Dylan: now a popular baby name. Lennon: not so much. Why?

[Hey_It_s_That_Guy]

@Hilarity N. Suze

Now my youngest son has a name which was uncommon when I gave it to him and has gotten popular recently, owing to a movie. I’ve even had recent acquaintances say, “Oh–like the kid in The Incredibles!”

(RIght, I wanted until he was 9 years old and then named him after a movie character. Duh.)

He is none too happy about this and would like to change his name. He has not proposed an alternative, though. (Hey, how about “Keith”?)

What can I say, I did the best I could. (Recites parent’s mantra: Where have I failed God knows I tried.)

You named your son “Dash”? Ah, for Dashiell Hammett! That’s kinda cool, actually. Any Raymonds or Mickeys in your family?

[Saltire]

I just would like to say that I have a nephew who’s middle name is Lennon (the first is Vincent).

[Mister_Rik]

I’ve always chuckled about all the women my age named Michelle. All born in the few years after The Beatles made the name famous.

[muttrox]

See the popularity of names over the last 100 years. Incredible interface:

http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html

[Acsenray]

@Fear Itself

INobody just names their kid Dylan without being influenced by movies or television.

What, nobody?!

[August_West]

I would have named a son Dylan without having been influenced by movies or television, since I never watched 90210. I am of Welsh ancestry and enjoy Welsh names and often cruise the Mabinogion for cool names. I would also prefer to name my first son something unique. Dylan would have been a good choice but the popularity has exploded, as noted. Right now I am lleaning towards Owein, as in Owein Glyndwr, but with my luck it will be the next hugely popular baby name.

[August_West]

Ha! I didn’t mean to put a double l in front of “leaning”, but it is fitting in a post about Welsh names.

[Johanna]

Believe it or not, back in the 1960s and 1970s I went to school with a kid named John Lennon. That was exactly his real name. He was born in 1960, so it was just a coincidence.

My nephew (born 1991) is named Dylan. I don’t remember my sister being a big Bob Dylan fan. When we were in high school she gave me her copy of Desire and it made me the big Bob Dylan fan. She is a big TV person, though. She works in TV. Hmmm. I had never watched 90210. Now I get it. In the 1980s, my cousin named her little girl Kayla. I heard it was after some character on a soap opera. I still can’t believe anyone would do that to their kid. I’m pretty much a non-TV person and it’s hard to understand the brain of anyone so thoroughly saturated with TV that they would name a real person after a TV show. 60 years from now, Kayla’s grandchildren will be asking her how she got her name, and the explanation will probably be meaningless to them.

[Acsenray]

@Johanna

would do that to their kid. I’m pretty much a non-TV person and it’s hard to understand the brain of anyone so thoroughly saturated with TV that they would name a real person after a TV show.

And what exactly are they doing to them? I think a function of a popular TV show or a celebrity is just to make a previously unusual name more well known. I don’t think people use names to try to invoke some aspect of a character into their children. Names are just random sounds used as identifiers. Once you have a name, it’s yours.

60 years from now, Kayla’s grandchildren will be asking her how she got her name, and the explanation will probably be meaningless to them.

Yeah, so, with most people, it won’t matter a damn where your name came from. Your name is just your name.

[Interrobang]

This is an interesting thread, but I think I phrased some things badly at the beginning. But many of the responses have led me to a Dylan-popularity hypothesis.

I didn’t mean to imply (though I did) that everyone who names their kid Dylan now is a Bob Dylan fan. But I do suspect – and have read elsewhere, though I don’t have an online cite – that Bob Dylan’s popularity in the '60s brought the name into popular consciousness. If you visit the Baby Name Wizard site that muttrox linked to, you’ll see that Dylan was not a top-1000 baby name (Dylan Thomas notwithstanding) until the 1970s, when it debuts at #390 – coincidentally or not, the decade when a lot of people who were teenagers when Bob Dylan became famous were now in their 20s and having babies.

At the same time, or shortly thereafter, the current vogue for Irish, Scottish and Welsh baby names starts to hit, which is another bit of fuel for Dylan’s popularity.

And in the '90s, Dylan gets even more popular, probably in part because of Dylan on Beverly Hills, 90210. Again, parents don’t necessarily have to be fans of the show – they just have to hear the name and think it sounds nice.

So, my hypothesis, in short: Dylan Thomas is relatively famous, even in the US, as a poet. In the '60s, Bob Zimmerman becomes famous as Bob Dylan, reminding people of the name. In the '70s, in part because of Dylan and in part because of the Celtic naming trend, the name hits the top-1000 baby names list. In the '80s and '90s, that trend continues, accelerated by Luke Perry’s character on 90210 giving the name even more exposure.

