June 6, 2009 2:08 PM
The ultimate baby name databases
While we're on the subject of 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 2008 ranks for my family's names:
Tripp - #976 - first year in top 1000 (Tripp's given name is Wallace Barnes Curtis III, but he was always called Tripp for triple and uses it as his legal name)
Barbara - #758 - (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 - #11, (but was #273 when she was born - and with her middle name Samantha Sunshine, she may well be one of a kind)
Jasmine - #43 (but was #490 when she was born - and with her middle name Jasmine Moondance, she is surely one of a kind!)
Joshua - #4 (was #4 when he was born, but though I didn't know it, God was in control of the name choices then)
Matthew - #10 (was #3)
Benjamin - #25 (was #31)
Zachary - #47 (was #43)
Sophia - #7 (was #132)
Jonathan - #26 (was #21)
Madeleine (#32 - was #310)
Jesse - #110 (was #50)
Daniel - #5 (was #8)
Justin - #45 (was #30 - 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?
My favorite name to map is my dear daughter-in-law Hattie's
Popularity of names starting with HATTIE
(Cool! Just discovered Baby Name Wizard has embed code too!)
You can also find the official Top Ten baby names - and search options like popularity by state and which names are zooming up and down in popularity - at the Social Security Administration site.
Posted in Babies, Family, Fun Stuff, Mothering, Resources | Permalink
Comments
Barbara, what's with all the name jazz....are you pregnant again? :p
I AM JUST TEASING!
(so did I get an audible laugh out of you?)
*giggles*
Kristy in Germany
Posted by: Kristy in Germany | June 6, 2009 2:33 PM
My grandmother's name was Hattie Josephine. She was born in 1894.
Posted by: melissa | June 6, 2009 3:38 PM
Kristy-
That would be newsworthy, wouldn't it?
Those days are over for me.
And yes, you did get a laugh!
love,
barbara
Posted by: barbara | June 7, 2009 8:42 AM
My name is so rare that I couldn't even find it on that website! But I found my daughters' names, because we deliberately gave them more common names -- they are ranked #10 and #8 in popularity.
Posted by: Donica | June 8, 2009 3:53 PM
