When you're trying to make sense of name trends, names with multiple spellings are a constant challenge. I generally treat each variant independently -- you can read my rationale here. But there are times when it is handy to merge all the Kayleighs, Kaylees, and Kaylis into one name.
The spelling issue recently came up here in response to a column on conformity in names. Reader "Jennifer" suggested that the seeming decline of name conformity could really just be a rise in different spellings of the same old conformist names:
"In the 1940's, there was only one way to spell Shirley. You didn't have hundreds and hundreds of parents blessing their little darling with Shirleigh, Chirly, Shirlie, and 12 other spellings, like you see now."
If you've recently met a young Madalyn or Bayleigh it's natural to see this as a generation of "kreative" spellers. Right now, there are six different spellings of Madeline among the top 1000 girls' names: Madeline, Madelyn, Madeleine, Madaline, Madalyn, and Madlyn.
Oops, sorry...I was looking at the wrong list. Those six Madelines were actually from the top 1000 names of 1915.
In fact, multiple variants have been more the rule than the exception for the hot names of each generation. Some highlights of a century of kreativity:
1900: Catherine, Katherine, Kathryn, Catharine, Katharine, Katheryn, Cathrine, Cathryn, Kathrine, Kathryne
1920: Eleanor, Elinor, Eleanore, Eleanora, Elenora, Elenor
1940: Gerald, Jerald, Jerold, Jerrold, Gerold, Garold, Jerrell, Jerrel
1960: Cheri, Cherie, Cherry, Cherri, Cherrie, Shari, Sherry, Sherri, Sheri, Sherrie, Sheree, Sherie
1980: Kristin, Kristen, Kristine, Kristyn, Kristan, Christin, Christen
2000: Kaitlyn, Katelyn, Kaitlin, Katelynn, Katlyn, Kaitlynn, Katelin, Katlynn, Caitlin, Caitlyn, Caitlynn
But is the trend accelerating? Does the typical popular name today have more -- or more popular -- variations than in the past? That turns out to be a tricky question to answer, as I'll talk about next time.
Comments
While I don't have the time to go through all the years, I am currently doing a sort of the 1915 girl names. So far, what I have found is that you are correct that people did spell names with alternative spellings even then. I never would dispute that. However, what I am noticing so far is that the alternative spellings in 1915 don't make a dent on the overall ranking of a given name because the dominant spelling dominates by margins or 10-20% of the total.
In 1915, the name Eleanor has 7000 kids with that spelling, and 1900 of combined alternate spellings.
In 2004, the name Kaitlyn is the predominant spelling, accounting for almost 7000 of the kids...but there are 5 other spellings that were given to over 1000 kids, and all of those alternate spellings adds up to about 12,000 kids.
In those two examples, Kaitlyn ranks #33 on the SSA chart, but #5 when you account for spellings. Eleanor is #27 on the SSA list, and it doesn't look like it will move that much when you control for spellings. Maybe #16, tops.
Okay, I'm done. Column 1 is the SSA list. Column 2 is my sort:
1 Mary
2 Helen
3 Dorothy
4 Margaret
5 Ruth
6 Mildred Anna
7 Anna Catherine
8 Elizabeth Mildred
9 Frances Elizabeth
10 Evelyn Frances
11 Marie
12 Virginia Evelyn
13 Alice Rose
14 Florence Virginia
15 Lillian Alice
16 Rose Florence
17 Irene Lillian
18 Louise Eleanor
19 Catherine Louise
20 Edna Lucille
I could go on, but as you can see, there isn't much movement in the top 20 spots.
Interestingly, though, the top 25 names in 1915 (spelling adjusted) accounts for 41% of all girl names. In 2005, the number is 24%, so there is still a drop across the century. I haven't done any other years, though, so I don't know if this is a new phenomenon or something that has been happening for a while. Curious.
Down here in the South we have Sherry, and we have Cherrie and Cherry, etc. (spoken as in the fruit.) Different, in my book!
I wonder if a couple of spelling win out (survival of the fittest) and thus one or two spellings become the dominant ones known to later generations.
