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America, what is wrong with you?

Jill

The two most popular names in the country appear to be borrowed from Twilight characters. And I’m pretty sure that “Mason” became popular because of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. (Although for the record I quite like the names Isabella and Jacob and am sad that Twilight forever tainted them).

My own first name doesn’t make the top 1,000 (“Jillian” is on the list, but not “Jill”), but yet enough people named their sons “Aryan” to put it at #712. So I guess my years of being annoyed at my plain boring common name and being jealous of girls who had super-feminine or really interesting original names were for naught? For the record, “Sophia” is the second-most-popular girls’ name and Rose comes in at 337. Poor Blanche and Dorothy don’t make the list either, so I guess I’m in good company.

But if people start naming their babies “Moroccan” in 2012, I give up.

Is your name in the Top 1,000, or are you also even more original than all the little Aryans running around?

193 thoughts on America, what is wrong with you?

  1. Apparently ‘Oscar’ is more popular than I thought. It ranks at #147 with 2641 births — though this is down from its place in 2009 of #131.

    I live in Canada, however, and in Nova Scotia particularly (though Ottawa is my hometown) so I don’t recall ever meeting another Oscar. I suppose it’s not so popular up here.

  2. My real name’s Rebecca, which checks in at 137 on that list. My mother named me after someone, but damned if I remember who.

    I wonder if Emma is so high on that list because of Emma Watson and the Harry Potter craze?

    The Twilightification of names gives me the heebie-jeebies.

    I have to admit, it does make me laugh a LOT to see Aiden listed at 9 on the boy’s side. Because five years ago, my aunt and uncle named their firstborn Aiden because it’s so “unique and unusual”.

    1. I have to admit, it does make me laugh a LOT to see Aiden listed at 9 on the boy’s side. Because five years ago, my aunt and uncle named their firstborn Aiden because it’s so “unique and unusual”.

      I suspect the Aiden thing is a residual effect of Sex & the City, which is… troubling. And I suspect that the Emma craze began with Friends.

  4. My niece is named Isabella because her mother is Italian and likes that name. And I hate it that people think it’s because of Twilight.

    I’m a huge huge Mariah fan, and I find “Moroccan” to be a terrible name. For obvious reasons.

    1. My niece is named Isabella because her mother is Italian and likes that name. And I hate it that people think it’s because of Twilight.

      My roommate’s goddaughter is also Isabella (and was named before the Twilight books existed, because her parents are Italian and like the name). I love that name, and hate that it’s been taken over by Twilight Fever.

  5. Khloe is up 53 spots this year. I think we can safely attribute that to the Kardashians too.

    Also, the Houston Texans have a running back named Arian.

  6. Oh the Aiden uniqueness thing is nothing. My mom named me Michael because it was “unique and unusual”, seriously. It’s been in the top ten male names continuously for decades and was the most common male baby name when I was born.

    She was born in Canada but a couple years later moved to a different country where she grew up, which explains part of it. Still, she’d been back here well over a decade before I was born. She was more successful at “unique and unusual” with my older sister.

  7. Woot Woot Andrea comes in at #80! Not surprisingly, my older daughters name (Tierney) doesn’t come in at all, but my younger daughter (Reagan) comes in higher than I would have expected at 127

  8. Hmmm. My name Jonathan is in at 26. Emily, the name I would have been given had I been born a girl is in at 6. My nickname around some of my friends is Susan and that clocks in at 792. I have a friend currently pregnant with a #321, Rylie. Sadly there hasn’t yet seemed to be a resurgence of either “Murray” or “Mortimer” which are easily tied for best Boys names ever.

  10. Jill: I suspect the Aiden thing is a residual effect of Sex & the City, which is… troubling. And I suspect that the Emma craze began with Friends.

    Ah. Good point. I’d forgotten about Friends. Sex and the City I was never able to stomach, so I hadn’t realized that name was used there. I’m sure you’re probably right on both accounts.

  11. You’ve got Eliza, Aliza, and Elizabeth all in top 1,000, but you ain’t got no Liza?!

    Thank you, Liza Minnelli, for making people (except my parents) terrified to name their kids Liza!

  12. My name didn’t make the list, but it made the post. WHOO!

    Also, andrea, I love your daughters’ names.

  13. @FashionablyEvil, I’ve only ever seen the name Aryan used by POC, actually (which was only two times, to be fair), but it’s been pronounced Air-ee-ON.

  14. MacaroniGalaxy:
    Hmmm. My name Jonathan is in at 26. Emily, the name I would have been given had I been born a girl is in at 6. My nickname around some of my friends is Susan and that clocks in at 792. I have a friend currently pregnant with a #321, Rylie. Sadly there hasn’t yet seemed to be a resurgence of either “Murray” or “Mortimer” which are easily tied for best Boys names ever.

    My Grandfather was a Murray, and I love that name. I would have been #1 had I been a boy, as my dad really wanted to name me Jacob

    And PrettyAmiable, Thank you!

  16. Apparently I’m unique. Cassidy is on the list, but not Cassie or any of it’s variant spellings. Cassandra is on the list at 328, but since Cassy is short for Cassalin in my case, I guess I’m unique.

    I’m child-free, but if I wasn’t, and I had children, I think I’d name a daughter Ingrid (770 on the list, and yeah it’s an old-school name, but I think it’s really pretty). If I had a boy, I’d name him Scott (350, I guess I’m not as original at naming boys).

  17. A friend of mine named her two daughters the two most popular names on the list — Isabella and Sophia. Not having children myself, I had no idea how tremendously popular they were. My family is Italian, and they sound like traditional Italian names to me, so I just assumed they were too. (Yes, I also live under a rock and didn’t make the Twilight connection either.)

    (Oh, and the names of my cat and my long dead great-grandmother are more popular than my own.)

  18. I’m actually shocked that I chart at #67, up from #71. Making a comeback I guess.

  19. Aidan was my second choice for a boy, and probably would have been the name of my younger daughter, as the ex wanted Hayden, but I have a thing against names with soft consonant alliteration. It bugs me. So Aidan was a compromise.

    My first pick boys name was Brody, which came in at 83.

  20. I’m in the top 10 and have been for several years. But I was born in 1950 and Emily was pretty uncommon back in those days. I was in college before I met another Emily. Now, they’re all over the place.

  21. Nope, my real name and the name of my sister are not on the list. I’m surprised by my sister’s name, since it isn’t that uncommon. My name is more common (though old fashioned) in my family’s home country, but very uncommon here. None of the names I want to name my children are on the list either. Since all of the names I like are very common in the homeland, I guess there is a positive to being from somewhere where everyone else finds your names ugly or strange 🙂

    Also…is no one else seriously creeped out by the popularity of Aryan? Those people had all better be Indian, or else I am going to be seriously weirded out by blatant white supremacy or severe ignorance in the US.

  22. Angelina is coming in at 93, beating out perennial favorite Angela at 160, Angel at 194, Angelica at 345, Angelique at 627 and Angeline at 842.

    Angelia is not listed.

    My daughters come in at 32 and 4, my boys at 13 and 28. I believe in simple names, after a lifetime of misspellings and mispronunciations.
    (and a publisher that ALWAYS sends me a cover for Angelina Sparrow and has to be fixed)

  24. Nope! And apparently my name has never been in the top 1000 in America. Which explains why no one here can pronounce it.

    Oh well, at least no one will think I’m named after a sparkly vampire or a reality TV star.

  25. Liza: Moroccan? Is that you?!

    It’s me. Moroccan Scott.

    Seriously, that kid is going to go by Scott, right?

