Posted: 17 Dec 2009 03:19 PM PST

Birthdate:

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Your Guide to the Top Baby Names of 2009 - The Faster Times

Posted: 17 Dec 2009 03:52 PM PST

babies Your Guide to the Top Baby Names of 2009

Aw yeah. It's time for my favorite event in the month of December. No, not Christmas, Hanukkah, or even Lindsay Lohan's semi-annual nervous breakdown. No; it's the list of top baby names for the past year, wherein we get to see how traditional, pretentious or traditiopretentious Americans have decided to be in naming the fruit of their over-productive loins.

Yahoo! But even before we get to the list, I have exciting news, everyone! My own name, "Oliver," is rising up the charts! Although my name started out this decade as only the 305th most popular name, it has risen to a stunning 118th in popularity. Yeah! Whoo! It's a buyer's market! The time to invest in Oliver is now! And this informative chart will help explain the whole rise of "Oliver" to you—

oliver Your Guide to the Top Baby Names of 2009

Actually, as far as I can tell, that chart explains almost nothing, but it does give me certain nausea-inducing memories of Geometry class in high school, which was the only class that I ever failed in my life. So. There's that.

By the way, the same website that gave me the graph also provided a list of "unique" alternatives for the name Oliver. So if you're thinking of naming your kid "Oliver," but can't quite commit to the name, here are some other options—

Otton
Osvald
Orson
Othon
Othao

Odall
Ozzy
Olov
Owenn
Otess

…All of which would be great names for your kid, assuming that your career plan for him is "9th century Viking berserker warlord."

_____

But anyway… Okay! Enough about my awesome name. Let's move on to the most popular baby names of the past year, as reported by the National Post. I have also added my own quick, "E-Z to Read" comments…

Boys:

1) Aiden — No! Do you really want to give your kid a douchebaggish "Irish" trend o' the month name? And do you want your kid to grow up to be like Colin Farrell? No. You do not want that; but that's what naming a baby "Aiden" will accomplish. So do not use this name. And let's move on…

2) Matthew — Fine. Biblical. Whatever.

3) Owen — Makes me jealous because it starts with an "O" and is more popular than "Oliver."

4) Ethan — Seems a little played-out and 90s, but hey, name him "Ethan" if you want.

5) Jackson — I'm assuming this is in honor of Jackson Pollack, who died because he crashed his car, while drunk, while driving with his teenage mistress. Awesome job, Mr. Pollack, way to go! …I am not sure that you want to be naming your kid in honor of Jackson Pollack, but hey, it sounds trendy.

6) Evan — I knew a guy named Evan once and I didn't like him. I'm just saying.

7) Braden — Do you want him to be hairdresser/member of a boy band? Pass.

8) Noah — I actually like this name!

9) Jack — Fine.

10) Zachary — He'll be a spazz. People will call him "Zack Attack."

Girls:

1) Madeline — Fine.

2) Madison — Slut!

3) Emma — I had a dog named "Emmy" once, so whenever I hear this name I think of my dog for some reason. But "Emma" is an okay name, I guess.

4) Hannah — Fine.

5) Olivia — Nice!

6) Audrey — Fine, I guess. Wow, girls' names are way less offensive than guys' names. I should add the proviso here that "Audrey" works as a name if the girl is going to be hot like Audrey Hepburn. If she's not going to be hot, then this is kind of a dowdy, 1950s housewife kind of name.

7) Isabella — Girls should not be named "Isabella" unless they are actually Italian or are a Disney princess.

8) Grace — Seems like this name would create some unreasonable expectations.

9) Taylor — Is this because of that singer girl that I'm too old to listen to? Pass.

10) Emily — Annnnd… Fine.

…Wow. I really should have not ended with the girls' names. Those are way less funny. ANY-way… those are your top baby names for the Year of Our Lord 2009. And I'll be seeing you again with this in December, 2010! So until then, please try to not name your children anything stupid…

Oliver Miller

Oliver Miller has been published in numerous magazines, including Nerve and McSweeney's. He is a graduate of the M.F.A. program at Sarah Lawrence College… which basically means he spent $60,000 in exchange for getting paid to write blogs. ...
Read more about Oliver Miller ->

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Playing the name game - Washington Post (blog)

Posted: 18 Dec 2009 04:13 AM PST

Playing the name game

Updated: 9:56

This is the fun time of year when we start seeing the lists of the year's top baby names, which makes for an interesting sociological snapshot of a moment in history. According to babynames.com, here are this year's most-frequently seen baby names on their Web site. (Note: The Social Security administration has not compiled their 2009 list yet, but the 2008 list is a bit more traditional, especially for boys.)

Top Girls' Names 2009:
Amelia
Isabella
Ava
Sophia
Olivia
Madeline
Lily
Abigail
Chloe
Emma

Top Boys' Names 2009:
Aiden
Noah
Liam
Caden
Ethan
Jackson
Landon
Jacob
Caleb
Lucas

The baby-name experts note that we're still in the midst of a heavy "old-fashioned" name phase, which seems to have spanned most of the decade. And, as is usually the case, celebrity-influenced names tend to get a boost: the Pitt-Jolie's "Vivienne" made the top 100, and and "Twilight"-related names have broken into the top 100. Apparently, naming your child after a vampire or a werewolf is a hip thing to do.

When naming both of our children, we used the top-names list as a guide to what to avoid. As every child of the '70s named "Jennifer" knows, having the same name as three or four other kids in your class isn't much fun. I graduated from high school with a gaggle of guys named "Brian," and I even lived with another "Brian" my sophomore year in college. The novelty of "Brian and Brian" wore off quickly.

I'm not the only one who is now making sure that their child won't blend in, name-wise. Apparently, the most popular names aren't as popular as they used to be. One hundred years ago, about one in every 20 boys was named "John." Now, only about one in 100 kids gets the year's most popular name. Apparently, there is a consensus that unique is better.

