On the boys side, the Northwest School has cast Brandon, Brayden, Hayden, Aidan, Kaden, Jayden and Aiden as the Jets for the 2026 production of "West Side Story". Purely by chance Angel, Jose, Luis, Diego, Carlos and Juan have been cast as Sharks.
The really sad part, gus? You just listed the members of our school's hockey team...the "ay-den" ones, anyway. I won't tell you that there's a Breighanna on the girl's volleyball team.
*my children have names that were on the "moste popular girls and boys naymes of 1624" list...
Bethany is actually a really old name, Rotten (I know, I was surprised, too.) Tasha Tudor named her daughter Bethany, and I knew she wouldn't pick a modern name, and when I looked it up, it turns out it's in the Old Testament..who knew??
The girls' names, for the most part, conjure up madcap young ladies in the early part of 20th century: "Amelia, where does Daddy keep the gin again?" "Aren''t Isabella and Olivia are terribly chic with their new bobs?" "Oh Evelyn, you minx, your ankles are showing!"
But what's going on with Payton/Peyton? What's next ... Patton?
@9 Axel is a pretty common name in Scandanavia -- according to Wikipedia, it's a derivative of the biblical "Abshalom" -- but maybe the daycare kid's name is a misspelling of Axl (as in Rose)? It would be kind of cool if the misspelled version of a non-standard name turned out, in the end, to be a standard spelling (at least in Scandanavia).
Name voyager is not to be missed if you're interested in naming trends over the decades. You can track things like the brief spikes in popularity for the name Adolf and rise and fall of Debra, Debbie, and Deborah.
Relative to Eva and Zsa Zsa, perhaps, gus? In the 1600s, one of my Puritan ancestors in Rhode Island was named Resolved Waterman, a guy. Can you imagine? "Ooo, don't stop, Resolved!" Kind of makes you realize why the Puritans were so uptight...
@2's onto something. May I recommend some other presidents, like Polk, Hoover, and Fillmore.
I've always been partial to the English kings, like Ethelbert, Ethelred (Elfthryth or Ethelfleda for the girls), Cuthburga, Beorhtric, or Canute. Harefoot is good too.
The greatest baby name of all, of course, is Nimrod (Biblical king, come on, what where you thinking?)
I have a great fondness for Edwardian-era girls' names that have fallen out of favor: my grandmother was Elva, but I also like Myrtle, Opal, Bertha, Mabel, Phyllis, Hortense.
@5/7: I've heard "Bethany" is biblical—some place Mary and Joseph stayed over on the way to Bethlehem? Means "peaceful place" and/or "house of figs"? Too bad there's no way to find out... I was actually named after a road near Sunnyside in eastern Washington.
So funny that Isabel and Isabella are at opposite ends of the top 100 with only a 'la' separating them.
So many first half of the 20th Century names on there -- Isabella, Olivia, Abigail, Ava, Ella, Evelyn, Amelia and Claire. Not a terrible thing that trend. I wonder when Shirley, Mildred, Gertrude and Ida will come back into style.
Wow, Isabella, Isabelle, Isabel and Bella. I wonder how many will be going by Izzy in a few years' time.
My sister knew a woman who taught preschool, where one of the girls was named Princess. Why would parents choose such a ridiculous name, you might wonder. Well, they didn't choose it. They let their then-four-year-old name the baby.
@21: I'm having a hard time imagining future generations talking about Grandma Brittany and Granny Madison, but I suppose this is the way of the world.
I, too, am a sucker for the vaguely gothic names of the early 20th century, in particular Irene (#25 in the 1900s), Beatrice (#47), Alma (#57), Cora (#70), Lula (#78).
Androgyny envy, perhaps. Confuse the teachers as to the gender of the afflicted/inflicted children because their parents are so au courant. If you wish to call attention to your innocent child's name, consider Cotton and Increase Mather.
Cripes, I hate it when work interferes with my ability to Slog-respond in a timely fashion...
gus, if you are still reading, *my* Resolved Waterman (meaning, the one I know about, since I've followed that particular line) was born in 1638, but I'd imagine all the Watermans were from the same original ancestor: Richard Waterman, who was banished from the Bay Colony of Massachusetts for being a heretic (which, in Puritan terms, meant he had decided to become a Baptist.)