I just have to butt in here and say that Kristen (Kristin, Christen, etc.) and Kristine (Christine) are two totally different names, not the same name with different spellings. Pronunciation is totally different on the second syllable. I see this all the time, and it's just *mildly* irritating.
I believe the previous comments about Sherry, Cherrie and Cherry and Kristen/Christine are a large reason why Laura ranks all these names seperately. Where do you draw the line?
Jennifer, what you've compiled here does bolster the claim that we seem to prize conformity less than we once did, at least in naming our children. I suspect that Civil Rights movement had something to do with it. Valuing diversity isn't really even questioned anymore; it's just a given. There is a huge sociological argument to be made there, but I'm not up for the task!
My friend and I are both named "Elise," but she spells hers with a Y-Elyse. I don't have as much of a problem as her because people know that my name is traditionally spelled. With her, however, people know that it's not "normal" so she gets Alyse, Alise, Elise, Ellese, Alese-the list goes on!
Per a little analysis I did on BNABBT (I'm sure many of you know what that is), misspelled (or "variant") first names are on the rise for both genders when comparing SSA lists at 20-year intervals from 1884-2004. They are only slightly up for girls (36% from 1884, though it hasn't been steadily rising, it has gone up and down). For boys they are up considerably (140% from 1884 to 2004). I considered a name a misspelling ("variant") only if it was pronounced the same as the original, so I didn't group Eleanor with Eleanora or Christine with Kristen.
What a great group of comments -- it warms my heart that people actually care about stats! Jennifer, I agree that the number of variants isn't as important as the % of babies they represent. Camilla, I'd love to know more about your methodology! (Which form of Katherine/Catherine/Kathryn is the root, and which are variants? Is Adan a form of Aidan? And is the boys' change steady or sudden?) Hopefully next week's blog will address some of these issues.
I considered Catherine/Katherine both originals and anything else a variant. I pulled a trick with Adan - considered it as its "Spanish form of Adam" self until the 2004 data, when it spiked so much I figured more of it was attempts at an Aidan "variant" and considered it a variant instead. The boys' change was very slight and gradual until between 1984 and 2004 when it suddenly doubled.
This is probably going to be pretty different from your data though because I also separated out nicknames, surnames-as-first-names, and some other smaller categories from this. I can't wait to see next week's blog! (Not that that's any different from usual...I'm always eager to see your next blog.)
Hmm, I tried to correct my last post but it didn't work - maybe because the same name can't post twice in a row? Anyway that was the wrong data for the boys' increase in first name variants! I was reading the "recently coined" line instead. The boys' first name variants increase slowly with an accelerating increase from 1964-2004.
I always sthought 'kreative' spellings were a modern thing - I've taught a Jazmyn, a Kloee and dozens of Aidian and Kayley variants, but I stand corrcted. It's obviously always gone on.
Apologies for my dreadful typing errors there!
I haven't gone through your archives yet, so I don't know if you've addresses Dr. Stevin Levitt's "Freakonomics". He has a whole chapter (I'm sure based on a bigger paper) on baby names trends among classes. It's economics/statistics based and rather fascinating. Sounds right up your alley.
I've seen my name spelled Abbee, and I thought it was wretched, but I was wrong. I'm pretty sure that Kloee is worse. Ick.
I just don't get it. "Kreativity", in my opinion, just sort of makes parents look illiterate!
Jen B - check the April and May, 2005 archive for the articles on Freakonomics. It debunks some of what's in that book.
Laura, As you've mined the data over the years, what has most surprised you about American naming trends?
I'm with Abby. Parents who go with the "kreative" spellings are heaping a world of future grief on their kids as they continually, CONTINUALLY will have to correct the spelling of their names all through their lives.
My daughter Caroline has been fighting the spelling battle forever and hers is a fairly normal name. It's not Carolyn, people.
