Poll: Are Your Kids' Names Rising or Falling in Popularity?

[Crimson Wife]

The Social Security Administration has released its annual baby names popularity list for the top 1000 names given in America for 2010.

 

My DS' name continues its climb up the popularity rankings, while my 2 girls' names are falling. The youngest one's name fell out of the top 1000 last year. I guess it's seen as old-fashioned in a bad way rather than a good way.

 

As the HS I know IRL tend to go for more uncommon names in general, I'm curious to see whether your choices are rising or falling in popularity.

 

Poll should show up shortly.

[Desert Rat]

Well, my oldest has the most popular name for boys for 11 years running. :( I didn't know that when I named him. It fits him though and I still love the name.

[Rebecca VA]

My son's name was #10 the year he was born. It's not even on the list this year.

 

My daughter's name isn't on this year's list or on the 1997 list. I'm really surprised -- I thought it was a popular name. Oh, well.

[OrganicAnn]

My DD's name Mary has been on the decline for the last two decades, but I predict it will make a come back one day.

[Mommy22alyns]

Rebecca is declining in popularity. Sylvia fluctuates, but remains in the 500s. Fine by me.

[WIS0320]

My kids all have top 25 names and they are all holding steady in their rankings for the last 5 years. Unlike most people, I don't find that necessarily a bad thing. I think their names are easy to spell, pronounce and are recognizable. However, none have top 10 names and I think that would be a little harder to deal with. My name was number 2 the year I was born and actually, aside from always being *Name Last Initial* through school, having a more common name has been easy for me and I haven't minded it.

 

And I just want to add that I think it is funny when I see people claim their child has a very unusual name when really all they did was spell a common name in an unusual way. You can spell Jaden and Madalyn a lot of different ways but they are still in effect, the same names with alternate spellings.

[Paige]

My son's name has become much more popular. My girls' given names are becoming less popular, but the shortened version that one of them goes by has risen dramatically in popularity.

[BBarnes]

Looks like my Jacob's name has been #1 for awhile. My other two children's names aren't on the list. So my kids names aren't increasing or decreasing:lol:

[Alphabetika]

Well, my kids don't appear on that top 25 list. But I think my #2 and #3 - Piper and Charlotte - are rising. I say this based on my own very unscientific observation that when people hear their names, they sometimes know someone whose newish kid has either of those names and that never used to happen. . Either that or they say, "Oh, my Grandma's name is Charlotte" or "My dog's name is Piper!"

[happypamama]

Both, I think. It looks like DD's name is falling (it's not on that list at all), but I think it's not been in the top 25 for a while. Of my boys, both are on that list; DS2's seems to be rising, and DS1's has been bouncing around the middle for several years after being close to the top the year he was born.

 

Of my potential names for baby #4, one of the girl names is very high on that list and one isn't on it at all (though after the royal wedding, I won't be surprised to see it jump up again). Same with my boy choices.

 

And mine and DH's names always seem to be in the top 25. I guess because they're both Biblical and Hebrew in origin, so they are popular with both Jews and Christians.

[historically accurate]

My kids' names are unique, so they aren't anywhere close to the top 25; I found 2 out of the 3 in the 500's (spelled differently though). I never did find my youngest's name. All of my nephews' and niece's names were high up on the list though.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Neither of my kid's names have been popular since the 20's and 30's. I'd say their names have fallen and have not gotten up:)

[Mejane]

Both are rising.

[Halcyon]

My kids' names are never on any list LOL.

[Dolphin]

My son's has been increasing, but always a popular name William. My daughter is not on the list in the top 1000 now or in the previous 11 years. At least not in the states.

[Jennifer in MI]

Samuel from 1996 to 2010 has decreased

 

Andrew from 1997 to 2010 has decreased

 

William from 2000 to 2010 has increased

 

Margaret is NOT on either list!

 

ETA: I'm only seeing the top 25! Is there a way to see more?

 

ETA again: Just found it for the top 1000 names:

 

Samuel went from 28 to 24. Increasing.

 

Andrew went from 7 to 14. Decreasing.

 

William went from 11 to 5. Increasing.

 

Margaret went from 110 to 182. Decreasing.

Edited May 6, 2011 by Jennifer in MI

[redsquirrel]

My first son's name is rising. The year he was born it was in the upper 800s and now it is in the upper 300s. Well, technically, it is his 'nickname' that has gained popularity, but that is what we call him and what he thinks of as his name. It is the diminutive of his name. His full name doesn't register in the top 1,000.

 

My second son's name is so rare that it doesn't register in the 1,000 for the past 11 years.

[MeaganS]

I find name popularity and trends to be fascinating. My favorite website for baby names is www.babynamewizard.com. It shows the popularity over the last 100 years or so, as well as names that people named siblings of that name. It also shows popularity by state, which is cool. So for my daughter, Lydia, it shows on the graph that it was much more popular in the 1800s, but is rising in popularity now. My other daughter, Eleanor, is staying pretty steady, with a very slight upward trend.

 

When my second was being born, my husband really liked a name that was in the top ten. I liked it too, but having a top-ten name my entire childhood turned out to be really annoying (my screen name is what I was called all through elementary school). I vetoed any name that was in the top 20, preferably top 50 for that very reason. Luckily, neither are in the top 100!

[Mom22ns]

Neither of my kids names were on the list, but they were both between 20-30 the year before they were born.

[Annie]

My little guy's name has been consistently in the mid to high 300s. This year it is the least popular it has been in the last ten.

