How many Williams can you
fit in a Volkswagen?
fit in a Volkswagen?
If I pick a top 10 name for my baby, is it going to fall out of favor? Will my daughter's preschool class be crowded with Emma B., Emma T., and Emma Z.? By the time little Daniel or Alexis goes to college, will their names be passé? And if William becomes a circus clown, how many other Williams will they try to cram into those little clown cars with him?
No one wants to saddle a kid with a name that's overplayed, but you needn't worry that your child's chart-topping signature will always date him as "early 21st century." Children named Emily and Jacob today—the current favorites—will always swim in a sea of other Emilys and Jacobs. Yes, their names will eventually fall from the pinnacle of the top 1000 list, but they probably won't disappear completely. At least, not in this lifetime, and probably not in the next either.
If we track some of the best loved names of the last 100 years, it is fascinating to note that a name like John (which was #1 in 1900) has never dipped below the top 20. Its girl counterpart, Mary, was #1 in 1900 and stayed number 1 for 50 years, when Lisa suddenly knocked it from its perch. It's been falling (albeit slowly) ever since, and today it's #61. Similarly, Michael was the #1 boys' name for 50 years, only slipping to second most popular in 1999, when Jacob grabbed the spot.
Then take Helen, the second most popular girls' name in 1900 that held on to top 10 status for four decades. Then, in the 1940s, it hit a rough patch, slipping to #32 and there was no bouncing back—today it's #389. The same is true of Ruth. It was #5 in 1900; today it lingers around #350. Anna, however, was #4 in 1900 and fell to #103 by 1950, but today it seems to be making a comeback at #21 in 2003.
One trend seems to be that girls are named with more of an adventurous spirit than boys. A few of the girl's names in the top 10 have only recently become stand-outs. Abigail, Alexis, and Ashley all entered the top 1000 in the 1940s. Today they are # 6, 7, and 8. Samantha was #10 in 2003, but didn't enter the top 1000 until the 1960s. It is actually losing favor just a bit, slipping from #5 in the previous decade.
Boys' names are more stable and most likely drawn from a deep well of family first names passed down through the generations. Enjoying a bit of John's staying power, William, Joseph, and James have also never left the top 20 in 100 years. Only one male name in the top 10—Ethan—has been a recent phenomenon. It just barely made it on the list at #954 in the 1950s, sharing the bottom-dweller status with Hobert (#968), Cyrus (#979) and Cletus (#988). But in the 1960s and 70s, when the flower child generation started having children of their own, traditional family names weren't as important, and Ethan started to rise. Today it's #7.
The #1 girls' and boys' name in 2003—Emily and Jacob—both traveled the same path, starting in the high-90s in 1900 and steadily falling to linger in the 200 to 300 range for the first half of the 20th century. But then suddenly, old-fashioned names fell back into favor in the 1970s: Emily and Jacob got a big spike and never looked back. Remember, however, that the top 1000 treats every spelling
variation as a separate entry, so it's possible that Madison/Madisyn/Madyson/Maddison/Madisen or Alexis/Alexys/Alexus could have already beaten Emily to the top spot. Still, the big picture proves that if you want to pick a popular name, you're pretty safe with anything in the top 50. And if you want to avoid popular names, steer clear of anything in the top 100.
No matter what you choose, you never know when a cartoon character will adopt your child's name, spoiling it forever. Dino was popular until the 1970s, when "The Flintstones" cartoon featured a dinosaur pet named Dino and the name disappeared from the top 1000 for good. Same with Boris, Elroy, and Garfield, who met their doom with "Rocky and Bullwinkle," "The Jetsons," and "Garfield." Some of those names may be ready to make a comeback, but we're afraid that Kermit, Grover, and Elmo are probably off-limits as long as "Sesame Street" is still a toddler's best friend.
If the most popular names over the last 100 years have anything to tell us, it would be that some names are here to stay, while newer names take about 40 years to get really popular. And it could take another 40 for them to fall out of favor.
Up and down Madison
Probably the most interesting case is the ascendency of the name Madison. Originally a male name (and not a very popular one) Madison was, at the turn of the last millennium, only a tad more popular than best-forgotten forgotten flags like Sigurd, Isom, and Toy. It stayed unpopular until it dropped off the list entirely at the end of the 1930s.
Then, fifty years later, it reemerged as a girl's name following the release of the Tom Hanks movie "Splash," where Daryl Hannah's mermaid took the name Madison because she saw it on a street sign in Manhattan. (Being part fish, her real name was a high-pitched screech, unpronounceable to humans.) The movie's popularity may have sparked the "Madison" glimmer in enough parents' eyes to make it debut on the top 1000 list of girls' names at #539 in the 1980s, but that alone doesn't really explain how it climbed so rapidly all the way to #3 in 2003.
Other factors helped push it up, too, according to baby name expert Cleveland Evans. Once Madison started to gain popularity, he says, "it keeps rising and makes the top ten not just because it's in a movie, but because it sounds like Megan, Allison, and Madeline." In fact, he predicts, parents looking for something similar-but-not-the-same as Madison are now turning their attention to Addison, which debuted at #836 in 1994 and is now at #120.
