May 25, 2006 7:26 AM
Baby Names
There are a lot of sites out there for baby names, but this one is my favorite:
Baby Name Wizard: Name Voyager
Amazing visuals that show you not only today's ranking, but all the way back to the 1880's in graph format.
Here are the 2004 ranks for my family's names:
Tripp (not in database - Tripp's given name is Wallace Barnes Curtis III, but he was always called Tripp for triple)
Barbara (#686 - but was #3 in the 40's when I was born. Evidently, if you want a unique name for your daughter, you might choose Barbara because no one else is :)
Samantha (#9, but was #273 when she was born - and with her middle name Samantha Sunshine, she may well be one of a kind)
Jasmine (#26, but was #490 when she was born - and with her middle name Jasmine Moondance, she is surely one of a kind)
Joshua ( #3 - was #4 when he was born, but though I didn't know it, God was in control of the name choices then)
Matthew (#4 - was #3)
Benjamin (#25 - was #31)
Zachary (#26 - was #43)
Sophia (#15 - was #132)
Jonathan (#21 - was #21)
Madeleine (#32 - was #310)
Jesse (#94 - was #50)
Daniel (#7 - was #8)
Justin (#30 - Justin was born in 2001, so no change - but I didn't choose Justin's name, his birth parents did)
So, my observation is that I choose faithful and steadfast boys' names, but with the girls, I choose unusual names way ahead of their time in popularity. I was looking at another list the other day that ranked Sophia #5. In 1989, who would ever have thought?
Posted in Babies, Family, Fun Stuff | Permalink
Comments
Love to read your children's names. I hadn't seen them all mentioned before. Cool!
Posted by: Carol | May 25, 2006 8:46 AM
OH goody! One of my favorite topics!
Sophia was on our short list of names when we were deciding on what to name our youngest. We ended up with Portia and named the new dog Sophie (or Sofa for short). You wouldn't belive the amount of people who think we named Portia after a car... though we were expecting that a bit.
We have a bit of a Shakespearean theme going on. Our daughters are named Olivia and Portia. We had a Great Dane named Hamlet (what else would you name a Great Dane, I ask you) and now we have a dog named Brutus. Once we had a coworker of my husband's over for dinner. His last name is MacBeeth and yes, he is a decendant of *the* MacBeth, which was pretty cool.
My name is Spring Jasmine. I was born in August - go figure. I never really liked my name, it just doesn't fit me much though I wouldn't be able to think of a better one for me. When I was seven I lobbied my parents to let me legally change my name to Cinderella. You see I thought that was *better* and I'd probably get less teasing.
Note: There are two other women in the US who share my first and last names and none of them are related to us in any way.
Posted by: Spring | May 25, 2006 9:22 AM
my daughter Annie is #386, my son William is #8.
However, my daughter's doll, whom she named MILDRED ("isn't that the most beautiful name, mom!") doesn't even rank in 2004, whereas it was #143 in 1880. What goes around comes around : )
Posted by: floorplan | May 25, 2006 9:59 AM
My name does not even make the list AT ALL since 1930. What could you expect with a name like Ouida?
Posted by: Mrs. DMG | May 25, 2006 12:35 PM
Hey Spring, how cool! We're strongly considering Portia for this baby if a girl is on the way. It is interesting that it was most popular in the 1940s. Not too many people we have shared this with have been real thrilled, but we really like it. DH wants to choose a latin name for her middle name as well, so I'm leaning towards Rose and he towards Allegra - if it weren't an allergy medicine today I might not be as opposed, ya know? :D
Our first daughter, Nicola, doesn't even appear at name vogager.
Thanks, Barbara - this was fun! Way to go pickin' those names years ahead of their popularity. :D
Posted by: mrs.s. | May 25, 2006 12:44 PM
Love your theme, Spring. Were your parents hippies like I was?
