I work in a large warehouse. My department is labor intensive and has had only one female in three years. She is no longer there. We have maybe 30-40 men in our department. We mostly work on our own and communicate intradepartmentally by walkie. This can be difficult/annoying because we have two Williams, two Patricks, two Fransiscos, two Anthonys, and we had two Ryans. Yesterday, I joined the double named when we got a second Jacob. Worse, I got turned into JB. Why can’t the new guy get the fucking nickname. I’ve been Jacob longer here and probably longer period. I won’t remember to answer to JB and it sounds like a lot of other names we have.
Sadly, this will probably get only worse as I get older. Growing up, I knew a few Jakes, but I was the only Jacob (although I was almost a Jake too.) Now, it is the most popular boys’ name in the fuckin’ country!
I have a hard time understanding how in a group of 30 or 40, we can have 5 doubles. It’s probably more probable than I think. It probably doesn’t happen as often with women because parents use a wider naming pool with girls.
If I ever have kids, I like Vladimir for a boy and also boys’ names that end with s, such as Magnus, Linus, and Lazarus. Don’t use these or they too will get double named.
When I was growing up, any classroom was likely to contain at least two Debbies and two Cathies, out of 10-15 girls. I don’t know if it’s still that way - obviously different names would be popular now. What I mean is, I don’t think this is just a male phenomenon.
In my grammar school 90% of the girls were named some variation on Mary. That was the 60s. I named my eldest Mary in 1985 and she was the only one in her grammar school and one of three in middle and high school. Of course, that was comparing a Catholic grade school with public schools, but I think the pattern probably held.
ETA: Okay, it was probably more like 60%, but it seemed like more. And some of the Debbies and Cathies were really Mary Deborah and Mary Catherine.
You’re dating yourself with your Debbies and Cathies. Also, dropzone dated him/herself with his/her Marys.
I’ll date myself and say that I knew lots o’ Jasons growing up. Also, lots of Sarah/Saras and Stephanies. Surprisingly, the only Jennifer I knew was my sister.
Out of the 9 girls in my daughter’s Girl Scout troop, out of 9 girls, three were named Rachel and two of the three were Rachel Elizabeth.
Names come into vogue. Right now the elementary schools are full of Mackenzies (spelled a hundred different ways, unfortunately). I’m not sure what the most popular boy’s name is currently, but I’m sure there’s a bunch of them, too.
I worked in a company with about 10 office staff - four of them were named Ken. Sometimes it just bes like that.
If I were naming children, I would get the lists of the 100 most popular names, and go about 50 down the list - I think the best names are not too unusual, but not too common, either.
When I was in school there were always - in every class - multiple instances of the names Joanne, Katrina, Sharon, Karen, Mark, Matthew, Michael and Damien. Oh, and almost every girl had the middle name of ‘Anne’ or ‘Marie’. It was practically mandatory.
In the last 10 years or so the name of choice has been Caitlin. I worked for a private school at one point and I swear there were a minimum of three to four Caitlins (of various spellings) PER CLASS.
One of my good friends has 3 kids each with unusual but lovely names, but my other good friend has … a Caitlin. Worse, a Caitlin Rose, which was without a doubt the most common name pairing in the Caitlin set. (True story: in a classic foot-in-mouth moment, I responded to their statement about having chosen a name with, “As long as it’s not another generic Caitlin!” The look on their faces said it all. Er…oops?)
Thankfully the Mad(dy/i)s(si/on) and Brit(ta)n(n/e)y, etc variants don’t seem as prevalent around here as they are elsewhere. I guess that’s a small mercy.
Michael Bolton: There was nothing wrong with it… until I was about 12 years old and that no-talent ass clown became famous and started winning Grammys.
Samir: Hmm… well why don’t you just go by Mike instead of Michael?
Michael Bolton: No way. Why should I change? He’s the one who sucks.