For my methodology, I stayed pretty close to Camilla's reasoning. (I'm a BNABBTer, too, BTW!) The only concession I made was names that end in -a in the girls' list. Ann and Anne and Anna were all considered the same name, but separate names from Annemarie, Anneleise and Annette. However, Annette and Annetta were considered the same. I was actually pretty generous with the 1915 list when there were only a few of some alternate. Ex: Frances and Francis accounted for most of those, but there were about 50 Francescas, so I just added them in because they didn't make a huge difference. Kathryn and Katherine and Katharine are the same, but Kathleen is separate.
What really amazes me in the current generation is how many parents think that they are being creative by not picking a top-20 name, but really still are when they decide on Hailey or Kaitlyn or Aidan.
Personally, I agree with you, Abby.
I thought Kloee was awful! But creative names/spellings is a hot topic. There's lots of parents who hate conventional names just as much!
In the 60's, my mother worked with a couple who called their daughter Anneliesa - the orginal speling (if mine is correct) of a Germanic name. It was copied by another couple who named their daughter "Anna-Lisa". My mother was never sure if it was intentional or whether they just couldn't spell Anneliesa!
I've known a little boy called "Jamaul" - presumably his mother liked "Jamal" but preferred the second syllable to be pronounced "maul" rather than "mall". The poor kid will go through life having to spell his name out for everyone!
I'm a Katherine (a perfectly traditional spelling of the name as both Roman C and Greek K have been used since time immemorial and the original Greek word that the name comes from is "Katharos" (pure) with a "K" anyway!) and am constantly having to tell people that my name is not "Catherine" and my initial is not a "C"!! When I tell them its a "K" they spell it "Kathryn". Whats so hard about "Katherine"?!?!?
Funny thing, Kate--in my neck of the woods (the Midwest), mall and maul sound exactly the same. Naming a child Jamaul does nothing except make it look more like Darth Maul to me!
I find it interesting that my favourite spelling of Eleanor isn't listed. I prefer Elenore, which is probably best known as the song by the Turtles. (You know--"Elenore, gee, I think you're swell, and you really do me well...") I really dislike Elinor and Eleanor--the former just looks strange to me while the latter seems superfluous in spelling.
Elinor might look strange, but it's been around since at least 1811 when Jane Austen published Sense and Sensibility. Maybe kreative spellings have been around that long...
Elinor is actually a Welsh Variant of Eleanor. I am Welsh - I live in the South Wales Valleys - and I had a great grandmother called Elinor.
Celestia - I think the Jamaul thing was like I said, intended so he'd be "JaMAUL" rather than "JaMALL or "JaMOL" which is how Brits tend to pronounce the name. I thought it was horrible. MAde me think of something being "Maul-ed" by a lion!
Hmm. This putting names together thing really is tricky- reading through the comments, I went "oy!" when I read that Jennifer grouped Anne/Ann with Anna- to me, they're quite different. I'm terribly biased, though: my DD is named Anne, but Anna was never on our list- I don't even like it!
I suppose I'll have more sympathy for the Caitlin NOT Katelyn types now :)
I've never been a fan of "kreative" spellings myself, but to each his or her own. One thing that does annoy me is when people confuse a newly-minted spelling with a traditional spelling from another culture or language. My name is Emilie not because my mother wanted a fresh take on Emily, but because she wanted the spelling of my name to reflect our French heritage-- spelling the name with an "ie" is traditional in parts of Europe (as apparently Elinor is traditional in Wales). I once read posts on a baby board from people advising an expectant mom not to name her daughter Emilie because this would make her look uncultured or illiterate. It really sent my blood pressure through the roof!
I'm not sure I understand how a "kreative" spelling makes a name any less conventional. It still sounds the same, and isn't that the point? I've never heard a mother-to-be say she was naming her child such-and-such because she liked the way it looked. But that could just be in my world!
