Name Dropping

I cited a statistic recently in these pages that more than 40% of all newborn girls born in the United States have a name ending in "a".

In fact, 8 of the most popular 10 female names end with "a" and 6 of the first 7 for births recorded in 2023  do as well. Names such and Olivia, Emma, Amelia and Sophia.

Alexa was the the 32nd most popular name for a girl in 2015 . This was right about the same time that Amazon decided to name their voice assistant by the same name.

It led to a massive name drop. In 2023, Alexa ranked #604 in name popularity.

(All the names graphs below are from Namerology.com.)

Katrina is another name that has been dropping that ends with "a".

It was a fairly popular name in the 1980's reaching #101 in ranking. It began dropping in the 1990's with little chance for a comeback in the 2000's after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2004.

Katrina is now ranked #1872 in girls names.

Both are examples of how external events and news can affect the popularity of names.

The same is true with a few boys' names.

Did Walt Disney know what would the ramifications would be of his choice of the name of a cartoon character that was a duck? Of course, that name has not even seen a recovery despite (or perhaps because of) a President bearing that name.

#7 in the 1930's and #652 in 2023.

The same is true of the name Ronald after McDonald's first started using "Ronald McDonald" in its marketing.

Ronald was the #10 boys name in the 1940's, #15 in the 1950's, and #24 in the 1960's. 

It was #612 in 2023 barely ahead of Donald. That drop occurred despite another President who carried that name.

Perhaps we have reached a point that people have no interest in naming their children after any political figures.

For example, no one is naming their child Barack.

No one did it before Obama was President, while he was President or after he was President.

The name Hillary went out of favor right after the Clinton's became a household name.

However, when it comes to names, there is always another day,

Emma was the 2nd most popular baby name in 2023.

In the 1880's it was #3 until it dropped to #445 in the 1970's and recovered to became the #1 name in 2018.

I guess that 1970's parents did not want to name their baby girl Emma because that was the name of their grandmother's best friend. 

By the 2000's all of the old Emma's were gone and a new name trend began.

A similar name trend is seen with the name Henry. It was a top 10 name in the late 1800's. It was well out of the top 100 for the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's before making a comeback in the last 20 years. It has been a Top 10 name each of the last four years.

Theodore is a boys name that was a popular name in the early 20th century (Theodore Roosevelt) and has become a top 10 name recently. It was #7 in 2023.

You have to wonder whether "Theodore Cleaver" (or Beaver in the 1960's tv sitcom Leave It To Beaver) might have had something to that name drop though the decades?

The current generation knows little about Beaver so the name Theodore is not carrying the same baggage today that it did 40-50 years ago.

It is another example that names can drop and make a later comeback.

There used to be a lot more conformity in names than there is now. In 1950, only 5% of parents picked a name that was not in the Top 1000 baby names. In 2012, 27% of parents were completely weird and picked a name outside of the Top 1000.

In 2023, it was 29% overall. However, 35% of females born in 2023 were given a name outside the top 1000. For males it was 25%.

A big reason for the wider breadth of names is that technology and media have given exposure to many more names that parents are exposed to and can choose from.

In the 1800's many names came from the Bible. In the 1920's and 1930's movies opened up the name game and television started having an effect in the 1950's. Baby name books started appearing in the 60's and 70's for new parents to peruse.

The internet has totally changed the game in recent years with numerous web sites dedicated to baby names.

Of course, those names, once in circulation, begin to become more and more popular as the name is heard by more people. What begins as weird becomes cool with time. I first became aware of this baby name phenomenon when I read "Freakonomics" by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner who dedicated an entire chapter to names almost 20 years ago. Here is what they wrote about name patterns.

There is a clear pattern at play; once a name catches on among high-income, highly educated parents, it starts working its way down the socioeconomic ladder. 

It isn't famous people who drive the name game. It is the family just a few blocks over, the one with the bigger house and newer car. 

Parents are reluctant to poach a name from someone too near---family members or close friends---but many parents whether they realize it or not, like the sound of names that sound "successful". 

But as a high-end name is adopted en masse, high-end parents begin to abandon it. Eventually, it is considered so common that even lower-end parents many not want it, whereby it falls out of the rotation entirely. The lower-end parents, meanwhile, go looking for the next name that the upper-class parents have broken in.

That is how a new name can suddenly come on the scene and become popular.

For example, consider the girl's name Bayleigh.

The name did not appear in any birth records until the late 1970's.

All it took was one couple who named their daughter Bayleigh.

The name pattern ultimately put that name in the top 1000 by 2012.

Most likely that name was first used in Ohio as this map of the United States reveals that is where the name Bayleigh is most popular.

More people have been exposed to the name in that area of the country.

The most popular boy's name in 2023 was Liam.

Liam is originally an Irish name that was almost never given to an American baby until the early 1980's and then skyrocketed in popularity in the 2000's.

I find it interesting that the name was not used before considering the substantial number of Irish immigrants that came into the country beginning in the mid-1800's.

Perhaps the Irish immigrants did not want to be reminded of their hardships in Ireland before they immigrated to the United States?

Did it take Liam Neeson to raise visibility of the name for the non-Irish?

Which names are dropping the fastest in popularity today according to Namerology.com founder Laura Wattenberg?

The 2023 analysis has not been published but the 2022 list of biggest name droppers (in terms of popularity) were as follows.

Girl Name Droppers

Ava

Aviana

Boy Name Droppers

Lincoln

Logan

Three names that were not selected by one parent for their child in the United States in 2022 for the first time since the 1800's.

Jannie

Berta

Thurman

One final note.

There does appear to be hope on the horizon.

The name Bee is making a comeback. It was a name that was fairly popular around 1900 for both males and females.

The influence of BeeLine apparently is limitless.