(For real, this time!)
Perhaps you've heard, the economy's taken a bit of a stumble lately? As families cut back and surveys reveal a bleak mood, the natural question in these parts is how the downturn will play out in baby names.
The popular idea in the press and the blogosphere is that parents will retreat to the reliable comfort of classic names. A few reporters have tried to pry this prediction out of me. (One was particularly eager for me to forecast a comeback for Faith and Hope. I had to break it to him that it's too late, they're already back.) In fact, some news reports have claimed that the return to tradition has already begun. Take the Reuters article titled "Parents get serious about baby names in tough year," with its bold opening statment: "Most parents have abandoned unusual names for their children..."
The idea sounds plausible, because many choices do work this way in economic downturns. In the world of investing, it's called the "flight to quality." The idea is that in uncertain times, people make the safest possible bets and aim for lasting value. Consumers, similarly, drop luxury in favor of utility.
Yet there are also good reasons to expect name trends to behave differently from investments or consumer goods. The most basic is that baby names are free. In a time of belt-tightening, why not indulge in a cost-free extravagance? Anastasia won't set you back a penny more than Ann. In fact, lower-income parents are more likely to try unusual, eye-catching and newly-introduced names -- quite different from, say, food purchasing patterns.
A second reason is found in the motivations of modern baby namers. Many parents who seek the unusual are convinced that distinctive names will give their kids an advantage in life. Think of it like a creatively packaged product standing out on a store shelf. The tougher the competitive landscape, the more this perceived advantage should matter to parents.
Finally, there's the fact that the movement away from tradition has been accelerating for years. An immediate surge of traditional naming would be the fashion equivalent of a runaway freight train suddenly backing back up a mountain.
So where do the claims of reversal come from? If you read the Reuters article closely, you'll see they (and may others) were inspired by a press release from the online parenting community BabyCenter.com. In the release, the BabyCenter folks note the rise of certain specific traditional names among their users. But is there a consistent pattern?
In fact, if you look at the BabyCenter popularity lists from the last several years, 2008 looks like more of the same. The bellwether traditional classics like John, James and William continued their steady descent down the rankings. And if you tally up the top 20 for boys and girls, as a group the 2008 names were much less popular a century ago than the 2006 names. In other words, no "flight to quality" has been spotted so far (and don't believe everything you read in the paper).
So let's toss out our preconceptions and return to the question: what effect will the recession have on naming patterns? To form a hypothesis, we can look to historical precedent. Did baby naming change during the Great Depression? And if so, was there the retreat to strength and safety that so many observers expect today?
To be continued...
Comments
Julia-Thanks for answering my questions. Since you are not currently expecting, it gives you a bit of time to mull this over with your dh and come up with something suitable for the entire family. I like Eo's suggestion that a historical name will instill some intellectual curiosity about the figure. I also like Everett of the other names you listed. Truman seems a bit heavy imo and Gunnar is just nms. It makes me think of guns and the name Gunther though. Btw, Booker does NOT have a "booger" association for me.
Julia - Booker did not bring booger to my mind, either. However, I am not a five year old. So, there's a great remedy for school yard teasing my dad taught us kids (we had -the boys still have- a highly susceptible last name). He told us if we're the first to make the joke (inevitable, in our case), we would have a certain immunity. And it was very true. We even had his blessing to interrupt roll on the first day of class to make a wise crack about our name.
Just a thought.
Sibsets from the park:
Mary and Jack
Charlotte and Clare
In addition to the unfortunate H rhyme, the name Booker also reminds me of a Bookie, from the gambling industry. Booger would never have occurred to me.
Hm, shows how highbrow I am--when I heard Booker the first thing I thought of was George Clooney's character on Roseanne. Not a good or bad association, just my immediate one. I want to like Booker as a name (because I like books, I guess?), but I do think some of the negative associations mentioned might put me off it personally--bookie, bookish, booger (wouldn't have thought of that one myself, but now that you've said it, it's all I can hear when I say Booker in my head), etc.
Ok playing the "what about" association game with Booker. This is where my mind went-Booker>Baker>Candlestickmaker. Ok seriously now from Baker>Barker>Barden>Bracken>Brayden>oh no!
Books>Brooks>Becker>Braxton>Bexton??>Dexter
ok I'll stop now!
Btw, Dexter is the name of the subcharacter in Monsters vs Aliens new movie out. It's the main character Susan's bf.
oops left out Baxter between Braxton + Bexton??
zoerhenne -
I think Susan's fiance in Monsters vs Aliens is Derek - I remembered that because I thought to myself, "Wow! That's a very appropriate name for someone his age! Good job, Pixar!" I think Susan is a little too old for the main character, but it's timeless enough that it's alright. Plus, it's a pretty great name for a sci-fi superhero.
Does anyone else do this with every single movie they see/book they read? It's seriously the first thing I think about.
Speaking of which, has anyone read Doomsday Book by Connie Willis? It's set in the near future, and all the main characters have exceedingly average names, save the protagonist, a young woman named Kivrin. Has anyone ever come across this name before?
Thank you all! Your comments and suggestions are very encouraging. I think I let go of the fun part of baby names and got caught up in the responsibility of it. Which it is a big responsibility!
Bethany, you nailed it! My husband is a Presbyterian minister and John Calvin is his favorite theologian. I do think Wesley is a great name, but the people we hang out with would get it (and it would make me groan!) Johnny Cash is also his favorite musician which is where 'Cash' comes from. At some point, we have to stop this hero naming and reserve that strategy for family pets!
