9.29.2007
Names
Jack and I had coffee with chocolate soy milk in it and bagels with cream cheese this morning, and we've been sitting around playing on the internet while we take turns making our little boy giggle and hiccup. I've said both of these things before, but (1) I love lazy Saturdays, and (2) things are so fun when all three of us are at home.
One of the sites we've been exploring this morning is the Social Security Administration's baby names database. You can search it for the most popular names in any year, or see the popularity of a particular name going back as far as they have records. It's pretty cool. (Try to guess the most popular boy and girl names right now; you'll probably get a bunch of them right without even looking!) We looked up names for a lot of family and friends, and it was incredible how many of them were born when their names were at a peak. It makes sense, but it was still pretty neat to see Michael, Debbie, Robert, Ann, etc., at their peaks when our relatives were born. We started looking at it after I mentioned to Jack how often people have said, "Oh, Kent — where did you come up with that name?" and he remembered having looked up names on the site several years ago. Kent has been a nice, rare name for a long time, not even making the top 1000 for several years. At least he's unlikely to have another Kent in his class!
It's gotten us thinking about what other boy name(s) we'd like to use if we have another boy. We've had Ronald Kent and Julia Grace in reserve for about 4 years now, so we're exploring more boy names in case we need to use another one. It's a few years away... don't worry yet. I just like to think about these things in advance.
When my grandmother and uncle were here a few weekends ago, they brought me an old family tree that had been in my dad's baby box, going back about five generations. Among the names from that farthest generation back were Theophilus and Archibald. It's just like the patriarchs in Faulkner's novels. I guess if we get really desperate, we could name a little boy Theophilus Archibald. =)
One of the sites we've been exploring this morning is the Social Security Administration's baby names database. You can search it for the most popular names in any year, or see the popularity of a particular name going back as far as they have records. It's pretty cool. (Try to guess the most popular boy and girl names right now; you'll probably get a bunch of them right without even looking!) We looked up names for a lot of family and friends, and it was incredible how many of them were born when their names were at a peak. It makes sense, but it was still pretty neat to see Michael, Debbie, Robert, Ann, etc., at their peaks when our relatives were born. We started looking at it after I mentioned to Jack how often people have said, "Oh, Kent — where did you come up with that name?" and he remembered having looked up names on the site several years ago. Kent has been a nice, rare name for a long time, not even making the top 1000 for several years. At least he's unlikely to have another Kent in his class!
It's gotten us thinking about what other boy name(s) we'd like to use if we have another boy. We've had Ronald Kent and Julia Grace in reserve for about 4 years now, so we're exploring more boy names in case we need to use another one. It's a few years away... don't worry yet. I just like to think about these things in advance.
When my grandmother and uncle were here a few weekends ago, they brought me an old family tree that had been in my dad's baby box, going back about five generations. Among the names from that farthest generation back were Theophilus and Archibald. It's just like the patriarchs in Faulkner's novels. I guess if we get really desperate, we could name a little boy Theophilus Archibald. =)
- posted by erica 9/29/2007 11:34:00 AM
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Comments:
My sister and her husband had the same idea in naming my nephew Livingston. I always feared being in a class with another Nikki, but was always glad that my last name set me apart from everyone else.
Kent is a great name though, and definitely easier to spell than Livingston!
Kent is a great name though, and definitely easier to spell than Livingston!
First of all: coffee with chocolate soy milk - intriguing! I must try this. That's cool about names. My parents' names were more popular when they were born too. I associate names like Mildred or Gertrude with our grandparents' generation, but it's cool to see some *data* on that! And interesting that the names of many of my/our friends are in the first couple hundred for the late 70s/early 80s.
As for names I like, a few years ago I decided I really liked the name Adelaide. (After Ashley talking about visiting Adelaide, Australia.) It is in the 900s for the past 2 years, so that's pretty uncommon. But then Katherine used it for her cat! :-) Maybe by the time we would have potential use for it, I won't associate it with a cat, LOL!
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As for names I like, a few years ago I decided I really liked the name Adelaide. (After Ashley talking about visiting Adelaide, Australia.) It is in the 900s for the past 2 years, so that's pretty uncommon. But then Katherine used it for her cat! :-) Maybe by the time we would have potential use for it, I won't associate it with a cat, LOL!
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