Unique wasn't the only consideration for us. We wanted to play off of some family names, and we wanted the names to be straightforward, even if they weren't common (so Moon Unit was out, though Moxie was considered, briefly).

Naming is one of those intensely personal endeavors, so I'm curious: How did you go about it?

By Brian Reid | December 18, 2009; 7:07 AM ET | Category: Babies
Previous: 'Tis the season to put your kids on a card |

DD: I'm not a girly-girl. So my basic criteria were (a) no names that can end in an "i" dotted by a heart, and (b) no names that would disqualify her for the Supreme Court. How we chose was I kept suggesting names to DH, who kept vetoing them, until I told him he couldn't keep veto them unless he came up with some other suggestions. He said he wasn't going to do that, so the last one I had suggested was the name. Good thing, to, as I was about 8 1/2 mos. pregnant by that time. :-)

DS: Much, much simpler. Basic criteria were (a) a "J" name like my dad's family; and (b) a name that wouldn't get him beat up on the playground. So, yeah, he has the same name as about every third boy in the Western hemisphere (we had no idea at the time). But we gave him a more unusual middle name, so he can switch over if it gets too annoying.

Posted by: laura33 | December 18, 2009 7:35 AM | Report abuse

Hey, don't knock Moxie!

Posted by: moxiemom1 | December 18, 2009 7:38 AM | Report abuse

We had a really hard time naming girl #2. Finally, a few weeks before she was born I gave my husband a book of names and a notebook. He went through and wrote down all the names he liked. I did the same. Turns out there was only one name that was on both lists. Somehow girls 3-5 weren't so difficult...go figure.

Posted by: thosewilsongirls | December 18, 2009 7:53 AM | Report abuse

I can't tell you how tired I am of Aiden and Ethan, we know one family that has both. Luckily no one is following celebrities with names like "Apple" - I'd hate to see a Kindergarten class with a bunch of kids named after fruit.

We would have loved to have named my daughter the same family name as mine and used a different nick-name, but couldn't bring myself to do it. She got a very unique, old name though. Our son is named after his grandfather and is a II, he thinks it is very cool!

My daughter and at least 4 of her friends have the middle name Elizabeth but no one uses it as a first name anymore. We had lots of Beths growing up, I can think of 3 from elementary alone.

Posted by: cheekymonkey | December 18, 2009 7:59 AM | Report abuse

It wasn't till after #4 popped out that we came up with a name. Not that we had any conflict about it, we just hadn't done our homework. I let mommy and the kids decide this one. If I didn't like it, I could always call him whatever I wwant to, which I do anyway, no matter what the name is on his birth certificate. We usually call each other in the family by their nicknames anyway, mostly made up by daughter #1.

Posted by: WhackyWeasel | December 18, 2009 8:23 AM | Report abuse

We ended up using family names, but I also had criteria that you had to be able to distinguish the gender by the name. Son is after husband's middle name and my grandfather. Daughter is after middle names of both her grandmothers. Solid names, not weird, with some flexibility in them. And I love being able to honor people who are important to me.

Posted by: jljardon2 | December 18, 2009 8:24 AM | Report abuse

FYI, Brian and cheekymonkey, a name could only be "unique" if no one else had it. Also, you can't have a "very unique" name. It either is or isn't.'

BTW, the Social Security Administration gives the actual numbers on baby names. You can see 2008 (2009 isn't finished yet, babynames.com): http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/. Obviously, the names are a bit different from babynames.com, and the popularity of names doesn't change that dramatically from year to year. So, it's pretty clear that babynames.com has come up with their numbers a little differently than by simply counting.

Posted by: rlalumiere | December 18, 2009 8:27 AM | Report abuse

I had an uncommon name growing up and thought it was great, ergo, both of my children have very uncommon names, with totally "normal" middle names in case they ever want to switch. My son's name is an old, ethnic family name and my daughter's name is just one that I have loved since I was young. As a woman, having a different first name makes it easier to change your name when you get married, people can still identify you, then again, that seems to be going the way of the dinosaurs, so I guess pick what you like.

I do think I will have to have a cocktail when we get a Supreme Court justice named Tevin or Kaetelyinn (crazy spellings abound) or Nevaeh (Heaven spelled backward). Oy, then I'll be certain that I'm old.

Posted by: moxiemom1 | December 18, 2009 8:28 AM | Report abuse

People who come up with creative and silly ways to spell a relatively common name do their children no favors. For the rest of their lives, those children are going to have to spell their name EVERY TIME for EVERYONE.

laura33 wrote:
I'm not a girly-girl. So my basic criteria were (a) no names that can end in an "i" dotted by a heart, and (b) no names that would disqualify her for the Supreme Court.

Exactly. "Cathi" is cute when she's a kid, but she's probably not going to be taken as seriously in adult professional life as Catherine.

Posted by: waterfrontproperty | December 18, 2009 8:30 AM | Report abuse

Posted by: cohenp1 | December 18, 2009 8:32 AM | Report abuse

I picked names that are easily pronounced in Spanish and English so that neither set of grandparents butcher the pronunciation. Most French names fit this criterion, so I looked there for inspiration and found nice, common French names that few people have in America.

Posted by: FashionistaMomDC | December 18, 2009 8:40 AM | Report abuse

Names are so subjective; I can see why other posters are choosing not to share their children's specific names. I think last year that a guest blogger wrote about changing her daughter's name to 'Summer', and she had to endure some really cruel comments.

For my children, I selected names that I liked but were not on the top 10 list. I'm also not a fan of gender neutral names for girls, or first names that are or were surnames (such as girls named Porter, Campbell)but hey, to each his own! Plenty of people do like these names. I also think I would avoid pop culture names like Miley, Britney, Tiger, Maximus, Che, etc... Most folks think about what a name would look like on a diploma or resume. No one wants to be written off based on their name. Studies have shown that having a name that is too ethnic can be a negative. Made-up or misspelled names can also be a burden to a kid, although Oprah hasn't suffered!