  26. Erin:
    My niece is named Isabella because her mother is Italian and likes that name. And I hate it that people think it’s because of Twilight.

    I’m a huge huge Mariah fan, and I find “Moroccan” to be a terrible name. For obvious reasons.

    People who speak Irish Gaelic might say the same thing about Erin 😉

  27. I’m at #383. I noticed the boys’ names are a lot more heavily stacked into the top 250 or so. On the other hand, the top 5 girls’ names all end in “a”.

  28. So, #30 (Gavin, 2008) for my son and #72 (Maya, 2004) for my daughter — I’m cool with that. They’re high enough in the counts to not get misspelled so often, but low enough to not be like “Jennifer” was when I was in school.

  29. #879, and decreasing in popularity.

    The best part is that my male counterpart is named Jedidiah

  31. My popular-in-the-1970’s name didn’t make the list, but alas, my kids are at #2 and #7 on the boys’ list. I didn’t know they’d be so popular when I chose them years ago.

  32. Seriously, that kid is going to go by Scott, right?

    I think they’ve announced plans to call him Roc.

  33. My real name has never been on a list of popular names, and I doubt it ever will. Not even Google turns up other people with my first name.

  34. Elisabeth:

    Also…is no one else seriously creeped out by the popularity of Aryan? Those people had all better be Indian, or else I am going to be seriously weirded out by blatant white supremacy or severe ignorance in the US.

    I am a little creeped out, I will admit. However, I also wondered if it was a bastardization of Erin or Aaron. I have a cousin whose name is Ayron but it’s pronounced like the others. Hers is a heavily Gaelic interpretation of the name. Maybe this is a similar case? I hope?

  35. A quick way to check theories on cause-and-effect of name popularity is this site:

    http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager

    It generates a graph of any name’s popularity over time, going back to the 1880s. (Turns out that “Jacob” has been #1 since before Twilight was published, and has declined a bit in absolute popularity since the book came out. Isabella was shooting up when the first book appeared, and has continued to skyrocket since.)

  36. Wow, my name didn’t make it until the late 500’s. Wasn’t expecting that. Of course, it’s one of those names that splits the vote between a bunch of different spellings.

    My last name (and internet-superhero-name) made both lists;)

  37. And, as for the Twilight thing, given that this is Stephenie Meyer we’re talking about, it’s more likely that the character names came from the baby-names lists than the other way around. Dunno if that makes you feel any better.

  38. Isabella was common before twilight my niece is 13 and there are a lot of Isabellas and Isabelles in her age group, she is an Isabelle and I had been planing to name my daughter Isabel ( after an author whose books I enjoyed), but my niece was born first so I gave her another name, so maybe the writer of twilight was just influenced by the commonness of the name. I am sad the name is associated with twilight. Both of my kids ended up with unusual first names, they seem very happy with them.

  39. Tony: I’m at #383. I noticed the boys’ names are a lot more heavily stacked into the top 250 or so. On the other hand, the top 5 girls’ names all end in “a”.

    Haven’t counted, but I’ll bet if you went down the list you’d find about 80% of the girls’ names end in “a” with the “ie” sound being the next most common. Make of that what you will.

  40. FashionablyEvil: I think they’ve announced plans to call him Roc.

    You know, then why not name him Roc? I haven’t had a child but it’s always been baffling to me that people don’t name their kids whatever they plan to call them. I guess it’s to give the kid options when zie grows up? Like, Moroccan Scott can go by Roc or Rocko or Rocky or Scott or… Joe, for all I know? Or maybe Mariah or Nick have an uncle or grandfather named Moroccan so it’s a legacy thing? So many questions!

  42. Angus Johnston:
    A quick way to check theories on cause-and-effect of name popularity is this site:

    http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager

    It generates a graph of any name’s popularity over time, going back to the 1880s. (Turns out that “Jacob” has been #1 since before Twilight was published, and has declined a bit in absolute popularity since the book came out. Isabella was shooting up when the first book appeared, and has continued to skyrocket since.)

    That was neat.. apparently my dad’s name, John, was number one for decades, then kind of plummeted mid-50’s

  43. PrettyAmiable: I haven’t had a child but it’s always been baffling to me that people don’t name their kids whatever they plan to call them.

    Can you please time travel and tell my parents this? My “real” name is Elizabeth. Nobody besides my grandfather has ever called me that, but since it’s my legal name, it causes no end of confusion.

    Don’t even get me started on my middle names (yes, I have two). They are completely ridiculous. I think my parents were wasted when they named me.

  44. Liza: Can you please time travel and tell my parents this? My “real” name is Elizabeth. Nobody besides my grandfather has ever called me that, but since it’s my legal name, it causes no end of confusion.

    Don’t even get me started on my middle names (yes, I have two). They are completely ridiculous. I think my parents were wasted when they named me.

    Both my family and my former in-laws are full of people who are named one thing, and called another. It gets bizarre, especially when you find out after 20 years that your grandma’s name isn’t actually her name.

    The ex-hubster actually has three names he goes by.. the one on his birth certificate and official documentation, the one friends and family call him, and he uses his middle name as a ‘stage/business’ name.

  45. Can I just point out that #1000 for boys is the name Crew? As in J? Or neck? What. And this list just makes the joke from Happy Endings that much funnier (when…Penny I think…shouts about some guy being the future father of her three kids, “Madison, Mackenzie and Hayley”).

    The only time I’ve ever heard the word “Aryan” was in reference to Hitler. I…learned something today.

    (And while Valeria and Valerie are both on the list, my legal name is technically Valérie, so I can continue to maintain an inflated sense of specialness and entitlement. Gooo Frenchpants!)

  46. My sons are 27 and 14 and their middle names are 847 (but with only one “l”) and 870 (which I took from a list of Tamil names but it turns out is also one of those new spellings of a more common name).

    I am not on the list, though. Katherine, Kathryn, and Kathleen are all on the list, but just plain Kathy is not there.

  47. Valerie: Can I just point out that #1000 for boys is the name Crew? As in J? Or neck? What.

    And if you search for “Kimber” #961 girls, your first result is a gun manufacturer. Awesome.

  50. PrettyAmiable, I am saddened to report that apparently Moroccan comes from the theme of the room where Nick proposed and that Monroe is for Marilyn Monroe.

    I also don’t understand the “giving your kid a name you’re not going to use.” I knew a kid growing up who was Eric James Smith, Jr. His parents called him Woody. WHY would you do that to your child?!

  51. andrea: Maybe this is a similar case? I hope?

    Wish I could agree, but I think the other explanation is probably closer to what is going on.

    But there is something else going on with all these male names that end in -en and -an. This is quickly becoming almost a lexical marker for male names. It’s fascinating to watch something like this happening in a lnaguage in real time. Languagehat had an interesting post that mentions this:
    http://www.languagehat.com/archives/004108.php
    It’s possible that this trend licensed a personal name like “Aryan”. Creepy.

    That “arya” element does show up in classical Indian names, but in that form, not as “Aryan”.

    The trend probably started with the sudden popularity of of names like Brandon and Jason and maybe even Kevin all at the same time, which gave speakers the chance to re-analyze the final syllable as being an independent marker of something meaningful, which only the -an in Brandon is, and not in Englsih. Whatever.

  52. It’s a crime that all four Golden Girls didn’t make the cut. 🙁

    My real name is apparently neither young nor hip either – I found a search engine once that would show you popular names for like the past 100 years, and my name hasn’t been popular since the 60’s or so (if I remember correctly). I like it though, it always made me feel unique among my peers.

