The Baby Name Wizard

So true!And look at Supreme Court nominee John Roberts - he has two of the ordinary names in his name.

I am curious to know your take on twins' names. I noticed on the Social Security site that the most common names for twins were the traditional names (not surprisingly since many of them are still highly ranked). Two sets did strike my fancy, however: Faith and Hope for girls (a comment on surviving the pregnancy or on the endurance needed to get through the first couple of years?) and Jesse and James for boys (a comment that the two together will be trouble?!).--Elizabeth

Hi! I have one of the old classic names, Anne, and while I resented it when I was about 9 or 10, I love it now. It's slightly different from the ubiquitous Anna, and at 19 I'm the only I know of my age with the name. My older sister's name is Eleanor (she's 21), and we both think we'll try to do the same for our kids: gie them a 'normal' name that has fallen into disuse, like Roger or Jane.-Anne

Anonymous Anne, Your mother has awesome taste in names. If I were going to change my first name, it would be to Anne, and it would have to be Anne WITH the "e". If I had had any daughters, one of mine was going to be either Eleanor or Helen.Susan

Great post. There is also something very comfortable and easy about having a recognizable name. It's easier for others to say, spell, and remember.I have a friend name Vaidehi (pronounced Vie-day-hee). While it's a beautiful and meaningful name, it's also kind of a pain in the butt because it's so difficult for other people to deal with.I used to think about naming a future daughter Ceinwyn (A Celtic name pronounced Keen-u-wen), after a character in a book I loved, but I've since realized that she would go through life constantly reminding and correcting people about how to say or spell her name. Others might make harsh judgments about her because of her unusual name. I suppose a name can be both common and meaningful.

I agree there are classics like Sarah and ELizabeth that will always be nice names. However I do not agree that we have a blank slate when picturing someone with a common name. When I hear any name, I always have a picture in my head of that person. Especially if it is a name I dislike, like Robert. I think that is great if people want common names for their kids. If it weren't for them, the people (like me) that want unusual names would have a harder time being unusual.-laura

I've decided that for me, the important statistical aspect of a name is not it's frequency, but the first derivative of the frequency with respect to time. In particular, I'll try to avoid names that have spiked recently, without so much concern for their overall popularity. The simplest way to think about it is I'll look at NameVoyager without paying attention to the numbers on the right side.I suspect that those names that increase in frequency very quickly are most likely to sound dated and trendy twenty years later.--eric

I, too, would like to choose names for my children that are timeless. But how can I know which names these are? The data on NameVoyager only goes back to the 1880s; I'd ideally like to know how popular a name has been for centuries. Perhaps the names that we think are timeless are, in fact, faddish on the timescale of century-to-century.

For the reader who was considering the name Ceinwyn, use it as a middle name! My husband and I each came up with separate lists when we were awaiting our first child and were shocked to find the name Bronwyn on both lists. We decided that going through life with a name meaning "white-breasted" might not be easy in middle school, however, and named her Sarah Bronwyn instead.Laura, do you have any data on how people choose names? It's always interesting to hear people's stories.

Classic simplicity is definitely a good thing-- I think so many parents these days are trying a bit too hard to be different just for the sake of it. However, I do advocate being a bit more creative with your child's middle name. I'm a Mary Elizabeth, which is one the most nondescript names possible. I wish my parents had given me a middle name with a bit more punch. One of my good friends was an Anne Smith, and she also objected to the "blank slate" feel of the name.Also, I once broke up with a long-term boyfriend because his last name was Brown and I couldn't imagine devolving into total name blandness. =)

Our daughter has a classic name, Catherine Ruth. We would like to contine the trend. Anyone have a suggestion? We have the middle name of Jane in mind. __________ Jane?

