Can you sort these three American males in age order from youngest to oldest, based just on their names? RichardKadenKyle Chances are, you’d call Kaden the youngest, Kyle the middle, and Richard the oldest. That order feels right. But what is it based on? Certainly not on recent popularity—the three […]
These are tough times for classic names. Even names that have stood as gold standards for timelessness are falling out of fashion: William, Katherine and Elizabeth have hit all-time popularity lows. Yet even in this naming climate, some traditional choices are thriving. Names like Amelia, Sebastian and Naomi have reached […]
Name trends can sneak up on you. They move bit by bit, shifting your expectations along the way. As time goes by, you might even forget that Penelope used to sound old-fashioned instead of trendy, or that you marveled at your first sighting of Jaxon-with-an-X. Here’s your reminder of how […]
How a quintessential baby boomer name became a slur aimed at Generation X In 2019, the generation gap came charging back. We’d already seen warning signs of its approach in the form of older people bad-mouthing millennials, but the 2019 version was no longer as simple as old vs. young. […]
Linda and Larry are the 1950s. Jennifer and Jason are the ’70s. In the future, when we look back, what names will represent the 2010s decade? A simple list of the most popular names of the decade won’t answer that question. Most of the top-10 girls’ names of the 2010s […]
If you tuned in to the recent historical tv drama Gentleman Jack, you quickly found yourself awash in Anns. The series is based on the real life of Anne Lister, an Englishwoman of the early 19th Century sometimes called “the first modern lesbian.” We meet Anne Lister as she returns […]
The name that went viral. The name that everybody argued about. The name that became a symbol. The name that you suddenly kept hearing, everywhere. What was the Name of the Year for 2019? The Name of the Year is a time capsule in name form. It doesn’t necessarily have […]
Think you know names? Try your hand at the Namerology crossword puzzle. If a particular clue stumps you, you can reveal the letter in any square with the “reveal letter” button, and all answers are explained on the solution page. Go to crossword solution and notes
It has become a familiar part of America’s modern political narrative. The white, small-town experience is portrayed as the most traditional American experience. Some elevate it as an ideal, the model for returning the nation’s culture to an earlier, prouder time. Others see it as just one element of a […]
Imagine a name as smooth as a flowing stream, as glossy as a raindrop. It shouldn’t be hard to imagine, because those names are all around us. Six years ago I first described a huge wave of “liquid” and “raindrop” names that was defining the sound of the times. A […]
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