  53. There were 264 girls and 1,720 boys born in the US in 2010 named “Kai”. That’s amazing. Pretty soon it’ll be as common as Sue and Bob. And the real numbers are probably higher than these stats show, because Chinese Kai’s are likely to have another syllable attached to it (as I do) even if they just go by Kai. I’ve met Japanese, German, and Swedish Kai’s. And they are all cool.

  54. Woody.
    WOODY.

    That’s just cruel and unusual punishment.
    My own name (Mounia) is not in there, which is kind of normal – arabic name, and reasonably uncommon at that.

  55. Not on the list! I was named after the song that came out about a decade before I was born, so it was still pretty popular then.

  56. I’ve always been told I have such a “unique name” when they find out my name is Liberty, and yet the name I’ve always gone by, Libby, is lower on the popularity chart than Liberty!

  57. Didn’t have to see the list to know I wasn’t on it. =P

    I like the name Alexandria. I’d name my kid that. Especially since there are many syllables to emphasize if I am yelling at her when she is in trouble to come downstairs at once.

  58. Hey,

    If Christian is a name, why not Moroccan? Also, the list is extremely diverse lingo/ethnically which is awesome (Go America!)

    Has anyone EVER met a Nevaeh?

    1. Also, the list is extremely diverse lingo/ethnically which is awesome (Go America!)

      Yes! I thought that too.

      But I still think “Moroccan” is a terrible name. Especially since the kid is apparently actually named after home decor. (I am naming my first-born “Shabby Chic”).

  59. FashionablyEvil: I also don’t understand the “giving your kid a name you’re not going to use.” I knew a kid growing up who was Eric James Smith, Jr. His parents called him Woody. WHY would you do that to your child?!

    My husband’s brother was named Norman Richard [Last Name], Jr. Because his father wanted a junior. His father hated his name and never went by it… so he gave it to his son. Who was then called Scooter. WTF?

    I go by Becky, instead of my real name, and have never used my real name. Thanks my parents only ever using my real name when I was in trouble, whenever someone addresses me as ‘Rebecca’ I automatically flinch and wonder what I fucked up.

    Which makes me adamant that when my husband and I have kids, we’re picking out names we will actually use.

  60. So I know someone who named their kid Cullen. As in, last name of those fake-vampires from Twilight. I still don’t know how to react to that name.

    Or to the whole Moroccan thing. Or the fact that she defended it by saying that the name was not after the country but a room in their house.

    Good. Lord.

  61. Jim & Andrea
    I do know an Indian person named Arya. To name your child Aryan in the US though, even if you were riffing on Ayran or whatever, at minimum signals either a complete ignorance of 20th century history, or a total disregard for whether or not people think your child is a Neo-Nazi.

    But anyways, in my family history, it was not uncommon to give everyone the same first name, and then call people by their middle names. Sometimes, not only would 5 generations all have the same first name, but even siblings would be given the same first name. I’m not sure what the purpose of that was. This was more common for males, but also occurred with females. Looking at birth vs. marriage records, my relatives also swapped around first and middle names with relative abandon and played fast and loose with spelling. I have a great great grandmother born Katharina Luisa, baptised Katherine Louise, married Luise Katharina, and listed on her child’s birth records as Louisa Katharine. (IMO Louise is going to make a big comeback in the next 10 years.) Also, naming children the same name as a dead sibling was very common, which I guess makes sense when infant mortality is high and you really want to pass on the name.

  62. andrea: I am a little creeped out, I will admit.However, I also wondered if it was a bastardization of Erin or Aaron.I have a cousin whose name is Ayron but it’s pronounced like the others.Hers is a heavily Gaelic interpretation of the name.Maybe this is a similar case?I hope?

    Hi hi, from and in India. Know exactly one kid named Aryan.

  63. My name does not clock on the list and considering I have only met 1 other person with it (though with an extra letter in hers), I doubt it’s going to catch on.

    My son’s name is in the 20s and my daughter’s is in the 200s though…so woo?

  64. (Although for the record I quite like the names Isabella and Jacob and am sad that Twilight forever tainted them).

    Same.

  65. Strangely, almost all the really preposterous names (except maybe “Heaven”) seem to be on the boys’ list. I’m cracking up that Augustus, Adonis, and Maximus are all in the top 1000! Amazing they found room for them amidst all those alternate spellings of Jayden/Jaden/J’heiydynne…

  66. Elisabeth – On my dad’s side, there were at one point four MCs and an AC. Only since my great-grandmother and grandmother died have the numbers gone down, so now we only have two people with the exact same name and one with practically the same name (yours truly). My mom’s father was supposed to be William Petru–William Peter, basically, except Slovak–but the hospital couldn’t figure out what a Petru was and wrote Patrick instead.

  67. Three versions of my name make the top 500 female names (#158, #458, #485), no versions make the list for male names. Interestingly, the spelling made famous by Vivien Leigh doesn’t make the cut, and the most popular spelling is the one that BritEng speakers consider the male spelling (Vivian). The spelling for the male version considered fraffly posh in the UK (as mocked in The Young Ones (Vyvyan)) appears nowhere.

  68. The Twilightifcation business is such a bummer. I would have eventually wanted to name a daughter Isabella Eleanor after three of my ancestors, Isabella of France, Isabella of Angouleme, and Eleanor of Aquitaine.

    Now I don’t know. :S

  69. My name’s at fifty six, while my birth name still lags behind Taraji and Simone. Makes me sad that I chose such a common name, but oh well. At least I’m not like my sister, whose name is at number fifteen.

    1. How did Twilight “taint” the names?

      Because now those names are most heavily associated with Twilight (I have neither read the books nor seen the movies, and even I know who Bella and Jacob are). And… Twilight is a low-brow cheesy vampire novel targeted at middle schoolers? Which is totally ok and I’m sure quite fun to enjoy! But not necessarily what I would want to be named after.

  71. Mine is #41 on the girls’ name list. And….my husband’s name is #41 on the boys list. Huh?

  72. I’m willing to bet, without even looking, that my name is not among the top 1000.

    Because my name is Jo. Not JoAnn or variants, not Joan, not Joyce, not Josephine. Just Jo.

  74. Jill: Yes! I thought that too.

    But I still think “Moroccan” is a terrible name. Especially since the kid is apparently actually named after home decor. (I am naming my first-born “Shabby Chic”).

    I’ve always liked ‘Early American Bordello’, myself.

  75. My real name is popular! For boys! I’m a gal! Hurray! No wonder I get so many odd looks when I show up for job interviews…

  77. Ahh, curses! The names I like for my hypothetical future offspring are almost all popular.

  78. Uh, yeah, what Angus said.

    Isabella and Jacob have been popular names for quite some time.

  79. I think I should name my imaginary kid Hardwood, in honor of both Mariah Carey and my living room floor.

    Hey, that least that way it will make some sort of sense to actually refer to him as “Woody”.

  80. Also in the Top 1000: Jayden, Raiden and Zaiden. Seriously, I barely scanned the list, and found three names that rhyme with Aiden. What.

    I’m at 390 on the dude side – Brett doesn’t make the top 1000 for girls, though. Apparently Hemingway is way less popular than Twilight (both pretty much equally misogynistic, though, so nobody wins there). On the other hand, all three of my cousins’ kids’ names are in the top 20.

  81. Ashley: How did Twilight “taint” the names?

    In my case, Stephanie Meyer took a first name I wanted to give my hypothetical daughter to honor two of her strong, powerful ancestors and made into a name explicitly associated with anti-feminist ideas (maybe you’ve heard of how problematic Meyer’s depicitions of gender are in the Twilight books).

