Naming Trends

[Meg 368]

The names parents give their kids go in cycles.   For instance, in my generation, there are very few men named Ryan but there are many in the next generation.  I suspect this is due to Ryan O'Neal but I don't really know.

Does anyone know why Crawford and Arminta were popular names in Ohio in the 1860s?

Does anyone know why Madison is currently a popular name for girls?

[hym 358]

I may be wrong here, but I think I heard that with the decline of Madison as a guy's name, parents started giving it to their girls in the quest for their daughter having a "fresh" name, as opposed to a "tired" one like Alice or something like that. Makes no sense to me, but I'm also not naming children.

[football_fever 6]

You should read the book Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. Levitt is an economist, but in the book he asks very odd questions - like this one. His explanation is very long and hard to go into without writing an entire chapter here myself, but the basic summary is - and don't take this a bad way - that the wealthy in the US are the ones that start naming trends. I'm not good at making his point...I typed a bunch of his data and realized it meant nothing without reading the chapter...but yeah...

[Easy Bakes 253]

Originally posted by: hym I may be wrong here, but I think I heard that with the decline of Madison as a guy's name, parents started giving it to their girls in the quest for their daughter having a "fresh" name, as opposed to a "tired" one like Alice or something like that. Makes no sense to me, but I'm also not naming children.quote>

 

Thats it right there. the quest for a "fresh" name. unfortunatly if enough people get on board

with these "new" names their not new anymore.

So many Taylors, Haydens, Madisons,Ava's, Kaitlyns 

A List !

Top 10 Baby Names of 2006

06 Girls 05 1 Emma 1 2 Madison 3 3 Ava 10 4 Emily 2 5 Isabella 6 6 Kaitlyn 4 7 Sophia 5 8 Olivia 7 9 Abigail 11 10 Hailey 13

06 Boys 05 1 Aiden 1 2 Jacob 2 3 Ethan 3 4 Ryan 6 5 Matthew 5 6 Jack 8 7 Noah 16 8 Nicholas 4 9 Joshua 9 10 Logan 19

[Firebird 40]

Hmmm, could be humans desire to become more unique. Unique and strange names a pretty cool.

Or could be the opposite, as they might want their child to grow up just like some famous crazy person. 

Anyways, then some other people (potential parents?) hears that name spoken in the store or something,  and they decide they like that name aswell. Later they might tell a few people what they might potentially name their child, and possibly name their child that too.

Say a doctor in the hospital sees that birth certificate, they're like, "Woah! this is a cool name!" and might suggest that name to another group of parents thats expecting.

Then, when their child is a little bit grown up, say, around 15 or something, Disney Channel or some other broadcasting station thinks she/hes just perfect for this cool new show their going to broadcast and stuff.

They accept, and after filming a few episodes, they shows a huge hit! The people just LOVE the main charictor so much they just MUST know more about that person.

They do some research, and find out that persons real name, and they're also like "WOAH! this is a pretty cool name!" and decide to name their potential child that also.

And pretty soon, almost everyone decides to name their child after that person on that TV show.

Now the original people who first thought of that name find that, somehow, that super cool name that they thought of is spreading everywhere and find dozens of them just walking down the street.

And now the few people who had that name in the first place, who's parents herd of it by word of mouth, find that when one person calls their name on a bus, four or five people stand up.

Then, the whole thing starts all over again.

And THATS how name trends get started. Err...kinda.

[IDS2 3,344]

Jeb and Arod should really be on that list.....

Interesting if you compare it to a 1930s one...where the top names were 'Charles' 'Robert' or 'Franklin', and for girls 'Sarah' or 'Anne'

[Voar Tok 4]

Yeah, naming trends tend to get started because someone with that name became popular, or people around them thought it sounded cool.

As for why anyone would name a girl Madison, I have no real clue except that I imagine that they wanted to be different. Then again, I know a guy who's first name is Jan, so it works both ways I guess.

[JanYpe 17]

Originally posted by: Voar Tok Yeah, naming trends tend to get started because someone with that name became popular, or people around them thought it sounded cool.

As for why anyone would name a girl Madison, I have no real clue except that I imagine that they wanted to be different. Then again, I know a guy who's first name is Jan, so it works both ways I guess.quote>

Did you just diss my name dude? You'd better check yo self, 'fo I cut you up fool.

But seriously, you got it the wrong way around. Jan has always been a Dutch male name, related to the biblical John (the baptist). The German 'Johann', the French 'Jean', the Spanish 'Juan', the Italian Giovanni and the English 'John' and 'Ian'  are all related in this way. Jan also exists in a bunch of Eastern European languages, none of which I can understand.

'Yankee' was originally the term used by the new English owners of New York to refer to the Dutch population of the colony, because the names 'Jan' and 'Kees' were so ubiquitous.

...So now you know.

:edit: I totally second the advice on Freakonomics, btw. It's a hugely entertaining read.

[Meg 368]

Originally posted by: football_fever 

You should read the book Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. Levitt is an economist, but in the book he asks very odd questions - like this one. His explanation is very long and hard to go into without writing an entire chapter here myself, but the basic summary is - and don't take this a bad way - that the wealthy in the US are the ones that start naming trends. I'm not good at making his point...I typed a bunch of his data and realized it meant nothing without reading the chapter...but yeah...quote>

 

Thanks.  I'll check out that book.  I can sorta see how the wealthy could influence names.

One of the things I do for fun is trace family trees.  They don't even have to be mine for me to enjoy the discovery of solving a puzzle.    One that I'm doing now has lots of Crawfords, many of whom are related to each other (cousins of some sort) but I'm finding Crawfords on an different branch as well.  Turns out there is a Crawford county nearby.  not that any of these people live there.  But there had to be an influential person somewhere to get a county named after him.