Quick answer to the last question: How about Mary? Too common? Too funny ? [Mary Jane? -- could be a candy, type of show, or nickname for a controlled substance]. Any way, I'm an advocate of simple, common names. Good luckSpeaking of which, and this may be slightly OT, but I've noticed that most of people quoted in news stories (especially in the newspaper] seem to NOT have very common names, such as John Smith, but usually someone with a name that probably would stand out more, such as J. Barrington Smith - McClelland; professor of this, and author of the book... My wife says this is stupid " Yeah, I'm sure the reporter says that we can't quote you because you do not have a unique name." I suppose that a person with that type of name would have more credibility. Definitely a higher profile.

I've liked the names Jane and Margaret for a long time for precisely this reason: they're not fashionable now, but they're solid names with plenty of history. But I think I'm one of those people who gets an idea just slightly before everybody else, so I'd look for a big upswing in Janes and Margarets. Especially Janes -- isn't there a magazine and a makeup company called Jane? And don't discount the many women of my generation (I'm 32) who embraced the movie Lady Jane as teenagers.

I completely agree with Eric. Names like Jack, Anna, Sam, and Emma might've once been considered "timeless" or "ordinary" (though they were quite popular 100 years ago!) but they're so overused right now that they'll seem "dated" and "trendy" when we look back in 10 or 20 years.And darn it, too. We hate trendy names and thought we were being nonconformist when we named our son Henry five years ago. Now his name is inching towards the Top 100. Bah!I don't think there's any way to avoid this, unless you go back 40-50 years instead of 100+. You don't hear of many babies named Gary or Barbara or Donald or Sandra these days! :)

hrm.. I've always loved the name Damaris Elisabeth for a girl. Damaris is a unique name, but not trendy, made up, or completely outlandish. It's biblical, and the name of the pilgrim Damaris Hopkins who sailed over on the Mayflower at the age of 3.The name may not have carried over into the 20th century like the names of her children- timeless classics such as Mary, Martha, Ruth, and Elizabeth, but I still LOVE the name, and not because of its uniqueness.

>>When you name your son William, nobody's going to jump up and down (except maybe your father Bill). But nobody's ever, ever going to form a negative impression of him based on that name.I never form a negative impression of the kid named Ted'Quarius (to quote from another name blog). I form a negative opinion of the PARENTS!!!It amuses me that so many parents go for "originality." No name is original unless it's either a word not traditionally used as a name, or just plain made-up. Why people think Madison is more original than Mary is beyond me.Seriously,

To the person who wanted a "classic" name with Jane - try Eliza Jane. That's my suggestion.We are trying to find a balance between a name that isn't common but isn't weird either for our son due in a couple months. Much harder than we expected!

Eliza Jane is pretty, but now I can't get the song out of my head "Oh, li'l Liza, li'l Liza Jane ..." If they still teach that song in elementary school music classes, girl's in trouble.I'd vote for Rebecca Jane, or maybe one of the relatively classic boy-names-with-an-A-on-the-end: Carla, Erica, Paula all work well with Jane.Or dare I suggest my own name - Beverly? Which I hated when I was younger (wanted something feminine like Lisa or Clarissa) but like now. It's a name people take seriously. And kind of hard for the other kids to mess with. I got teased in school, but it was my last name they cranked on, not my first.I am loving this blog! I am a language geek and names are one of those things that fascinate me. I have bookmarked you, Laura, and I'll be back!

Why people think Madison is more original than Mary is beyond me.I don't get it either. Especially taking into account the fact that there are many more little Madisons running around than little Marys.

What about taking two common names and tying them together as a child's first name? I am 21 years old, and when I was in high school I was a cheerleader with a girl named Maribrooke, she also has a middle name. And an aquaintance in college is named Laurabeth, who also has a seperate middle names. Both of these girls are two years older than me, so they were born in 1980 or 81. This is an interesting way to name a child something that doesn't sound "weird", but is original. I also know a Callie Beth, who has a middle name. One of my favorite names of someone I know is Lynlea (pronounced lin-lee). This name rolls off the tongue well and I even like the way it looks. It seems to be a combination of Lynn and Leah.