  82. Whoops, that should have been “made it into a name explicitly associated with anti-feminist ideas.”

  83. Jill: But I still think “Moroccan” is a terrible name. Especially since the kid is apparently actually named after home decor. (I am naming my first-born “Shabby Chic”)

    I think Art Deco would be an awesome name…and you could even constantly take him or her to the Chrysler Building to remind them of how awesome a thing it is they represent.

  84. Sho: So I know someone who named their kid Cullen. As in, last name of those fake-vampires from Twilight. I still don’t know how to react to that name.

    “Cullen” is a variant of Colin, as in CuChulain. It’s pretty cool, unless you watch that Twilight mess. Beautiful landscapes.

    CassandraSays: I think I should name my imaginary kid Hardwood, in honor of both Mariah Carey and my living room floor.

    I knew a guy whose last name was Smallwood. I wonder how the family got that name.

    Sho: Hi hi, from and in India. Know exactly one kid named Aryan.

    So that does happen. Thanks for schooling me.

    Elisabeth: I do know an Indian person named Arya. To name your child Aryan in the US though, even if you were riffing on Ayran or whatever, at minimum signals either a complete ignorance of 20th century history, or a total disregard for whether or not people think your child is a Neo-Nazi.

    Yeah, but I’d go further. I think it signals total regard for people knowing without much doubt that not just your kid but your whole family is Neo-Nazi. Think that doesn’t happen?

  85. Wait, they named their kid Moroccan Cannon?

    Sounds like a weapon that fires dates and cinnamon and preserved lemons.

    I think “Morocco” is a fine name, but “Moroccan” is an adjective.

    Anyway, I don’t think my name has been anywhere the top 1000 since the 70s, if that.

  86. My name clocks in at 116, though there are two more common spellings/variations at 105 and, well, 1. As far as naming my way-off-in-the-future kids, my favorite for either gender is Galen, which is not on the list. We’ll see if I actually use it, though, because I currently have a friend named Galen, and our relationship is not either close enough or distant enough for that to not be a little weird.

  87. Nope. I have a love/hate relationship with my name, Shoshanna. No one can pronounce it, and I never know what to say when people tell me that they think it’s pretty. Once I said, “Thanks, I picked it myself!” and the person didn’t realize that I was joking. Another time someone said, “Stole that from the Native Americans, didn’t you.” I was, like…bwah?

    Shoshanna. Show-SHAH-Nah. Not Shoshone. It means flower. In Hebrew. Because I’m Jewish. Gah.

    1. Nope. I have a love/hate relationship with my name, Shoshanna. No one can pronounce it

      Really? Even after Jerry Seinfeld’s girlfriend, and her amazing clothing line?

      (I love the name Shoshanna and I’m surprised people have trouble with it).

  88. YES re: Raiden. If I produce young’ns, I’m going to name them all after Mortal Kombat characters.

    “This is my son Sub-Zero, his brother Ermac, and his sister Sheeva.”

  89. Also, as a Moroccan, I deeply resent my country being associated with Mariah Carey’s kid. 🙂

    Generally, though, I feel like naming kids after countries/cities should be off limits.

  90. I’m number 378. I’m always surprised to be so far down on a list like that, given the fact that my name is a month, but since elementary school, I rarely meet other Aprils. I like it that way!

    My boy counterpart name is Esteban, which is funny, given the nature of this post, because my first thought was “the mayor of Tijuana from Weeds??”

  91. I’ve met a few Oscars, and they’ve all been Latino. I guess there isn’t much of a Latino population in Nova Scotia.

    Adult Child:
    Apparently ‘Oscar’ is more popular than I thought. It ranks at #147 with 2641 births — though this is down from its place in 2009 of #131.

    I live in Canada, however, and in Nova Scotia particularly (though Ottawa is my hometown) so I don’t recall ever meeting another Oscar. I suppose it’s not so popular up here.

  92. My real name was in the top 100 in the decade I was named – but that was down steeply from its high point in the 1940s when it was in the top 50. These days it’s tailing near the end of the 400s.

    Fascinating tool, especially the one showing how name-popularity changes over time.

  93. mjameson: People who speak Irish Gaelic might say the same thing about Erin 😉

    Except Ériu was the name of a goddess, so it’s really just coming back full circle. Morocco has always been a placename.

    A variant of my name is in the top 100, but my actual name is in the 700s. And my surname is a variant of a more common one. My mom’s name is “Leigh”. I could spell our names out loud before I knew my alphabet.

  94. Actually I’ve changed my mind about Hardwood as a result of PrettyAmiable’s comment. If it’s a boy I’m totally naming him Sephiroth. He’ll be the most popular kid ever – won’t be able to step out the door without adult geeks showering him in attention.

    (This will be especially funny when I eventually get to interview the dude who the character design seems to have been based on.)

  95. My name is in Hebrew and very common in Israel but never in the lists here. My daughter is Avigail, which is the Hebrew version of Abigail which is in the top 10. My sons also have Hebrew names that are not on the list.

  96. CassandraSays:
    Actually I’ve changed my mind about Hardwood as a result of PrettyAmiable’s comment. If it’s a boy I’m totally naming him Sephiroth. He’ll be the most popular kid ever – won’t be able to step out the door without adult geeks showering him in attention.

    (This will be especially funny when I eventually get to interview the dude who the character design seems to have been based on.)

    Bah! Sephiroth is pretty lame as villains go, even just in the Final Fantasy Series. You should name your children in accordance with my preference for jRPG antagonists.

  97. Elizabeth at number twelve, no surprise there. My name has been in the top twenty as long as I can remember, possibly because it’s classic and also awesomely versatile.

  98. My name (which actually is Donna) was # 10 in the 1950’s, when I was born, and has plummeted to # 984 now. My birth name (which I’m not revealing; it’s a state secret!) was in the top 20 among boys’ names in the 1950’s, and is in the 300’s now.

    I did want to pick a name that was reasonably plausible for someone born when I was.

  99. Mine is spelled funny, so it doesn’t make the cut. We had a Liam a couple of years ago when it wasn’t even in the top 100, now it’s #30. We’re pregnant with a Maeve, which is #536, but I’m sure as soon as she’s born it will jump to #4 or some stupid thing. Names are tough.

  100. I go by one name informally and my birth name formally. I like having that choice because my formal name is completely awesome. If you saw it, you’d think I should be president. It’s too long for everyday use, but perfect for putting on publications.

    So to parents who are planning to name your kid what you call them: sometimes it’s nice to have the option between an “informal” everyday name and a “formal” name for special occasions. Think about how your kid’s name might look on, say, the spine of an academic monograph, or on an invitation to the Inaugural Ball.

  101. @MacaroniGalaxy – Why not open the floor even more?

    “Hey, Darth, didn’t I tell you to clean your…no, not the strangling me with the invisible hand thing again!”

    Actually there may be some issues with this plan. I think I’m going to stick with Sephiroth, who will just glare moodily at me and toss his hair like a normal teenager.

  102. If it’s a boy I’m totally naming him Sephiroth.

    I saw this and my first thought was, “Are you really into Kabbalah?”

  104. Also, naming children the same name as a dead sibling was very common, which I guess makes sense when infant mortality is high and you really want to pass on the name.

    I’m actually named after a dead half sister. There’s some serious family drama wound up in my name as well. Good times, that.

  105. I just scrolled through the 1000, and the legal spelling of my name (Analee), my preferred and eventual legal spelling (Annaleigh), and the screw up on my birth certificate (Annalee), are all nowhere to be found. Cool.

