Today’s Question of the Week:

Is there a name that you have recently fallen in love with?

Is it a name that was new to you or one that has grown on you gradually?

Where did you hear it?  In a book, movie or TV?  In the real world?  On Nameberry?

What in particular do you love about it?

Read More

VINTAGE NAMES: What era are you?

Unless you’re a baby namer focused on finding a newly created or cutting-edge name, chances are you’ve considered using one from the past.  But which part of the past?  An ancient name or one from earlier in the 20th century?

So, the question of the week is: Which of these, if any, are you partiularly attracted to?

• Ancient names like Atticus?
• Medieval names like Isolde?
• Puritan like Prudence?
• Frilly Victorian valentines?
• 1880s-90s names like Minnie or Oscar?
• 1900s-10s choices like Ruby or Raymond?
• 1920s-40s like Betty or Billy?
• 1950s-60s such as Kimberly or Kevin?
• 1970s -80s like Amy, Ashley or Amanda?

Needless to say, many if not most names move across time and are rarely connected to only one decade or even era–future berries just  might think of  Atticus as a 2010s name.

How about you?  Is there one period whose names you are drawn to?  Do you have a favorite vintage name—perhaps one that hasn’t been widely rediscovered?

Read More

Today’s Question of the Week: Is there a name from a book you read when you were younger that made enough of an impression on you that you’ve loved it ever since?

(After all, at least some of those hundreds of new babies being named Atticus must have some connection to that inspirational lawyer in To Kill a Mockingbird  and all those recent little Holdens to that cynical adolescent Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye—whether conscious or not.)

So think back—can you trace your long-standing attraction for a particular name to an impression it made on you at an impressionable age?

Anyone out there who actually has used such a name for their child?

Read More

Today’s Question of the Week is another two-parter:  How do you feel about nature names in general and what are your particular favorites?

This subject obviously covers a broad field, encompassing botanical and zoological names, water and weather, earth and sky. Is there one that particularly conjures up for you a special  beachy or prairie landscape, a favorite flower or bird?

Many names provided by Mother Nature have become so widespread and accepted as people names  that they’ve moved a step away from their direct association with their origins–Lily, say, or Laurel or Willow, so that perhaps  most flower names might be exempt from the discussion.  Unless maybe there’s a line to be drawn between Rose and Primrose,  Daffodil and Daisy?

Then there are those green names that still retain the groovy-hazy-Hippie-Flower-Child aura of the sixties (eg Sunshine, Rainbow), which they’ve never quite managed to shake off and which might make them offputting to some.

So where do you stand?  Do you like nature names as a genre?  Just flower names?

What is you favorite nature name?

Would/did you use one for your child?

Read More

If I were a cookbook writer, I think my first title would be: “100 Ways to Dice and Slice the Social Security List.”  There is so much information to be found embedded in it and so many ways to look at it, that there seems to be no end of different and intriguing ways to parse the data.

Pam will be writing later about the startling number of names that have been in the Top 1000 consistently—which is to say every single year– since score-keeping began in1880.  Today I’ll take a look at the patterns followed by the names that have moved in and out of fashion.

First, the girls, grouped by the decades they first came into favor, followed by the specific years when they were included in the Top 100. (This does not include names that have been up there every single year.)

You may be surprised at when some of the names initially appeared—sometimes earlier, sometimes later than you might have guessed.  Zoe and Chloe, for example, were both strong in the 19^th century, as were Savannah and Samantha.  Alexis was already up there in the 1940s, but Alexa didn’t break through till the 70s; Kayla was there as early as the fifties, while—and this may not be such a surprise– Kaitlyn, Katelyn, Kaylee and Makayla all broke through as a group in the eighties, along with Hailey and Bailey.

1880s-90s (and possibly earlier)

• Abigail: 1880-1897, 1901-1903, 1906, 1939, 1943, 1946, 1949-2009
• Andrea: 1880-1881, 1884-1887, 1889, 1901-1904, 1907-2009
• Ava: 1880-1972, 1974-1975, 1984, 1986-2009
• Bella: 1880-1931, 2000-2009
• Chloe: 1880-1943, 1982-2009
• Ella: 1880-1983, 1988, 1990-2009
• Faith: 1880-1882, 1884-1886, 1888-2009
• Isabella: 1880-1948, 1990-2009
• Isabelle: 1880-1954, 1957, 1991-2009
• Jessica: 1880-1893, 1895, 1898-1900, 1903-1912, 1914-1918, 1935, 1937, 1939-2009
• Lily: 1880-1964, 1966, 1970, 1972, 1976, 1979-2009
• Madelyn: 1893, 1895-1965, 1986-2009
• Mariah: 1880-1908, 1910-1911, 1913, 1973, 1975-2009
• Melanie: 1886, 1938-2009
• Samantha: 1880-1902, 1907, 1964-2009
• Savannah: 1880-1922, 1924-1925, 1928, 1983-2009
• Sofia: 1881, 1881, 1886, 1888-1889, 1891-1892, 1895, 1898, 1900-1901, 1906-1914, 1916-1917, 1920-1925, 1927-1931, 1935, 1969, 1971-2009
• Sophie: 1880-1955, 1984-2009
• Sydney: 1886, 1905, 1932-1957, 1959-1961, 1963-1967, 1981-2009
• Valeria: 1881-1944, 1946-1976, 1983, 1985-2009
• Zoe: 1880-1912, 1914-1926, 1928-1929, 1931-1941, 1951-1955, 1957-1961, 1966, 1970, 1973, 1975, 1983-2009

Read More