My husband Brian and I are planning on starting a family in the next year or so.....if we have a boy, my husband would like his middle name to be Brian, however, we cannot think of a first name! any ideas?

My husband Brian and I are planning on starting a family in the next year or so.....if we have a boy, my husband would like his middle name to be Brian, however, we cannot think of a first name! any ideas?

Question: How Common is Lynn as a middle name? It must have been in the mid 60's, and for both boys and girls. Although when I was a kid in the 50's there were a celebrety or two who had it (Peter Lynn Hayes) , but what really opened my eyes when I noticed that almost every girl with a first name of Jody or Jodie, had a middle name of Lynn. Someone who was actually named Jody Lyn said she wondered about this also, did some reasearch and found out that about 9 in 10 people (could be boys, too) fit this pattern. She claimed that this name was popular since the original version of the TV show Family Affair was on the air at the time (you know with Buffy and Jody), which also explained why a guy I worked with named his daughter Buffy (don't know a middle name) who must ber in her 30's by now. Long before the vampire slayer. But what made me think about it was the person named LynnLea.; I knew a woman who's doaughter was named Jody, but she never called her that--she refered to her as something that sounded like Linn-Nay. Also agree that combining common names into one word is popular, though not unique among women now in their 40's. I know both a Sarabeth and an AnnMary. [that's how she spells it with a capital middle M]. My vaorite is Marjianna. (a lady who once called a radio show) The DJ's had a hard time with it, couldn't even try to say it . Marjianna says she gets called marijuana a lot. She sounded Southern, so I guess this practice of one-word compund names is common there, as are women's names where the last syllable is "belle" as in (my favorites) Lulubelle and Suziebelle. Think tall, full figured, hee haw honey.

I live in an affluent town and all of the names are the strong classics these days - Thomas, Max, Katherine, Benjamin etc. When parents choose something unusual, it comes off sounding down market and "trying too hard". I think there is definitely sociology to it - the successful and rich used to give their kids unusual names and then everybody started doing it so now they are using the classics. What happens next?

Agree with previous post. The sociology angle was explored and documented befre. I never thought of it, but 'Upscale" seemed to definitely be a factor, although I personallyOff hand, I generally agree, and allmost lways say to mysef--What are these parents thinking? Apparently not too much.

Haha, that reminded me of this lame joke...'You look like Helen Brown!''Well, you don't look so good in green yourself!'It works for all colour surnames, I think.

I like the Classic sounding names, but not too ordinary of names, and that is why I decided to name my two twin daughters due in september Evangeline and Virginia

Virginia is on my list! I love the NN Ginny. :)

"Classic" names are in the culture of the beholder.My husband wants our sons to have classic names; our oldest is a William. Our girls we wanted something a little more exotic and unusual, but still names with a strong history. We hate the made-up-ish, surnamey names so popular for girls now (i.e., Bailey, Madison, Taylor).So our compromise was to find classic names from other cultures. So we have a Bronwen (very common name in Wales; we're not too worried about the name's meaning of "white-breasted"; I did some research into Welsh mythology and it means something more like "pure of heart"; also, kids at school don't carry around baby-name meaning books)a Hilani (Hawaiian with a nice meaning, "carried in the arms of heaven") and are expecting a Sakura in a couple of months. Sakura is "cherry blossom" in Japanese, and was the #1 girls' name in 2000.So we're using Top Ten names from other cultures, and it means we get both classic and exotic. And part od the reason I like exotic names like these is precisely because they're blank slates. People we meet generally haven't known a Hilani before, but they can tell it's Hawaiian, and it rolls of the tongue nicely.Anyway. THat's our solution, and we've been very happy with the results. I'm not too worried about them having to spell their names all their lives; my name is Rebecca, and I have to spell it for people constantly and clarify whether I'm a Becca, Becky, Beckie, Reba, or Rebecca.

