The Name Game

[vovat]

Something bethje and I were looking at last night was this list of 1000 most popular names from last year. Beth was saying something about the name "Braiden," and I couldn't recall having heard it before. Not only does it appear on this list several times, though (as "Braiden," "Bradyn," "Braeden," and "Braedon"), but so do Jayden (for both genders), Jaden, Jaeden, Jaiden, Haden, Hayden, Caden, Caiden, Cayden, Kaeden, Kaiden, Kayden, Kaden, Aiden, Ayden, and Aden. I'm kind of surprised "Maiden" isn't there. It expresses the same basic sentiment as "Chastity," but doesn't sound quite as stupid.

And speaking of the name Chastity, number 811 for girls is "Chasity." Also appearing are "Gavyn" and "Madisyn." What, it's not bad enough that you named your kid one of these annoying yuppie names, but you can't even bother to use the correct spelling? Other names on there include "Jazmyn," "Zackery," "Alexzander," "Xzavier," and "Jaxson." Now, I could see a few people wanting to get creative with their spellings, but, well, these are the top 1000 names in the country! A Google search reveals that there were about 4.1 million babies born in the country last year. Combine that with the percentages given, and you'll come up with 615 babies born last year who were stuck with the name "Xzavier." Does that not seem crazy to you? Oh, and one other more personal note when it comes to crazy spellings is that I've occasionally seen people spell my own name "Nathen." I'd always think something like, "It's a really common name, and nobody spells it with an E!" So imagine my annoyance when I saw boys' name number 780.

Another irritating trend that I didn't really know about before looking at this is giving shortened versions of names as substitutes for the real thing. Now, there are some names (like, say, "Harry" or "Mark" or "Luke") that can be both real names and nicknames. But unless I missed a memo, this does not apply to "Jack," "Andy," "Steve," or (perhaps worst of all) "Billy." Come on, if you name your kid Billy, everyone is going to assume their name is William anyway. So why not just use the full version? Is this part of a general trend toward informality, or just plain stupidity?

And this has nothing to do with names, but I'd been meaning to write about it, and I don't have enough to say to merit an entire post, so I'll say that I've listened to The Soft Bulletin a few times now. This is only the third Flaming Lips album I've heard all the way through, and I think I like it better than At War with the Mystics, but not as much as Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Songs on the album that I particularly like include "A Spoonful Weighs A Ton," "The Spiderbite Song," and "Waitin' For A Superman."

Okay, that's all for now. Stay tuned for reviews of the Fox Sunday night animated lineup, probably either later tonight or tomorrow. And my special pity goes out to any Braidens or Xzaviers who happen to be reading this.

Comments

[bethje.livejournal.com]

1000 names and not a single Wallace?!?!?!?!?1/1

Or Dewis, but I suspect that big things are to come for that name.

Maybe the former got watered down by the other forms: Wallis, Wallyss, Walys, Wahlys, Wahliss, and Walyssa for the ladies.

[amyawesome.livejournal.com]

I despise creative spelling, but since I plan to name the first girl I have after a character in a Salinger story, i can't talk about names.

[revme.livejournal.com]

.....Xzavier? You're shitting me.

Also, I am kind of amused w/r/t Ben's comment on seeing a student named "Madysin" -- basically that the only career option open to her with that name is Stripper.

Also also, the interesting thing with that is that Madison didn't really exist as a girl's name until around, what, 1982, 1983, 1984? Whenever it was that Splash came out, and y'know, she called herself that after Madison Avenue.

[obsessical.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on everything except the naming-kids-nicknames thing. Because I know there are some full names I don't like (like Dennis) but short names that I do (like Denny). That's not the best example, but I have a friend named Billy whose name is actually Billy. And that's how he likes it.

but the spelling thing is ridiculous. The only thing that's doing is deprving kids of finding those little personalized bike license plates. Hey, let's see how many Xs,Is,Zs,extra Ss, and other various letters we can cram into a name. I believe this is the 90s fault. Soon the generation after me is gonna grow up and be naming their kids "~*bRiTTliCIous**~~"

[dragonxbait.livejournal.com]

Supposedly the right wing christians have been naming their daughters Neveah (heaven spelled backwards), number 70 on the list. As far as crazy names being in the top 1000, though, there has been a trend for about the last 10 years, particularly for girls, to name them things that are "unique". I think if you look at actual numbers you will find that there are far fewer people with any given popular name than there were 20 or more years ago.

