I am absolutely fascinated by baby naming trends. I don't know why, but I have been for years. I think part of it is because psychology, sociology, and cultural trends in general fascinate me, and baby naming trends play into all these things. Also, after giving my characters pretty boring names for a while (as is the case unfortunately is for the novel I'm currently working on because I didn't want to change the names I originally gave the characters), I decided to explore the wide world of names, and found a really neat website called Name Nerds that has a lot of fun articles, lists, and quizzes about names. I have a Word document with long lists of names, which I pull up when I'm drawing a blank. I had a lot of fun creating names for the characters of my screenplay I wrote for my Scriptwriting class my last semester. Since the story was set in the future, I wanted to give the characters names that seemed different from today's names, but not too different. I ended up with names like Nora, Piper, Temple, Harley, Clyde, and Calvin.
So if you're interested in baby names like me (Anna, perhaps?), you may want to check out this article that I found interesting about the top baby names of the decade, year, and the falling and rising trends. As I looked through these lists, I find many of my favorite names were on the list, which made me a little sad because I don't really want to give my children super common names (though of course, naming trends and my favorite names will both likely change in the next few years before I have kids). But I suppose it also means that I am indeed a product of the 21st century.
I also found this interesting: "A recent BabyCenter survey on baby names reveals that parents are more conservative when naming boys and more experimental when naming girls." That is so true of me, and when I saw that quote, I tried to put my finger on why. I think parents want to play it safe and give their son (or sons) a fairly traditional name so he isn't teased by other boys. They want him to feel strong. Most parents don't really see their son becoming an artist or something of that sort, but an athlete or a businessman or something else to that effect. I know this is the way I tend to feel.
Anyhow, I'll probably have a few years to contemplate the names of my children, but it's always fun to see what's out there. What about your favorite names? Do they make one of the lists, or are they more unique? Do you feel like your choices have been influenced by today's culture?
3 comments:
Kenneth and I have 2 girls names picked out. If we ever have boys we are major trouble. Everything I like, he dislikes and vice versa. Its hard for boys names I think. Oh well, don't have to worry about that for a while.
I agree with ya! There are certain shows that you can get people addicted to and others that you can't. Good jobs are like that! :) Star Trek is cool! I loved the new movie that came out.. or maybe there was just a hot actor.. ;)
From what I've gathered through the blogs I read and people I know, when a couple names their child, that child's name (as in, whether or not is 'traditional') tends to reflect the parent's personality and/or style. It's interesting.
John and I are picking names I consider to be timeless, though some may say they're traditional or (in the boy's case) picked just because their Biblical names. We each have a boys name picked out that has a special meaning to us, and we'll likely stick with John's choice because he's had it picked out from before he and I met. With the girl name, we picked out a few that are also timeless with special meanings behind the name. We'll just choose one from what we like since there isn't (yet) one that sticks out. Sooo, we'll see. Once we find out what the sex is, we'll publicly share the name.
I love baby names too. I am always changing my mind about what kind of name I want ... but honestly there's no way I could decide until I met the litle person.
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