Recently published research supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health suggests that parents choose names for their babies based on which names happen to be “trendy” at the time. The study was based on 127 years worth of data collected from the Social Security Administration and the results are, in my opinion, common sense.
What’s wrong, kid?
Upset your mom named you Kanye?
What I found a bit more interesting about the study is that lately (1981-2006), the names parents choose are moving more consistently in one direction than they did in the past (1880-1905), a time when the popularity of names seemed to fluctuate from one year to the next.
Todd Gureckis, New York University Assistant Professor of Psychology, and Robert Goldstone, Indiana University-Bloomington Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, compare this more consistent movement in one direction to the stock market:
“Parents in the United States are increasingly sensitive to the change in frequency of a name in recent time, such that names that are gaining in popularity are seen as more desirable than those that have fallen in popularity in the recent past,” the authors note. (www.usatoday.com)
I’m thinking today’s parents are “increasingly sensitive to the change in frequency of a name” thanks to all the advances in today’s technology that allow people to interact much easier and quicker with one another and overall keep up with the goings on of the rest of the world that parents in the past didn’t have.
I’m wondering whether celebrity names play a role in any of this.
Would you consider naming your child after a popular celebrity, or your favorite celebrity? At the same time, would you avoid naming your child after a popular celebrity because that celebrity was popular for undesirable reasons?
I’m not a parent, but I can say that, if I ever am, I won’t give my child a name simply because it’s a popular name at the time - and I surely won’t name my child after any celebrity that happens to be popular at the time.
I would, however, probably give my child a name I felt meant something or reflected some importance to me. (Not really fair to the kid, now that I think about it.) And, knowing me, that name would probably come from some piece of literature, a movie, or a song.
Of course, I’m basing this off examples such as naming my cat Miss Penny Lane (not after The Beatles song; after the Almost Famous character).
So, what do I know?
What about you?
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From Psych Central's Alicia Sparks:
uberVU - social comments (October 19, 2009)
I would probably name my child after a loved celebrity if the celebrity had a generic or timeless name. I would name my child Patrick after Patrick Swayze. I was named after a character off the Waltons which was some TV series that aired a few decades ago, it works out for me since I love my name.
When I was expecting, my husband and I gave our baby a code name because we chose not to name her until we saw her sweet face. I am a HUGE Elvis Costello fan so we called her Elvis until we chose her real name. If I ever have a son I am determined to give him Elvis as a middle name! When we did choose a name we really tried to pick a name that was not popular but not too unusual either. When I was a child in the early 80’s there were very few other Hannahs and no one could ever spell it or pronounce it correctly.
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