Parents of boys need not feel left out: Madison is also a less-popular boys' name, hovering in the mid-500s since the mid-90s.
No one wants to saddle a kid with a name that's overplayed, but you needn't worry that your child's chart-topping signature will always date him as "early 21st century." Children named Emily and Jacob today—the current favorites—will always swim in a sea of other Emilys and Jacobs. Yes, their names will eventually fall from the pinnacle of the top 1000 list, but they probably won't disappear completely. At least, not in this lifetime, and probably not in the next either.
If we track some of the best loved names of the last 100 years, it is fascinating to note that a name like John (which was #1 in 1900) has never dipped below the top 20. Its girl counterpart, Mary, was #1 in 1900 and stayed number 1 for 50 years, when Lisa suddenly knocked it from its perch. It's been falling (albeit slowly) ever since, and today it's #61. Similarly, Michael was the #1 boys' name for 50 years, only slipping to second most popular in 1999, when Jacob grabbed the spot.
Then take Helen, the second most popular girls' name in 1900 that held on to top 10 status for four decades. Then, in the 1940s, it hit a rough patch, slipping to #32 and there was no bouncing back—today it's #389. The same is true of Ruth. It was #5 in 1900; today it lingers around #350. Anna, however, was #4 in 1900 and fell to #103 by 1950, but today it seems to be making a comeback at #21 in 2003.
One trend seems to be that girls are named with more of an adventurous spirit than boys. A few of the girl's names in the top 10 have only recently become stand-outs. Abigail, Alexis, and Ashley all entered the top 1000 in the 1940s. Today they are # 6, 7, and 8. Samantha was #10 in 2003, but didn't enter the top 1000 until the 1960s. It is actually losing favor just a bit, slipping from #5 in the previous decade.
Boys' names are more stable and most likely drawn from a deep well of family first names passed down through the generations. Enjoying a bit of John's staying power, William, Joseph, and James have also never left the top 20 in 100 years. Only one male name in the top 10—Ethan—has been a recent phenomenon. It just barely made it on the list at #954 in the 1950s, sharing the bottom-dweller status with Hobert (#968), Cyrus (#979) and Cletus (#988). But in the 1960s and 70s, when the flower child generation started having children of their own, traditional family names weren't as important, and Ethan started to rise. Today it's #7.
The #1 girls' and boys' name in 2003—Emily and Jacob—both traveled the same path, starting in the high-90s in 1900 and steadily falling to linger in the 200 to 300 range for the first half of the 20th century. But then suddenly, old-fashioned names fell back into favor in the 1970s: Emily and Jacob got a big spike and never looked back. Remember, however, that the top 1000 treats every spelling
variation as a separate entry, so it's possible that Madison/Madisyn/Madyson/Maddison/Madisen or Alexis/Alexys/Alexus could have already beaten Emily to the top spot. Still, the big picture proves that if you want to pick a popular name, you're pretty safe with anything in the top 50. And if you want to avoid popular names, steer clear of anything in the top 100.
No matter what you choose, you never know when a cartoon character will adopt your child's name, spoiling it forever. Dino was popular until the 1970s, when "The Flintstones" cartoon featured a dinosaur pet named Dino and the name disappeared from the top 1000 for good. Same with Boris, Elroy, and Garfield, who met their doom with "Rocky and Bullwinkle," "The Jetsons," and "Garfield." Some of those names may be ready to make a comeback, but we're afraid that Kermit, Grover, and Elmo are probably off-limits as long as "Sesame Street" is still a toddler's best friend.
If the most popular names over the last 100 years have anything to tell us, it would be that some names are here to stay, while newer names take about 40 years to get really popular. And it could take another 40 for them to fall out of favor.
Up and down Madison
Probably the most interesting case is the ascendency of the name Madison. Originally a male name (and not a very popular one) Madison was, at the turn of the last millennium, only a tad more popular than best-forgotten forgotten flags like Sigurd, Isom, and Toy. It stayed unpopular until it dropped off the list entirely at the end of the 1930s.
Then, fifty years later, it reemerged as a girl's name following the release of the Tom Hanks movie "Splash," where Daryl Hannah's mermaid took the name Madison because she saw it on a street sign in Manhattan. (Being part fish, her real name was a high-pitched screech, unpronounceable to humans.) The movie's popularity may have sparked the "Madison" glimmer in enough parents' eyes to make it debut on the top 1000 list of girls' names at #539 in the 1980s, but that alone doesn't really explain how it climbed so rapidly all the way to #3 in 2003.
Other factors helped push it up, too, according to baby name expert Cleveland Evans. Once Madison started to gain popularity, he says, "it keeps rising and makes the top ten not just because it's in a movie, but because it sounds like Megan, Allison, and Madeline." In fact, he predicts, parents looking for something similar-but-not-the-same as Madison are now turning their attention to Addison, which debuted at #836 in 1994 and is now at #120.
Parents of boys need not feel left out: Madison is also a less-popular boys' name, hovering in the mid-500s since the mid-90s.
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