  106. Mine is #88 — it was higher than that a few years ago. But when I was born, it was much farther down the list.

    I remember hearing years ago that baby name popularity is not always well understood. Sometimes a particular name will soar in popularity without any obvious cause (like a celebrity or popular book/TV show/movie character).Everyone just seems to decide all at once “Hmm…Charlotte is a good name,” and if you asked them, they wouldn’t be able to tell you why, and wouldn’t think many other people felt the same way — but Charlotte will be in the top ten names that year.

    I’m inclined to write down the names I like right now for any future kids — I bet they will be much more popular next year, even though I’m not getting them from popular sources and don’t hear of many other people considering them.

  107. Kim is at #68? Really? All the Kims at the secret weekly Kim meetings will be very disappointed. We’ll have to work harder.

    (Also, sympathies to anyone named “Kimora”. Maybe it sounds better in an American accent.)

  108. My double first-name is rare enough that as far as I know only two living people have it in the world (me and my second cousin) but the first part of it: Mary, has been dropping precipitously.

    I do think that some of the name popularity comes from us having multiple people with the same first name that we grew up with, because of the odd bunching thing, and so strenuously avoid those names that we’ve known too many of – there were four Sarahs and three Jennifers on my field hockey team, though I notice that those names are *much* less popular now than they were in the ’70s when I was born.

    I’m pleased to see a couple of people liking Murray – that’s my and my and my sister’s maiden name, and she named my nephew that, and I think it works really well!

    I do go by Mimi, which is not my given name, but my mom tried her *very hardest* not to get it to stick, and called me by my double first name until I was five, but Mimi’s so easy, and my sister wouldn’t stop calling me that, so eventually she just went with it.

  109. My name was hugely popular when I was a kid, down to 126 now. I’m happy to say that my son (Gage) is in the 100s, daughter (Ariel) in the 200s, and my youngest (Selene) doesn’t show up at all. We like unusual names, yet they each have meaning to us.

  110. Mimi,
    It makes sense that names common when now-moms were young aren’t as popular now, but what confuses me is the enduring popularity of Emily. I am at a prime baby-having age, and Emilys in my age cohort were a dime a dozen growing up. You’d think all the moms named Emily would pick something else for their daughters. All the Jennifers, Brittanys, and Amandas seemed to pick something else.

  111. My mom named me Michael because it was “unique and unusual”, seriously.

    Yeah. My parents thought the same thing when they named me Jessica. Not so unique and unusual growing up in the 80’s. Glad to see it’s dropped down to #92.

    Serenity (not my name) is 84, apparantly the nerds are breeding.

    I can’t criticize them. My husband and I have already decided to name our someday-future-daughter Coraline.

  112. I clock in at 5 on the boys. And for all those people complaining about Twilight ruining perfectly good names, you should try having a Mel Gibson film about the guy whose name you share come out while you are in primary school. Sixteen years later and the jokes still haven’t stopped.

  113. sherunslunatic: My husband and I have already decided to name our someday-future-daughter Coraline.

    OH MY GOD I LOVE CORALINE! *dies* They say the movie was as good as the book but I do not believe it did the book justice!

  114. Whoo #881 for firstname, middle name is #6

    Fun fact if you google search my first and middle name in quotes you get links at random to my feministe comments. If you google my full name I dominate goggle! And most of them are links to me commenting on various feminist issues heh.

  115. Mine is too French to make the cut, even without the accent mark. No Monique either, but Dominique is on the list for both girls and boys (near the bottom).

  117. My name is way down at #596.

    That makes me really happy, because I kinda hate my name because it’s so common among women my age. (It was #THIRTY-FREAKIN’-SIX in 1984, when I was born, and which seems to have been the peak of its popularity. Sigh).

    All sorts of names I find beautiful, and have envied other people for having, have placed higher on the list than my boring moniker — names like Serena, Ximena/Jimena, Aaliyah, Jasmine, Celeste, Evangeline, Grace, Lorelei, Estrella, Arabella, Alessandra, Athena, Daphne, Ariel, Aurora, Penelope.

  118. Véronique: Mine is too French to make the cut, even without the accent mark. No Monique either, but Dominique is on the list for both girls and boys (near the bottom).

    Angelique also happened to make the girls’ list. Right now one of the actresses on the Mexican telenovelas that show on Univision at this time is named Angelique Boyer (she’s a French-born Mexicana). That’s not the reason the name Angelique is on the list probably, but I hadn’t heard of the name until I heard of Angelique Boyer.

  119. I approve of Sephiroth! Bonus if you have twins and plan to be a negligent parent who pits them against one another. And names the other Cloud, of course.

    It’s not quite right, but it’ll do.

    [disclaimer: I don’t advocate negligent parenting]

  120. My name is #30, and my if-born-as-opposite-sex name is #192. As a kid I was rarely (or possibly never?) the only person with my name in a classroom, and I think part of the reason that I’m so opposed to the whole changing your last name when you marry thing is that I’ve always has to resort to my last name to distinguish myself from the others, and so it’s really become part of my identity. When you’re writing your last initial on every single elementary school quiz in existence you get quite used to seeing it.

    I tend to like names that are kind of longish and dignified sounding, like Nathaniel or Alexander or Cordelia or Miranda — something that wouldn’t sound silly or childish or faddish in a formal setting. (And nothing spelled “creatively” like “Alysynne-the-e-is-silent” if at all possible. Yah I’m a total name snob. Thank god I don’t have kids. :p)

  121. I find it incredibly interesting how clustered the names of my friends and acquaintances are. I have more than a sneaking suspicion it’s a class thing (even accounting for racial and ethnic backgrounds).

  122. Bagelsan: (And nothing spelled “creatively” like “Alysynne-the-e-is-silent” if at all possible.

    But I love Anne-spelled-with-an-E!

    Anyone who gets the reference gets hearts.

  123. Of course my name is not on the list. Apparently it peaked at 37 in the 30’s. That makes sense. It seems that every other time I introduce myself to anyone, their response is “that was my grandmother’s name.” Mine TOO!!!

    The second most common thing that people say when I introduce myself is “is your real name Margaret?” Margaret is also not on the list.

    My middle name is 482.

    Naming kids seems like a ridiculously difficult. I don’t my mom didn’t anticipate her chubby cheeked little girl crying over and over again “they call me Piggy!” I’ve come to terms with my name, but I hated it for a very long time.

    And you have no idea how many drunk guys in bars have slaughtered “pretty pretty pretty pretty Peggy Sue”

    My friend just named her baby Dylan Thomas [last name]. She had no idea until I explained it to her.

  124. My name has been pretty steadily in the 380-500 range for years — but I’ve never met another American-born Hugo who wasn’t of Latino ancestry. I know English, Swedish, and German Hugos… but in the States, it’s generally limited to Hispanics.

    My wife (Eira, “snow” in Welsh) and my daughter Heloise aren’t in the top 1000. Neither are the names we’re thinking about for a second child…

  125. Speaking of formal names versus nicknames that are actually used more often, the best case I ever encountered was a German guy named Wolfgang. His family called him Wolfie. This was particularly cute in that he was a big, looming, handsome sort of guy with rather impressive eyebrows, and a sweet personality.

    Shame he wasn’t a teenager during the sparklevamp craze – can you imagine how popular he’d have been? He’d have been thanking his parents, for sure.

  126. peggyluwho:Naming kids seems like a ridiculously difficult. I don’t my mom didn’t anticipate her chubby cheeked little girl crying over and over again “they call me Piggy!” I’ve come to terms with my name, but I hated it for a very long time.

    Oh gosh. I so understand. I went through adolesence occasionally known as “Anally.” I doubt my parents ever saw that coming, I would like to think that if they had had a crystal ball back then they would have done the kind thing and at least give me another N. It’s one reason why I go by Annaleigh instead of Analee online and among friends.

