You Name It
Boys' names used to stand for something. For the first fifty years of the 20th century, John was #1. Then we went through fifty years of Michael dominance (even withstanding the Jason threat). Then, Jacob took over, and now, in the 21st century, everything's gone to hell.
The top ten for the last decade are, in order:
Aiden
Jacob
Ethan
Matthew
Nicholas
Jack
Joshua
Ryan
Michael
Andrew
Aiden? Are you kidding me? This is an American list? And Michael is almost gone. In fact, didn't make the top ten for 2009:
Aiden
Ethan
Jackson
Jayden
Jacob
Noah
Caden
Logan
Lucas
Jack
No Jim, no Bob, no Bill, no Dick, no Dave, no Joe, no Chuck, no Tom. Even Jacob seems to be on the way out. But we've got Aiden, Jayden and Caden. Where's Hayden? How about Phaidon? Baden Baden?
Meanwhile, girls' names, which have always changed faster, are going nuts. Here are the top ten for the decade:
Emma
Emily
Madison
Sophia
Isabella
Kaitlyn
Ava
Hailey
Hannah
Olivia
No Linda, no Lisa, no Susan, no Karen, no Elizabeth, no Patricia, no Barbara, no Jennifer. And Mary is long gone. Meanwhile, we get Emma and Emily--almost the same thing.
The top ten for 2009 are:
Isabella
Sophia
Emma
Olivia
Ava
Madison
Madelyn
Chloe
Lily
Addison
Girls used to be named after cute things. Now we've got Madison and Addison--parents are naming them after streets.
If you know anyone who named their kids any of these, send them here and let them explain their choices.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:30 AM
4 Comments:
And keep those g*ddamn weirdo-named kids off my lawn.
Really enjoyed this entry as, having watched two nieces grow up over the past decade, I've thought about the Changing Name Landscape many times.
What strikes me - as ridiculous - is how many of these parents felt that, by rejecting the old standards, they were giving their children a hip, unique name...
...when in fact, they ended up casting them as lemmings into the given name zeitgeist.
With nieces, I'm more familiar with girls' names than boys', and their friends and classmates dutifully reflect the list, often multiple times.
My personal least favorite? "Chloe", which somehow reminds me of clearing one's throat, and probably isn't the sound/image the parents had in mind.
Anyway, enjoyed your well-written observations.
Todd
Streets like Madison Ava?
I suspect that the popularity of Jacob and Ethan is due to Lost fans. Yeah, that's gotta be it.
Some names like Emma and Hannah used to be popular and have made a comeback. They always sound old to me. Emma is a Jane Austen character -- a wonderful one, admittedly, but still two hundred years out of date.
OTOH, the truly new names, like Aiden, convey youthfulness. If someone said "I was talking to Aiden the other day" I would immediatly picture a young school kid, or at most high-school age. My niece and nephew know several Aidens, but I never even heard of the name until recently. Same with Jackson (as a first name) and Madison (which becomes "Maddy" as a nickname).
Twenty years ago, "Courtney" was the newfangled name that conveyed youth.
But does Madison really remind you of a street? Having never lived in New York or Detroit, it reminds me of the author of the Constitution of the United States.
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