Olympic Baby Names are Vanishing
What do Simone Biles, Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky have in common? The three dominant athletes have had the exact same impact on American baby naming: none at all.
Lessons in Naming from American Sign Language
Who gets to name Kamala Harris? For those of us in the hearing world, the question may scarcely make sense. But for American Sign Language users, the question was a pressing one after the 2020 election.
Boyish Nicknames for Girls Are Coming Back Again—With a Twist
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.
The Many Faces of X
The letter X has put its stamp on the past generation of American baby names. X is now a force to be reckoned with—but not for everyone.
To “Infinity” and Beyond
Once upon a time, there was only Charity. Today, dozens of different -ty words grace America’s baby name stats, and the concepts they express range to, quite literally, Infinity.
Add H: America’s Silent Trend
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.
An Alphabet of Brand-New Girls’ Names, from Adalet to Zepplyn
Take an alphabetic tour through 26 noteworthy names that were given to five or more American girls for the first time in the year 2020.
The Brand-New Boys’ Names Alphabet, from Abaddon to Zeref
Over a thousand names made their all-time debuts in the 2020 baby name statistics. Here are 26 of the noteworthy new boys’ names, one for each letter of the alphabet.
How a Viral Name Post Got the Story Backwards
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 […]
The Top 5 Baby Names of Every US State
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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