Thursday, May 5, 2011

BETTER THAN SHARK WEEK! It's baby name week at the Social Security Administration, and the 2010 names list is up.

Early read on the girls' top 20: The Infanta name trend remains ascendant, with Isabella hanging on to the top slot. There's a bit of mobility in the 2-4 zone, going Sophia, Emma, Olivia instead of Emma, Olivia, Sophia in 2009. Not a lot of excitement otherwise -- the biggest move in the top 20 is Hailey, which went to 19 from 25.

In the boys top 20, no news at the top of the pack, with Jacob/Ethan/Michael maintaining their 1-3 spots. 4 is Jayden, up from 8, and Elijah cracks the top 20 at 18, up from 22. The biggest news is Mason, which fliew up to 12 from 34. (Given that it was my second choice name for Cosmo Boy back in 2006, I am feeling pretty good about dodging that bullet.)

That's it for me for now, but I expect others will have thoughts to add over the course of the day. And of course, keep an eye out for insight from the Baby Name Wizard over the next few days. (For starters, here's her take on the fastest-rising names this year.)

59 comments:

  1. Marsha10:03 AM

    As always, it's not the top 10s that amaze me - they're insanely ubiquitous, so I fully get why they're top 10. (Except Anthony. I know not a single Anthony under the age of 18. But I hang mostly with Jews, so that's likely why.)

    What gets me is the stuff in the top 100 that shows how undiverse my social circle is. 6300 people named their daughters Nevaeh last year. 3400 people for Serenity. 6000 for Brooklyn. 4600 Aaliyah. 3900 Gianna. These are not names I'm running into at my kids' schools. And there are thousands of these kids around. Messes with my head sometimes.

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  2. Isn't the Kardashian baby named Mason? 

    I wonder if in a couple of years Moroccan will shoot to the top of the list?

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  3. One of the reasons I go by Jake, rather than my given name, Jacob, is that I associate the latter so strongly with a little boy's name because it's been the #1 baby name for 12 years and in the top 5 for 15 years, so everywhere I go I hear parents calling, "come on Jacob."  I've used Jake exclusively for so long now that when I see the few people who call me Jacob (relatives plus some of my parents' friends who have known me since I was a kid), it literally sounds like they are talking about someone else.  Didn't work out so great for my parents, who wanted a unique name in 1973.  It was only #122 then, having climbed out of the 300s in the late 1960s.

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  4. Fred App10:16 AM

    You buried the lede: "For the first time since 1954, Elvis did not make the list of 1,000 most popular baby names."

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  5. Emily W10:41 AM

    My parents also thougth they were being less than trendy by picking "Emily" back in 1979, when it was only #34. While it was kind of cool having that good long run at #1, it will be nice to not turn my head ALL the time in locations with lots of little girls running around when I hear my name called.

    (Funny story, back in the summer of 1999, a college friend and I, also named Emily, went to the movies to escape the heat on a Sunday afternoon. We saw "Muppets from Space." Sitting there, surrounded 80% by little people less than half our age, we decided to call out our name and see what happened....I swear, at least 30% of the little girls turned around!)

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  6. That is funny.  I have two close friends, who both live in the same town I do, with 7-year old daughters named Emily.

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  7. isaac_spaceman10:56 AM

    I hope I don't offend too many people here with this advice, but it is never okay to give your kid a name that rhymes with Aiden that is not Aiden.  I think a few Haydens get grandfathered as long as they were born before the mid-90s, but otherwise it's a pretty sound rule.  Peyton and Satan are false rhymes, so I think those are okay. 

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  8. ...<span>it will be nice to not turn my head ALL the time in locations with lots of little girls running around when I hear my name called.</span>

    I've gone by "Squid" for over 20 years, precisely for this reason.  Out in public, you could call out my given name ten times, and I wouldn't react.  I learned years ago that whoever might be yelling my name was very unlikely to mean me.

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  9. I'm an "Emily" from the 1970s too.  I'm named after a great aunt.  Aunt Em is amazed at the popularity of our name as it wasn't that common back in the 1920s either, I guess.  I told her the bright side to this trend is everybody will assume we're a whole lot younger than we are on the phone (maybe). 

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  10. this is frightening: "<span>Since mid-2008, the MTV reality shows "16 and Pregnant" and "Teen Mom" have followed young Maci Bookout through her pregnancy, the birth of her son Bentley, and her subsequent struggles to balance school and parenthood. In 2010 Maci was America's fastest-rising girl's name...and Bentley was tops for boys."</span>

    Also, Khloe is #42. 