I'd be interested to know who usually gets the last word in naming the child. In my experience, it's always been the Mom. If any of you guys can share stories in which your choice prevailed, I'd like to hear them.

Posted by: HuckleberryFriend | December 18, 2009 8:40 AM | Report abuse

huckleberry, my husband prevailed in the first name. our son's first name is thomas; a name i'm not particularily keen on but it was my father-in-law's name. i got to pick the middle name & the name i picked was one my husband wasn't keen on but it was a famiy name on my mother's side. my son's nickname is a shortened version of his middle name.
i don't know if that counts as my husband getting final say or not. son's name is a compromise.

Posted by: quark2 | December 18, 2009 8:48 AM | Report abuse

My husband's family has had a naming convention for male children for several generations: The child gets the father's frist name as his middle name and gets a new first name. So our son got my grandfather's first name as his first name and my husbands first name as his middle name. My grandfather's name is very old-fashioned and uncommon and we love, love, love it. My husbands name is extremely common - so common, in fact, that both of his sisters married men with the same name...

Posted by: VaLGaL | December 18, 2009 8:53 AM | Report abuse

DS got stuck with the family name - he's "ArmyBrat VI" but with a different nickname. The girls - DW and I negotiated on them (she mostly won:-). Mostly, just names I liked growing up.

Uniqueness of names - my "samples" tend to be roughly 10-year old girls who are registered in my softball program. So, 10 years ago, "Cameron" was big but everybody tried to spell it differently. So we have 3 "Kamryn," 4 "Camryn," 2 "Kaemrin," 2 "Kamron," and 3 actual "Cameron" in the league.

"Taylor" seems to be less popular now; a few years ago, 17 out of 140 girls in our 10-year-old league were named some variant of "Taylor." Not so much, now.

Want a less common name? Pick the old fashioned kind. Out of over 600 girls in our softball program last year, we had exactly one girl named "Mary." No girls named Sally, Janet, Ruth, or Lisa, at all.

Posted by: ArmyBrat1 | December 18, 2009 8:53 AM | Report abuse

These should cover most of the responses:

The "intellectual": we rifled through our old English lit texts (Ishmail)

The insecure: we agonized for months, something cute, but not too cute, professional but fun, so she'd fit in, but be really, super unique…(Eva)

The interesting: we named him after the cab driver who delivered him (Gorgon)

The spontaneous: he looked like a Gus (Gus)

The traditional: after five generations we had no choice (Gouveneur)

The traditional but insecure/practical: after five generations we had no choice, but we call him (Quint)

The vapid: We just loved Taylor Hicks on American Idol (Taylor)

All this is great fodder for judgmentalism (I can't BELIEVE anyone would do that), even though as Brian acknowledged, it's "intensely personal".

Posted by: 06902 | December 18, 2009 8:54 AM | Report abuse

Naming is the only time the "please won't someone think of the children" defense is appropriate.

You may love the clever, unique name you have given your child. Your friends may think it's adorable. But your kid has to grow up with it, which means 12+ years in school with the meanest, cruelest type of people on earth- other children. The name you think is precious and hip will serve as nothing but fodder for bullies and jerks.

So please consider things other than your own vanity. The Aidan's and Caden's (wth?) of the world will learn to love you for it.

Posted by: bryc3 | December 18, 2009 8:56 AM | Report abuse

"So my basic criteria were (a) no names that can end in an "i" dotted by a heart, and (b) no names that would disqualify her for the Supreme Court."

I heart Laura.

(Ironically, I suspect that saying so will ruin her day based on the sentiment above.)

Family names. Gender-ambiguous was a bonus. The great thing about family names is that family members who share them are flattered and have an even stronger connection to the bearer of those shared names than they would otherwise.

Posted by: anonfornow | December 18, 2009 8:59 AM | Report abuse

We looked through family trees and name books. It was easier for the first one, we were each close with our maternal grandfathers, and named him after them, fortunately the two names went well together and while I don't care as much for one name, it has a really cool nickname. With number 2 it was months of stressing and then reaching a consensus with a name from each side of the family. I didn't like the idea of naming one after family and the other not, so his name comes from the family trees too.

Posted by: library2 | December 18, 2009 9:05 AM | Report abuse

Another social effect of the odd, or oddly spelled, kid's name is that the kid's first interaction with unfamiliar adults, as toddlers, will be to go around correcting adults.

Ever been introduced to a child at the park, and said, "Hi Jessica," and have a three year old give you a withering stare and say with extreme annoyance, "It's Chessika!"

Yup, every adult on earth is stupid except your mommy.

Posted by: di89 | December 18, 2009 9:06 AM | Report abuse

"ArmyBrat VI" is not correct form. There is only Jr., Sr., III, and IV -- IF four generations with the same name are living. If the numbers kept adding up, my granddad would have been an VIII ! It's fine to keep the name going, but adding numbers when previous generations have passed on is pretentious unless you're English royalty.

Posted by: red_hawk1968 | December 18, 2009 9:10 AM | Report abuse

Hey for all the "Won't DQ for the Supreme Court" crowd, just a reminder that even a few years ago who would have guessed the President's name would be Barack? I wanted a name that I thought fit with a baby, a child or a woman. I wanted a name that didn't, in itself, place it's holder in a specific time in history, in other words a name that was at a relatively similar level of popularity now, 20 years ago, 100 years ago. And, I wanted a name that my husband and I both liked. I'll be brave and put it out there. The name is Sara (we went back and forth on which spelling and frankly, at the end of the day I don't think it matters that much.) I'm sure some of you hate it, but no name will please everyone and when you know someone you judge on the person, not the name anyway. So there may be hope yet, Apple or Sunbeam or Kikidi may surprise us all one day by becoming Justice Kikidi!

