So the most recent episode gave an explanation for why the characters named their daughter [name]Amy[/name], which was discussed in a previous thread as being dated. [name]Reagan[/name], the mom’s name sounded more like the daughter and [name]Amy[/name] like the mom. The weird thing is, in 2011 [name]Reagan[/name] was #122 but [name]Amy[/name] wasn’t far behind at #143. Sure, [name]Amy[/name] was ranked much higher and [name]Reagan[/name] was ranked much lower, but I was surprised to find out that [name]Amy[/name], this dated name, was still so popular.
So I started looking up others. [name]Jennifer[/name] was #134 last year. [name]Jessica[/name] was #120. It keeps going from there, but the point is, a lot of these too-dated-to-be-usable names are actually still getting used relatively regularly. Names that I thought I was unfairly prejudiced against b/c I knew so many women bearing them my age are actually above the threshold of what I’d consider currently too popular to use. (My personal cut-off is #200)
Anyway, as much as I was surprised by what’s newly popular, I’m just as surprised by what’s still hanging in there. Anyone else have this experience and want to add on any “wow, this is still a thing?” names?
Someone I know has a little [name]Katie[/name] and [name]Peter[/name]. I was surprised by [name]Katie[/name], not because of [name]Katherine[/name] (I know that’s popular), but I feel like more people are going with [name]Kate[/name] as a nn. [name]Peter[/name] surprised me because I feel like I don’t hear it that often on someone younger than maybe my age.
I think the thing that surprises me the most is when I hear of someone older with a name that’s popular now. [name]One[/name] example is an old friend from HS, [name]Mikayla[/name]. That and similar names are pretty popular now, plus her parents used a less common spelling. It’s always interesting when you hear a name and you get an idea of how old they probably are. Then you actually meet/see them and see that they are older or younger than you’d expect. It seems that some people are “ahead” of the times, haha.
[name]One[/name] thing I noticed too is that girl’s names seem to become dated more often than boys. I think boys get named after relatives a lot so the names become “classics” because they are used for generations. Girls are rarely named after their parents (how often have you met a female jr?) so the rankings seems to change a lot more often. So hearing of a baby [name]Jennifer[/name] seems “weirder” than hearing of a baby [name]Nicholas[/name] (or another name popular in the 80s). I hope that makes sense, lol.
I have to say that I’m surprised that [name]Madison[/name] is still in the top ten for girls. I remember when that name first became popular and I figured it would fizzle out by 2005 or so. Guess I was wrong. I’m also surprised by how popular [name]Samantha[/name] and [name]Natalie[/name] are right now. [name]Both[/name] were popular when I was growing up (born in the early 80s) and to my ear, they both sound really dated. I’m guessing that [name]Natalie[/name]'s popularity is probably due in part to [name]Natalie[/name] Portman but I can’t figure out why [name]Samantha[/name]'s still going strong.
Someone I know just named her baby [name]Samantha[/name]. I didn’t know [name]Samantha[/name] was still popular, but turns out it’s #17! For real? I never hear that name anymore!
Unfortunately, my long-time favorite girl’s name, [name]Jamie[/name], is in the 400s, which I believe may be in the “mom name” number range–that is, far from unique and far from popular.
[name]EDIT[/name]: [name]Pansy[/name], didn’t see your post until after I posted mine. Funny we both noticed the same thing.
I think you’re right about the role gender plays. I think there is a much more narrow field of names that are “acceptable” for boys while with girls there’s much more of an anything-goes attitude. So if boys are more often named classic names, there’s not much room for huge trends, while girls are more open to that. Names I think of as being very popular for men my age, like [name]Matthew[/name], [name]David[/name], [name]Michael[/name], [name]Christopher[/name], are all still very highly ranked.
The one boy name that kind of threw me off was someone I met whose son is [name]John[/name] and husband is [name]Charlie[/name], which felt flip-flopped for me. However, in 2011, [name]John[/name] was used on a lot more baby boys than [name]Charles[/name]/[name]Charlie[/name]. I think it must be more than [name]Charlie[/name] sounds like a nickname. If it was [name]Charles[/name] and [name]Johnny[/name], I might not have had the same reaction.
What you said is the reason why I can’t think of names like [name]Amy[/name], [name]Jessica[/name], and [name]Jennifer[/name] as dated. Sure, there were periods when they were a lot more popular, but when they’re still in the current top 200 or so, it’s hard for me to consider them truly “dated”. To me, dated means “popular during a certain time, but rarely used at all nowadays”.
My mum’s colleague has a newborn granddaughter named [name]Amy[/name]. I also know (these are all aged 10 or under) a [name]Samantha[/name], a [name]Jennifer[/name] and a [name]Paul[/name], all of which seem quite dated to me. I don’t see [name]Jessica[/name] as dated as it seems to have been popular in the UK more recently than the others, most of the Jessicas I know are in their teens while the Samanthas, Jennifers etc are 20s+. I think them still being popular now shows that a lot of people obviously don’t care about names seeming dated, and in some ways using a dated name is one way of using a familiar name that isn’t likely to make your four year old start school as [name]Isabella[/name] X, but as [name]Jennifer[/name], and not the [name]Jennifer[/name] X she would have been 20 years ago.
I wonder too if some of them aren’t being named after their moms, or in tribute to someone their parents’ age. A boy with the same name as his dad would have all 3 names the same and be identified by [name]Jr[/name], III, etc. but a girl with the same fn (with or without the same mn) would usually have a different last name, so you might not know they shared the name without asking her. I’m sure it’s less common for moms to pass on their names than dads, but it happens sometimes. Also, I know this woman I went to high school with who recently named her baby [name]Vanessa[/name], which was the name of a deceased friend of hers who would have been in her early 30s now. Or maybe it’s just there are names that have always had a lot of appeal for people and they just happened to go through times of mass appeal and when those passed, there were still a lot of people who just liked them.
I agree with the last sentence of your post. Although, I can understand why people who know someone their age with that name consider it dated, I think everyone’s experience with names is so unique. I recently named my baby [name]Vanessa[/name] [name]Rose[/name]. I never knew anyone who was born in the 80s by the name [name]Vanessa[/name]. In fact, the only person I knew by that name was born during a time when the name was underused. So to me, [name]Vanessa[/name] was not a name I personally viewed as dated. The same may apply to some of the people who use some of the other seemingly dated names mentioned in this post.
I didn’t think of [name]Vanessa[/name] as dated either. The one I mentioned I believe is the only one I’ve met. Maybe one other friend-of-a-friend, but I can’t remember if that was her name or some other V name b/c we just met in passing. I’ve seen other people mention it as a dated name, though.
I think in a large country, it may be that name popularity varies greatly area-to-area. I live in the Southeast and wouldn’t expect the same names to be popular here as in [name]New[/name] [name]England[/name] or the Midwest, etc.
Funny we both noticed the same thing.