Nothing Against Imogen and Ruby, But

[lesliemarion]

I am looking for opinions and theories on a trend I see in male and female names, at least on this site.

When I look at the pink popularity cloud, I see the same names over and over. And over and over again. It is so boring! It’s not that they are necessarily bad names, just way too familiar.

When I look at the blue popularity cloud, there are almost always a mix of names with new ones thrown in all the time. Some very interesting choices.

This goes against what I had initially thought was a trend: parents choosing solid dependable, conservative names for their boys and feeling a lot more freedom and fun in naming their girls.

Now it seems the opposite. The male list feels a lot more fluid and fun.

Personally, I wish both genders were fluid and fun because there are so many great names out there languishing for owners!

Thoughts?

[freya_1983]

Apparently the trends for choosing more conservative or more adventurous names track with SES; higher SES usually means a greater willingness to give less conventional names to boys while remaining fairly conservative with girls’ names. That flips as SES decreases. Perhaps that’s the cause behind the phenomenon you mention.

[lesliemarion]

@freya_1983

Apparently the trends for choosing more conservative or more adventurous names track with SES; higher SES usually means a greater willingness to give less conventional names to boys while remaining fairly conservative with girls’ names. That flips as SES decreases. Perhaps that’s the cause behind the phenomenon you mention.

Thanks for this. I didn’t know it.

I would have thought higher SES would make people more adventurous with both genders though.

Are the higher SES namers choosing more male names for girls?