Thursday, May 17, 2007

Populer... lar!

Bonus points to anyone who gets the wonderful reference above. One thing that Dawnell and I wanted when choosing a name for Beckett was to make sure that it wasn't too popular. No Michael or Christopher for our child (or Brayden, Jayden, Kayden, Slayden, Rayden, or Nayden) (no offense to all of you with names that end in Ayden, like, say, Aiden).

However, it's a little tougher to choose an interesting boys name. Lots of boys names look really weird once you get out of the top 1000 or so.

Well, we're very pleased with the name we chose, and hopefully the following news won't get Dawnell too disappointed. The Social Security Site just updated the baby name popularity list with their 2006 rankings, and it looks as though our little Beckett might be at the front of a popularity firestorm. His name, unranked in 2005, has shot up the rankings all the way to #758. Amusingly, he's surrounded by alternate spellings of Jadyn and Aedan. So there are already 273 baby boys in the United States who beat Beckett out of the womb by a year. No telling how many more there will be this year! I'm actually pleased with this development, because I want a son with an interesting manly name, not a weird name. Top 1000 is fine, it's the top 50 that is unacceptable.

You can check out your own favorite names to see if they are as popular as my names. Actually, that would be almost impossible, since the year I was born my first name was #1 and my middle name was #3. So, unless you are Michael Jason or Jennifer Melissa you can be popular, just not quite as popular as me.....

http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/

7 comments:

  1. WHile Beckett was unusual, it has really grown on me. It looks like you and Dawnell are name trend setters! I am still partial to Michael Christopher however.

    ReplyDelete
  2. i love wicked! lar, lar, lar, lar, popular!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gosh mom, that's my name, and even I'm not partial to it.

    And, in unrelated news, thanks for playing, but we have a winner! Angie wins whatever it was I promised the winner in my original post. Ah yes, bonus points, whatever that means.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Woohoo! My name was #53 the year I was born... and I am pretty sure it has been in steady decline since then. Way to not cave on popularity issues! :o)

    ReplyDelete
  5. i get bonus points too! i know exactlt what its from and i can hear you singin it!

    ReplyDelete
  6. There's nothing that can stop you from becoming popular...LAR. LA! LA! La-uh-uh, LA! We're gonna make you pop-U-lar.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Chris, What I can hear you singing, is not any song from Wicked. It's an image of you singing like Brittnay Spears into your hairbrush microphone, "I'm not a girl! Not yet a woman!"...

    ReplyDelete