Baby names poll answers.

[rivka]

1. Which name is more popular for girls, Ellen or Nevaeh?

72.3%, thinking way too kindly of American parents, picked "Ellen." In fact, Ellen is #447, and Nevaeh is #150. Guess why Nevaeh is so popular. Come on, guess.

It's heaven spelled backwards, that's why.

It's also the name of a Christian rock group. And a porn star.

2. Which name is more popular for boys, Peter or Isaiah?

Voting was extremely close on this one, but 50.6% chose the wrong answer, Peter. Peter is at #148. Isaiah is at #50. Probably because of the extra basketball advantage, is my guess, because I think "peter" as a nickname for "penis" is old-fashioned enough not to play a major role.

3. Which name is more popular for girls, Mary or Kendall?

65.1% decided that Kendall was awfully trendy-sounding, and I won't say that they're wrong. But Mary is higher up on the popularity list at #61, compared to Kendall at #157.

4. Which name is more popular for girls, Mary or Makayla?

Inexplicably, but predicted by 60.2%, Makayla is #51 in popularity.

5. Which name is more popular for boys, John or Hunter?

43.4% got it right. John is #17, Hunter all the way down at #41.

6. Which name is more popular for boys, Toby or Maximus?

Y'all thought that American parents would only go so far, didn't you? 81.9% thought that Toby was more popular, making this the wrongest wrong answer of all. In fact, Maximus is #375, and Toby is all the way down at #439. Explain that one to me.

7. Battle of the TV heartthrobs: Which name is more popular for boys?

The TV thing was a bit of misdirection, actually. Angel is #43, probably because it's a Latino name. Dawson is way down the list at #204. 21.7% got it right.

8. Which egregiously misspelled girl's name is the most popular?

It pains me - severely - to admit that any of these names is on the top 500. 59% thought that the winner must be Madisyn, probably because of the gratuitous "y." But in fact, Alivia (#352) narrowly edges out Emely (#359), and Madisyn (#418) is far behind.

I must now go weep tears of blood.

9. Which name is more popular for girls, Brooklynn or Ryleigh?

I wanted a choice that would make people just throw up their hands in bewilderment. And in fact, voting was fairly even. 46.9% chose the right answer, Brooklynn. (Brooklynn is #406, Ryleigh #479. Queenns wasn't in the top 500, and neither was Manhattanne.)

10. Which name is more popular for boys, Axel or Uriel?

I think this one was a little too easy. 79% correctly guessed that Axel (#333) is more popular than Uriel (#435). But why is Uriel in the top 500 to begin with?

11. Boy's name or girl's name: Harley

It astounds me that 75.6% of you think Harley sounds like a girl's name. It's the name of a freaking motorcycle, is what it is. But indeed, it's #313 for girls and only #426 for boys.

12. Boy's name or girl's name: Jaiden

All the varieties of Jaden/Jaiden/Jayden/Jaydon are more popular for boys than for girls. Jaiden with an "i" is #312 for boys, #416 for girls. Jayden with a "y" is all the way up at #75 in popularity for boys. 60.2% got it right.

13. Boy's name or girl's name: Mackenzie

This was way too easy. Over 90% knew that Mackenzie is a girly, girly girl name, at #46 is popularity. It doesn't even break the top 500 for boys.

14. Boy's name or girl's name: Kendall

This is another one that sounds boyish to me, but as 72% of you knew, Kendall is far more popular for girls (#157) than for boys (#500).

15. Boy's name or girl's name: Skyler

The right answer was winning on this one until the very end of the poll, but in the end the wrong answer pulled ahead with 51.8% Skyler is obviously a boy's name, at #234, compared to #279 for girls. Huh. I guess, actually, that's fairly androgynous.

In conclusion: I propose that we replace naming with a serial number system, as soon as possible.

Comments

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Neaveah.

There are going to be all these people who think it's a normal name.

And there are going to be all these other people who think it's a typical American name.

But I grew up thinking "Jr", pronounced, naturally, "Jir", was a typical American name, very dashing in its lack of vowels.

Wouldn't you rather be called Uriel?

Is there some weird class thing going on here, with these really awful ones?

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Is there some weird class thing going on here, with these really awful ones?

Maybe. Some of the newly trendy names seem upper-middle-class to me, like Sloane or Kendall for a girl, or Hunter for a boy. The "alternate spelling to make the name unique" names, like Madisyn, and the stripper-sounding names like Destinee (also in the top 500, it pains me to say), sound very much lower-middle-class.

But you know, it also reminds me of the women I used to see on wedding planning newsgroups who thought of their wedding as their once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be special, the center of attention, the one in the spotlight. Everything had to be fairy tale perfect, because it was their only chance to shine. Other women (usually with advanced degrees, challenging jobs, etc.) clearly thought of themselves as likely to have lots of lifetime opportunities to shine, of which the wedding was only one. It's a very different approach.

