's a beautiful name. When his name was brought up in conversation at a Queens playground, one dad snorted and asked "who did you name him after?" "uh, no one" "well, you CAN'T possibly LIKE that name!"

As if the world needed another "Mike" or "John."
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Maritsa
10/13/09

@ragingdichotomy: That's the reaction we get to George. "Oh, it must be a family name."
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Penny_Esq
10/13/09

@ragingdichotomy: I love the name Sebastian, but it also makes me think of "The Neverending Story." Not that that's a bad thing.
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sequined
10/13/09

In reply to Name Games
I like geographic names, in the Brooklyn vein, but with a more personal twist.

As a PNW native, I plan to name my future children after local rivers; little Skookumchuck and Humptulips will always be very special snowflakes.
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Penny_Esq
10/13/09

@sequined: Yes! Deschutes, Rogue, and Snake could form their own biker gang.
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gracie1117
10/13/09

In reply to Name Games
I don't have kids yet, and don't plan on doing so for awhile, but I am very persistent in my goal of avoiding naming my child one of the most popular names on these lists.

Being the only Grace in my classes until I reached high school made me feel special and damnit, my kids are gonna feel special too!
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kaywinnitlee
10/13/09

@gracie1117: you have my unconditional support! Through high school, I shared my name with only 2 other people my age - one was a year ahead of me, and it was actually her middle name, and the other was at another high school. My husband and I gave our children names that are very far away from the top 100, and still their names are nowhere near some of the bizarre things people come up with to make their kids' names "unique."

When I was young, I went to school with umpteen Amy's, and I couldn't stand the thought of my kid being one of those known as Amy B., Amy P., Amy G., etc.
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MrPipeline
10/13/09

@kaywinnitlee: You must have been born in the 70's. I am one of those "Amy's" and ALWAYS had to use the first letter in my last name so as not to confuse people. Oh, and many, many Amy's have the middle name Elizabeth.
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Bunsen Honeydew
10/13/09

@MrPipeline: I am an Amy of the mid 80's and somehow I managed to be the only one I knew until high school, and even then there were only 2 of us in a school of 2000 students. My friends Jennifer and Ashley had a different experience...

Solution: Name your kid last decade's trend!
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jigglyball
10/13/09

In reply to Name Games
I feel confident stating that many of our family names for girls will never, ever become trendy. We have: Macel, Bernice, Alma, Lucinda, Eunice, Dorothy ... the list goes on. I also believe that with these names comes the smell of denture paste and stale peppermints.
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Little Time Bomb
10/13/09

@jigglyball: I have a great aunt Alma who I adore. She was in the top 5 for who we would name littlest time bomb after. She ended up a Theodora not an Alma but just by a smidge.
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kaywinnitlee
10/13/09

@jigglyball: I wouldn't rule out Dorothy. It's my grandmother's name, too, but I'm glad we didn't use it with our daughter. As a Girl Scout leader, I've met quite a few little Dorothy's (often they are Dory/Dorie for short - I blame "Finding Nemo") in the past few years. Also Molly, Alice, Ellie, and Lucy.

I think you're definitely right about Eunice, though!
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jigglyball
10/13/09

@kaywinnitlee: Aw, Dorie is really cute. In that case, I will not rule out Dorothy :)

@all: I actually love the name Alma (and my dear Grandma Alma), but I never knew it had such widespread appeal!
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SunburnedCounsel
10/13/09

@jigglyball: I have a Buella. Our family name won't be passed on.
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elliebean
10/13/09

In reply to Name Games
A friend of mine named her kid Thea, and I used to know a woman named Willa. Love those names for girls. They are old fashioned, but pretty.
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FontWhore (the Great Nubling Hope)
10/13/09

@elliebean: Crap. Thea is "our" name. After losing Lily, Emma, Lila, Stella, and Grace I would be bummed to have to cross out another one.
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clevernamehere
10/13/09

@FontWhore (the Great Nubling Hope): I think Thea/Theo is on the horizon as a big name. I know three couples who were planning on those names,but ended up getting a kid of the opposite sex.
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FontWhore (the Great Nubling Hope)
10/13/09