  127. The Amazing Kim:(Also, sympathies to anyone named “Kimora”. Maybe it sounds better in an American accent.)

    I like the name, but that’s because I’m sort of a Kimora Lee Simmons fan. I suspect the name is on the list because of her influence. If I had a partner of Japanese ancestry, I’d consider Kimora as a potential name for a daughter.

  128. Annaleigh: Oh gosh. I so understand. I went through adolesence occasionally known as “Anally.” I doubt my parents ever saw that coming, I would like to think that if they had had a crystal ball back then they would have done the kind thing and at least give me another N. It’s one reason why I go by Annaleigh instead of Analee online and among friends.

    Aaaah….yeah, I think if you’re even thinking about having kids, you should drink a six pack with your sig’o (prior to getting preggers, of course), and list off the names, and then try to come up with any and all atrocious variations kids will come up with for the name you’re about to saddle your bundle with.

    My dad’s family has called him Porky his entire life, because his initials are H.A.M. It didn’t help.

    I’m contemplating changing my last name, for several reasons. Those of you who have done this, is it really as overly complicated as I’m afraid it will be?

  129. Shoshie – I have heard from another Shoshana that nobody can pronounce her name. But… how?! Three easy syllables, all with sounds readily found in the English language!

    About the name Erin, I speak Irish and was born in Northern Ireland, but the name doesn’t weird me out too much – probably because there are so many people who have the name, though. That and all those people with “Ireland” for a last name.

  130. My real name is Aslynn, a mispronounced mispelled irish name (Aislinn) that people usually confuse for Aslan the lion from the chronicles of narnia. Or I get Ass-lyn…

    Just goes to show that hippies with bongs should not be allowed to come up with or alter names!

  132. No kids for us, being barren dykes and all that, but about 5 years ago we had a silly conversation about combining random words to make baby names. The winners, my ‘Anaglypta Seagrass; and her ‘Startermotor Download’, don’t look so bizarre now, thanks to Mariah.

    My name isn’t on the top 1000 (couple of people in here have it though) and lovemuppet’s name is in the 700s.

  133. @Tricia, BrettK – stand outside our village school and shout “….AIDEN!” and you’ll be swarmed by boys and girls. Aidan, Jayden, Brayden, Cayden, Zaidin, Grayden, Haydin, etc. (and their many varied spellings) teem through the gates every day. The girls that are called Aedynne are called Madison, although one family friend ended up with a ‘Maddisson’ because she liked the name, but wasn’t sure how to spell it.

  134. Paraxeni – it’s sooo true. The -ayden names started around the time my son was born – 6+ years ago and I have to hold my tongue cause I do have several friends who have -ayden named children. It also didn’t help when Britney spears named one of her boys jayden, IMHO.

    I find it funny that at my son’s school we have popular names but they are Amelia, caroline, ben, Nicholas, and Henry.

  135. I think it’s a generational thing. Long before Twilight, I had a ton of friends who wanted their daughters named Isabella. I don’t mind naming my son Jacob or Edward. They’re all good strong names. I guess for a lot–that they happened to be characters from a very popular book, was an added bonus. I wish the hating on popular books (or movies, or shows) because they’re not a person’s personal “thing” *and* because of their popularity is so… meh.

  137. evil_fizz: I find it incredibly interesting how clustered the names of my friends and acquaintances are. I have more than a sneaking suspicion it’s a class thing (even accounting for racial and ethnic backgrounds).

    Freakonomics says so. Though they proved that the way a child is named, while it may be a result of their parents’ and class’s background, does not create their personality, like someone named “Pussy Galore” will not necessarily grow up to be a Bond girl–it just means that her parents are probably very funny. 😀 Though I can’t imagine her getting throuh middle school alive… ah, well.

  139. I don’t make the top 1000, but then the name is French in origin, so that’s not too surprising. (It’s fairly common here in Quebec, though.)

    I have always wanted to name a daughter Arabella, which seems to have jumped from 800 something to the mid 300s. I could see that being a residual “bella” effect.

  140. Jill, Yonah-

    Yeah…it kind of astonishes me how regularly people have trouble with it. Sho-shay-na, Sho-sho-na, Sho-sho-nee, some people just drop off the first syllable altogether and call me Shayna or Shawna because they think that I’ve misspelled my own name or something. I think people see names that are unusual, particularly if they’re non-Western, and just give up. There’s this cultural meme about “those ridiculous foreign names” that I see a lot. I understand having trouble with sounds that aren’t found in the English language, but that doesn’t seem to be all of it. I have so many stories from school and the first day of class. The best one is when my Driver’s Ed teacher called me Sho-anna for most of the quarter. I pretty much gave up on correcting him, but he called me by that name in front of my friend who burst out laughing. When she corrected him, he looked embarrassed, then annoyed, then said, “Well, I like Sho-anna better.” I was pretty pissed.

  141. The hardest name I’ve ever found to pronounce is Sihoban – which is apparently pronounced like ‘Chevonne?’

    I used to have a big problem knowing how to pronounce Cheyenne. I was pronouncing it Chay-en but it’s Shy-Anne I guess.

    Although it’s a common pronunciation, growing up in the time of 90210, I HATED when people called me On-Drea. Still do.

  142. Andrea, it’s so funny because there’s a woman named Shevon in my neighborhood. I had to leave her a note once and wrote her name out in the Irish way and she was really confused!

  143. PrettyAmiable: I approve of Sephiroth! Bonus if you have twins and plan to be a negligent parent who pits them against one another. And names the other Cloud, of course.

    My husband advocates us changing our last name to “Von Doom” and naming our son Maximillian. That way if he grows up to be a supervillian, he could call himself Maximum Doom.

    It’s getting harder and harder to veto it.

  144. #603 — down from 488! When my mom named me, Meredith was sort of unusual. It doesn’t sound like all the girl names that end in -a or -ie or -y, at least, though I’ve known 3 or 4 other Merediths in my life.

    And yes, Sid (#60) … I’ve actually met 3 girls named Nevaeh. (I teach 6th grade.)

  145. It’s interesting how issues of class, region and generation play out in names. My wife is older than I — when/where she grew up the name “Jennifer” was a “low-class” name. By my age cohort, it seems that, regardless of socio-economic standing, every other girl is named Jennifer (or some variant thereof).

  146. I love Arabella. Very pretty.

    If I had a daughter, I would want to name her Judith or Edith or something grown-up sounding like that. I just like those names. My sister named her daughter Audra, after our great grandmother, which is another one I really like and not on the list at all.

    However, the name the husband and I actually agreed on had one of our offspring been a girl (we have two boys) was Anna Tharshini. Anna because that is really the *only* girl name we both liked well enough to go with and Tharshini because that is part of the name of all his sisters and I wanted our kids to have both Tamil and Western parts to their names.

  147. Sid:
    Hey,

    If Christian is a name, why not Moroccan?Also, the list is extremely diverse lingo/ethnically which is awesome (Go America!)

    Has anyone EVER met a Nevaeh?

    Yep, I was in Kindergarten with a Nevaeh in the early 90s. Even as a child I thought her name was a bit silly.

  148. Fascinating tool, especially the one showing how name-popularity changes over time.

    Agreed. I didn’t know til I was playing around with it that Allison was actually a boy’s name (though not a popular one) and not really a girl’s name at all, until about 1930 when it all of a sudden switched and took off in popularity as a girl’s name. I tried to figure out what the hell happened to make the sudden and complete switch but google was no help to me 🙁

    (And nothing spelled “creatively” like “Alysynne-the-e-is-silent” if at all possible.