To the poster who wanted a name that went with the middle name Brian: May I suggest James? My best friend's last name is Bryan and his first name is James. I think they work well together.Sakura: nice! I have a friend who is in the process of male-to-female transgendering and has chosen the female name Sakura, nickname Saki.So which is it, Rebecca? I have a couple of friends by that name, and one is a Becky, the other is a Rebecca who answers to Becca.I have also noticed how parents put their feet down re unacceptable nicknames. "It's not Rosie, it's ROSEMARY!" "It's not Junie, it's JUNIPER!" (BTW, I love that name.) Then again, I met a wee Elizabeth who by the time she was 2 had become Betsy. I still call her Elizabeth because of the earlier parent-noia.

As per previous comment: Agree, I've noticed over the years that not only new parents are going out of there way to give their kids unique names; they are making sure that in no way, no how, can these names be construed into a nickname. I've especially experienced this through out my family especially with my in-laws. Austin is not Ozzie; Alex is not Al, Alex's brother is Cardis (anyone know of anyone else named that? My brother says it was totally madeup and nick-name proof.) and above all my brother's mother in law always yelled at us when we called his wife Maggy. SHE IS MARGARET, she always scolded. Of course, Margaret said that was her favorite of all the possible nick names.Hey Laura, how about a new category? How about Niche Names. I thought of that when I mistyped "nick " as "nich".

I am now three months pregnant with a girl. I have two sons named Aidan and Jack. I love the names Hope and Honour. Do you think these names sound dated (too 1960's) or are they beautiful timeless ordinary names that I striving for?

I have two sons named Aidan(6.5 years) and Jack (4 years). At the time I thought they were interesting, not too trendy and Timeless. However, now they seem a little trendy. I am now three months pregnant with a girl and I love the names Hope and Honour. Will these names suffer the same fate (Is hope too 1960's) or are they timeless and a tad ordinary?

Re nicknames: Try as you will, someone will find a way to turn almost any name into a nick. My sister-in-law loves to do this and it drives HER sister nuts. She named her daughter Courtney, thinking there was no way SIL could come up with a nickname for that. For most of her childhood, SIL called her Corky.What really drives her sister nuts is that my SIL dishes it out but doesn't take it; she has a totally unnickable name: Claire.Department of ironic twists department: My SIL's sister who professes to hate nicknames is known universally, even professionally, not as Maureen, but as Mo.

Hi I have twins, and I also picked a traditional ethnic name for my son, for my daughter though I wanted something cute and girly for her... I choose Lola, I know alot of hollywood people use it, but Ive never met another Lola yet.. and I love her name now more then ever.. the only names I dislike are some of these made up sounding names, and some of these old fashioned names for girls, Sarah, Eleanor etc.etc... I hope Im not offending anyone...

Danielle--Lola is not unique, in fact somewhat common. First there was a popular singer in the late 60's early 70's Lola Falana. And then there is the Kink's classic rock song Lola, L-O-L-A, Lola. Where I live, there was a local radio celebrity (who is now involved in other work in the community) Lola Lawson. So Lola is a good name. Traditional and not weird or trendy.

Living in germany there is one problem we don't have: we are not allowed to use made up names! The names have to be identifiable as masculine or feminine names and already exist... so all made up names would end up being middle names only. That still doesn't solve my problem of finding a classical name for our soon to be born son.. I like Noah.. is it tooooo biblical?Nisha

about ordinary names--they are great if you have an unusual last name. "Moon Unit Zappa" is a little colorful for most kids to carry around, while "Jane Zappa" is easy to live with. But if your last name is very common, "Michael Smith" can be a challenge. My husband has a Michael Smith-type name, and it is hard for new people to remember, and to distinguish from the other Michael Smiths that they know. In a database, he is usually not the only one, and must be distinguished by his middle initial. He finds it annoying, and wishes he had chosen to go by his middle name.Most of our children have names that are unusual for their age group, which has helped them a lot, but then we named the youngest Allison in a moment of weakness. She spent middle school and high school being one year younger than another girl with the same first and last name. The mix-ups were endless, not only at school, but also socially and medically (same doctors, same pharmacy). Learn from my experience!

