# Why are so many 'redneck' kids named Travis, Tyler and Cody? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 21, 2010, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-redneck-kids-named-travis-tyler-and-cody/564906 "2010-12-21T02:24:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-redneck-kids-named-travis-tyler-and-cody/564906/1 "2010-12-21T02:24:42Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-redneck-kids-named-travis-tyler-and-cody/564906/2 "2010-12-21T02:50:59Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-redneck-kids-named-travis-tyler-and-cody/564906/3 "2010-12-21T02:55:46Z")
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](http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Crystal_Meth) of white trash/redneck names. Cody is on there 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-redneck-kids-named-travis-tyler-and-cody/564906/4 "2010-12-21T02:58:03Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-redneck-kids-named-travis-tyler-and-cody/564906/5 "2010-12-21T03:01:43Z")
Maybe they’re easy to pronounce with missing teeth. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-redneck-kids-named-travis-tyler-and-cody/564906/6 "2010-12-21T03:05:14Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > Maybe they’re easy to pronounce with missing teeth. 😃 You don’t want to the kid in a redneck town giving your name as Travis with two missing front teeth. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-redneck-kids-named-travis-tyler-and-cody/564906/7 "2010-12-21T03:28:15Z")
How many times have you heard (or even used) the expression, “I’m named after my \”? 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? ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-redneck-kids-named-travis-tyler-and-cody/564906/8 "2010-12-21T03:36:39Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-redneck-kids-named-travis-tyler-and-cody/564906/9 "2010-12-21T03:37:00Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-redneck-kids-named-travis-tyler-and-cody/564906/10 "2010-12-21T03:37:00Z")
Travis is a name out of country music – Randy Travis, Travis Tritt. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-redneck-kids-named-travis-tyler-and-cody/564906/11 "2010-12-21T03:47:28Z")
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: > **[The Nine Nations of North America](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Nations_of_North_America)** > > The Nine Nations of North America is a 1981 book by Joel Garreau, in which the author suggests that North America can be divided into nine nations, which have distinctive economic and cultural features. He also argues that conventional national and state borders are largely artificial and irrelevant, and that his "nations" provide a more accurate way of understanding the true nature of North American society. The work has been called "a classic text on the current regionalization of North America... 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. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-redneck-kids-named-travis-tyler-and-cody/564906/12 "2010-12-21T03:49:34Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-redneck-kids-named-travis-tyler-and-cody/564906/13 "2010-12-21T04:26:03Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > See the way that it’s classified according to the Nine Nations of North America theory: > > [The Nine Nations of North America - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Nations_of_North_America) > > 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). The Empty Quarter ought to be divided up into more parts. I suggest _The Sandpit_ and _The Pine Needles_. Canada and Alaska can be _Bear Country_. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-redneck-kids-named-travis-tyler-and-cody/564906/14 "2010-12-21T05:11:28Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-redneck-kids-named-travis-tyler-and-cody/564906/15 "2010-12-21T05:22:14Z")
> [@Kevbo](#): > > I always thought rednecks had names like Goober, Cletus, Cooter, Skeeter, etc. Don’t forget the various Something-Bobs; Jim Bob, Joe Bob, Ray Bob and the like. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-redneck-kids-named-travis-tyler-and-cody/564906/16 "2010-12-21T05:34:49Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-redneck-kids-named-travis-tyler-and-cody/564906/17 "2010-12-21T07:03:23Z")
A redneck is a white person who works outdoors in a tee shirt and gets a redneck from sunburn. Also called a farmer tan. ---
**Author:** ![SeldomSeen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@SeldomSeen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeldomSeen)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-redneck-kids-named-travis-tyler-and-cody/564906/18 "2010-12-21T14:43:23Z")
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](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._MacDonald)’s fictional [Travis McGee](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_McGee)series. 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: ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-redneck-kids-named-travis-tyler-and-cody/564906/19 "2010-12-21T14:54:53Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > 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. Plenty of strippers named Savannah, though. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-redneck-kids-named-travis-tyler-and-cody/564906/20 "2010-12-21T15:39:52Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > A redneck is a white person who works outdoors in a tee shirt and gets a redneck from sunburn. Also called a farmer tan. Possible, but also likely to have come from the makeshift uniform adopted by the miners at the Battle of Blair Mountain. From [http://www.glendale.edu/chaparral/apr05/blair.htm](http://www.glendale.edu/chaparral/apr05/blair.htm) > [@](#): > > Mingo County authorities created a vigilance committee made up of the “better citizens of Mingo County,” men of business, men of property, to reinforce the state police and the newly constituted national Guard as well as a newly recruited volunteer army known as the State Militia, which lacked proper uniforms but wore white armbands to distinguish themselves from the union men with the red bandanas. Most miners had taken to wearing blue bib overalls and tying around their necks a red bandana which soon became the hallmark of the insurgent army, leading both friends and foes to refer to them as “rednecks.” Redneck=Southern manual laborer/trouble maker. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-redneck-kids-named-travis-tyler-and-cody/564906.md?page=2)