    … Alisson is on the list.

  149. My daughter’s name is Olive and its like 546th. Up from 988th from 2007.

    I still get shit that her name is weird but obviously it isn’t. Not that I care if her name is weird (I don’t think so).. people just feel bad for her since our last name is an old lady name so she’s a firsty firsty kid.

    Our next child will be Mabel. That’s not popular either.

  150. Looks like Rachel is #100. I’m only surprised that it’s not higher on the list because I used to know tons of people names Rachel.

  151. This is fun. My name is #448, but the name we’ve picked for our son who is due in August is Anton – which is not in the top 1000 apparently. It’s a lot more popular in Russia, where my son’s dad is from. Conveniently, it was also the last name of my grandfather (my dad’s stepfather) which is a big part of why we picked it.

    My dad wanted to have a son named Wolfgang. He only had daughters, and my mom probably would have vetoed it anyway.

    I will add that I also love the name Shoshanna! I went to school with someone who had that name, that was the first time I heard it.

  152. Meredith:
    #603 — down from 488! When my mom named me, Meredith was sort of unusual. It doesn’t sound like all the girl names that end in -a or -ie or -y, at least, though I’ve known 3 or 4 other Merediths in my life.

    And yes, Sid (#60) … I’ve actually met 3 girls named Nevaeh. (I teach 6th grade.)

    I LOVE your name. I considered it for my soon to be daughter but it didn’t really work with surnames.

    My name (which actually is Roisin) doesn’t appear, nor does the name we eventually settled on for baby, Astrid. Partner’s name doesn’t either, Yuuki. But we’re in the UK and I know other people with all of our names here!!

  153. Lis: Except Ériu was the name of a goddess, so it’s really just coming back full circle. Morocco has always been a placename.

    Eriu *is* a goddess. JK. The modern form is ‘Eire”. ‘Erin” still doesn’t work because it’s the dative case form, so it just sounds like the parents didn’t know.

    Single-sex names in Irish go way, way back. I mean at least there are a couple. “Dara” (“oak”) is a name in that form, and is the base both for Darach (Derek) and Doreen. It’s single sex becaseu both men and women could be druids.

    Then there’s “Kelly”, “geallach” = bright/shining.

    And then there are coincidental couplets, like “Shannon”. Shannon is originally a man’s name that goes back to Seanachan, “Fox-man”, along with

    Shannon the girl’s name, derived (in America mostly, I think ) from the river Shannon. rivers in Ireland are not only grammatically feminine, they are goddesses in the form of rivers.

    groggette: Agreed. I didn’t know til I was playing around with it that Allison was actually a boy’s name (though not a popular one) and not really a girl’s name at all, until about 1930 when it all of a sudden switched and took off in popularity as a girl’s name. I tried to figure out what the hell happened to make the sudden and complete switch but google was no help to me 🙁

    This stuff fascinates me. You’d think that the -son part would have kept the name prety much male, but it’s not always really derived from ‘son”. (I always chuckle at people naming girls “Madison” or “Mackenzie”, but no one seems to be teasing the actual girls over it, and that’s what matters.) The name sounds to me like a variant of “Alice” and maybe that’s what made the flip possible. But why was it so sudden? That’s what’s interesting.

  154. my husband and i inadvertantly named our two boys after the two male leads in a movie series. every once in a while someone’s eyes will light up thinking we were going that route but instead were going for a bit of a theme in another direction.

    the last time my first born’s name was in the top anything was in the early 1900s. now it’s in the 500s. when he was very little, we met another man who was middle-aged with the same name and he said he had never met another person. since then, we’ve come across three others of various ages – one even had the same middle name but that’s just james.

    if my youngest had been a girl, she would had been named cornelia with it being shortened to keenan.

  155. I think naming goes after the aesthetic of the day — right now with the pretty, Anthropologie type aesthetic, people are gravitating to the romantic, feminine names that were popular 80-125 years ago, especially for girls. For boys I’m seeing a revival of older gentlemanly names like Harry.

    We’re trying to name this baby and it’s been particularly difficult because my mom is under the impression that the baby MUST be named after family. We have some great names in the last few generations (Katherine, Mary Belle, Aubrey/Audrey) and some not so awesome in 2011 names (Fanny, Elnora). Looking back through the family tree I found a Bird and a Birdie, and some wonderful boy names like Julien and Green.

    Also, when I named my son I thought I picked a really unusual name for him, but it turns out it’s been in the top ten for the last decade for boys’ names. With this girl, I’m trying to keep her with an unusual name, and one that isn’t too frilly-girly. I also think about, say, what impressions may be given when she turns in a resume in 20 years with this name at the top. My inclination is to give her a gender neutral or unisex name.

    SO MUCH PRESSURE.

    1. We’re trying to name this baby and it’s been particularly difficult because my mom is under the impression that the baby MUST be named after family. We have some great names in the last few generations (Katherine, Mary Belle, Aubrey/Audrey) and some not so awesome in 2011 names (Fanny, Elnora). Looking back through the family tree I found a Bird and a Birdie, and some wonderful boy names like Julien and Green.

      Just name the kid “Green Bird Fanny” and call it a day.

  156. So…yeah. #547. That’s not too surprising. I rarely meet other Marilyn’s that aren’t women at least 40 years older than me (I’m 26.)

    However, for the first time EVER, there is another Marilyn in one of my classes. It’s so weird. I even feel strange talking to her; plus, she spells her name wrong. “Marylin.” It’s like everyone is conspiring against me…

  158. My real first name is pretty popular, my online name doesn’t make it into the list.

    My desire to give any child of mine an unusual name would sadly be trumped by the desire to not make them too much of a target at school (i remember one poor guy at school with the middle name of Basil. he was never allowed to live it down). While I’m a total geek who adores Lord of the Rings, i would go for something simple and non-obvious like Sam or Elanor, rather than the pretty Elven names.

    One of my favourite unusual names came from the blogger PZ Myers, who named their first child Alaric after the leader of the Visigoths who sacked Rome…

  159. In case anyone’s still curious, I just did a Facebook search on the name “Aryan.” The vast majority of folks who show up appear to be South Asian or East Asian.

  160. Jim, according to wikipedia, Alison (the feminine version of the name, so the ‘son’ isn’t what makes it masculine) was originally a medieval Norman nickname for Alice. So your not far off with the Alice connection but that was there long before the switch over.

  161. Y’all! I was in a Manhattan Starbucks today and the lady behind me had my name. You know, the one that didn’t make the list. SUCK ON THAT.

  162. Arkady:
    (i remember one poor guy at school with the middle name of Basil. he was never allowed to live it down)

    Yup, that’s the ex-hub’s name too. HATED it. Hence the other monikers.

  163. My inclination is to give her a gender neutral or unisex name.

    I think once names become “unisex” they really start trending female (e.g., Evelyn, Leslie, and Shannon). I’ll be interested to see if there are any boys being named Jordan or Taylor in another 20 or so years.

  164. groggette:
    hmmm, looks like we need to start a feministe Allison club.

    Fucking absolutely we do! Feministe Allisons band together.

  165. The American spelling of my Italian name is #64. I am SHOCKED that the Italian version is #383! (Up from #828 in 2009 – what happened THERE?) And my middle name is actually #495! Alessandra was non-existent when I was born in the ’80s, although apparently Elisa was popular. I’ve never met another one though. Although my 9th grade class had a Lexy, Alexis, Alexandra, and me…

    My boyfriend is 5 + 129 (and goes by 129).

    My sister is in the top 100 with her real name and top 200 with the name she goes by.

    The name I would give a girl-child is #195. Don’t have a name I like for a boy yet, so.

