Names change with the times. They rise and fall, take on new meanings, and reflect the events around them. Each year, one new or changed name is declared the Name of the Year, a time capsule in name form.
Past NOTY’s have reached all corners of our culture, from comedy to conflict. They’ve reflected their moments in technology, like Siri; politics, like Barack; pop culture, like Barbie; religion, like Francis; medicine, like Delta. And then there was Boaty McBoatface.
Think back on the names that struck you in 2024. Perhaps names that you wondered about or joked about, or names that surprised or even angered you. Maybe just a name that you suddenly heard everywhere, in a new way. What do you think deserves to be proclaimed the 2024 Name of the Year?
Please join in the conversation by nominating candidates and seconding others’ nominations. Your comments and reasoning are a big part of the selection process and help us all see the year in names in new ways. As you deliberate, keep in mind that this is a Name of the Year, not a person or event of the year—the name itself should be key to the story!
Share your nominees and thoughts in any of these ways:
- Post comments to this article, below
- Post on Bluesky, tagging @babynames.bsky.social or #NOTY
- Comment on the NOTY nominations post on Facebook
19 Comments
Kamala
I came to say the same!
“A name that you suddenly heard everywhere, in a new way.”
Does an insult that got reclaimed qualify as a name? If so, then Brat.
As in, Brat Girl Summer. Even got applied to Kamala Harris by her step-daughter.
I vote for Kamala (with fingers crossed)
How about Helene, as a symbol of how no places are immune to extreme weather?
I vote Kamala. 😭 Her name and what it says about her Indian heritage feels like part of the story—the story of a woman of color who champions minorities and women and children and who went toe to toe with the most corrupt, banally evil powerful white man to do so. Her name—and the way Republicans purposely mispronounced and made fun of it, the way her family clapped back by making it known that her stepkids call her Momala—is part of the story because she’s NOT another politician named Bill or Joe or Bob or Mitt or Jeff or Sarah or Jill or some other nondescript name. She was our chance to elect someone different (someone amazing!), and her name reflected that.
Add to that, the riffing on her name on the SNL skit (Keep calmala and carry onala, etc.). She made it clear that using her first name instead of her last name was not disrespectful, even though male politicians are known almost exclusively by their surnames (Bernie the rare exception).
I agree with both of your comments about why Kamala should be NOTY. Her name was a huge part of the story, something the campaign leaned into beautifully.
It’s gotta be Kamala. You could make a case for Chappell, but Kamala – the figure and the discourse around her name – will resonate more strongly through posterity.
Kamala!
While it’s admittedly hard to tear our collective gaze away from the horrific car crash that is US politics, I thought I’d offer an alternate suggestion based more on popular culture… the name I’ve suddenly heard everywhere this past year is “Swifties”. It’s not so much about Taylor Swift herself, or her name, but about the size, influence, and huge cultural impact of her online fan base. According to Wikipedia, “Swifties” was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2023, but this year, with the massive international success of Swift’s Eras tour, the term has really become ubiquitous.
I feel like we had a lot of the same conversations about “Kamala” that we’re having now back in 2020, which would be the one thing that makes me hesitant to have her be NOTY. Thankfully, there’s another name in the headlines right now that touches a lot of the same arguments for Kamala-as-NOTY, but one which bookends 2024: may I humbly nominate… Shaboozey!
For those of you not paying attention to the pop charts, Shaboozey is the guy whose single “A Bar Song” has been the #1 song in America for the past 18 weeks – coming up on overtaking Lil Nas X’s record for “Old Town Road.” And much like Lil Nas X, Shaboozey is a Black American who’s got one foot in country music and the other in rap, and as such has been completely snubbed by the country music establishment despite his wild success. Most recently, at the CMAs last week he got zero awards and was the butt of many, many jokes about his name. Which is awkward, because Shaboozey’s real name is… Chibueze! He’s Nigerian-American, and that’s pretty much a one-to-one transliteration of his surname.
There’s a *lot* of debates right now about what the master narrative of 2024 was, but one of them surely was “who gets to lay claim to America’s legacy?” Shaboozey featured heavily on Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter album, which raised this question in the cultural sphere at the year’s start; now that question is bookending the year, with Shaboozey himself at its center. He’s a great candidate for NOTY, if you ask me.
Ooh! Thanks for this submission. I know the song, but knew nothing about the artist. It sounds like his name is a big part of the story, so I agree that Shaboozey is a contender for NOTY!
Both Shaboozey and Kamala fit into the larger narrative about the American dream and our American mythology about being a melting pot — we love the image, but not the modern-day reality. In this narrative, immigrants ought to have names that “fit in” with the pan-European heritage to which this narrative ascribes. Melania’s name is not part of her story. The fact that Shaboozey and Kamala are names that are unfamiliar gives people who are uncomfortable with the fact that they are not White something to talk about, without talking explicitly about their race.
Which leads me to a tangential question for you all about Elon. Is his name part of the story in 2024? He has been in the news almost every day, but I haven’t seen any stories about his name, even though it’s not a name I had ever heard before becoming aware of him. Granted, he has been in the news for well over a decade, but I’m not sure his name was ever a part of the story. Which definitely begs the question about why this is the case. His first name is unusual and his last name one that would be easy to insert into all sorts of jokes, but that doesn’t seem to be happening.
Thank you! This is an amazing submission and I didn’t know the backstory on his name either. I agree with Elizabeth’s comments about how this name and Kamala are indicative of a larger shift in US society.
I’m going to be an outlier here and say Ilona. I had literally never heard the name before absolute powerhouse Ilona Maher dominated the discourse around the Olympics and then did a turn on popular reality show Dancing with the Stars. Now I’ve met 3 babies (and 2 dogs) named Ilona within the last 6 weeks
To me, Ilona is a completely ordinary name – it’s just Helen in another language (Hungarian). Also, I’m not sure if Ilona Maher’s name is really part of the story. (The usual test is, imagine that her name were something else – in this case, substitute in Helen where you see Ilona. Would the story change substantially? If not, then it’s not really about the name.)
I was thinking about this some more and was contrasting Nikki Haley to Shaboozey and Kamala Harris. Haley’s parents were also immigrants, but I have never once heard or read anything that referenced Haley’s name. If a political opponent wished to highlight Haley’s ethnic background as an issue, he would have to come out and say it, because her name is not a dog whistle. Which is perhaps why her parents chose a name that blended in so well to the dominant culture. How sad that this is still an issue!
Taylor, as in the “Taylor Effect”.
People talk about her impact over the economy and even on sports, but recently, I see it more clearly in fashion. So many outfits remind me of her own outfits.
There is a wikipedia page about the Taylor Effect.
Perhaps not really NOTY material, but: I feel like there is something very 2024 about the name “Hailey Welch,” which appeared in a lot of media coverage this year despite 1) everyone knowing her as “The Hawk Tuah Girl” and 2) her name actually being spelled H-A-L-I-E-Y. (Yes, the L is before the I.) I can’t put my finger on it, though. The word “sanewashing” comes to mind here. Perhaps Laura has insight on this.