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  11. Marsha11:13 AM

    Adam, how is it possible that you've run this blog for nearly a decade and you're surprised by this???

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  12. I'm allowed to be frightened by the expected.  These are also shows that not only do I not watch, but if people I know are watching them I have no idea.

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  13. Pirate Cookie11:51 AM

    The wife of a friend of a guy I know does a great blog post every year about baby names, specific to Idaho/Utah.  I cringe for the children who have parents with such poor judgement.  Read and weep!  http://jessica-jensen.blogspot.com/2011/04/names-2010.html

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  14. AndreaJ11:51 AM

    My preschooler had two Masons in her class of only 14 kids, which surprised me, but now I know why.

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  15. "Pippa" has apparently never been in the top 1000.  I expect that to change.

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  16. And "Jamarcus" is back down to 955 after cresting at 744 in 2007.

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  17. Marsha12:58 PM

    I don't find it any more frightening than the parade of Mileys a few years back, or even the 1970s explosion of Jennifers after "Love Story." People have always named their kids after things in the popular culture. Or are you saying waht frightens you is that you didn't realize that Teen Mom had that level of ubiquity/influence?

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  18. Aiden is itself a misspelling of Aidan.

    Pippa is short for Philippa (both of which are far more common in the UK than in the US).

    After growing up with an unusual name, I gave my sons more traditional ones. Much to my surprise, we've encountered more little Julians than Alexanders.

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  19. My fav:  Naveyah.  "Hay Evan" backwards.  Maybe baby daddy is Evan? 

    The all time worst name I ever heard --from a teacher friend-- "Ice T Sweet Baby Jesus."

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  20. Joseph Finn1:34 PM

    Huh. Joseph continues its slow decline. Pop culture wise, I'm blanking; is there a reason Sophia is so popular lately?

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  21. gretchen1:39 PM

    Totally agree.  Pippa's bound for glory.

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  22. Joseph Finn1:45 PM

    One gratifying thing I noticed; the proper spelling of Brittany is outranking the misspelling, as it should be.

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  23. Adam C.1:58 PM

    So, I haven't seen either show -- is "Maci" pronounced like Macy, maki, Mackey, or McKie?

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  24. Watts2:01 PM

    I know a woman in her mid-20s named Bentley - I wonder if it was more a unisex name 20 years ago or if she's an anomaly as a female Bentley.  If it used to be considered a girl name but is moving over to a boy name, that's interesting because it seems like more names go the other way (don't run into a whole of male Ashleys, Leslies, or Hillarys nowadays).

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  25. Anonymous2:03 PM

    So I guess the Freakonomics theory of name trickle-down is a little bit off - rather than names trickling down from the upper-class babies to lower-class babies, they trickle down from upper-class cars to lower-class babies.

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  26. Anonymous2:05 PM

    My cousin's daughter is named Neveah - their explanation/rationale is that it is "heaven" spelt backwards

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  27. Emily W2:16 PM

    I love that you have an Aunt Em! So many of my friends have had babies in the last few years (I am an only child, as are many of my friends), so I have become "Auntie Em" to many of them. Sadly, they'll probably be scared of the film version of Auntie Em when they are old enough. 

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  28. bella wilfer2:46 PM

    "Maci" = "Macy".  Embarrassed that I know that.

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  29. bella wilfer2:47 PM

    My best friend had a baby 6 weeks ago and named her Philippa - calling her Pippa for short.  I have a feeling that little girl will be one of MANY Pippa's in her kindergarten class...

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  30. bella wilfer2:48 PM

    I'd say that's gratifying, but I bet it's due to Brittany from Glee... (Which isn't horrible in itself, just saying it's not due to people learning how to spell...)

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  31. Slick3:20 PM

    My 5 y.o. daughter's nickname is Pippi.  She had been wanting to retire it in favor of her given name, but after the wedding in which the little sister Pippa nearly outshone her big sister, it's back to a Pippi preference.  That about sums up the "Marcia Marcia Marcia" situ we're currently enduring.

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  32. Sophietje3:25 PM

    My  3-month old (?!?! already??)  is named Emily.  My dear husband had his heart set on that name, but I'm terrified about this exact scenario!  She'll be one of thousands of Emilys.  (He keeps reminding me that she's not just "any" Emily, but "our" Emily.)
    Anyhoo...  number 6! number 6!

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  33. Sophietje3:34 PM

    Sophia? Cuz it's just an awesome name.

