Today it’s Blessyn. A Century Ago it Was…
Names like Blessyn and Amazyn that transform uplifting -ing words are a purely modern phenomenon. Or are they?
The Great Gospel Baby Name Convergence
A classic set of baby names with wildly different trajectories have gathered at a single point. And like any good celestial convergence, this meeting is portentous.
With this Stewardess, a Generation of Names Took Flight
Why did so many parents in the mid-20th-Century choose names like Vicki? A fictional stewardess may point the way.
The Typical Name of Every Decade
How do the typical girls’ and boys’ names sound? And how have they changed?
Justyn Time: A Name Mystery
If you’ve never heard a name before, how can you feel that you know something about it—or a person who bears it?
When Everything Changed
Is there a “before” and “after” moment in modern American history? A time when the trajectory changed, when we started living and thinking differently?
The Secret Lives of Jenny and Jessie
Psst…you know Jenny and Jessie, right? They’re the standard nicknames for Jennifer and Jessica, the two names that dominated American fashion for decades. No names could be more familiar. Well, once upon a time Jenny and Jessie weren’t the same nicknames-next-door that we know and love. In fact, they weren’t […]
The Bridgerton Names Show Off an Age-Old Cultural Bias
Even in this winking mashup of a historical setting, one cultural line cannot be crossed: No proper English lady or gentleman can bear a plain old English name.
A Baby Name Gender Gap Is Closing
Parents choose different names for boys and girls—and they choose names differently for boys and girls as well. For centuries, female names have been more creative and more subject to the shifting winds of fashion, much as female clothing has been. Male names, like male clothing, remained more conservative. Until […]
The Three Ages of -i Names: An American Tale
Name endings can define style eras. The names Marlene and Carlene sound like babies of the 1940s, while Marleigh and Carleigh have the touch of the new millennium. But for names ending in -i, the story is more complicated. It’s a tale of three different American eras. As you can […]
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