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.
Zombie Girls are Rising, and They’re Surprisingly Cute
As more girls’ names return from the dead, they point in a new direction.
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.
Double Trouble: Transformer Names
Nicknames are a change of pace. Any formal name that comes with an appealing nickname can be a 2-for-1 bargain, letting you adjust your name to suit your setting. But some names take the style versatility further: from elegant to bold, from Bruce Wayne to Batman, from banker to buzzsaw. […]
Is There Any Hope for the Names of the ’40s and ’50s?
These are strange times for Carol and Glenn. As hot baby names of the 1940s and ’50s, they’ve fallen into a black hole of fashion. They’re not yet antiques, and they’re not aggressively contrarian in style like Mildred or Floyd. They’re just invisible, a stylistic blind spot that parents don’t […]
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 Names that Do—and Don’t—Hold Power in Washington
The Brady Bunch? In. Dave and Jen? Out. Oh, and women? Yeah, they’re still out too. Those are a few of the conclusions from a review of the names that rule in American government. I tallied the given names of over 900 current high-ranking US public servants, including congresspeople, cabinet […]
Nicknaming In Reverse
It’s 1946. The girls’ nicknames Judy and Trudy are the height of charm. But while Judy springs from the youthful hit Judith, Trudy is short for the tired old standby Gertrude. What’s a trendy, Trudy-loving parent to do? The answer for some was Trudith, a 1940s-only concoction born of a […]
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