Deb - that is too funny - Mildred! I hope you agreed that it was beautiful! Maybe Annie will get tired of it before she has real babies :)
Mrs DMG - I didn't know your name. I looked it up at http://www.behindthename.com and it said French pet form of Louise. That makes it prettier!
Mrs. S - My Sophia's middle name is Rose. I don't know about Allegra - it does make me think of allergies :)
Posted by: barbaracurtis | May 25, 2006 1:38 PM
Mrs. S:
I'm laughing because Portia's middle name *is* Rose. We knew her middle name before we'd settled on the first name. Portia Rose has a wonderful ring to it, in my opinion. It did take a while for family members to get used to it (but they were much more open to Portia than when we were considering Ophelia - the only reason we didn't choose that was because it sounded too much like Olivia) but anyone who meets her now cannot possibly imagine her by any other name.
I've only met two others who are also named Portia and that was after she was born.
Barbara:
My dad is a complete hippie still - he hasn't changed one bit. His first daughter is named Song Lovely. (I never met her unfortunately - long story)
Posted by: Spring | May 25, 2006 2:18 PM
I knew a little girl named Portia while growing up. She had a sister (twin?) named Dorothy. We always called them "PorshanDorthee", all one word. It wasn't until high school when I first read Shakespeare that I saw the REAL word.
Barbara: I love how Annie thinks 'Mildred' is beautiful. She has no frame of reference to NOT think so...I imagine a mom, 150 years ago, lovingly naming her new infant girl 'Mildred' and it takes on a different sound to my modern ears.
fun site, highly distracting!
Posted by: floorplan | May 25, 2006 3:35 PM
And, just to belabor this point ... as if anyone cares! HA!
MILDRED
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: MIL-dred [key]
Means "gentle strength" from the Old English elements milde "gentle" and þryð "strength". Saint Mildred was a 7th-century abbess, the daughter of the Kentish princess Saint Ermenburga.
Posted by: floorplan | May 25, 2006 3:37 PM
Thanks, this was fun. I looked up my son James. It was suggested that he have sisters named Mary, Elizabeth and Anne. My James has one sister named Mary Suzanne and one Anne Elizabeth. His brother was suggested to be William, but that's his middle name. His actual brother is David Roland. Roland is a name that is never seen but it is the name of grandpa so David loves it. Anne's name actually came from both grandma's middle name. It is nice for my kids to have that kind of family connection. I like that all their names are both biblical and royal.
Posted by: JaneD | May 25, 2006 5:04 PM
I have more popular boys names (Adrian and Daniel)
my only girls name is Joan, which was like number 2 a long time ago, but now is like 600. She was a name sake but I think it is catching on after that show Joan of Arcadia. I would't be suprised if it hit the top 10 eventually. I really do think its a pretty name.
Posted by: paigeu | May 25, 2006 9:25 PM
I agree, Spring, Portia Rose *does* have a ring to it and I have been talking about calling her by her full first and middle name because of it. And even if I can't name a baby Portia Rose, I am glad to know that there is such a one in this world. :D I like Olivia to, but probably wouldn't vie for Ophelia. ;)
Floorplan - it was Shakespeare's Julius Caesar that first introduced me to Portia at 16. I never forgot it and was thrilled when it was used in the movie Bicentennial Man. Hearing it in the movie cemented my liking for it. Many years later I finally showed the movie to my husband and he, too, came to like the name. On another note - Mildred is beautiful, for a baby doll. ;)I love the express innocence of the young...what happened to us adults?!
Barbara - I totally agree...allegra and allergies are close enough to more than sneeze at. ;)
Posted by: mrs.s. | May 26, 2006 9:37 AM
My son's first name is William but we call him by his middle name, Tripp. Tripp used to be a nickname used by men in the fifties and sixties. Not very popular anymore, I'm tired of the looks people give us when we tell them his name. They look at us as if we've given our son a ridiculous name. My husband and I love the name and are hoping it makes a come back.
Posted by: Mary | May 9, 2007 11:15 AM
