This is ALSO covered in that chapter in “Freakonomics”.
Ed
Can you give us the highlights?
I like putting popular TV characters or older actors’ names to see when they peaked. Clint peaked in the 70s. Lots of Rachels, Phoebes, and Monicas in the 90s.
Looks like Vernon and Eulalie have gone by the wayside, however. I think you’ll find a lot of the traditional, “biblical” names (John, Michael, Rebecca, Mary, etc) never really go out of style.
I do notice Hermione has not caught on yet. Interesting.
Give it a few more years. Most Harry Potter fans haven’t had kids yet.
IMHO, in the future, names will be negotiated. Currently, the onus is on your acquaintances to remember your name. Perhaps we could turn this around and you’d have to remember each acquaintances’ label for yourself?
So, in a party of the future, when you meet someone, it would go like this:
You: Hi, my name is X.
Frank: Ok, I’ll call you Young X because you look so young. My name is Frank.
You: Ok, I’ll call you Red Frank because you have red hair. [thinking to self… ok, remember this guy called me Young X. Young X!]
… later …
You: Hey Red Frank, it’s me Young X!
If you don’t want to remember someone as Barqua, you can negotiate “Hey, do you mind if I call you Bob?” And Barqua might counter “Well, I’d prefer to go by Jeremy”. And after a while, Barqua might give up and introduce himself as Jeremy. Or if he is particularly nimble minded, he will remember everyone’s label (Tall Joe calls me Tall Barqua, Blond Harry calls me Thin Bob, Bearded Joe calls me Clean Shaven Jeremy, etc.)
Let’s make names serve us, people… not the other way around.
I’d be interested to see statistics about middle names, particularly with Mary (I’m assuming those graphs refer to first names only).
The thread title “Why do names disappear?” sparks the sound of Karen Carpenter in my poor old brain. After a few days, it’s getting to be irritating. :smack:
FWIW, I’m a Michael, I’m 13.
Unfortunately, I read it more than a year ago, and I lent my copy out, so I don’t remember the details and I don’t have it handy to refresh my memory. But I do remember that, as Shagnasty said, it has an extensive discussion about “the demographics of names and how names migrate from higher to lower classes. It also correlates trendy names and odd spellings with income and education.” In addition, it shows how certain kinds of names are fashionable among different groups of people.
Ed
Yes, but you see their staying power? At least over 120 years. Show me the staying power of Jasmine or Cody.
A few years ago, there was a theory that little boys grew up to become criminals because their parents gave them weird names…anybody know about this? How about names befiing with X,Y,Z (the raresr letters in the English language)? How many Xaviers are around today?
First I ever heard of it.
Anybody?
I’m not gonna supply Swedish names that confirm the trend*, but it’s the same over here. People don’t name their kids for parents or grand-parents, but for great-grandparents, i.e. names that were in vogue a hundred years ago are coming back.
Aside, it’s considered** that anyone who name their daughter Michelle, Jennifer, Angelica, Noam, Liam, Viggo or some such inspired by current (but soon forgotten) stars are working class. Biblical names still rule over here too. They never go out of style.
*Cause they wouldn’t make any sense
** Just stating a concensus among the teeming Swedes. Any Doper having that name is not to feel offended. It’s just that some names should not be used across the border lines of languages. The 50’s were rife with double names in Sweden, and I know a guy named Sven-Elvis.
Small exception–my family has used the names Daniel, Thomas, Andrew (or Andreas) and Paul from the 18th Century.
What an interesting topic. Having had the benefit of an obsessive-compulsive relative who has traced many parts of my family tree back to as much as 15 freaking generations, I was surveying the enormous chart I was making in Powerpoint from her notes (only 25% completed after a week…) and noticed how many unusual-sounding last names there were. English and Irish names mainly, but many of them are just not heard of any more. It made me reflect on how a last name can die out.
Then it hit me suddenly as I was working on the tree some more last night - there is no male in my entire family tree left alive who carries my name and will have children. They all died childless or gave birth to daughters (there is a strong tendency for female children in my family tree lately, much more than 50%…odd, but early on males predominated, also odd) My last name, as it applies to my family, having survived at least 15 generations since 1520, will be gone in just a few years. Unless I adopt a child and change its name. It makes me somewhat sad on one level, but on another it just seems strange.
Have you got any examples you’re willing to share?
Well, by “disappear” I guess I need to correct myself and say “not commonly encountered, or at all by me.” Some include Godbye, Selting, Hoppe, Heiskell (reputedly English), Rowles, Barloe, and even the common-sounding Trueblood. I know some may be spelled differently nowadays, (Barlow) but is seems to me that of the names above, I have not really encountered any of them IRL.
Apropos of nothing, the statistical info one can get from a fairly complete family tree is quite interesting. Such as no male in my entire tree has lived past 64 since 1750, but the mean age of death for females who made it past 5 years is about 78. Interesting.
You plan to make your boy the playground punching bag will fail when everyone calls him “Iggy”, a very cool name for kid.
A lot of girls with archaic names “reinvent” themselves in college. I knew one girl (college age circa 1980) who changed her name from “Daria” to “Raven Cinderella.” I wouldn’t call that a step up, exactly…
LOL! That’s about as good as “Azrael Abyss”.