baby names!

[flea]

Today's the day the Social Security baby name lists for 2008 come out (they deliberately release them for mother's day, awww.) http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/

This year's top 10 are hardly surprising, although Emma has knocked Emily out of the #1 spot for girls:
1 Jacob Emma
2 Michael Isabella
3 Ethan Emily
4 Joshua Madison
5 Daniel Ava
6 Alexander Olivia
7 Anthony Sophia
8 William Abigail
9 Christopher Elizabeth
10 Matthew Chloe

Addison is still #12 for girls (was #11 last year) and my possibly least favorite name ever, Jayden, is #11 for boys. (And Brayden is #50. Why, people, why. Brayden is what a donkey does.)

Casper's name is up to #54 (was #88 the year we named her, was #161 10 years ago).
Dillo's name is still dropping, down to #183.
My name peaked last year and is down to #348.
mr. flea's name is, well, #2. His middle name, though, is #691 and falling.

How 'bout you?

Comments

[katie-m.livejournal.com]

My actual spelling is, no surprise, not on the list, but the spelling I run into most commonly is #45. So a nice middle-of-the-road kind of name.

[mearagrrl.livejournal.com]

My name is not in the top 1000 in the last nine years. I think it may have just cracked the top 1000 in the years of my birth, though.

[serrana.livejournal.com]

Both kids steadily falling, woot!

(I really wanted names that most English-speakers could spell, but did not want my kids to have the ">10% of your high school class has the same name you do" experience.)

[lili-beth.livejournal.com]

I'm #9, and DH (Jeffrey) is #198. His rank sort of surprises me.

The names we have for Babyfras have never been in the top 1000.

[cassandre.livejournal.com]

Fun link! Charles (my 4-year-old, known as Charlie) is 63. I would have thought it would be higher. My husband is 10.

Neither my first name, Jody, nor my middle name (which is the one I actually go by) made the top 1000.

My sister's kids have more original names than mine: Shaylin (girl), Dane (boy) and Airiana (girl).

I have been curious for awhile as to how you started charting baby names.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Alex is #61. Colin is #114. I'm #119 and Michael is #2.

It blows my mind that "Isabella" is #2. They're going to grow up knowing as many Isabellas as I know Michelles or Lisas.

[dxmachina.livejournal.com]

My first name is accompanying Dillo's into obscurity, but it was #23 when I was born. Even then it was sliding. It was #9 when both my father and grandfather were born (with the same name).

What's interesting to me is my middle name, which is actually two names. The first was #89 when I was born, and the second #770. Now they are #656 and #71, respectively. Quite the swap in popularity.

[(Anonymous)]

Older son's name (Lucas) steadily rising. Younger son's name (Ezekiel) still relatively obscure. My own name (Clare) is somewhere around 700, but add an "i" and it suddenly becomes trendy. If we ever have a daughter, I suppose we will be jumping on the popular name bandwagon; the name we both love is Evelina (after my grandmother, named Evelyn).

[forodwaith.livejournal.com]

For our kids, Girl Name has risen 200+ slots in the last two years, though it's still relatively rare. Boy Name has hovered between 40 and 80 for the last half-century; a good solid classic.

Canadian name trends are very slightly different. Sara, for example, is still holding on strong.

Mine was never as rare here as it was in the States. In both countries, though, the peak for it hit when I was in my late teens. I sometimes wonder if people expect to meet a twenty-something when they hear my name. :)

[susanw.livejournal.com]

Annabel is 801, but Annabelle is 188, and there are a couple of other spellings in the mix. I still think we chose by far the best spelling.

Susan continues to plummet 40-50 places a year. It's at 712 now. Dylan is 31.

Of the top 10 names, Ethan surprises me because I haven't encountered it anywhere. And if my church were anything to go by, Jack would be in the top 10. Most of them are indeed Jacks, and not John using it as a nickname, which makes my old-school naming soul sad. And Brayden and Jayden annoy me because they've spoiled Aidan for me, and it used to be one of my favorites.

Looking at some of my favorites for a hypothetical second kid...if DH got no input at all, I'd name a boy Arthur, which is 363--higher than I thought. DH's favorite is Brendan, at 207 much lower than I thought. I'm very fond of Henry (78) and Patrick (127), and we'd like to use Edmund, a family name not in the top 1000.

For a girl we'd consider Eleanor (256, and I thought it would be MUCH higher). I like Josephine (208) and Rosa (457), and DH likes Honor and Harriet, neither of which are top 1000.

[mightyurchin.livejournal.com]

H's name has been holding steady in the low 200s for the past 5 years, after breaking into the 100s for a few years in the late 90s/early 00s.
For me, same as Casper. (When I got the name, it was #254.)
My husband's name (Alan) is surprisingly high in the list - #135.
Virginia, which is our leading girl's name for the baby, should it be a girl, (which is the same girl's name that we had before, in honor of my grandmother), came in at #562.

BTW, I know a Brayden, a Graydon, and a Grayson, all under the age of 3. There's something about that "--ay-on" sound that people seem to like these days.

[burrell.livejournal.com]

I find it fascinating that Franny's name keeps dropping lower and lower. I think it's pretty but it is WAY out of fashion. Perhaps that's why her teacher and several parents in the class keep reversing my name with hers. My name is more popular now than it ever was when I was a kid.