Gary has dropped off dramatically as a name for baby boys in the U.S. since the year 2000. To the extent it’s still a common name in the U.S., it’s among men over age 25, and especially over age 50.
It was consistently among the top 50 baby boy names from the 1940s through around 1975; it then gradually declined in popularity until around 2000, before declining even faster since then, to the point that it’s now barely in the top 1000 names (in 2022, it was ranked #961).
At its peak in popularity, in the early 1950s, Gary was the name given to 2% of baby boys in the U.S.; now, the name is given to 0.01% of baby boys.
The name that’s really taken a hit in recent years is “Karen.” In 2007 it was the 165th most popular name for newborn girls. Since then for some mysterious reason it has dropped to 823rd.
Been teaching 20 years in Michigan. I’ve had a few Oscars, not a ton. I work in a district that is 50% Hispanic, 40%, and 10%(or less) Black. Estimates, I mean.
Most Hispanic kids have “American” names, so to speak. Then again, I have three Jimenas in one class(one is Ximena).
p.s. My 25-year-old niece’s name is Zoe. My grandmother (1915-2007) had never seen that name before in the rural Iowa town where she lived all her life, and said, “What kind of name is that, anyway? What is going to happen to that poor child when she starts school?” I told her, “It’s Greek, and she may be one of 2 or 3 girls in her class with that name, because it’s actually quite popular right now.” (As it happened, her name was the least of the issues she had in school, but that’s a discussion for another day.)
Grandma’s name, BTW, was Lola. Who ever thought THAT name would make a comeback?
My son shares a name with a Muppet, albeit one who didn’t know he was a Muppet because he was adopted into a human family. (Said Muppet’s human brother is, totally coincidentally, named Gary.)
I like poetry, so I looked for this. Damn. There is still scads of stuff about the poems, and the controversy, but the actual poems have disappeared.
Using the original spelling “Death of Oscur” gets different results, but still no actual text.
“Muppets may take our names, but they’ll never take our FREEDOM!!!”
From an independent Canadian political perspective, admitting definitions are elastic and America is complicated, it kind of looks like they already did?