I laughed out loud at the comment that Calvin and Dexter sound like some sort of elite group of computer hackers. That is true! I, too wondered about the Showtime association with Dexter. My concern with it is that it might get popular, but I don't know if the show is that widespread?
I'm pulling for Otto myself, its a family name on my side and I think its pretty cool. Reminds my husband of Otto the drug loving bus driver from the Simpsons ('My name Otto and I like to get blottoed') and his also thinks it's a high risk name, ie.it seems like a very round name to him. wow.
Thanks for the suggestions: I especially like Milo, Otis, Booker, Everett. You all are great!
NOT KIDDING, I just encountered a little boy named Sasquatch. Poor thing.
Julia, I love Booker! The only association that came to mind was Booker T. Washington - a very positive association. It's nothing I ever would have thought of myself but I like it.
Katie-You are indeed correct. That was an error on my part. Derek and Susan seem to match in an odd sort of way to me-was all I could think about during the movie.
Kivrin is different it reminds me both of Kevin and Kimberley at the same time.
Guest-Sasquatch is an unfortunate name in English. Does anyone know if it can mean anything in any other language?
I went to high school with a girl called Dandilyon. Yep, and that's how she spelled it too. Her parents loved some Rolling Stones song. We all called her Dandi.
I knew a woman named Saxony--she was a few years ahead of me in high school. (She'd probably be between 31 and 33 now). As an NE literally since toddlerhood but with no one else around me who was, my ears perked up when I heard her name and I thought: "Could it be? In this small town, could there be others like me [i.e. her parents]?"
I quite like Love and Loveday but can't really get behind Lovely (or anything based in physical appearance--in any society! There are a lot of cultures including my parents' which love to use beauty-oriented male and female names but I think it's a bit cruel to the kid).
Congrats on Leah, Prairie Dawn!
I REALLY like Miriam's suggestion of Hayes and the others' suggestions of Denny (LOVE), Den, and Ned for Hayden.
I find it interesting the way many interpret the influence of feminism in name trends in the U.S. I posted here on this subject once, but others did not seem to appreciate it.
If anyone new is interested, the flavors of feminism with which I am familiar (I run in academic feminist circles with a variety of viewpoints--radfem, womanist, sex-pos, and more) DO NOT find the "gender-appropriating" naming climate in the U.S. to be more favorable to girls than boys. It's actually somewhat the opposite.
The fact that there is greater fluidity for girls' names and more restriction on boys' names is a direct consequence of the traditionally male-gendered being perceived as "value-adding" whereas the traditionally female-gendered has often been "value-subtracting." (This is true in other spheres of life, too, for example, when large numbers of women entered a field once dominated by men, and then came to outnumber men in it, the field lost social status in some cases suffered reduced economic compensation, as well).
When girls take on a traditionally boys' name, she is perceived as benefitting from the value-added by being associated with the male gender, which in this (and most) societies is the socially dominant one. So, girls named Billie, Danny, Chase, and even Michael= no harm, no foul (beyond the usual schoolyard teasing--I'm talking about in the adult world).
When boys take on a name that has become tainted in society's mind with female associations, there is major value subtracted. This is the same misogyny that informs the slurring of men perceived as "weak" with a slang term for women's genitals. Ditto "you fight/cry/throw like a girl." It's also the same force behind several cultures' approaches to homosexuality--many ignore lesbian unions yet are extremely homophobic of male gayness (because society perceives that in every gay partnership, one man is being "the woman," which is the kiss of death to patriarchal constructions of masculinity, and thus, generates anxiety amongst the majority).
So, the widespread acceptance in the U.S. of women with once-male names juxtaposed against the rejection of individual men with women's names is not, in fact, a rejection of men generally or that which is male. It is a rejection of that which is female-gendered and associated with girls and women. It is only the most recent in a very long line of female-gendered things and enterprises as "value-subtracting."
Egalitarianism still has an awful long way to go in the U.S.--and no, doubt, some other Western societies--and this is certainly true with regards to naming!
[Disclaimer: I don't mind either clearly gendered name divisions or gender fluidity. I just hope whichever system works out is not slanted one way or the other the way it is now.]
Easternbetty-Thank you for your very informative thoughts. I've never quite looked at it like that before. That's why I love this board-so many different viewpoints!
Thanks so much for commenting on my Booker debate! Who knows if I'll use it someday, but for now, its still a possibility.
Easternbetty- thanks for this- it makes a lot of sense.
@Easternbetty, thank you! That's exactly what I've been thinking this whole time, but couldn't articulate in a way that made sense.
How about naming her after an English 70's female (me) and call her Fiona.....
Hopefully, with the Obamas in office there will be more Michelles than Shantiquas. The poor don't need any more handicaps to getting a job.
I laughed out loud b/c I've heard this conversation so many times...in fact, my best friend's hubby suggested the name "Stephanie" to her 5 years ago and we still jokingly call her daughter that sometimes! When I finally committed in my head to a name I loved, I told my husband to mull it over in his head for a couple of weeks before he gave me any comment on it, b/c I felt like every time I mentioned ANY name he was like "no, I don't like it." After a couple of days, he said the name I told him to think about had really grown on him, and now our Maya is 4 1/2 and I still love it on her! (I'm pregnant again and planning the same technique). Good luck!
Thanks and GREETINGS FROM GERMANY.
y motto: Mountains never meet, people always
ups, were is my comment??
Post new comment