Still haven't figured out what is with all of the unrelated women named Arminta.  I'd never heard that name before and suddenly it's all over the place.

These things do go in cycles.  When I was a kid, "Emily" was considered to be old fashioned.  The only Emilys were in my parents' generation.  Now there are lots of younger Emilys around.

[Goldfish4209 9]

Well, I think childhood can influence your naming choices too.

For example, you don't want your kid to remind you of your girl/boyfriend from 9th grade. That would be really disturbing. Or your ex spouse, etc.

And then if you have a name that caused problems in your childhood, you might not want your kid to have that name.

The list goes on.

But that doesn't cause any cycles.

[coolotter88 2]

lol, I just finished reading Freakonomics and when I saw this thread I was going to mention it...

basically, rich people name their kids something, then the poor-er people catch on and start naming their kids, then after a while, rich people pick new names to name their kids and aspiring poor people follow the rich people in naming and thus, names cycle in and out.

the book also explores whether if black people's distinctive names give them an economic disadvantage...as in, would an employer discriminate against a DeShawn because it is a name white people don't use? yeah, some black people have some....interesting names...examples from Freakonomics include....orange jello and lemon jello...and a slightly less appropriate name...that I'm sure Football_fever would remember.

[Rymac91 15]

I'm not honestly sure...In my generation, I know(or knew) at least 6 Ryans and that's not counting the ones on this site.

I think names come into fashion like...fashion trends...ethier that or names are like suburban cities...people go out to a development in the middle of nowhere to get away from it all, but then it's so crowded with people thinking the same thing.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Originally posted by: coolotter88 lol, I just finished reading Freakonomics and when I saw this thread I was going to mention it...

basically, rich people name their kids something, then the poor-er people catch on and start naming their kids, then after a while, rich people pick new names to name their kids and aspiring poor people follow the rich people in naming and thus, names cycle in and out.

quote>

 

So why did Mary top the lists from 1880's -1960's. and top 10 till the 80s?

[football_fever 6]

Haha coolotter...I remember it.

I did write a lot about his data, and deleted it because I was rambling and didn't make the point like they did.

@Easybakes - They provide many lists of names in that chapter, and he actually addresses your question. Two lists side by side show the top ten names for girls in the 1960s and 1990s. The only one that was on both lists was Sarah. Some names will always be popular - like my name, Mike. The biblical names like Mary, John, Michael, Sarah, etc. and their equivalent in other languages are likely to always be popular...it's names like Madison, Amber, Stephanie, and Kayla that it's talking about. There is also a list of names that are the most popular among high income people that I'll give later that, according to the authors, will be the next popular names.

[Cjah 15]

Originally posted by: Easy Bakes

Originally posted by: coolotter88 lol, I just finished reading Freakonomics and when I saw this thread I was going to mention it...

basically, rich people name their kids something, then the poor-er people catch on and start naming their kids, then after a while, rich people pick new names to name their kids and aspiring poor people follow the rich people in naming and thus, names cycle in and out.

quote>

 

So why did Mary top the lists from 1880's -1960's. and top 10 till the 80s?

quote>

 

hmmm...Well even in the 90s alot of Marys were named...my little cousin Mary for example got that name in1992...not long after the 80s...but that name Mary is still probably in the top 20...

As for uncommon names...I think my parents did a good job....My name is Cory...no stupid "E" I may have been an 80s baby,but my parents aren't idoits....Cory with an "E" is so...welll not manly...even my dad says so...My second brothers name is Terrence....even harder name to say...My lil lil bro's name is Austin...not named after the Capital of Taxes....but for the only brand of cigerettes my mom could smoke in the hospital...yes she smoked right after...she loves her cigs...I guess my mom had liked the name Allen,but my dad hated the name cuz he got his ass beat by an "Allen" in elementary school....so when she said name him Austin...my dad was happy...lol

hmmm only Logan,Jack,Jacob and Ryan are the only names off the list I may even consider...I'd pick more Hungarian names for my boys...

lol...the girls names aren't even a good selection...Olivia,,,LOL

anyone else ever hear the rap song about Olivia....lol...she is a dirty girl...

[hamsterTK 93]

well there are certianly a lot of weird ones out there. There was this girl who went to my middle school and her name was Demonica. Not DiMonica or De Monica, just Demonica. And yeah, she was pretty demonic when I think about it....

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Well it is intresting that in NZ the most popular names are not that dissimilar to the 2005 list above.

Our boys are 11 & 9 (Liam & Ethan) and at the time we thought we were choosing names that while certainly not weird, were just a bit different to the crowd.... ha ha, how naive ... when our boys got to pre-school you could guarantee several heads would look up if you called their name - I see Ethan is still very popular. I think NZ tends to follow the US and UK to a certain extent, especially as most parents when looking for potential names would turn to the internet and access the US&UK top 10 lists.

We live in a very multicultural area and our boys school classes reflect this along with the names. I will have to edit this when I get home and I will post the names in our boys classes. Stay tuned....

Edit:  Ethan's class last year 2006,  [can't find this years class photo] 

OK time for roll call...  Skye, Zureen, Ahmed, Cameron, Marshall, Matthew, Jarod, Hone (Maori for John), Laupepa (Joseph), Caleb, Leon, Benjamin, Kanwaldeep, Ayusi, Ilankshi, Madeleine, Litia, Harman, Jayshilta, Sophanna, Natila, Manvir, Ashwantika, Tegan, Georgia.   As I said our boys go to a very multi-cultural school.

If you want to meet my boys - check out my space - link below.