Cool story about the haunted inn! You've given me food to fuel my genealogy research obsession, gracias!
Hey 5280. I'd imagine so, they settled in Rhode Island, along with some other ancestors, John Rhodes (for whom Rhode Island was named? Don't know) and Roger Williams in the 1630s. I know they started the first Baptist church there, and are buried in Providence. It was a pretty small group, as evidenced by a lot of first cousins marrying each other. Funny fact: my brother and grandmother both have a toe that looks like it's pushed back. When I mentioned this to a friend who does 4H, she said, "Oh that's common in chickens when they become inbred. That's when you know you have to diversify your lines." Huh.
Well, "Rhode" Island was the original name for Aquidneck (the island that Newport is on). It was indeed a small group; they originally settled near what is now Roger Williams Avenue in Rumford across the river, but were kicked out because at the time that was technically still Massachusetts. I grew up within walking distance of there, as did Meredith Vieira. Lots of history in that part of the country.
Cool! (So we're cousins, then??) Very small world on Slog, too, apparently! I grew up in Cambridge, Mass, and couldn't figure out why there were always tour buses trundling past, I assumed every place was like that. I can spend literally hours doing genealogy research, just imagining what it was like back then is so absorbing. (You might like Sarah Vowell's "The Wordy Shipmates," if you like reading about the early history of that part of the country...)
I doubt we're cousins, as my family was a "latecomer" to the area (only 100 years ago or so). But yeah, there were things I took for granted as a kid - like taking a shortcut through a graveyard on the way to school that was filled with people born in 1500-something - that I now realize was pretty special.
*my children have names that were on the "moste popular girls and boys naymes of 1624" list...
But what's going on with Payton/Peyton? What's next ... Patton?
http://www.brainyhistory.com/years/1624.…
@8, Slog introduced me to Maria Bamford and she now has my eternal love:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFHmNrxku…
@9, we must always keep little Jovi Sambora in our hearts:
http://lineout.thestranger.com/lineout/a…
http://www.examiner.com/haunted-places-i…
really.
I've always been partial to the English kings, like Ethelbert, Ethelred (Elfthryth or Ethelfleda for the girls), Cuthburga, Beorhtric, or Canute. Harefoot is good too.
The greatest baby name of all, of course, is Nimrod (Biblical king, come on, what where you thinking?)
I have a great fondness for Edwardian-era girls' names that have fallen out of favor: my grandmother was Elva, but I also like Myrtle, Opal, Bertha, Mabel, Phyllis, Hortense.
So many first half of the 20th Century names on there -- Isabella, Olivia, Abigail, Ava, Ella, Evelyn, Amelia and Claire. Not a terrible thing that trend. I wonder when Shirley, Mildred, Gertrude and Ida will come back into style.
292 - Jayden*
161 - Brayden*
101 - Kaden*
98 - Hayden*
*(mullets will be optional but likely.)
I agree, these people must be stopped!
My sister knew a woman who taught preschool, where one of the girls was named Princess. Why would parents choose such a ridiculous name, you might wonder. Well, they didn't choose it. They let their then-four-year-old name the baby.
I, too, am a sucker for the vaguely gothic names of the early 20th century, in particular Irene (#25 in the 1900s), Beatrice (#47), Alma (#57), Cora (#70), Lula (#78).
I have a second cousin named Jaxon.
I once knew a woman whose first name was Clamydia. She told me her parents thought it was a pretty name.
I friend just named her child, I shit you not: Kodiak Turbo Bonanza + unusual last name.
gus, if you are still reading, *my* Resolved Waterman (meaning, the one I know about, since I've followed that particular line) was born in 1638, but I'd imagine all the Watermans were from the same original ancestor: Richard Waterman, who was banished from the Bay Colony of Massachusetts for being a heretic (which, in Puritan terms, meant he had decided to become a Baptist.)
Cool story about the haunted inn! You've given me food to fuel my genealogy research obsession, gracias!