Hey Abby/Abbie/Abi/Abeigh/Abbee (just kidding), I totally agree with you on the delusion of trying to be cre8tiv. People totaly confuse cre8tivytee with falling for the latest tryndeigh bandwagon. For example, my husband liked the name George and I went on message boards asking for middle name suggestions. The overwhelming response was "George is so unoriginal... why not Jordan?" I'll save everyone a trip to the Voyager: George has steadily declined since 1880 and Jordan has peaked in the last few years. Who's being unoriginal?!? Besides, the only person who can be called original is the very first person to use a name. (Or, the very first person to use a certain word as a name.) Yet, I'm sure all the parents of Madisons, Maddyseigns, and M'addeighsynns think they're being original.
-Bonnie Bonny Bonni Bonney Bonnee Bonneigh
I forgot to mention that the bad baby name thread on Salon.com recently touted an unfortunate baby named Euneek. I guess Unique wasn't unique enough. Plus, I hope it's a girl. Or it not, let's hope he as a good sweet singing voice, because there is definitely a future for him in early music. (Look up castrato in wiki to see what I mean.)
We named our daughter Elinor. I had some concerns about choosing a less common spelling, but I'm a Kerry-with-a-K and managed to survive. In fact, despite the aggravation of never being able to find a bicycle license plate/pin/etc with my name on it, I enjoyed that my name had a slightly unusual spelling. Plus, Kerry is the county in Ireland my family comes from, so it honors my heritage.
We got the spelling of Elinor from Austen and Shakespeare. I knew that going so traditional would appear "trendy" to some, but my goal was not to avoid all trends, but to give my daughter a lovely, non-ubiquitous name.
A friend of mine once said that you should only give a child a name that sounds right following the words "Supreme Court Justice..."
Like I said "Elinor" is not actually a "creatively spelt" version at all - it is the Welsh spelling of Eleanor.
My goddaughter is named Ceilidh -- a Gaelic word for a certain type of social dancing party -- which happens to be pronounced kay-lee. It strikes me that one problem with trying to "merge all the Kayleighs, Kaylees, and Kaylis into one name" is that you'd have to be able to *recognize* when a wacky spelling like Ceilidh really was the same name!
I just don't understand the whole kree8iv trend. Why respell a name? It doesn't make your child unique, and it doesn't make you special. It just makes you look like you can't spell.
oops... my name has a Maltese spelling, buut I know Tanyas and Tanias too; which are short forms for "Gaetana" or "Antonia" or "Tatiana" (3 different names.
Then there's Gennifer, Shira, Sheera, Shirah; Ivan, Evan, Ivin, Iven. etc
My name looks like a kreative spelling of Karen, but is in fact a completely different name, from the bible. And my brother is Alun - not a kreative spelling, but the authentic Welsh spelling of Alan - our father is Welsh. Our sister Deborah has a traditionally spelled name, but people assume she is a Debra.
When we named our daughter Phoebe, we were surprised to get a card congratulating us on the birth of Feebi - a creative spelling too far!
Samaira's a nice name! Dog it if u'd like i dont give a damn!
We named our daughter Ellinor, but call her Ellie. I had hesitations with the two 'L's, but oh well, what is done is done. I wanted to avoid the more traditional spelling, but didn't want to be seen as one of those parents getting kreative. My dad thought the name needed two 'L's. Any thoughts?
I have to diagree with people who say that parents who go with creative spelling are "heaping a world of future grief on their kids as they continually, CONTINUALLY will have to correct the spelling of their names all through their lives." If the worst thing a person has to face in life is
having to spell their name out for people frequently, I'd say they were in pretty good shape! I mean come on, there's worse things in life than having a differently spelled name. I have a super-common name (Stacey) that has many different spellings and it has not been such a horrible burden in life to have to spell it out for people when necessary that I have railed against fate and my parents for choosing to give me this name and it's spelling. I think people make way too big a deal out of name spellings. Really, what is it to any of us what someone else names their child and how they spell it?
