What's in a name?
Baby Center has released its list of the top 100 baby names for 2006. The top five names for girls are Emma, Madison, Ava, Emily and Isabella, while Aiden, Jacob, Ethan, Ryan and Matthew top the boys' list.
Funny how times change -- when I was growing up, I can only remember one girl with a name in the top five, Emily Matunis, and she was the last of 12 children so I figured her parents had simply run out of names. Likewise for boys, I didn't grow up with any Aidens, Jacobs, Ethans or Ryans -- only Matt Thomas keeps this child of the 70's connected to the children of the aughts.
Our baby is codenamed "Little Elvis" -- turns out that Elvis was the 784th most popular name in 2005, according to the Social Security Administration. The real intended name for the baby (we're keeping that a secret until "Little Elvis" is born) is much more popular -- usually in the top 10 each year.
My own name, Robert, was #5 in my birth year of 1970. By the time I got to high school, my regular school lunch crew was composed of 3 Roberts and a George. While my parents and brother usually called me "Rob" during my childhood, teachers began to call me "Bob" as a way to differentiate me from my lunchmates/classmates Robert Spohn and Rob Weibley. When I got to college, it was more of the same as professors opted to call me Bob to distinguish me from my friend/roommate/eventual "best man" at my wedding, Rob Lubas.
So mine is a popular name (though it has been falling in recent years, now at #39 as of 2005). While I sometimes think that it would be cool to have a less-common name that teachers would stumble over and strangers would remark, "Well, isn't that an unusual name?!?," I guess that would get old in a hurry. So, is there an advantage/disadvantage with going with a popular name?
Funny how times change -- when I was growing up, I can only remember one girl with a name in the top five, Emily Matunis, and she was the last of 12 children so I figured her parents had simply run out of names. Likewise for boys, I didn't grow up with any Aidens, Jacobs, Ethans or Ryans -- only Matt Thomas keeps this child of the 70's connected to the children of the aughts.
Our baby is codenamed "Little Elvis" -- turns out that Elvis was the 784th most popular name in 2005, according to the Social Security Administration. The real intended name for the baby (we're keeping that a secret until "Little Elvis" is born) is much more popular -- usually in the top 10 each year.
My own name, Robert, was #5 in my birth year of 1970. By the time I got to high school, my regular school lunch crew was composed of 3 Roberts and a George. While my parents and brother usually called me "Rob" during my childhood, teachers began to call me "Bob" as a way to differentiate me from my lunchmates/classmates Robert Spohn and Rob Weibley. When I got to college, it was more of the same as professors opted to call me Bob to distinguish me from my friend/roommate/eventual "best man" at my wedding, Rob Lubas.
So mine is a popular name (though it has been falling in recent years, now at #39 as of 2005). While I sometimes think that it would be cool to have a less-common name that teachers would stumble over and strangers would remark, "Well, isn't that an unusual name?!?," I guess that would get old in a hurry. So, is there an advantage/disadvantage with going with a popular name?
1 Comments:
My name, Meredith, didn't crack the top 1,000 for the past 25 years. My biggest problems were people spelling it wrong and being called "Marry it" by my fourth grade teacher!
Post a Comment
<< Home