Baby names: Then and now

by Bethany Sanders (Subscribe to Bethany Sanders's posts) Jul 12th 2008 3:00PM

Categories: Newborns, Pregnancy & Birth, Celeb Kids

This week we saw two celebrity babies born -- Sunday, daughter of Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, and Levi, son of Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves. We hardly even blinked at the somewhat unusual names, because by celebrity standards, they're pretty tame.

Up until the 1950s, popular baby names were pretty stable. In fact, Mary and John were the most popular names for a girl or boy for over 70 years. But in the 50s and 60s, parents started to get a little more creative. Live Science has a list of the top 10 baby names then and now. You still won't find Bluebell Madonna, Everly Bear, or even Apple on the list, but you can see that -- especially for girls -- names have changed considerably.The top five most popular names for boys and girls in 1950 were:

1. James / Linda
2. Robert / Mary
3. John / Patricia
4. Michael / Barbara
5. David / Susan

And today?

1. Jacob / Emily
2. Michael / Isabella
3. Ethan / Emma
4. Joshua / Ava
5. Daniel / Madison

I wonder what the list will look like in another 50 years. Will those old fashioned names come back into style? What about you? Did you look at the popular baby names list before you named your little one?

Source

Comments (13)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jenn D 7-12-2008 @ 3:25PM

My two little girls are Mary Beatrice Elizabeth and Frances Anne Louise - as you probably guessed, we stayed as far away from popular name lists as possible. I can't help but think that eventually society will get tired with today's popular (and often bizarre) choices and go back to traditional names.

Phoebe 7-12-2008 @ 4:09PM

We did the same thing. I have a John and and Evelyn. The last thing I wanted was to have trendy names that will sound dated in a few years. Some are very beautiful, but it wasn't what we wanted. We named our kids for the grownups they will be, not the cute babies they are now.

I know a Jagger, several Cades and Madisons, male and female Aidens, and even a Vienna.

rebecca Biernesser 7-12-2008 @ 8:11PM

we went with Joshua, Ryan, and Sydney. The little girls name might be considered trendy, but it was the only name we could both agree on and my oldest son wanted to name her after a power ranger girl named Sid....go figure.

But names like apple? hmmm not me

eileen 7-12-2008 @ 11:05PM

I personally do not like most of the trendy names of today. So often you can not even tell if it is boy or girl just by looking at the name. Some of the name choices that these famous people pick are just awful, I think they must have smoked crack before they named their children. My husband and I like more traditional names, we were never ones to follow a crowd, picked...... Brian, Kaitlyn and James(Jimmy). Kaitlyn and Jimmy are twins and their big brother Brian begged us to name then Kennen and Rhodus, I pray he has better taste in names when the time comes to name his children.

Uly 7-13-2008 @ 4:12AM

You do realize that "Kaitlyn" is not, in fact, a traditional name - right?

Heza Hekele 7-13-2008 @ 4:48AM

Yes. But only to make sure that NOTHING in the top 100 ended up on my kid's birth certificate!

eileen 7-13-2008 @ 9:48AM

Hey Uly, thanks so much for your wisdom, but yeah, I already know that, but we happen to like the name. Kaitlyn Patricia sounds pretty darn traditional compared to some of the names you hear today. My daughter has just over 400 kids in her school, with only one other Kaitlyn in it, not exactly trendy where we live.

Uly 7-13-2008 @ 4:42PM

It just seems a little hypocritical to get on somebody else's case about non-traditional names when your own kid has a non-traditional name with a difficult - I mean, *creative* - spelling.

And really, Eileen, most of the popular names today *are* traditional - and very consciously so.

The most popular girl's names last year were:

Emily
Isabella
Emma
Ava
Madison
Sophia
Olivia
Abigail
Hannah
Elizabeth

Of those names, only Madison would not count as traditional. After Elizabeth comes Addison (eh), but then you have to go down another 14 names before you reach another non-traditional name!

The truth is that traditional names, or names that *sound* traditional, are very trendy right now.

Variations on Caitlin are also pretty popular at the moment. This site says that variations on that spelling are actually in the top ten nationwide! http://infantstoddlers.suite101.com/article.cfm/girl_name_pronunciation_popularity

Heather 7-13-2008 @ 1:06PM

We went with traditional names but common too. Bailey Jacob, is our son and Dawna Renee is our daughter. Bailey is more common for girls right now but I have heard the name for boys a handful of times for boys too. And most of the time it is Donna or Dona or whatever for her name, so we twisted it a little and changed the spelling. We say they are traditional with a twist. lol

Miranda 7-13-2008 @ 5:12PM

I guess I have to disagree. I really wanted to name my daughter something pretty and unique. I really don't care for the common names. I've never met another person with my name and I always felt bad back in school for the kids who were Ashley B. or John S. because there were so many of them. My daughters name is Nevaeh(nuh-vay-uh) Danielle. No, it doesn't have any meaning except heaven spelled backwards. she may or may not appreciate it when she's older so I opted for a more...for lack of a better word...normal middle name so she can go by that if she so chooses.

Lynn 7-13-2008 @ 9:22PM

Uly, your first response to Eileen in reference to her daughters name not being traditional was kind of mean spirited. It was not like you had anything else to add to the post, your only intention was to try and insult her. She had every right to respond the way she did to you, and your second post.....really you need to get a life! By the way the spelling of her daughters name is actually quite common, not difficult or creative. I have never posted in defense of someone before but you are out of line.

Luke 7-14-2008 @ 3:52AM

They did so well with their names. I was expecting a bit of a train wreck, but these are really classy.

And speaking of picking such well-rounded names - Knox actually means just that :) - http://www.babynames.co.uk/meaning_origin_name_Knox.htm

Joan 7-23-2008 @ 9:21AM

I think that creative names are kind of pretty unless you go overboard. My children are; Kristin, Morgan, Donovan and Cole. Which for Afro-American children are very different names, when we are at the play ground my children's name "REALLY" stand out in a sea of "DeAujanae's, Quashawn's, Ladajanae's", and my personal favorite La Sentra and yes she was named after her fathers car.

How To Submit Photos:
If you'd like your children (any age will do!) featured on ParentDish, upload photos into the ParentDish Flickr Pool. Be sure to read our main Flickr page for more information.