What’s in a Name?
As you can imagine, in the baby book basket business, I see a LOT of baby names.
Some trendy, some traditional and some quite unusual (to say the least).
One trend that has been evident lately is baby girls with traditionally “boy names” – little pink bundles of joy named Ryan, Charlie, Aiden, Avery, Mason, Brett, Parker, Spencer and Morgan, to name a few. A rather witty male teenager pointed out to me that Charlie is a great name for a girl if she grows up to be a tall, beautiful blonde… but not so easy to carry for a short, less stunning creature – he may have a point there! Certainly lots of actresses with “male names” come to mind – Morgan Fairchild, Parker Posey, Michael Learned and even Evan Rachel Wood (but her parents added the Rachel to avoid confusion). AND celebrities have their own rules – and celebrity baby names are a blog unto itself!
We have also seen a trend that is not new but seems to be popular again – and that is moms who use their maiden names as their baby’s first name (thereby satisfying the husband who wants his bride to take his name but allowing the wife to “keep” her name by passing it along to her new baby!) Some examples of this are Chase, Ellis, Grady, Cooper, Harrison and Quinn, to name a few.
There’s a lot to be said for an unusual name (as long as it isn’t too strange) so that there are not ten Andrews and ten Emilys in the same grade at the same school! One thing is for sure…the days of Billy and Susie (or substitute whatever name is always male or female) are long gone…and on the first day of school when the teacher calls out a name, she may be surprised by who raises their hand!
But traditionalists take heart…
The most recently published Popular Baby Names list had Top Ten as follows:
MALE FEMALE
- Mason Emma
- Liam Olivia
- Ethan Sophia
- Noah Ava
- Jacob Isabella
- Jack Mia
- Aiden Chloe
- Logan Ella
- Jackson Emily
- Benjamin Abigail