Lennon doesn’t take off not because people don’t like John Lennon, but because “Lennon” wasn’t originally a name to graft onto. (That doesn’t stop people – Madison is a case in point – but people tend to be more conservative with boys’ names than girls’.)

It’s intersesting to note that Elvis has gotten more popular since Mr. Presley, but hasn’t exploded the way Dylan has. I’d guess that’s at least in part because it’s too associated with the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, while Dylan, because of Thomas and perhaps other instances, is more neutral – Bob Dylan may have helped popularize it, but he isn’t the only association it has.

Does this make sense?

[pepperlandgirl]

Well, this thread has only reinforced my desire to name my hypothetical child Lennon.

[Hooleehootoo]

I was amusing myself looking at the popularity of various first names for boys and girls (in the United States) using name voyager.
I wondered if people might enjoy looking for names that show a trend and then trying to explain it.

For example, take Adolf. One idea is that the decreasing popularity is due to Hitler, but the decline starts a decade or so too early.

I think Angelina is due to Angelina Jolie, Harrison to Harrison Ford, Douglas to Douglas MacArthur, Benjamin to Dr. Spock.

[irishgirl]

There is ONE famous baby called Lennon.

Lennon Gallagher, son of Oasis singer Liam Gallagher and his ex-wife Patsy Kensit.

[Interrobang]

I am bumping this because I recently got an emailed response to my query from the Baby Name Wizard herself. I sent her a version of the summary I posted earlier, as well. She says:

@Baby Name Wizard

I think that the “Straight Dope” consensus is by and large spot on. Bob Dylan certainly helped give the name a foothold in the U.S. It first broke the top thousand here in 1966, at the very peak of B.D.'s fame, and has been climbing ever since. The biggest rise, though, has been in the past generation as the singer’s profile has fallen. That’s when the *-en sound and the Celtic origins hit the big time (compare the rise of Aidan, etc.)

As for Lennon, I think it’s held back by the lack of a hard consonant. Americans like a bit of crunch to their boys’ names – thus Landon is soaring instead of Lennon.

Interesting point about the consonants in boys’ names. Pity he wasn’t John Landon…

[even_sven]

The most amazing thing I learned on Name Voyager is that the name “Gannon” has risen in popularity since the early eighties.

[Marley23]

@Hilarity N. Suze

Now my youngest son has a name which was uncommon when I gave it to him and has gotten popular recently, owing to a movie. I’ve even had recent acquaintances say, “Oh–like the kid in The Incredibles!”

I’ve long thought - thoughly obviously not as long as you - that Dashiell is a kickass name. Good work.

I had a friend in college named Allegra. She collected Allegra ads because she thought it was funny, and her nickname was “Leggy.”

[mobo85]

@CrankyAsAnOldMan

The facts are wonderful. The conclusion, that it “just shows how easily influenced by entertainment American parents are” isn’t so clear to me.

We’ll be there for you…

Just as an experiment, to see if pop culture has anything to do with anything:

RANK (OUT OF TOP 1,000) OF BABIES REGISTERED WITH SSA THAT HAVE THE SAME NAMES AS THE CHARACTERS ON FRIENDS DURING THE YEAR THAT SERIES AIRED

Name…Rank 1994…Highest Rank (Year)…Rank 2004
Chandler…348…151 (1999)…284
Joey…413…413 (1994)…493
Ross…311…268 (1995)…614

Monica…88…79 (1997)…226
Phoebe…817…387 (2001)…407
Rachel…13…9 (1996)…34

AND, JUST FOR THE HECK OF IT, HERE’S SEINFELD

Name…Rank 1990…Highest Rank (Year)…Rank 1998
George…79…79 (1990)…126
Jerry…148…148 (1990)…228
(sorry, Kramer- “Cosmo” is not one of the top 1,000 baby names)

Elaine…409…409 (1990)…523
I think, based on this very-small cross-sampling, that baby names are not swayed by pop culture trends. At least, not many baby names.

[HMS_Irruncible]

Down here in the trenches of evangelical WASP suburbia, a lot of people are naming beautiful little girls after a wrinkled up old white man. What can these little Reagans aspire to when they come of age?

[foolsguinea]

@pepperlandgirl

Well, this thread has only reinforced my desire to name my hypothetical child Lennon.

Eh. I’m naming my hypothetical child “Wings.”

[furt]

@mobo85

I think, based on this very-small cross-sampling, that baby names are not swayed by pop culture trends. At least, not many baby names.

I’m not persuaded.

1. I think “The Dylan Effect” is primarily a phenomenon with uncommon names. A TV or film character named Bob will not influence your view of “Bob” as a name: you already know Bobs, and your view on the name is already fixed

2. The issue is not just characters, but admirable or attractive characters; of course nobody’s going to name their kid for George Costanza.

This site lists several examples: note McKenzie, Nadia, Rhiannon and Yesenia.