“Kayla” got a big boost, I would imagine, when Patch and Kayla became the red-hot supercouple of the soap opera “Days Of Our Lives” in the 1980s. Lot of mommies watching soaps, after all.
Speaking of 1980s TV shows, the children of “Dynasty” fans – Blake, Krystle, Fallon – are coming of age just about now.
Apparently, Madison may be a boy’s name these days as well. I’ve seen it on the list of boy’s names in my copy of The Baby Nane Countdown by Janet Schwegel that I have. According to the book, it had a popularity rating of 0.12 per 1,000 babies in the 1990s in North America. (I think that translates to 1.2 babies per 10,000… I’m not quite sure for some reason) Granted, not very popular, but it’s there. Besides that, I saw a classified ad in the local paper last year, celebrating the birth(day?) of a boy named Madison.
Oh, and you do not want to know how many “creative” ( :rolleyes: ) ways parents can come up with to spell Michaela. Trust me, there are at least six or seven variations in the book I mentioned earlier. And if it’s not in there, chances are it might be in the next edition.
F_X
Madison is an old boy’s name and has only recently crossed over to become a girl’s name - at least, that’s my understanding. The word “son” at the end is a clue to it being a boy’s name (shut up, Alison!).
My (male) cousin’s middle name is Mackenzie, as it was his Grandfather’s given name. I see Mackenzie’s definition is given as “son of the wise leader” and next in the book is Madison with “son of the powerful soldier”. There’s an odd theme in popular girl’s names.
Another relative is a 20-something year old Michaela, giving at least a few years on to this “new” name. Young Michaela hated her name growing up because it was so unusual. How times change.
They were named after the Beatles, dude. Get some culture.
According to the Social Security Administration’s accounting of baby names, “Madison” was the second most popular name given to female babies born in 2001. “Taylor” is number 12, and “Kayla” is number 17. We don’t find “Mackenzie” until way down at number 41. Of course, that puts it well above “Mary” (49) and “Amy” (101), which I’d thought were common names. Oh, how the times have changed.
Boys’ names last year weren’t nearly as “unique” as girls’ names. Looks like Biblical names are making a comeback. The earliest non-classical name I see is “Tyler” at #13. Of course, it appears that “Logan”, “Caleb”, and “Hunter” are steadily climbing in popularity, so who knows what the future holds.
They have a feature where you can trace the rise in popularity of a particular name. Here’s the breakdown by year for “Madison”, in terms of the name’s popularity:
1990 - 216
1991 - 133
1992 - 112
1993 - 78
1994 - 53
1995 - 29
1996 - 15
1997 - 10
1998 - 9
1999 - 7
2000 - 3
2001 - 2
To me, it looks like the rise in popularity is a recent thing that very much post-dates the popularity of the movie Splash. I’m more inclined to blame the increase in its use to “trendiness”, the trend being parents attempting to give unique, sophisticated-sounding names to their children.
“Madison” is one of those trendy names that I categorize as “last names given as first names.” My own brother followed this trend for his own kids; my nieces are “Bailey” and “Ciera”, and my nephews are “Beck” and “Jackson”. Some parents just try too hard to be unique…
I know a Kayla who’s probably 50 or 60 years old. Anecdotal, I know, and I have no idea how her family came up with it. But I thought I’d drop it in the mix here.
Girl — Great Whore Jezabel
Boy — Krizmo Bizmark of Nazareth
And don’t forget all the Corbins out there whose mommy watched L.A. Law.
I know “Michaela” and “McKenzie” are both established names (as is “Kayla” at this point). I mentioned them because I am assuming that the abominable “McKayla” was produced by parents who could not decide among “Kayla”, “Michaela”, or “McKenzie” (or some other “Mc” name) so rather than make a decision, they created a monstrous chimera that their poor daughter will be spelling to people for the rest of her life.
Tiffany, Heather, Cody, Dylan, Dermot, Jordan, Taylor, Brittany, Wesley, Rumor, Scout, Cassidy, Zoe, Chloe, Max, Hunter, Kendall, Caitlin, Noah, Sascha, Morgan, Kyra, Ian, Lauren, Q-Bert, Phil
The alliteration plague in naming kids seems to be worst in Texas. I believe Roger Clemens’ kids are named Koby, Krabby, Kevin, Kondo and Kraut. And the Routier couple, Darin and Darlie (the wife was convicted of murdering two sons) named their kids Drake, Damon and Devin.
Then there’s the opposite end of the spectrum, with George Foreman naming all of his kids George.
Makes me glad I stuck with traditional names.
Though both Lady Chance and I have somewhat unusual names (me more so than her) and I enjoy that.
We named our little girl ‘Kate’ (short for Kathleen) as that’s both tradition in my family and still a relatively unused variant.
But if I had a dime for every moron who asked, “Oh, is that short for Caitlin?” I wouldn’t be looking for a job. Damn them anyway!
Oh, sweet gods. This almost makes me want to have a child so I can name them something like Kevin or Cynthia.
I don’t doubt that “Madison” rising to #2 on the list is herding instinct, but it was in fact started by “Splash.” Its appearance in 1990 precisely coincides with when people who were kids/teenswhen “Splash” came out would first start naming their own kids.
“Madison” is the next “Jennifer,” except it’s even worse.
A “Ciera” is a car. I hope he doesn’t name his third child “Corolla.”
My daughter’s godfather’s name is Alison, but he goes by Al.
I hate the trendy names too. I don’t have any kids, but I have always liked the name Sophia, and with my husband being half Italian, it goes well with our last name, but in the past year I have met 3 kids named Sophia, Sofie, and Sofia. Please tell me this name is not becoming the next trendy name, as I will then have to give it up.
Nah, don’t bother. At least it means “wisdom”, as opposed to “street associated with the American advertising industry.”
I have a step-grandson named “Lazerous.”
Lazerous. LAZEROUS. For fuck’s sake.
Middle name? Micheal. Not “Michael”…“Micheal.”
shudder
Whenever I see a kid named “Dylan,” I wonder if he’s named after Thomas, Bob, or McKay.
My stepkid was “Logan” before “Logan” was cool. Now there are a bunch of little kids running around whose parents have never HEARD of Michael York, but who think Wolverine is schweeeeeet.
Then again, my first name was made up by my parents, so…
And there’s the rumor of the twins named Orangelo and Lemongelo…and the girl named Chlamydia (because her mom thought it sounded pretty) and the apparent plethora of kids named “Noname”…
Oh, and in Virginia there’s quite the bump in girls named ‘Madison’ if one went to James Madison University.
Silly humans.