Is Beatrice about to go "viral"?
This is going to be one of those complaints where someone says "I've ALWAYS liked X name because I am such a creative and special snowflake, and now EVERYONE likes it!!" So I apologize in advance.
I am pregnant with a baby girl who's going to be born any day now. I have always liked the name Beatrice because I teach Shakespeare for a living and Beatrice from "Much Ado About Nothing" is my favorite Shakespeare heroine. I want to name my daughter Beatrice but I am very wary of picking a name that other people like me, urban thirtysomething "yupsters," are also going to use, especially if it's ABOUT to go viral. As an example, my friends' kids mostly have the same kinds of "quirky Victorian" names such as Violet, Hazel, Iris, Amelia, Arabella; Sebastian, August, Henry, Oscar, Phineas. Up until now I have NOT heard of any other little Beatrices. The last famous one I was aware of was Princess Beatrice, daughter of Sarah Ferguson, and she didn't seem to make an impact on American parents. But now I see that Beatrice has climbed from below 1000 to 700 in the rankings in the last 5 years, and I just heard that the actress Bryce Dallas Howard named her daughter Beatrice. As I search forums like this one and also on Nameberry and the baby name forum on Babycenter I see Beatrice getting *recommended* a lot (though not so much people saying they're using it).
My friends who have named their kids Iris and August in the last couple of years thought they were being incredibly original in reviving these "forgotten" names and were terribly disappointed to find other kids with those names in their preschool classes. I don't want that to happen to me. Beatrice is still quite obscure (700 is way down) but I worry it could become a "yupster" name any minute now.
What do you name-mavens think?
THANKS!!!
Wed, 08/29/2012 - 1:42pm
Replies
I'm starting to see it in the babies surrounding me. I'm not sure it will go viral in the sense that it will be top ten, but I could see it hitting about the same level as Evangeline fairly quickly (286 last year--up from 334). That said, there were only 1099 babies given that name last year total in the whole United States. :-)
I say if you love the name, go for it!
Thanks, Sharalyns. The comparison to Evangeline is helpful for perspective.
It's funny, the daughter I already have is named Julia, which is ranked about 50th nationally, so it's technically FAR more common and "popular" than Beatrice, but that didn't and doesn't bother me, because we named Julia to honor an important family member, not just because we liked the name. Because the only reason for Beatrice is because I like it, I just don't want people to think we picked it to be trendy, or because we are Bryce Dallas Howard fans. :)
Yep--we had a lot of people asking us if we liked "Lost", and a few moms asked if we got the name from "The Princess & the Frog". We only ever saw one episode of Lost and never watched it again, and I just saw the other one (not real thrilled with it either).
It fit our style of names we liked (which is not easy with girls!), had a meaning we liked, and had reference to Longfellow's poem. :-)
My aunt from Louisiana was excited because she grew up in the town that has the plantation and tree. She won't call her by nickname, but by her full name, which is just fine with us.
Oh, and we came to find out later that we have an Evelyn in our family history and an Angeline, so it looks like we mashed them together. ;-)
Amusingly, we've also been asked if we made up the name. Ummm.... no. :-)
BTW I teach college and I have had one Evangeline as a student, in 2005, in the approx 10 years I've been in classrooms full of 18-22-year-olds. It's a beautiful name. I think the one I knew was sort of overburdened by the unusualness of it, because she always went by Vangie. With Evangeline, it may actually be better for your daughter that it's become a *bit* more popular--and maybe that's actually the same with Beatrice. I hear really divided responses to it--the majority of people like it, with a minority strongly disliking it because it sounds "old" or "prim" (or even, someone said, "fat"!!!!). Maybe if it mainstreams some more, those negative reactions will fade.
Well, it helps that she goes by Evie. ;-)
I've only had one person make a face at it. Most people gush over how "classic" and "beautiful" and "strong" it is. They may be faking it to my face, but those are the adjectives I would use to describe it. :-)
I know when Princess Beatrice and Eugenie were born in the UK, as a little girl, I thought, Yuck! But I've grown up and so have my tastes. ;-) I think Beatrice is a beautiful, strong name also.
I know one young Beatrix but no Beatrices.
There is no way of knowing for certain, so if you love the name then you should use it. It's not a big deal if there is another Beatrice or 2 in her class, it just means others loved the name as well. And being named for her mom's favorite Shakespearean heroine is a wonderful story.
Besides, I know people who are asked if they were named after certain celebrities, despite being the same age or older that the celebrity in question! Sometimes you get those questions no matter what.
Thanks, MK!
I agree...I think Beatrix has more "viral" potential than Beatrice because of the "X".
For some perspective on popularity, my daughter's name was in the mid-400's when she was born, now in the mid-200's, and I've only run into one other little girl with the same name (at a park in another state!). There are none in her entire elementary school (about 300 kids). Plus I have to say my daughter LOVES meeting adults with her name, or hearing about characters or famous people with her name. I think she'd be thrilled to have a friend or acquaintance with the same name. She loves her name but that means she thinks it's so good that other people should have it too!
Plus, I think Beatrice and Julia are a fantastic set of sisters.