Posted by: jmjs2009 | December 18, 2009 9:10 AM | Report abuse

Naming our daughter was easy: I had the name picked out since I was a teenager, and fortunately my taste wasn't terrible as a teenager--it's a traditional name and a family name, easy to spell and pronounce, not in the top 50 names but was slowly trending upwards when she was born.

My son was harder. I think boys' names are more overused, so finding something meeting the criteria of traditional but not common was difficult, and then finding something my husband agreed with was even harder. Looking at this list, I'm glad he nixed Liam and Ethan (both included on my short list).

Posted by: Sarahfran | December 18, 2009 9:11 AM | Report abuse

I'll correct myself, Melville was American.

Posted by: 06902 | December 18, 2009 9:11 AM | Report abuse

Coming from a place where 10% of the girls in my high school were "Jennifer" and 8% "Amy" (being an Aimee myself), I swore I would not name my children popular names. There was even a girl from another school I competed against in track that had the exact same name. Weird.
DS#1 was easy - my husband came up with it when I was only a couple months along. Somewhere in the bottom 100s on the SSA website, although its getting more and more popular each year. Not a weird name, but just a solid, classic name that has never been overly popular. We struggled with DS#2. My husband went a little further out on names than I wanted (Tecumsah - big no) or little too redneck. We finally decided about month 6. Picked a name that has been in the top 10 for forever, but like the article said, the span of names is greater now. Solid, classic, not trendy. Today, the #1 name may only have a couple kids in the class named it. So he's the only child with his name that we know, and we have a lot of friends with little boys. Plus his middle name is solidly in the 300s, so no one will have his exact name.
I think babynames.com came up with their list based on what people said they named their kids this year. And it does vary year to year - some names will always be in the top 25, while other ones fade in and out. Look at Aidian, according to SSA:
2008 16
2007 27
2006 32
2005 50
2004 60
2003 73
2002 135
2001 217
2000 324
So it is conceivable that it moved to #1 this year.
And you can look at the biggest changes. Jacoby moved up 200 places - from #623 in 2007 to #423 in 2008. Even bigger was Khloe - 469 places - 196 in 2008, up from 665 in 2007. Other names fell out of favor - Aldo dropped 138 places and Angelique dropped 260 places.

Posted by: aimeeconnelly | December 18, 2009 9:15 AM | Report abuse

We had 2 surprise babies, so we had to come up with boy and girl names. The boy names were easy: one after my dad, one after his brother, called differently than the men they would be named after. We had to go through baby name books for girl names. Both times we did it on road trips. I'd go through the book and call out a name I liked. If he liked it, too, I'd write it down. We ended up with about 20, which we scaled back to about 5. Then we spent the next few months chewing on them. All kids get my wonderful maiden name as a middle name.

The first time around, we came down to 2 girl names. When she was born, I picked. I felt very strongly about it.

The second time around, we came down to 2 new girl names. When she was born, DH picked. He felt very strongly about it.

Neither is anywhere near the top 10, but neither is made up. We have a very Irish last name, and my maiden name is very English, so we went with English names.

Posted by: atb2 | December 18, 2009 9:15 AM | Report abuse

Fun topic! I obessed over my baby name book before I knew the gender and thought I could be having a girl. I knew my boy name before I was even pregnant-I want to name my baby's first name after my DH and the baby's middle name after my father.

When looking at girl's names I was trying to avoid the most popular lists but also didn't want a crazy name with a weird spelling. I just wanted a nice classic girl's name. But no need to worry about girl's names now unless the next kid is a girl...since I have always wanted a little girl I am starting to have a feeling that I will eventually end up with two boys...which would be ok too.

Posted by: sunflower571 | December 18, 2009 9:18 AM | Report abuse

My name is fairly common in the sense that it has been floating around place 50-70 over the last nine years.

Sadly, my Mom decided on a European variant spelling of my name. I have never, ever met someone in North America that has the same spelling. I have had to spell it to everyone my entire life. I will write an email and spell my name correctly in the signature and the return email will have my name incorrect in the salutation. It is very annoying. Don't torture your child with alternative spellings.

Some of my favourite child names are actually in the top ten. How disappointing. I have loved Joshua and Emma since I was a teenager The only name that I have thought about as a little girl's name that isn't in the top 10 (or even 1000) is Phaedra. I guess I am a traditionalist at heart.

Posted by: Billie_R | December 18, 2009 9:18 AM | Report abuse

Originally, I told my wife that I wanted to do a dinosaur theme with the naming of our kids, - Dina, Pterra, Tyronus...

OK, I admit that there was a strategy to it, - anything I could come up with besides something outrageous would be given consideration. It worked for our first 2. DW spent hours, days, going over lists and chatting with her friends, I just kept the name that I really wanted to name the baby a secret until a few weeks before she was born. DW was happy with the choice...

But one thing for sure, we weren't going to pass down any family names to our children. No way, we both saw the destructive favoritism that our fathers gave our brothers, and we vowed not to repeat the same mistake.

Posted by: WhackyWeasel | December 18, 2009 9:23 AM | Report abuse

Our son's middle name is the same as my father's and grandfather's middle name, which was my great-grandmother's maiden name, unusual even then as an immigrant name. Lots of great history and assured to remain special. His first name was also a family name with hundreds of years in my husband's family. It is a well-recognized but uncommon name, and though it languished down in the 700s on the name ranking when we named him, he has never had to spell it for anyone. It always gets positive response when people first learn it, and it has since shot up several hundred places on the list. I fear it is headed for 'cool kid' status such that by the time he finishes elementary school, it'll be the hip 1st grader name. argh.

Posted by: topicaltimely | December 18, 2009 9:23 AM | Report abuse

"My husband went a little further out on names than I wanted (Tecumsah - big no) or little too redneck." aimee

Aimee, it's difficult to surmise given the odd use of punctuation in the above, but the way I read that, it's either
a) unintentionally (?) racist ... Tecumseh being the famous Shawnee chief

or b) historically/culturally fabulously ignorant... "rednecks" being traditionally associated with the South, and "Tecumsah" being Sherman's middle name.

or c) totally innocent if the Tecumsah and "redneck" comments are indeed separate.

Posted by: 06902 | December 18, 2009 9:24 AM | Report abuse

Posted by: ArmyBrat1

Couldn't agree more.

jmjs2009,

I think Sara is a great name.

Posted by: sunflower571 | December 18, 2009 9:25 AM | Report abuse

My father picked my name. I was named after my dad's favorite actress. Completely after the actress, first and last name (which obviously I already had, thus it would work). My mom picked my middle name.

It's been interesting because it's a generational thing; older people immediately go "oh, like the actress" and younger people for the most part have never heard of her. Other benefit- I was completely ungoogleable (the first hundred thousand hits are all the actress) unless you had a bunch of additional information about me and got lucky. It was a bit strange the day she died though and all the headlines read "'my name' died last night." Just kind of surreal.

I don't have kids yet, but I think my criteria would be:
1) no common names with weird spellings, that's just annoying
2) Nothing after seasons, or love child like things. Such as Rain. Or Summer. (though I knew a math major named Summer who was really nice and extremely smart.)
3) Nothing that sounds like a stripper name.
4) Not John or Jack. Every single male in my family is named John or Jack. And this includes in the same generation. Actually they are all technically named John, just some of them go by Jack. So in one generation we had John, Johnny and Jack. No, I'm not kidding.

Posted by: kallieh | December 18, 2009 9:26 AM | Report abuse

My husband wanted to name our baby (we didn't know if it was a boy or a girl until birth) Thorr (yes, with 2 'r's). Umm...no. So he got to decide on the last name (since my name is hyphenated and we weren't sure what we planned to do for the baby). We gave "would-have-been Thorr" my husband's brother's name as a middle name. Thankfully both of us love the first name I chose (husband had veto power, but I got final say).

Now I am pregnant with number 2. We agree on a girl's name, but still working on a boy's name. Husband wants to name this one "Loki." Ummm..no. :)

Posted by: LadyCat1 | December 18, 2009 9:26 AM | Report abuse

I don't think Babynames.com gets a wide enough sample in their survey, which is why it's different than the actual results from the SSA.

Anyway, we named our son after our grandfathers (my wife and I each had a grandfather with the same name). We named our daughter after my wife's grandmother. It's a name I wasn't thrilled with, partially because it has male and female spellings and her grandmother had the male spelling. I told my wife I'd be okay with it if we used the female spelling, because I thought it would cause problems for our daughter having the male spelling, and my wife was fine with that.

Posted by: dennis5 | December 18, 2009 9:34 AM | Report abuse

I'm named after my dad's grandmothers - the first name is French and the middle Irish. I actually love my first name because it's extremely common as a middle name so everyone is familiar with it, but next to no one else has it as a first name (see if you can guess it from those clues).

Actually, my parents wish they had named me Michele after my uncle, but they always thought they'd have a boy to name Michael, but it just didn't work out.

My husband has an EXTREMELY common name. He wants to give our future kids unique names. Sky (as a boy's name!) has already been vetoed by me. I'm a family name person and between both or our families we have plenty of interesting things to choose from.

Posted by: em15 | December 18, 2009 9:38 AM | Report abuse

TheRealTruth and TheRealTruth spouse had a very simplistic method of selecting names - names we liked, period. No set "rules" per se. No consideration given for family names, or veering away from the popular names.

While the preference would have been for names not too common, both names selected for DDs are on the top baby names lists (one is listed above), but TheRealTruth+spouse did go somewhat unique on middle names (gender neutral).

TheRealTruth concurs parents who give odd spellings of names do their children a disservice.

Posted by: TheRealTruth | December 18, 2009 9:39 AM | Report abuse

We wanted a girl's name to reflect at least two of our four heritages. We eventually settled on the Irish and Welsh strains, eliminating most of the Welsh ones as too old-fashioned and "G" ridden (e.g. Gladys, Gwendolyn, Glennis). The Irish side was easy - lots of names we liked and agreed on. The deciders: we liked the way "Seana" was spelled by a local actress as well as how it sounded (Shauna), recogniziing that she would occasionally have to correct a "Sea-Anna" attempt at pronunciation. We also liked Welsh "Bronwyn", the name of a national broadcasting icon, but steered away from it as a first name because of playground abuse potential (Brownie, Brownnose, Brownface, etc). A bonus - our Seana Bronwyn likes both her names and is thrilled with the explanation of their origin.

Posted by: TFMurphy | December 18, 2009 9:40 AM | Report abuse

I had the luxury of naming my wife's last two boys. My family has had historical namesakes for three generations prior, so I chose short, historically-based names that were meaningful and possibly good-humored to my father's memory. The short-lettered part was to give the child an easy spelling when learning to write.

To me, the most important things about such naming is that the namesake be already deceased or most unlikely to have a major negative event in their lifetime; and, to have a name spelled in a traditionally correct manner.

I abhor the cutesy or illiterate spellings of names, but like tattoos, I suppose this is a losing battle. More and more, one is obliged to ask the spelling of even the most common of names. Perhaps these spelling variations help with ID theft problems?

Posted by: Spectator | December 18, 2009 9:46 AM | Report abuse

Its also funny - girls names vary more than boys names. 42 different girl names in the top 5 over the last century. For boys, only 19 names rotated through the top 5 for the last century. Of the top 5 for the last century, for girls, 23 names made it in on the list less than 10 times. For boys, only 6 names were in the top 5 for the last century less than 10 times. One was a 90s fad - Tyler; 3 just made the top 5 over the last decade (Ethan, Daniel, Andrew - 2 of which have always been somewhat popular) and 2 were the ones going out of the top 5 at the beginning of the century (George, Joseph).

Posted by: aimeeconnelly | December 18, 2009 9:46 AM | Report abuse

06902 - Tecumseh is seperate from redneck. I like the "history' of Tecumseh - being both a Native American hero and a famous civil war hero (although the part about burning the south I'm not a big fan of - too many civilian casualties). But as a name growing up? Nickname? Tec? Spelling it out every time you talk to someone? Explaining that your parents are not Native American but thought it was a cool name? Too many things to burden a kid with. He also liked Phoenix, as in the bird that rose from the ashes. I did not want a child named after a city (even though my DH tried to tell me it was after a mythical bird, but I thought most would hear it and associate it with Arizona) and I also did not want the name associated with a drug addict (River Phoenix). DH argued its his last name... still didn't win me over. Redneck being redneck - famous country singer names. We both like country music, but I didn't want DS to have a "country" name. Some names can go either way - like Joshua. Joshua Turner is a favorite country singer of ours, but there are plenty of Josh's from other walks of life. But there are other names that will always be associated with redneck backwoods country.

Posted by: aimeeconnelly | December 18, 2009 10:00 AM | Report abuse

LadyCat1 - I'm not trying to be snarky, but I'm curious - are you going to give the second baby the same surname as the first? I've seen a few families vary that, and I'm wondering if it's becoming more common.

(What I mean is - a friend, call him "Aiden Smith," married "Amelia Jones" and she kept her maiden name after marriage. Their son has the surname "Smith" and their daughter has the surname "Jones."

And I know of another family where every member has a different surnmane; e.g. the father is "Smith;" the mother is "Jones-Smith;" one daughter is "Jones" and the other daughter is "Williams" which was her maternal grandmother's maiden name.)

Posted by: ArmyBrat1 | December 18, 2009 10:02 AM | Report abuse

rlalumiere and cohenp1: Thanks for the comments. I clarified in the post that these names were from one top baby site, babynames.com. I linked to the 2008 SSA so everyone can see the "official" list.

Posted by: Nancy_Kerr | December 18, 2009 10:04 AM | Report abuse

Posted by: red_hawk1968 | December 18, 2009 9:10 AM"

Red_hawk, I completely get where you're coming from on this, but I do have one confusion about it. Legally, on his driver's license, SSN, mortgage papers, bank accounts, etc., my FIL is FirstName MiddleName Last Name Jr. My husband is same name with a III at the end (and yes, all three generations were alive when he was born). So, according to all legal designations, credit reports, folks they owe money to, etc., the two men are distinguishable.

So let's say my DH and I have a boy. We want to give him the family name. We have a Jr and a III according to all legal documents. So, would my son be, as Douglas Adams put it "FirstName MiddleName LastName the Nothingth"? No numerical designation? And if he has a son when my FIL is alive, that would give us two juniors, right? They can't all move up a number because of the legal name precedent if someone dies, right? How does the numbering protocol work?
I am actually being serious here; I don't know and don't really understand it since so much documentation is attached to names now.

Posted by: OrganicGal1 | December 18, 2009 10:05 AM | Report abuse

Whatever you name your kid, try not to give them one that can be shortened to a cruel nickname....Hard to do when other kids can twist any name into a cruel nickname. Elizabeth becomes Lizard, Jack becomes Jerk, Dusty becomes Dirtball....you know the drill.

Somebody wrote a book years ago called "What Not to Name the Baby" and pointed out names can describe the person. A Chuck is very different from a Charles; a Walt is very different from a Wally; a Danny is very different from a Daniel. Joan wears powder blue and pearls; Bordon sniffles. It's very funny but probably out of print now.

Posted by: Baltimore11 | December 18, 2009 10:10 AM | Report abuse

I has a set of twins work for me. Exact same name, except one was a "II" and one was a "Jr". Ok, weird, and very hard to deal with, especially since they were identical. One went by his initials and the other by his first name. Maybe the dad really wanted a junior or II, but with twins, didn't want to favor one over the other. Who knows. Just plain weird.

Posted by: aimeeconnelly | December 18, 2009 10:12 AM | Report abuse

Our first son was named after a historical figure from a period my partner studied. It's particularly unusual in English, though used elsewhere, but has nickname possibilities that are quite common. We decided to use similar criteria for our arrival expected in early 2010, except that this time I started with nicknames I really liked and worked backwards.

For both, the middle names come from family members who passed away not too long ago, one from my family, one from my partner's. Both those names are fairly common, so they provide another mainstream choice.

So far, my 6-year-old really likes his name, so that gives me confidence in our naming for #2.

Posted by: mouse4 | December 18, 2009 10:19 AM | Report abuse

Posted by: Baltimore11

Problem with finding a name without a cruel nickname is that it's almost impossible. I looked up all kinds of names on babynames. com or whatever the site is called (i always just put in baby names in google to find it) and you can see what people with that name have reported and almost every single name i looked up had some nasty nickname. Some of course come to mind more easily than others but the point is you can't totally shelter your kid from bad nicknames.

Posted by: sunflower571 | December 18, 2009 10:23 AM | Report abuse

It wasn't too hard - as a Star Wars fan I couldn't resist - his name is Luke, that way my husband can say "Luke I am your father"

Posted by: annwhite1 | December 18, 2009 10:25 AM | Report abuse

We had lists of names before each was born, then tossed the lists because DD didn't look like any name we chose. She got hers when DH said "I like ...". Then we worked on a middle name, settling on the state she was born in, it worked. DS was a name we'd come up with on a run long before he was even a consideration; I just could not bring myself to put his pregnancy nick name on the birth certificate, even though that was exactly what he looked like.
Both DS and DD get called by their nicknames far more often, but they're very possessive nicknames -- something only DH and I can use. Mom has her special names for them (after her grandparents, and I've always been sorry neither one looked like their Grandma name or I'd have used those).
But if you really want to know how we did it -- we "test drove" each name by seeing how it sounded when we yelled it.