@clevernamehere: Double crap. Well, part of the deal with Thea is that there are so many options for names it can be attached to - Dorothea, Theadora, Anthea, Theadosia, and our favorite, Althea. Something for everyone.
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thecameralovesyou
10/13/09

In reply to Name Games
I always liked the name Sophie (or Sophia). And it was my grandmother's middle name, and she was my favourite person in the entire world, so I thought it would be great to name my (not yet conceived) daughter. But now I've heard of quite a few babies with that name. I'm having an inner argument about just using the name anyway, cause it means something to me, or not using it so it doesn't seem I'm following the trends. I've put way too much thought into it considering I'm not even pregnant.

I also love the names Lucy and Molly. I'm not very original.
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marlo
10/13/09

@thecameralovesyou: I love all of those names! Sophia is also a family name for me (on both sides, I think). I have a cousin Molly, a nickname for Mary Ellen. And Lucy is just charming.
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thecameralovesyou
10/13/09

@marlo: You know, before I started actively looking into names, I had no idea Molly was a nickname for Mary! My sister is VERY into names, and hates when people name their child a short form (it's just not PROPER apparently) so I guess I would have to name her Mary.

My sister's pregnant right now though, and I feel like she might pick one of those for her baby, so I guess I'll have to wait and see!
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marlo
10/13/09

@thecameralovesyou My sister and I also have some of the same names picked out, so I'm just going to have to have my babies first so she doesn't take them! At the top of my list is Evangeline, Evie for short.
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MissyMcCLung
10/13/09

In reply to Name Games
I have taught ballet to three year olds at different locations around my city for years. I have always been struck by the lack of cross-over I see in the names of classes located in different socio-economic areas. In my class where all moms are over 30 and have university degrees (all of them - really) there will be say three Amelias one year (out of 25 kids) and not a single Amelia in my class where there are no parents with post-secondary education, and few moms over 25. There however I'll have three Kayleighs (all spelt differently of course) instead. There is almost no crossover - occasionally I will have a classic name like Sarah occur in both locations, but even that is rare.

Also interesting is the fact that in five years, my lower-income classes will be filled with Amelias and there won't be a Kayleigh in sight. And my higher income classes will be full of some other new name, just now starting to creep up the charts.

Before teaching so much and to so many different groups I hadn't realized how much a kid's name said about the parents.
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Maritsa
10/13/09

@MissyMcCLung: I've read that names (unlike money, despite what Reagan thought) trickle down from the rich to the rest of us. I wonder why that is. Do rich people feel more of a need to give their kid a special snowflake name? But then why does it move down the chain?
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SarahMC
10/13/09

@Maritsa: It's aspirational. This was tackled in Freakanomics. Poor people see that rich people are using certain names, and they begin to use them too. But at that point the names have been "tainted" and are no longer seen as upper-class or sophisticated so rich people drop them.
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Bgirl_Hamster
10/13/09

@SarahMC: The lesson? Eavesdrop on your rich neighbors and steal their baby names before they become "tainted."
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Maritsa
10/13/09

@SarahMC: Well that's yucky. Oh no, the poors have started naming their children Olivia - ABANDON SHIP!
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Little Time Bomb
10/13/09

@MissyMcCLung: Oh how I feel for the generation of kids from the whole "let's spell it differently" craze. I would never have guessed you could spell Dakota 5 different ways. It drove me nuts as a teacher it took me forever to remember who spelled what how.
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MissyMcCLung
10/13/09

@Maritsa: I don't even think it's that conscious though. They just suddenly see the name everywhere and don't like it anymore. I've caught myself doing that with names we loved for our first being "too popular" for the one we're having soon.
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Maritsa
10/13/09

@MissyMcCLung: I don't like the "too popular" names either, but it's usually because I notice all of my co-workers naming their kids the same thing. Or I look at the SSA database.
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Habibiti
10/13/09

In reply to Name Games
Also, is anyone else going crazy trying to guess everyone's names based on what they've posted about themselves? Just me? Okay.
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