"In the 1950s, the top 10 names for boys and girls accounted for a quarter of all babies. Today, it's less than a tenth."

http://parenting.ivillage.com/pregnancy/pbabynames/0,,babynamewizard_83c61xk7,00.html

[vovat.livejournal.com]

What's the name you have in mind? I don't think I've ever read anything by Salinger.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Xzavier? You're shitting me.

Since "Xavier" with the correct spelling is also up there, I don't think this is a typo. On the other hand, the correct spelling of "Chastity" ISN'T there, so "Chasity" could possibly be a typo.

Also, I am kind of amused w/r/t Ben's comment on seeing a student named "Madysin" -- basically that the only career option open to her with that name is Stripper.

Well, that's pretty much also true for "Amber."

Also also, the interesting thing with that is that Madison didn't really exist as a girl's name until around, what, 1982, 1983, 1984? Whenever it was that Splash came out, and y'know, she called herself that after Madison Avenue.

Yeah, if I remember the movie correctly (and yes, I'm aware that such is a severe waste of brain cells), it was presented as a name that a person wouldn't really have. So were people actually saying, "Hey, I think I'll name my kid after a mermaid in some movie!" If that's the case, were there a lot of Ariels born in 1989?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Well, apparently the naming-kids-nicknames trend isn't as new as I thought. At the turn of the twentieth century (http://www.behindthename.com/top/lists/1000us1900s.php), "Willie" and "Joe" were both in the Top 25 Boys' Names.

he only thing that's doing is deprving kids of finding those little personalized bike license plates.

Which is why I'm naming my kid Bort!

oon the generation after me is gonna grow up and be naming their kids "~*bRiTTliCIous**~~"

Or possibly just "Dude." I just hope they don't start adding a bunch of numbers, like with stupid people's AIM names. Then again, that might eliminate the need for social security numbers.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Supposedly the right wing christians have been naming their daughters Neveah (heaven spelled backwards), number 70 on the list.

Why not Sesuj? Or Dog? {g}

[amyawesome.livejournal.com]

Esmé. He has a short story called "For Esmé, with love and squalor" which i adore, you can read it here (http://www.freeweb.hu/tchl/salinger/squalor.html). (They have most Salinger short stories there, it seems)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Actually, that was the name that immediately came to mind when you mentioned Salinger. That was also the namesake for Esmé Squalor in the Lemony Snicket books.

So would you go with Esmerelda, or just Esmé?

[amyawesome.livejournal.com]

Just Esmé, They are actually different names, Esmerelda is Spanish, I believe, and Esmé is French.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and really surprising to me, I found out recently, is that "Esme" is actually, somewhere back in history, a variant of "Amy"!

[amyawesome.livejournal.com]

Really? I'm an Amy!

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Ah, the joys of working in a Children's Museum-- ie, this is no news to me, for sure! At the papermaking station normally, to save time, we will write the kids names on their name paper for them while they're making their handmade paper, and I've gotten the habit of just asking the kid right off the bat, before I even ask what their name IS, if they'll spell their name for me. Then the kid who is named something like Josh will just look at me and say "It's just Josh. You know, JOSH. Why are you asking me to spell it?" like. But I maintain that I'm really trying to be educational and give them name-spelling practice (especially since most of the kids I see during the week are between 3-6 years old) if they complain, but yeah, the real reason is so I don't have to stumble over a Brittneigh (real name I had yesterday!)