My name is Jenny Kathryn. I was born in 1978. There were 5 other girls with a form of Jenn as their first name in my class alone! There were a whole bunch of Kate variations as well. So I was stuck with no individuality at all on the name front. There was a 'Kate' in my class who decided to be individual and go by K8. As a teen, I thought that was pretty cool.I had a teacher in 1st grade or so that decided we should all be called by our 'full' names. Tommy became Thomas. Billy - William. And on down the line. Problem was, my 'full' name IS Jenny, not Jennifer. Oooh that lady about had a fit. (And so did I!) Jennifer just isn't my name and my mom finally had to step in and set her straight!!

Traditional names are nice and timeless, but they tend to be bland. An uncommon name, and by this I do not mean a made up or trendy name, can build character and pride for a child growing up. Surprisingly others may remember it because it is a bit different. If a child, teen, young adult, needs to advise someone how to pronounce their name correctly is that really so bad, or does it build confidence enough to speak to others, engage in conversation, take pride in themselves. There are some very nice strong gaelic and celtic names that can use english spelling to be spoken correctly by others. I grew up with a pretty plain name, not that I was unhappy with it, but uncommon names always intriged me and I still can remember those people I met with different names. As far as people making judgements on someone based on their name alone, that seems pretty shallow and perhaps those are the kind of folks you do not really need to be associating with antway.

Hey, everyone - I'm a new visitor to this site and I just LOVE all the interesting commentary on baby names, history, etc. I named my daughter, who is now 19, Dara. I had a helluva time trying to stay away from the trendy names of the mid-Eighties', but when I'd finally given up, this name literally popped into my head and I stuck with it. My then-husband was startled, but as he couldn't come up with any others, went with my choice. Since then, her name has given her a cache of unique-ness existing far above the typical trendiness and otherwise ordinary-sounding names. And, she had grown along with her name, her looks and personality have adapted beautifully. I had never seen nor heard that name before (I swear!) and I'm so glad I did, because it was - and is - the perfect name for the perfect girl.

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I think that unusual spellings fall right in with unusual names. Having lived my whole life with a relatively common name I have to constantly spell for people (even though there were several very famous actresses with the name, and for a while we had a president whose daughter had my name), I just got sick of it.I wanted a name for my son that neither he nor I would have to spell for people. The name I wanted could not have multiple spellings, like John and Jon, Steven or Stephen.I wanted something classic and mainstream - something that everyone could spell without prompting - but didn't want a really bland name like Michael, Thomas, Robert or William, so I thought I'd move a little further away with Matthew. But I didn't check the name stats or I would have known it had gotten way too popular for what I was going after. He has always been "Matt G." in a classroom full of Matts, and he hates that. Then I was astonished by the number of people who don't know that Matthew has two T's!! Whoa was me. I still had to spell the name!So I tried again. I named my second son Peter because everyone has heard of it, and it has only one spelling. It has been a total blessing: I say "Peter" and nobody asks how I spell it. No one mispronounces it. Best of all, it isn't a common name, so he's always the only Peter in his class at school - but the name isn't "weird." He doesn't get teased. It fit every single naming criteria I had, and furthermore, he likes the name. So it took two tries, but I finally hit it!

Anonymous said: "I have two sons named Aidan(6.5 years) and Jack (4 years). At the time I thought they were interesting, not too trendy and Timeless. However, now they seem a little trendy. I am now three months pregnant with a girl and I love the names Hope and Honour. Will these names suffer the same fate (Is hope too 1960's) or are they timeless and a tad ordinary?"I think it's always a risk. You never know what's going to happen to make a name suddenly hit the top of the charts. For instance, a friend of mine named his daughter Grace when she was born in 1988. At the time, the name was old fashioned and unusual. Then "Will and Grace" hit the air waves, and Grace is now in the top 10 for little girls.Because of the TV show "Hope and Faith" I would avoid Hope and lean toward Honour. But you never know. It could backfire!

