Names don’t stand still. Their natures change over time, and without an anchor like a famous bearer, a name’s past can be swept out of memory. Here are six examples of names we hear as single-sex today that were unisex in the not-so-distant past. SharonIf you hear the name Sharon […]
You say you want to name your daughter after me? Aww, I’m honored! But if you live in Iceland, you’re out of luck. Laura isn’t a legal Icelandic baby name. Many countries around the world limit parents’ name choices. The types of regulations vary, as do their motivations: protecting children’s […]
Are you looking for the steadiest possible baby name? A name that weathers all fashion storms and maintains its popularity level across the generations? Then I have the name for you. Manuel is America’s steadiest name, by a good margin. For girls, Antonia is #1. This conclusion comes from a […]
Unisex baby names are on the rise. Nationwide, names used for both boys and girls are more popular today than ever before. Why? If you read media reports of the phenomenon, the answer seems clear: it stems from a new commitment to gender equality and fluidity. Unisex names “defy stereotyping” […]
What would the song “Hey There Delilah” have become if the subject of the singer’s yearnings had a different name? In 2005 when the Plain White T’s hit was written, Delilah was still an uncommon and unconventional name, especially for a college-aged woman. Dozens of likelier options could have satisfied […]
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 […]
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