So my motherinlaw keeps trying to name my baby and I say "I like traditional names, nothing trendy," and she says "I agree," and then she keeps suggesting things like Aiden or Dylan or Tyler or Gavin and I'm like "NO! NO TRENDY!!!!" Which brings us back to the nicknames-for-real-names issue with the only name my husband likes, Max, which I don't like simply and only because it is all of a sudden popular when a few years ago it wasn't. But I also, incidentally, can't stand any of the longer names for it, like Maxwell or (god forbid) Maximilian or even more obscure stuff like Maxson or (my mom found in an article the other day) Maxfield (seriously, Maxfield?), so he would absolutely without a doubt have to be Just Max. Which I wouldn't mind, if there weren't all of a sudden so many other maxes. Granted, my top choice, James, is a BIT more popular, but at least it has ALWAYS been popular, and chances are always WILL be popular, so it isn't so... so FAD-LIKE. I mean, who are his parents to talk, though, Amy and Jason? No, we weren't born in the middle of the 1970s or anything. Though I suppose I could have been a Jennifer.

Also on the nicknames-for-real-names subject though, I think Jack has been a real name by itself for a long time though, and can probably at least join the ranks of Harry if not Mark and Luke as an acceptible stand-alone. Probably my brain is warped this way because by the time I realized Jack was a nickname for John, I already had a cousin named plain old Jack, so it's pretty well-ingrained. Although on the other hand I was surprised to discover that my Uncle Harry WAS just named Harry and not Harold, so go figure.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Oh, and also unrelated to your post but in addition to mine, last night I had a dream that Rosie O'Donnell had a pair of Humungous Pet Slugs named Max and Ruby (after the Rosemary Wells books) (also, she had just married Tom Cruise and they had two kids), so I also told Jason we cannot name our son after Rosie O'Donnell's Giant Pet Slug this morning, but I don't know how much weight that will have.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Then it's perfect!

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Finding out which names are variations on others can be interesting. Beth has a dog named Dewey, and her cat who just recently died was named David. It turns out that "Dewey" is a variant on "David," so she essentially had two pets with the same name.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

So my motherinlaw keeps trying to name my baby and I say "I like traditional names, nothing trendy," and she says "I agree," and then she keeps suggesting things like Aiden or Dylan or Tyler or Gavin and I'm like "NO! NO TRENDY!!!!"

I think the problem with names like those, at least as far as I'm concerned, isn't even so much that they're trendy as that they're kind of...well, ugly. They sound more coarse than pleasant, and it doesn't help that they practically scream out "stuck-up yuppie." I think they appeal to people who decide what to name their kids the same way they decide what clothes to wear or food to eat, i.e., by doing what they think is In.

Beth has an uncle named Harry, which isn't short for anything. She also has an aunt named Cindy, which isn't short for anything, but I think that's much less common. And, of course, Harry Potter's name is just Harry (although I believe Harold Potter is the name of the villain in It's a Wonderful Life).

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

(although I believe Harold Potter is the name of the villain in It's a Wonderful Life).

I remember that he's Mr. Potter, but don't remember his first name, but I don't think it's Harold, if only because George Bailey's brother is named Harry.

Yeah, go useless facts brain cells.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Oh, and like, a long time ago I found the name "Chevy" in a baby book and it said it meant "chase," which means Chevy Chase has the same name twice.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I guess that's true. But then again, he IS Chevy Chase. And you're not.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Speaking of famous Potters, I seem to recall seeing a book on capital punishment written by a Harry Potter. (Hmm, do they have capital punishment in the wizarding world? I think some people have suggested that the veil Sirius fell through might be used for executions, but there's no real evidence for this.)

Oh, and getting back to an earlier comment of yours in this thread, there was a famous illustrator named Maxfield Parrish. He illustrated one of L. Frank Baum's early books (Mother Goose in Prose, I think?).

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Oh, as an addendum to the original post, today at the museum I met a child named Precise. Are his parents hoping he'll grow up to be, like, a surgeon or something, or did they just misspell "Precious"? (It was pronounced "precise" though, incidentally, although the kid was quite hyperactive and I can't see him being precise about anything).

[vovat.livejournal.com]

For some reason, that reminds me of how my brother said he went to school with a kid named Justin, whose middle name was Case.