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  34. briggsy4:00 PM

    i dont mean to sound like a jerk, but i speak to low income people all day about their legal problems and awwwhh lawd the names i hear.  yep, jayden, grayden, aiden (anything invented with a -den at the end is popular), grayson, greyson, mason are very popular.  oh and the misspellings/invented spellings of names is ubiquitous too. makes me want to name my kids john and mary.   

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  35. Adam C.4:03 PM

    Um...it would be, if it were "Nevaeh."  As is, though, it's an anagram.  (And what is "backwards heaven?"  Is that like "Bizarro heaven?"  Are wheels square there?)

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  36. isaac_spaceman4:05 PM

    But the full name, Philippa -- man, that's just bad.

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  37. isaac_spaceman4:06 PM

    Bretagne? 

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  38. My neice has a girl in her class named "Marye", which she pronounces Mary.   I detest intentional misspellings and this one was particularly vexing as my name is Mary.

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  39. Anonymous4:31 PM

    Maraiah Carey and Nick Cannon named their twins Monroe and Moroccan Scott -- Roc and Roe for short.

    http://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/830321/mariah-and-nick-call-twin-babies-roc-and-roe

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  40. lisased4:32 PM

    That was me.

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  41. Robin4:44 PM

    My fia<span>nce asked me if Pippa was a "real </span><span>name" a</span><span>nd I said, "Totally!" so I'm surprised it has </span><span>never bee</span><span>n i</span><span>n the top 1000, because I am usually a huge </span><span>name s</span><span>nob (e.g. Michaela, which I am barely willi</span><span>ng to ack</span><span>nowledge is a real </span><span>name i</span><span>n the first place, </span><span> ca</span><span>n o</span><span>nly be spelled that way, </span><span>not "Mikayla" or "Mahkaylah" or what have you.)</span><span></span>

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  42. Thank goodness, because "Moroccan Cannon" is the name of a themed drink at a Middle Eastern restaurant.

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  43. Adlai6:40 PM

    Perhaps this means good things for Cougar Town.

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  44. isaac_spaceman7:03 PM

    Roc and Roe is cajun for "the devil's music." 

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  45. bella wilfer7:05 PM

    Isaac, I totally agree.  Not that I've told said friend that!

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  46. Apparently Jay Mohr and Nikki Cox just named their son Meredith Daniel. Isn't Meredith a girl's name? Or does it follow the trend of boy's names like Ashley, Dana, Courtney, Leslie, etc. that have become women's names? I don't think it's unisex like Jordan, Morgan or Cameron.

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  47. We know a family that has Aberdeen, Meriwether, and Antigone -- otherwise known as Abby, Meri, and Annie. It's a lot.

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  48. And seriously, they named their child after the decor in their apartment? I realize it's completely redundant to say this, but MAN Mariah Carey is weird!

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  49. Joseph J. Finn10:35 PM

    Why yes, yes it is.  Though I (and purely a personal taste) prefer Sofia as the spelling.

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  50. spacewoman10:35 PM

    But Pippa is cute.  There's no denying it.

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  51. Joseph J. Finn10:36 PM

    Well played, Isaac.  :)<span> </span>

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  52. Joseph J. Finn10:40 PM

    Honestly, I kind of think it's more disturbing that those two produced a child.  Weird that I have no harsh feelings about either person, and yet the two together...

    But anyway, Meredith was traditionally a male name until the 20th century and gradually became more of a female name (there's, for instance, Meredith Wilson, the guy who wrote The Music Man.)

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  53. Anonymous11:43 PM

    You and the BBC, Fred. Nice catch.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13302517

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  54. Anonymous10:59 AM

    Meredith was a male name at one time.  Babynamewizard's NameVoyager shows it in the top 1000 for boys through the 1940s, and that starting in the 1920s it began to have a higher ranking for girls.  There's a male Meredith in Agatha Christie's "Five Little Pigs" (aka "Murder in Retrospect"), and that and Meredith Wilson are the only two times I've seen it on men.

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  55. You must live in Portland!

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  56. Roger2:12 PM

    Shit, my favorite name (Stella) has gone from #656 to #85 in ten years. Guess I can't have kids.

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  57. The Pathetic Earthling10:06 AM

    The Little and Wee Earthling have a second cousin who is Philippa (Pippa), but the father is English so that alters the expectations there.

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  58. The Pathetic Earthling10:08 AM

    There was a boy in my elementary class named Meredith.  Only time I've ever met a male with that name.

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