I wonder if the emphasis on "unique" and "special" baby names has a similar cause - lack of confidence that their child will be unique and distinguished. I mean, I don't think these women are applying the test of inserting the name into high-powered adult contexts ("...pleased to introduce the CEO of the Rand Corporation, Destinee Jones"), because they don't imagine that their daughters will grow up to be CEOs. Their only chance of specialness might be a special name.

[elynne.livejournal.com]

Does it mess with your thesis that I knew a girl in high school who, upon turning 18, changed her name from a perfectly acceptable Latino name (which I can't remember) to "Destinee Starr"? On reflection, I honestly don't know if she was considering a career as a stripper or porn actress when she chose that name...

[geminigirl]

And I thought I was nuts for not really feeling any need to be the center of attention on my wedding day.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Yeah. We thought that the focus of our wedding reception should be the comfort and enjoyment of our guests, and we thought of ourselves as "hosts" rather than "stars."

Some people thought was pretty weird. Like the guy who tried to convince us that it would be perfectly fine to serve champagne only to the bridal party, with everyone else making do with something cheaper.

[ailbhe]

So did we, but I'm a high-school dropout who tried very, very hard to be a teenage mother and only failed because I didn't know I needed the stress levels of a securely kept and idle woman to conceive. Of course, I grew up with an unusual name, and I like them... so I chose a name for my daughter that was unusual, easily abbreviated, and easy to spell in the dominant culture around her.

I think what I'm trying to say is "contrary datapoint".

We had wedding champagne issues as well; the caterer said:

"So we'll need X bottles of wine. Now. Champagne. How many toasts will there be?"

"Um, we're going to serve champagne as a beverage, not just for toasts. And we don't know who is going to want to toast us, or how often."

"Say two toasts?"

"We want to serve champagne as a beverage, like wine. We aren't using it just for toasts."

[skip the repeats].

"Order the same amount of champagne as white wine. Yes, really. Thank you."

We knew our guests, so the wine was so-so and the champagne was pretty good.

A.

[geminigirl]

Yeah, well. Apparently I'm supposed to care about things that I don't really care much about, like what my mother and his mother wear, and how the women who are standing up with me do their hair.

Yeah, whatever.

(Okay, so I'm having wedding misery/apathy right now because I'm having issues, not about the marriage, not really about the wedding, other than the lack of having gotten things done, but just because my entire life is getting thrown up in the air! It's easy to deflect my job stress onto the wedding or something like that. Coping strategies...yeah that. Would love however, to see you and M. if you're feeling up to it, soon-ish, but most certainly before I leave DC.)

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Condoleezza.

K. [just sayin']

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I think you're right about "specialness" and further I think giving unique names is an opting-out of anything like an homogenous culture. It's a way to refuse to participate in the society around you.

I volunteer with underprivileged second graders, and my kids, 20 or so in the class last year, all had unique names. Quaveon, Otoniel, Shanika, Rubicel, Fatuma, and so on. Some of the kids were American black, more were Mexican immigrants, a few were African immigrants, or were from other places in latin America. All children of poverty. I don't understand how the more-traditional, Catholic, Spanish-speaking families came to their unusual names. Argentina, for example, is another country where parents may chose their child's name from the approved list. But I saw that also in Guatemala, meeting children named Saolo and Fabiola.

Perhaps we're just, globally, coming unmoored from tradition in many ways, and this is how people are embracing it.

It's not that young mothers make bad choices, or that they cannot tell the difference between naming their babies and naming their pets, for heavens' sake.

K.

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

the emphasis on "unique" and "special" baby names

*shudder* In my daughter's nursery, there was a child who had been named Unique. I really disliked the implication that the other children weren't.

"Makayla" looks to me like a transliteration of a name that was popular amongst my Dad's Saudi students in the 1970s, so perhaps its popularity has something to do with ethnicity?

[ailbhe]

I know, like and respect someone who nonetheless answered her only daughter thusly when asked why she hadn't had any more kids:

"We got it right the first time."

[rivka.livejournal.com]

"Makayla" looks to me like a transliteration of a name that was popular amongst my Dad's Saudi students in the 1970s, so perhaps its popularity has something to do with ethnicity?

That could be, although I would be surprised to hear that there are enough Arab-Americans to boost a name to #51 on the popularity list. I was reading "Makayla" as a re-spelling of "Michaela," and as akin to Mackenzie and Mackenna (or McKenna, or Makenna), all names that are currently in vogue among white Americans.

After a quick websearch: several baby name sites list the name as "American" in origin, and say it is "a feminine form of Michael." (Not that these sites are notable for their rigorous research.)

[kate_nepveu]

According to news reports I have read, African-American families are more likely to use recently-created names or different spellings. I don't recall whether this held true across income levels.

[castiron.livejournal.com]

It certainly seems true among the lower-middle-class families in my general neighborhood, with a definite tendency towards names that look vaguely French. There were two D'Andre's in my son's class last year, for example, and I've run into several girls with names like LaTasha, LaToya, and LaWanda.

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

It might also be an age thing. When you're sixteen, it's hard to think about the fact that you're naming a human being and not another doll or dog.

-J