Posted by: StrollerMomma | December 18, 2009 10:31 AM | Report abuse

"so common, in fact, that both of his sisters married men with the same name..."

Is Dr. Freud in the house? kidding.

jsm - love Sara - makes me think of shirley Temple in the Little Princess! solid name.

FYI, for every Barak Obama there are thousands of T'aQuaans or Elyzalynne's out there we are checkers at the 7-11. Don't think a weird name is a deal breaker, but I would expect that one might have to work a little harder to prove their credibility.

LadyCat - love your Scandinavian husband. Lars might be a little easier to carry off or maybe Nils or Anders if he's wedded to the heritage.

One name on my list that we didn't choose, but I still love is Charlotte - the perfect combo of uncommon but not unfamiliar!

Posted by: moxiemom1 | December 18, 2009 10:39 AM | Report abuse

Organic_gal - there's no hard and fast rule, but in theory on the death of the oldest of a line of same-named people, everybody should move up one. At least, so says Miss Manners (Judith Martin). "Senior" means the oldest living, "Junior" means the second oldest living, etc. When Aiden Smith, Sr. dies, then Aiden Smith, Jr. changes his name to Aiden Smith, Sr.; the former Aiden Smith, III becomes Aiden Smith, Jr. and so on. Then the next one born takes the next available number.

Few if any families actually do this (my family didn't) for the reasons you mentioned - suddenly changing the suffix appended to my name would most likely cause mass confusion for my creditors, doctors, etc. and it's just easier to keep the suffix assigned to me when I was born.

The reference:
Martin, Judith. (2005). Miss Manner's Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior. W. W. Norton. p. 55–6. Google preview retrieved 19 July 2009.

(why yes, it IS a Friday, and I AM stuck on yet another mind-numbing useless conference call. :-)

Posted by: ArmyBrat1 | December 18, 2009 10:40 AM | Report abuse

"FYI, for every Barak Obama there are thousands of T'aQuaans or Elyzalynne's out there we are checkers at the 7-11. Don't think a weird name is a deal breaker, but I would expect that one might have to work a little harder to prove their credibility."

Wow, moxie...you're taking this to an interesting new place...

First, there are also thousands of Johns and Emilys out there who are "checkers at the 7-11".

Second, why would someone with a "weird" name need to prove their credibility? Is it because you/we/anyone associates weird names with minority/poor (both)? and there is some bias (conscious or not) against those associations?

Posted by: 06902 | December 18, 2009 10:48 AM | Report abuse

We had no difficulty with a first name for our son, old testament, good nicknames, went well with our last name. Difficulty in chosing middle name, I wanted a name begining with the letter C. A friend visiting from London, off the top of his head, came up with the name. It is a common name in the UK. We loved it, my son, not so much, so he named his son after a reality show player, such is life.

Posted by: maryacarroll | December 18, 2009 10:51 AM | Report abuse

I'm Jewish, and the tradition is to name for dead relatives. Our family usually takes the first letter of the name, and comes up with the child's name. So I wanted to name for my grandmother, Yetta. How many pretty Y names are there? Not many. And the only 1 I really liked was Yael. Until I saw Ysabel. And I didn't make that up - it's been used in Hebrew and French. I loved the name, it has a few nickname possibilities for when she's older, and there are so many ways to spell Isabel anyway that having to spell her name wasn't that big a deal. Heck, I am often asked to spell Jessica, and I've never seen an alternative spelling on that one. Ultimately, I wanted to honor my grandmother, I wanted a name I liked, and I wanted her to have nick name options if possible. I did, sort of, wish the name wasn't so popular, but at the same time, it's a pretty name, so who cares.

Posted by: JHBVA | December 18, 2009 10:51 AM | Report abuse

"Second, why would someone with a "weird" name need to prove their credibility? Is it because you/we/anyone associates weird names with minority/poor (both)? and there is some bias (conscious or not) against those associations?"

06902 - research has long shown that those with short and common/familiar names have an advantage in elections, as do those who are taller or better looking. Why, I don't know; but as far back as 1976 there was research that showed "Jimmy" preferable to "Gerald" if everything else was equal. That advantage CAN be overcome - Barack did beat John, after all - but it's an advantage nonetheless.

Posted by: ArmyBrat1 | December 18, 2009 10:57 AM | Report abuse

"I'm named after my dad's grandmothers - the first name is French and the middle Irish. I actually love my first name because it's extremely common as a middle name so everyone is familiar with it, but next to no one else has it as a first name (see if you can guess it from those clues)."

I'm guessing "Marie"

Posted by: ArmyBrat1 | December 18, 2009 10:59 AM | Report abuse

I, too, am Jewish, and have always been intrigued by how 'everyone else' comes up with names for their children. I always knew that if I had a daughter she would be named Emily after my grandmother - despite the fact that at the time (90s) it was an extremely popular girls' name. I briefly thought about spelling it Emilie (I am a francophile), but since I have a non-traditionally spelled name which I have to spell ALL THE TIME, I nixed it quickly.)

DS is named after both of DH's grandfathers - even though there are a total of six people with the same first name in my (mother's) family - four born in, two more married in.

Posted by: justme22 | December 18, 2009 11:00 AM | Report abuse

"Why, I don't know" AB

But the WHY is the most important / most interesting question...

Posted by: 06902 | December 18, 2009 11:00 AM | Report abuse

I love my name - it's a family name that was originally my paternal grandmother's maiden name, my father's middle name and was chosen as my first name. I have since passed it onto our daughter as her middle name. My middle name is my maternal grandmother's first name and we plan on choosing something from my mom's side as our #2's middle name.

We chose an irish name for our daughter that is typically used for a boy (but has both female and male rankings, and we have met girls with this name in the past) but we just love it.

Posted by: youngnovamama | December 18, 2009 11:01 AM | Report abuse

In college the joke was if you didn't know/remember a guy's name, chances were it was David. Which reminds me of that great Dr. Seuss story, Too Many Daves.