"I never form a negative impression of the kid named Ted'Quarius (to quote from another name blog). I form a negative opinion of the PARENTS!!!"I agree. I once had a friend whose ex-husband's name was "Markis". My friend explained that his mother liked the name "Marcus" but only had a second grade education, and didn't know how to spell it. So she sounded it out. Her son will be advertising her illiteracy for his entire life.Ever since then - and reading statistics that say one fifth of the US is functionally illiterate - I really wonder about the parents of people whose names have odd spellings. An oddly spelled name (like Mikel instead of Michael) tells me the person has uneducated parents.Some people do it to be "different" but do they really want to? I've seen Gennifer and Jinnifer and Jenniphur and Jenyf'r. That doesn't say "different" to me - I'm sorry. It says, "WHAT on EARTH were you THINKING??"And I've also seen names that don't follow the rules of phonics, for instance "Kyme" for "Kim." Obviously people are going to call her "Kime" with a long i instead of a short one. Or the spelling "Jana" (which is Jane-uh) when they pronounce the name "Janna." If you want to be different, find an uncommon name and spell it correctly - and the way it's supposed to sound. Please don't make a mess of a common name! It doesn't reflect well on either you or the child, and will cause that child problems for the rest of his or her life!

And I've also seen names that don't follow the rules of phonics, for instance "Kyme" for "Kim." Obviously people are going to call her "Kime" with a long i instead of a short one. Or the spelling "Jana" (which is Jane-uh) when they pronounce the name "Janna."Just a note...phonetically, "Jana" and "Janna" are pronounced jan-nuh. The first is a short "a" sound like in "banana." My name is Jaena, pronounced jane-uh. My mother created it based on the old rule "When two vowels go walking, the first does the talking." My name has been mispronounced and misspelled countless times throughout my life, but I still like it.Besides that, I agree that a name should at least be spelled phonetically...although that can also get people in trouble if they do not know the "correct" way to spell a name. Many of us do not have phonetically correct names - -think how funny the spellings could be!

My husband are I are having a baby girl in March. I've had the name "Ava Rose" picked out for about 7-8 years. Back then it was not common at all (in fact, most people I told said they had never heard of it - Ava Gardner is a bit before my time - I'm in mid 30s). Anyway, I now notice that it's creeping up the charts in popularity. I've never wanted a popular name. I'm a little worried but have loved the name for so long that I can't see naming my daughter anything else. Anyone else having this problem?

I loved the name Laura from an early age and if I ever thought about having a daughter, Laura would be her name. I live in NZ so the name was not as popular as it had been overseas. Even so, born in 1979 she's had a Laura or two in her school classes. But I still love it and have never regretted it. My son is Samuel although he is Sam to all who know him. He was named after a horse actually (I was horse mad in my fairly lonely teens and Sam the horse was my best friend)and like Laura, there was no doubt about his name. Unfortunately the name had a major resurgence at the time of his birth in the early 80's and at one point in his cricket team there were 8 of them!We have a very unusual surname though so its not too bad - equally our surname comes near the beginning of the alphabet so he's never been last at much.He likes the name as his sister likes hers - for me most important as I've loathed my name 'Prudence' (or 'Prue') all my life. The opportunities for it to be perverted by other children are endless!And adults tend to forget it and call me 'Sue'.As for Mary & John, my parents were named those names as are my in-laws. And my second name is Mary and my husband's second name is John. I hate 'em both!

"she has a totally unnickable name: Claire"I don't think there are ANY unnickable names. I would nn a Claire Clary (Clarie, Clairy, Clairie). Or Clara or Clarissa.There is no law saying a nn must be shorter than the formal name (Grace-Gracie, John-Johnny).

I was one of only my few Charlottes growing up. My mother wanted to give her children names that were classic.
So Christopher, Rachel, Charlotte, Isaac, and Cassandra were given.

The only one to buck the tradition is my youngest niece, Micah, whose namesake died recently in Iraq.