    Neither of my parents show up on the list. Mom’s name hasn’t been used since the 90s and Dad’s name doesn’t even show up in the search!

  166. My parents gave me my name in 1963 because the Mona Lisa had just toured the US, and because they thought it was pretty and very unusual.

    Recently my friend Lisa and I spent the evening together. First we went to Walmart, where someone in an aisle called out, “Lisa!” and we turned around, but they were not talking to either of us. Immediately afterward, we went to a coffee shop, at which we were waited on by Lisa.

    Lisa is the most popular girl’s name from the whole decade of the 1960’s. One day we’ll all be in the nursing home together, and we’ll all be 90 years old and confused and think that we are each other.

  167. Angus Johnston: In case anyone’s still curious, I just did a Facebook search on the name “Aryan.” The vast majority of folks who show up appear to be South Asian or East Asian.

    Well then I was not just a little wrong on that, I was way off. What a relief. But like whoever it was upthread, if I saw a rural white kid witha name like that, the stereotypes would start flying in my head.

    groggette: Jim, according to wikipedia, Alison (the feminine version of the name, so the ‘son’ isn’t what makes it masculine) was originally a medieval Norman nickname for Alice. So your not far off with the Alice connection but that was there long before the switch over.

    There you go. With etymology you really can’t go by appearances. BTW I have always loved that name. The first person I ever met who had that name was really pleasant.

    Lisa: My parents gave me my name in 1963 because the Mona Lisa had just toured the US, and because they thought it was pretty and very unusual.

    That explains why Sinatra did that song about then. That probably helped popularize the name further.

  168. Speaking of great names, my husband knew a man born of Chinese parents whose first name was Pompidou. Apparently Dad was a big fan of 70s French president George Pompidou, why I cannot tell. I find Pompidou a seriously awesome first name.

  169. RE the name Sioban (and the various spelling of it, of which there are several). I had a classmate with that name, and everyone at our school insisted on calling her “Shona”. And this was in Scotland. I’m just glad that my parents gave me one of the more phonetic-looking Gaelic names, so at least in the UK people say it correctly.

    (And Emeryn, clearly little Sephiroth and little Maximum Doom are going to be good friends.)

  170. I once wrote a will for a client who had 4 kids: Amanda, Jason, Ethan and … Zeus. He told me very proudly that he was finally allowed to name the youngest.

    I also did one for someone whose kids were Zoltan, Atilla, and Jennifer.

    People do interesting things.

  171. Really? #12? It’s funny because, although I’m sure it’s a pretty common name … I’ve only personally known a couple of people in my whole life who have the same name. And I’ve never had another Elizabeth in any class I’ve been in, or in the company I worked for, or ANYTHING.

    I’m not saying the list-makers are liars. But it’s not like my name has ever been UNpopular. The year I was born it was #10. It was supposed to be my brother’s name (but he was a boy, so it wasn’t) and that year it was #9. So why don’t I know oodles of Elizabeths or Beths or Betsys or Lizas or … ?? So strange.

  172. Meanwhile, I just found out that my best friend in HS had the #1 name the year we were born and now it’s ~120! Wow!!

  173. #10 and
    1) people still don’t know how to spell it (Liem, Leam, …)
    2) people still don’t know how to pronounce it (it’s not LIE-uhm, LEE-am, limb or lame; it’s LEE-ehm or LEE-uhm)
    3) A lot of people don’t know who Liam Neeson is (maybe they would recognize him by his face or voice, but not by his name)

  174. I rank at number 15 – when I was born, it was just on its way up, and my mother hadn’t met another Samantha, so she thought it was something different.

    She was also a forward thinking liberal feminist, who wanted a name that could be shortened for any of numerous reasons: Sam if I identify as male, Sam if I need to be taken more seriously than women tend to on paper, Etc. Overall, I’m grateful for her thoughtfulness, although I hated it in kindergarten, when I was the last person done with writing my name on my paper: jenny, dani, mary, beth, nancy and donna all got done WAY faster, and the teacher would already start to move on.

  175. After we had our son Liam, the next three, I believe, male babies delivered by our midwife were also Liams. There is a Liam Almostthesamenameasours who goes to the same school as our Liam, and we almost had the wrong Liam delivered to us once.
    My own name apparently had a burst of popularity around when I was born, for some unknowable ghastly reason. When I was young, I once met another girl who had both the same first name and the same last name as I did.

  176. CassandraSays:
    Speaking of formal names versus nicknames that are actually used more often, the best case I ever encountered was a German guy named Wolfgang. His family called him Wolfie. This was particularly cute in that he was a big, looming, handsome sort of guy with rather impressive eyebrows, and a sweet personality.

    Shame he wasn’t a teenager during the sparklevamp craze – can you imagine how popular he’d have been? He’d have been thanking his parents, for sure.

    our Wolfie is now three. people look at me crosseyed until they meet him. it suits him. his baby sister Trillian (we call her Trilli) gets her share of weird looks too at first. but again, it seems to suit her. what I have noticed is that their names are fun for other children to say, which seems to have made them more, er, popular socially, so to speak. insofar as popularity is important before one is 13 years old.

  177. Liza: And if you search for “Kimber” #961 girls, your first result is a gun manufacturer. Awesome.

    “Kimber” has got to be from the model/porn star/fiance/serial killer victim on Nip/Tuck, right?

  178. I hope Betty White doesn’t try to usurp Jean Marsh’s planned epithet – ROSE GOES.

  179. Allison:
    #38.Hell yeah.

    And apparently the different spellings are counted as different names. My spelling is 273. I always thought mine was the conventional spelling, but not in North America!

  180. “Herschel” isn’t up there.

    My real name is “Charles,” though, which is number 63, which actually surprises me — it seems like such an old-fashioned name even to me.

  181. Parents should use a book of names–not a TV show–to at least get ideas for their child’s name. Find something and put a twist to it. That’s how I get unique names for characters in my fiction.

  182. Nah. The author chose them for twilight because they were already on the so popular. My 10yo has always had a Jake on his soccer and baseball teams. We struck Isabella from our girl name list when my now 7yo (boy) was born because it was too popular. And my husband was putting mason on the boy name list back in 1999 when the 10yo was cooking.

    Aryan, though, I have no explanation for. (shudder)

  184. Jill: And I suspect that the Emma craze began with Friends.

    Yep. I only ever met one Emma in my life (I’m 32) and I loved having a relatively uncommon name, until a year or so after Rachel named her baby Emma on Friends. Then suddenly every little girl I encountered had my name. I still haven’t gotten over my indignation about that – it’s MY name, everyone else leave it alone!

  185. Natalia is in the top 100. WTF. This shit needs to stop. That is MY name, not yours!

    It’s like, consistently in the top ten in Russia… but that’s Russia!!!

  186. I refuse to accept the Kardashians had any influence over the naming of my four month old nephew. I believe this because when I pointed out to my sister that one of the Kardashians named her kid Mason, she responded with an “Really? That’s nice.”

  187. Bagelsan:

    I tend to like names that are kind of longish and dignified sounding, like Nathaniel or Alexander or Cordelia or Miranda — something that wouldn’t sound silly or childish or faddish in a formal setting. (And nothing spelled “creatively” like “Alysynne-the-e-is-silent” if at all possible. Yah I’m a total name snob. Thank god I don’t have kids. :p)

    Agreed. It seems to me that a lot of people seem to forget that the name is going to stick with the child into adulthood, onto college applications, job applications, etc. Name changing is expensive and time-consuming. I plan not to have kids either, just cats, who won’t hate me for naming them Jezebel, Scheherezade and Černobog.

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