Posted by: blahblah6b | December 18, 2009 11:02 AM | Report abuse

Winner, ArmyBrat1! I give you a virtual cookie.

Ann is kind of like Marie in that respect: there are lots of people with Ann as a middle name but not too many with it as a first name.

Of course my friend Ann is now called "Egg" or "Plant" after we all watched Arrested Development. Poor Egg, maybe someone will make her all sparkly for Easter.

Posted by: em15 | December 18, 2009 11:08 AM | Report abuse

We use only saint's names, preferably close to the date of the child's birth, and eliminate names which will sound absurd when the child is 60. Somehow I can't imagine Tiffani will be pleased to be called that when she is in assisted living. Naming after a living relative can be dicey; I was named for my mother's sibling, "the crazy one." Oops.

Posted by: padre1957 | December 18, 2009 11:10 AM | Report abuse

The tradition in my husband's family is for every child to take on his father's entire last name, prefaced by a unique first name for the child. So if my husband's name is John Allen Smith Gold, then each baby's name will be (first name) John Allen Smith Gold. The names are long, but each middle name is a forefather's first name (stretching back as far as family history remembers. I like the tradition for boys, not so much for girls (they get daddy's names too).

My son has an unusual but easy to pronounce and spell first name. However, I think people worry too much about the spelling thing. I always have to spell my last name. It's not that big a deal, really. I think that names with meaning are so much better than names without any meaning at all, but that's just personal preference.

Posted by: raia | December 18, 2009 11:14 AM | Report abuse

Whoops, meant to say each child takes on his father's entire name, including first, middle and last.

Posted by: raia | December 18, 2009 11:15 AM | Report abuse

My husband wants to name our kids, if we have 2 boys, Austin and Tyler. No, he's not kidding. I can't remember the girl's name he liked, but it was something stripper-y.

He really shouldn't be consulted in this decision at all, huh?

atb2: I really like the idea of using your maiden name as the kids' middle names!

Posted by: falltillfly | December 18, 2009 11:22 AM | Report abuse

My sister used to work in Child Support/Social Services. You should hear some of the names she came across. More than a few Antwans, Peeairs, Tawandas, Dineeses and Britnees. Not to mention a LaTina or two. One was even named Bobra -- some idiot in Vital Records spelled "Barbara" wrong on the birth cert. so now she's Bobra for life.

Posted by: Baltimore11 | December 18, 2009 11:24 AM | Report abuse

"My sister used to work in Child Support/Social Services. You should hear some of the names she came across."

Hahahahaha...the poor / undereducated / disadvantaged are so unusual!!!

Posted by: 06902 | December 18, 2009 11:34 AM | Report abuse

"so common, in fact, that both of his sisters married men with the same name..."

Is Dr. Freud in the house? kidding.

Posted by: moxiemom1

No, really! Especially since the name is also their Father's middle name...
Ah, dysfunction, thy name is inlaws...

Posted by: VaLGaL | December 18, 2009 11:38 AM | Report abuse

I just want to note that all of these people have spelled Aiden wrong. The Gaelic spelling is with an "a": Aidan -- which is the correct way, which is the spelling we used.

Posted by: njacobs | December 18, 2009 11:59 AM | Report abuse

The number one rule IMHO is don't name your kid your-name-plus-junior, and then kill yourself. DH was a junior, but he dropped it after his father committed suicide (just around this time of year) when DH was seven.

My father picked all the first names and my mother picked the middle names for their kids. My sisters and I all have Dad's ex-girlfriends' first names, and saints for middle names. My brother's first name was after one of Dad's friends, and his middle name is the same as Dad's middle name.

DH and I followed a similar pattern, DH picking first names and me picking middle names.

Older son's first name is after one of DH's closest friends, and his middle name is the same as my father's, brother's, and DH's middle name. (Yes, what a coincidence that DH has the same middle name as my male relatives - and it isn't a common name at all.)

Younger son's first name is after a historical figure, and his middle name is my maternal grandfather's first name.

Posted by: SueMc | December 18, 2009 11:59 AM | Report abuse

Funny about misspellings and alternate spellings. I once worked with a woman whose name was spelled Yvonne but pronounced "Wy-own." The reason: Her mother had seen the name written, and liked it, but had never heard it pronounced.

The ideal name, I think, is easy to spell and pronounce, but relatively uncommon. (I like my first name for those reasons.) I never had kids, but I always wanted to name a daughter either Isabel (after my great-aunt, who was like a grandmother to me) or Helen (after a music teacher and family friend). I see that Isabella has hit the Top 10, but Helen seems to be off the radar.

Posted by: PLozar | December 18, 2009 12:01 PM | Report abuse

The Gaelic spelling is with an "a": Aidan -- which is the correct way, which is the spelling we used.

Posted by: njacobs | December 18, 2009 11:59 AM | Report abuse

Actually, no. Aidan is an English spelling. The Gaelic is Aedan or Aodhan. Not that it matters or that you should really care how/why anyone else chooses to name their own kids...

Posted by: 06902 | December 18, 2009 12:06 PM | Report abuse

Oh, just read the different-last-names question. DH and I have different last names. Before the first kid was born we agreed that a girl would have my last name, but a boy would get DH's last name. No hyphens for us - the two names just don't work together at all.
(And we didn't find out first kid's gender before he was born, so it was a completely fair deal.)

Of course, when the 2nd one came along, DH wanted to change the deal. "It would be so much easier dealing with school and such if all the kids had the same last name [as mine]."

And the second was also a boy (that time we did find out the gender before the birth), so DH got to pass on his last name again anyway.

Now I'm the odd one in the family, and at school events / around the boys' friends / etc. I'm often addressed as Mrs. DH's-last-name. I've gotten used to it, and now I only correct them to my last name when I'm dealing with a photographer who's likely to be publishing his photos with names in the captions.

Posted by: SueMc | December 18, 2009 12:13 PM | Report abuse

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