A few weeks ago at the beach in New Jersey I met a Beatrix and a Beatrice. (One was under two, the other about first grade; I forget now which was which.) This prompted me to look them up on NameVoyager, and was surprised to find that the -x spelling has never made it into the top 1000 -- Beatriz (which I've only ever encountered in fiction) is more popular than Beatrix! All the various spellings fell right off the chart circa 2005, so the parents of that first grader were truly "off trend" when they named her.
Given that dip below 1000 recently, I don't think Beatrice is likely to "go viral" any time soon. Whether you'll encounter a local pocket of them, nobody can predict. You could perhaps check the SSA's data for your state, and compare numbers for Iris and August etc. to see if there's any sort of common pattern in their pre-popularity trends.
Another angle to consider: how many other Julias have you encountered in your elder daughter's classes etc.? Popular names are not what they used to be! (I'm a Julia, and other than family, I can only think of two others with the name, and one is a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend.)
Naming after a favorite Shakespeare character, especially if you work in the field, is almost as good as naming after family. I say go for it, and let the future fall where it may.
It's a good point. We only know one other kid Julia and she was 3 when my daughter was born so we knew about her already. None in her classes. You're right, outside the top 5, "popularity" is spread thinner than it was when I was a kid in the 80s and every girl was Jennifer or Katie.
I know Beatriz. Beatriz is the Spanish cognate of Beatrice/Beatrix, so it has more traction in the Latino community. That might explain the stealth popularity.
Well, a Shakesperian colleague of mine recently named her daughter Thaisa, not likely to be another one in her kindergarten. Seriously, I don't think Beatrice is likely to become the new Jessica, but if you pronounce it the Dantean way (Bay-uh-tree-chay roughly), you will have out-yupstered everyone.
I know a Shakespeare prof with a Thaisa daughter as well--a beautiful choice. Yeah, in choosing Shakespeare names you have to decide between the gorgeous and tragic (Ophelia, Juliet) and the not-so-gorgeous but happy (Rosalind, Viola). The romances are a better choice--I know a couple of people with daughters called Marina, and then this toddler Thaisa (who apparently goes by Ty-Ty for now!).
I doubt Beatrice will ever be as popular as Amelia or Henry but I do think it will get more popular.
Amelia, Henry, Oscar, Oliver, Violet, Hazel, Sebastian etc are fairly dime a dozen around here but I don't know any Beatrices (or Phineas' for that matter). I'm in Australia so the name trends are a little different here. I wouldn't be surprised to come across a Beatrice but I haven't to date. I know Beatrice is more popular in the UK and we tend to follow UK trends more closely than US, so a Beatrice wouldn't shock me but I think it's unlikely to get too popular.
If you haven't come across any/many of them in your circle I would go ahead and use the name. It obviously means a lot to you and you would probably regret not using it more than you would using it and having your daughter share the name with a class mate.
Thanks. You clearly live in a similar enclave to me. Oscar and Sebastian, who would have thought 10 years ago that those would be a dime a dozen? The same kinds of people around here seem to be loving "I" names for their daughters right now--Irene, Iris, Imogen. Watch out for that around you...
Yep, Imogen is already popular here (well top 100) and I know a couple. I adore Imogen so it's a bit of a bugger. I've only come across one Iris and no Irene's (babies anyway) yet, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them pop up. Ivy is getting more popular by the day. I think I know of 3 or 4 of them!
I also know a young Beatrix but not a Beatrice. I think it's lovely and it has such a special connection to you and your work that you will always be able to tell her that story. I think that far outweighs any popularity concerns, especially since it's not *that* popular. Yes, it's of a type of names that are popular in certain areas but I suppose we are all "types" in one way or another.
Thanks! Yes, you're right, while I really dislike the idea of having a "type" or following a type, every name I honestly just like seems to be of the same genre ("unusual classics"?), so I should just accept it. :) Better than naming her McKaylee Grace and thinking that's distinctive, right?
Ok, I'm going to go against the grain here.
My bf works in a kids' bookstore, so I'm really attuned to trends in the YA climate. There's a dystopian book trilogy called Divergent (the second just came out this summer) that is HUGE, and the main character's name is Beatrice, called Tris. The studio who made Twilight and The Hunger Games purchased the movie rights, so it can be assumed that it will reach equally saturated exposure.
It helps that the series is good, and the character is a very feminist one, but I think it's safe to say that it will gain popularity. And who knows if the movie franchise will do as well as the books. Just wanted to put that out there. Maybe read the first book to see if it's something you can live with?
Oh! This is interesting! My oldest isn't quite to YA fiction yet, so I hadn't even heard of this. I need to go check it out. :-)
Thanks, I didn't know about this book. I'll try and check it out. Yeah, I was on Nameberry recently and saw that one of the most-searched names that day was "Katniss" (from Hunger Games)! I feel like booms in names from current books/movies could be short-lived but is of course intense: for example I don't think Twilight started the Isabella love but naturally it fed the fire.
I don't think it's going to go, "Viral," But based on the description of your circle of friends, I'd say it's very likely she will know others at some point.
I wouldn't let it keep you from using a name you've always loved.
I'd agree with this... on the upside if your friends are like mine (even your somewhat extended circle of friends), if you use it, then nobody else will!
Also, response to comment a ways back, I believe Beatriz is the Spanish version. The one Beatriz I know is Cuban.
I'd add that even if Beatrice becomes more popular, some people with the name are likely to go by one of its several pet forms. This might help the name to stay a bit more distinctive than, say, Chloe or Jack.