What do Simone Biles, Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky have in common? If you were reading this article anywhere else, the answer would be about their records of excellence in Olympic sports. But in this space we measure impact in baby names. The three dominant athletes have had the exact […]
Who gets to name Kamala Harris? For those of us in the hearing world, the question may scarcely make sense. Vice President Harris is a grown woman whose name is well established (despite opponents’ attempts to diminish her by deliberately mangling it). But for American Sign Language users, the question […]
You should expect to meet a lot more Frankies, Stevies and Georgies in the years ahead. And you should expect most of them to be girls. An -ie suffix is a time-honored way to turn male names like Frank, Steve and George into cute diminutives. These boyish nicknames are also […]
The letter X has put its stamp on the past generation of American baby names. Over the last 25 years, names have included the letter seven times as often as in earlier generations. Beyond the numbers, we’ve seen a creative explosion in the way parents use X in names: inventing, […]
Once upon a time, there was only Charity. In the early decades of U.S. national baby name stats, starting in 1880, Charity was the only -ty “concept” word being used as a name. It was the lone reminder of a past style of demure virtue names like Chastity and Amity. […]
There’s a new letter in town, and it’s just for show. Allow me to introduce the “ornamental H,” an alphabetic flourish that’s adding a stylistic—not phonetic—note to names like Whyatt, Khadence and Ameliah. The story behind the style is a cultural ride that takes us everywhere from the Bible to […]
Each year, hundreds of new baby names make their first marks in the United States. Many are variations on familiar names. Others may be unfamiliar here, but well-known in other parts of the world. Still others are inspired by the words and names expectant parents encounter every day, from video […]
Over a thousand names made their all-time debuts in the 2020 baby name statistics, meaning they were given to five or more American boys or girls for the first time ever. Together, they make up a cultural kaleidoscope. You’ll find names representing languages and faiths from around the world; popular […]
The Reddit post earned thousands of upvotes and comments. Strangers pointed me to it; friends and family pointed me to it. The data was right there in a graph, the trend unmistakable. And yet the name story wasn’t true. The baby name Karen did not just plummet into obscurity, pushed […]
Olivia unites us, Theodore divides us, and Oliver is the King in the North. Those are some of the takeaways from a new look at the most popular baby names in every US State in 2020. Olivia, the nation’s top girl’s name, ranks in the top 5 in every single […]
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