When I named my daughter Caitlin (in 1987), I'd heard the name precious few times--really! I had no way of knowing the name would swell to trendy status within a few years. I'd done some research into the name, like many parents-to-be do, and was pleased to trace Caitlin back to Irish roots (an Irish form of Kathleen, according to some sources), and we stuck with its traditional spelling CAITLIN. I don't mind my daughter sharing a name with many other girls--I like to think the name's just too pretty for one girl--but I do get annoyed explaining that we did not get "kreative" with the spelling. The other versions (Katelynn, etc) would seem to be Americanized derivatives of Caitlin. But oh well--it's not what I'd call a burden. As for our son Taylor, well it's a similar story. We chose his name years before we even had a son for personal reasons, and had never even heard it used as a girl's name. Nowadays, it's not only a "trendy" name, but at lease half the Taylors out there are girls!
If you're going to use, say, an Irish name for your child then for heaven's sake why not just keep the original spelling of Caitlin or Aisling and not call her Katelynn/Ashlyn. the latter look so obiovusly Americanised whilst the former are authentic.
Although I also think its silly to use a name from a country/culture you're not connected with just because you think it sounds pretty.
PS - Kerry, like your "Supreme Court Justice" idea, here in the UK we say you shouldn't use any name that you coulnd't put "Prince" or "Princess" in front of!
And Prince Kayden or Princess Maddyson sound a bit preposterous!
I was a young girl when I first saw the name "Caitlin" in an article about the wife of poet Dylan Thomas, and fell in love with it. A good deal of the beauty of the name came from the spelling, I felt.
Imagine my surprise when I gave birth to Caitlin Blaire in 1985, and saw that 2 of her nursery-mates were "Katelynne" and "Caitland"! YIKES!!
I will never understand why such a beautiful name with a unique, but not "weird" spelling has been tampered with so much!
Kate - then why give an Irish name to an American, etc. person at all then? Caitlin is pronounced more like "koyt-hleen", like the original Gaelic.. I am a Katelynn and I find it almost insulting when I see a Caitlin pronounced "Kate-Lynn". It's just wrong. Katelynn is the American compound version.
But I'm looking online, and it says they spell it "Katelyn" in Ireland...
We named our daughter Elinor also...and for the same reasons: classic references in literature, and Supreme Court Justice Elinor. Once her pre-school teachers found out that we call her Nory at home, they glommed on to the name -- they needed a break from the herd of Ella/Emma/Olivia/Avas (or as one of the teachers said, "you always feel as if you're coughing up a hairball."
Katelynn - My daughter Caitlin thinks hers is the only appropriate spelling. She's not insulted by the variations, like you are, just curious. Isn't it interesting how comfortable you both are with your names? Most of my Irish sources list Caitlin as the spelling, but as you said, it certainly wouldn't be prounounced the same way.
I grew up with my mother insisting on calling me Christy, however, when I discovered that it was a nickname for something, I changed the spelling to what I considered was the shortened version of the name, Christi. I had friends and classmates that spelled it Kristy, Kristie, Christie, etc. I once looked up the myriad of spellings ranging from the most common "Christy" to Crystee with both Ks and Cs the whole way through. I used to always like unusuakl spellings for common names (went to school with a Kelleigh back in the 80s), but I've begun to shy away from them. There are a few I still prefer (Madalyn to Madeline, Cathryn to Catherine), but overall, I'd say I liked the classics better. I guess I like the spellings that make sense. To me Caitlin and Katelynn both make sense, but names like Maddysyn and all that are just confusing and over done.
Wow! I found this all quite interesting! My name is Alyse and my Mom did choose to "kreate" my name because it sounded better with my last name, however I do agree with the person who said that asking people to change the spelling of your name isnt such a burden. Though the pronounciation is. I pronounce my name as you would if it were "Elise" but I do not know how many times I have gotten "Alice, or Alyssa".
I actually recently traced my name all the way back to "Adalheidis". So technicaly the original spelling form of many names may actually trace way further back and to way odder names then we could ever anticipate!
I remember when I was the only Caitlin around. . . now there is a girl at my college who spells her name Cayt'lan. I want to slap her mother. ;) I just find it amusing when people think they are being creative in their redundancy. And I don't ever expect to get a latte from Starbucks with the correct spelling of Caitlin on the cup. It's just not going to happen. I've come to terms with that truth.
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