I know the word ‘redneck’ can have negative connotations, although it’s frequently used without them also. I mean no insult by it…but, I can’t think of a more accurate word for the title to describe the people I mean. ‘Farm kids’, I guess, might do. Midwestern/southern white people with rural or agricultural roots going back for many generations in the area, basically.
I grew up in Southern Indiana and always knew tons of kids named Tyler, Cody or Travis. I didn’t know any of them in the private and somewhat snooty elementary school I went to, but as soon as I got to middle and high school, there were Tylers, Codys and Travises everywhere. All of them were farm kids, or from families a generation or so removed from farming people. I.E. the kids of contractors and tradesmen of various kinds, whose ancestors were farmers and had been in the area forever. Many with the classic Indiana surnames of Eads, Deckard or Combs. I never met any Travises or Codys among the kids of the professors, lawyers and doctors who were my classmates for the majority of my childhood.
Why are these names so popular among this demographic?
Why are names like Nevaeh and Tyrone so popular among black kids? It’s just a cultural thing. Though I would argue that Tyler and Cody aren’t names with a strictly rednecky connotation. I live in the outskirts of Chicago and know plenty of non-trashy families who name their kids Tyler and Cody. I would be willing to grant that Travis and Cleburn are pretty podunky, though.
I don’t know that this is actually a general question since people are going to answer from experience. I don’t believe any scientific studies have been done regarding name popularity by region, though I’d love to be proven wrong.
Maybe I don’t know many rednecks, but I would associate Tyler and Cody with yuppie parents, who also have daughters named Mackenzie and Dakota. Travis might be a little white trashy (city rednecks?) to me.
Oh, looked it up. Here’s a list of white trash/redneck names. Cody is on there
Your premise isn’t wrong. I grew up in a redneck town and we had lots of those names as well. However, they are just name trends though and only one of many. There are whole websites devoted to name trends and geographic maps for different naming patterns and books like Freakonomics talk about it. Cody is a cowboy name from Wild Bill Cody that redneck types tend to like. Dakota picked up steam in the 90’s. Ask me about my dear redneck nephews, Gunner and Montana sometime if you want to know the reason it sounds good to their parents (I love my nephews though and they can blast the shit out of any animal in season even though they are only in elementary school so their names fit). Black kids, greek kids, Italian kids, WASPs, and most other groups having naming trends like that as well so there is no reason to single out the rednecks.
How many times have you heard (or even used) the expression, “I’m named after my <relation>”? I’m named after both of my grandfathers and plenty of my relatives are named after other ancestors. Isn’t that pretty much how traditional names become traditional in any culture or subculture, including the “redneck” one?
Another reason that might make those names appealing among the blue-collar exurban and rural crowd; they’re place names in the American West. Travis County, Texas; Tyler, Texas; Cody, Wyoming. Also consider the popularity of names like Dallas, Austin, Cheyenne, Laramie, Montana, Sierra, Dakota, and Bryce. You don’t see too many kids named Philadelphia or Indianapolis.
The assumption seems to be that the kids get their names from trends, not family. Not a lot of families have -aiden names in their ancestry, for example - not nearly as many as there are kids with -aiden names.
What really makes me go :rolleyes: are all the C names that have become K names. I guess it’s bekause Kody, Korey and Kraig konvey maskulinity so konvincingly.
I dispute your definition of the word “redneck.” You say that they are white farm people from the Midwest or South. As someone who grew up on a farm in northwest Ohio, I can tell you that most people in rural areas in the Midwest wouldn’t call themselves “rednecks.” You say that you grew up in southern Indiana. Southern Indiana is more like the South than like the rest of the Midwest. See the way that it’s classified according to the Nine Nations of North America theory:
Southern Indiana is part of Dixie (i.e., the South), not of the Breadbasket (i.e., the Great Plains) or the Foundry (i.e., the Northeast and the Great Lakes).
I would say that “redneck” is what white people in the South (in Dixie, according to the Nine Nations theory) who don’t live in big cities might call themselves or have other people call them. They wouldn’t need to live on farms. They might even live in small cities. “Redneck” is becoming such a mainstream term that it’s more of a regional thing than an indicator of whether you live on a farm or not. In any case, I can say that growing up on a farm in northwest Ohio, I would have called myself a “hick,” but never a “redneck.” Rednecks were strictly from the South as far as I was concerned.
Somewhat related: maybe this is confirmation bias, but all the people I’ve ever met with the surname “Buck” either live in blue collar/working-class exurban or rural areas, or they have a rural cultural leaning; they’re conservative, into hunting and guns, and the like.
People looking for unique names tend to choose them to reflect their interests. My aircraft mechanic’s boy’s middle name is Griffin, and his daughter is Allison. If anyone ever explains why to his wife, they will have to find a new mechanic. Oh yeah, they also had a dog named Merlin before they had kids.
Aren’t several of the Palin tribe named for manufacturers of Hockey gear?
As for the OP, I call these cowboy names. The parents either grew up on horse operas, like C/W music, or actually live an agricultural life, and are darned proud of it…or enough of their ancestors did that these became family names. Remember that up to the mid 60’s you could go to the movies almost every week and see a new western, and TV Westerns ran well into the 1970s.
Most of this is based on the Hollywood/nashville version of cowboys though. I know a few real Cowboys: 2 Freds, a George (goes by Bill) a Harold, a Dennis, and an Arthur (Art). Nope, no Irving.
Of course I was raised in the mountain west. If I were raised in the east or southeast, I’d probably call them redneck names too. I always thought rednecks had names like Goober, Cletus, Cooter, Skeeter, etc.
Well, I’ve never met a single Indiana good ol’ boy with any of those stereotypical redneck names. No Cletus, Cooter or Billy Bob. These must be further south.
My 16-year old son is named Travis…I’d always kind of liked the name and when he was born I was reading through the late John D. MacDonald’s fictional Travis McGeeseries. Travis McGee, as MacDonald fans will remember, lived on a houseboat in Ft. Lauderdale and alternated between careers as a beach bum and bounty hunter. Hardly a stereotypical redneck. I honestly never thought of the redneckedy connotations. I suppose, since we’re from the rural Intermountain West we do qualify as nominal rednecks, but remarkably, my son has never used the name “Travis” except formally. He’s always gone by his initial initials (T.J.). Come to think of it, that’s sort of a redneck kind of thing too:smack:
