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I’ve seen this graphic making its way around the Interwebs this weekend and thought I’d throw it up. I can’t say how accurate it is, but, if it’s true, then it would appear to indicate three things. First, for boys, there’s a lot more regional variation in name choice than there is for girls. Second, for girls, there seems to be a fight to the death going on between Emma and Sophia. Third, for both boys and girls Florida seems to be an outlier. (Click to enlarge)
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@rudderpedals: Sofia Vergara? But they’re spelling it wrong unless the makers of the image decided to normalize the spellings (i.e.,g put Sofia/Sophia/etc. as Sophia).
I think Sophia has become popular again mostly because it has an exotic sound to it. Of course, in 60 years when there are a ton of Sophia’s and Emma’s hitting the Early Bird Special at Denny’s, some other names will most likely be popular for baby girls
If you teach, you can track the popularity of names. At one point, I had five Lisas in the room. More recently, I had three Sundays, and two Uniques, which meant they weren’t. Megan and Caitlin were big for a while. A friend of mine who taught at Ohio State for a year or so had six Lavernes in a freshman comp class.
Years ago, I read a magazine article about people who claimed to have been kidnapped by extra-terrestrials. The women–all middle-aged–were named “Skye,” or “Amber,” or “Caresse.” I wondered why no one named Jane or Anne or Mary or Elaine gets kidnapped by space aliens.
Won’t be long before the early birds are seating
tables of Tiffanys, Jennifers, Cyndis, Marcs (with a ‘c’) and Treys. I think you’re right about the exotic but not too exotic in a Sophia with a silent ‘Loren’.
She will do nicely. And doesn’t the regional distribution bear it out too, given demographics?
@Jeremy R:
Maybe it’s next in line Rock->Stone->Mason? Where does Mason come from, was there a kid in a boy band named Mason?
Eight grade English class in the 190’s had three each of Bill, Tim, Scott, and David.
Also, having had several jobs where records were kept for 1000’s of people, I have three simple rules: First, do not give you child an oddly spelled name. They just get to go through life with their name misspelled. Second, ff you have a last name that can be confused for a first name (like Martin), do not give your child a first name that can be confused with a last name. I was always amazed how many records had the first and last names reversed. And third, think about what the initials spell out. I was always amazed people who had initials that were embarrassing.
@Stormy Dragon:
It is a jar’s name. Or the last name of someone whose ancestors cemented stones & bricks together for a living.
It should no more be anyone’s first or given name than Hunter, Taylor or any other occupational name. I hope we won’t be seeing people first-named Farmer, Cook or Sawyer very soon.
Not even going to mention Freemasonry.
@superdestroyer:
I am in complete agreement w/ sd here (which is a little disconcerting).
I do wish they’d included the second, maybe even third most popular names as well, & indicated percentages. I doubt that many of the names shown were given to a plurality (let alone a majority) of each state’s newborns.
@CSK: I have a hard time believing the story about 6 Lavernes; I’ve yet to hear of a single non-sitcom use of that name.
On the other hand, I believe there was a girls’ high school basketball team a number of years back. The 5 starters were all named Caitlin, except with 4 different spelling variations IIRC.
@rudderpedals: Maybe. I’m confused about Ava (New Hampshire), the only Ava I can think of is the character Ava Crowder on FX’s “Justified”.
The same for Idaho with Olivia.
I would aos suggest that expecting parents look at the top 100 names from the previous year and avoid those names. Unless they want their child to go through life using their middle name, a nickname, or their last name, parents should avoid the most popular names.
@superdestroyer: Well, I’d probably qualify your advice as: look at the top 100 names and don’t pick any that suddenly appeared over the past few years. Those will surely date your kid later in life. On the other hand, names that are common and always have been, like Michael, are pretty inoffensive, even if I personally wouldn’t choose them.
@CSK: Gardner died in 1990, I figured we were limiting ourselves to contemporary reasons for the choices of names.
