Comments on: What’s in a Name?

By: Grammy

Grammy — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 03:37:49 +0000

Forty years ago, there was a young mother who named her son David. She always knew that if she ever had a son, he would have to be a “David”. A strong name, yet with warmth, a name with a Biblical influence and a bit of royalty. Then David became Dave and then Surf!! So what’s in a name??

By: skellie

skellie — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:43:22 +0000

For a while it seemed baby girls were getting very formal, old fashioned names. Their brothers were getting very casual, drifter sorts of names. I know a family with Grace and Jack, and another with Olivia and Charley. Now the girls’ names have an exotic flavor like Suri and Seraphina, and not just celebrities. My daughter has two girls named Maya in her class, and a Kaya. And geography does play a role. Logan is a very nice name, but in Boston it has special meaning (would a New Yorker name a daughter Laguardia?)

By: Tracie in Tallahassee

Tracie in Tallahassee — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 12:47:23 +0000

My good friend and I both thought (way back in 1990) that we were being trend-setters with our baby girls’s names only to be horrified when we realized, a few years later, what we’d done to our Emily and Hannah (Hannah, by the way, just turned 18 and legally changed hers to Evan). So, as the mother of one of the millions of post-80′s Emilys in this country, thank you for the wonderful news that the name has finally slipped out of the pole position. Take THAT you cute little neighbor-girl Emma whose parents thought they were being oh so clever naming her that instead of Emily!!

Tracie (who is neither cowgirl nor porn star)

By: Walking In My Sleep

Walking In My Sleep — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:41:12 +0000

OK, Emily. Your name is pretty good, compared to growing up with a name that rhymes. Mine, while not spelled as if it rhymes, pronouces in a nice little chant that quickly gained me all sorts of notabilty in elementary school – and not the kind of notability I wanted! Of course, there was that guy in my school whose name was William Billy, aka, Billy Billy….

By: lisa

lisa — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:41:49 +0000

Emilai – - thanks for the shout out. I hated my name growing up b/c there were always four “Lisa”s in every class. I don’t think anyone used my name after the 1970′s. My mom recalls that there was a movie called “David and Lisa” that came out around the time we were born…(about two developmentally challenged teenagers).

Lee’s parents were truly unique with “Leith Wesley” – - i’m pretty confidant he is the only one in the country, perhaps the world, with that name!

By: tommyboy

tommyboy — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:50:25 +0000

You go cowgirl! You may have also noticed that the spectrum isn’t linear. It’s more like a pyramid on its side. The trailblazers choose a cool and unique (for two days) name, then the early adopters follow, then everyone else, so that 10-15 years later the name is downright common.