[Joyofsixreboot]

My kids names were not in the top 100 when picked them and now 6 of them are :-(

Edited May 6, 2011 by joyofsix

[YourFidgetyFriend]

It has held steady. At #1 :glare:

 

I'm slightly annoyed at how popular her name is, but I don't know any children personally who share her name. It also helps that we call her Izzy instead of Bella as a nickname.

 

What shocks me is my name is apparently in the top 25 this year. My name has never been popular, although it is old as dirt (I have a biblical name).

[happypamama]

Well, my kids don't appear on that top 25 list. But I think my #2 and #3 - Piper and Charlotte - are rising. I say this based on my own very unscientific observation that when people hear their names, they sometimes know someone whose newish kid has either of those names and that never used to happen. . Either that or they say, "Oh, my Grandma's name is Charlotte" or "My dog's name is Piper!"

 

I'm really surprised Charlotte hasn't been on the top 25 list for the past several years. I know a lot of Charlottes under the age of five.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I find name popularity and trends to be fascinating. My favorite website for baby names is www.babynamewizard.com. It shows the popularity over the last 100 years or so, as well as names that people named siblings of that name. It also shows popularity by state, which is cool. So for my daughter, Lydia, it shows on the graph that it was much more popular in the 1800s, but is rising in popularity now. My other daughter, Eleanor, is staying pretty steady, with a very slight upward trend.

 

When my second was being born, my husband really liked a name that was in the top ten. I liked it too, but having a top-ten name my entire childhood turned out to be really annoying (my screen name is what I was called all through elementary school). I vetoed any name that was in the top 20, preferably top 50 for that very reason. Luckily, neither are in the top 100!

 

Oooo, that's a cool graph! Dd's name was most popular in the 1800's and completely disappeared by the 40's. According to the site it is being used some now but is still very rare.

 

Ds's name has been around all along but at fairly low levels. It was most popular in the 40's.

[Crissy]

Neither of my boys' names are on this list. I don't know if they have been there in the past.

[kokotg]

They've all gone up again. Sigh. I wish they would stop that. Ari is poised to crack the top 500 next year. The others are in the 400s (Gus is really August). I suppose I shouldn't really freak out since it's very likely none of them will ever make it to the top 100. Also, it might be a bad sign if no one else liked the names we picked.

[nukeswife]

I was surprised to see that my oldest son's name (Everett) has moved up quite a bit in the last 10 years, but is still only ranked 287th. When he was born it was 579 and then decreased in popularity until 2002 and then slowly started moving up the list. Looking at the babynamewizard site mentioned earlier his name Peaked in popularity in 1910.

 

My Daughter name (Annika) has decreased since she was born when she was born it was ranked 364th and is now ranked 467th. My dd's name seems to be much more popular in MN where it's been in the top 100 since the year she was born. This makes sense because of the large number of people with a Scandinavian background that live there. The hardest part for us is getting people to know her name is pronounced AHN-i-kuh Third sound of a at the beginning, short i sound in the middle and schwa at the end, and not ANN-i-kuh, like Annikin Skywalker, or the one she hates the most is when it's pronounced uh-NEE-kuh.

 

My youngest son (Lucas) has the most popular name of the 3, his name is currently ranked 35th, which is an increase from when he was born, back then it was ranked 58th.

Edited May 6, 2011 by nukeswife

[nmoira]

Neither are in the top 1000 names.

 

ETA: For that matter, neither is my name.

[Gratia271]

I am happy to say that two of my children's names are not on the list. I am not a particularly trendy person, but we had to name our first girl Grace because God truly showed us favor in giving her to us. :001_smile:

[kokotg]

(I'm not sure there's ever been a baby name thread that I haven't posted in)

 

Okay, now I can't stop looking at the SSA lists....Rosalie was one of my top 3 girl names in my graveyard of unused girl names. It wasn't in the top 1000 until 2009, when it entered at 837. Last year....590! what happened with Rosalie? Is there some pop culture Rosalie that I don't know about? Fascinating!

 

ETA: I'm fascinated in general by how much easier it is to come up with a girl name not in the top 1000 that's still actually a name than with boy names. I consider some of our unused girl names to be less weird than our actual boy names, yet they don't make the top 1000 (Susanna and Delia come to mind). Why are there so many more girl names!? It's not really fair.

Edited May 6, 2011 by kokotg

[Paula in PA]

My dd's first name hasn't been in the top 25 list since before she was born. It's been decreasing, from 273 in 2000 (her birth year) to 448 last year.

 

Her middle name, however, has been consistently in the top 25, varying between 9 and 12. It was my mom's first name.

Edited May 6, 2011 by Paula in PA

[MeaganS]

(I'm not sure there's ever been a baby name thread that I haven't posted in)

 

Okay, now I can't stop looking at the SSA lists....Rosalie was one of my top 3 girl names in my graveyard of unused girl names. It wasn't in the top 1000 until 2009, when it entered at 837. Last year....590! what happened with Rosalie? Is there some pop culture Rosalie that I don't know about? Fascinating!

 

Rosalie is one of the vampires in Twilight. I love the name, by the way. Also of interest, Edward, Isabella, Jacob, and Alice have all gone up since Twilight came out.

[MamaAkins]

I have two that are decreasing in popularity (Matthew & Margaret), one that is holding steady (Elizabeth) and one that is increasing in populary (Natalie).

[kokotg]

Rosalie is one of the vampires in Twilight. I love the name, by the way. Also of interest, Edward, Isabella, Jacob, and Alice have all gone up since Twilight came out.

 

A ha! I'm really tired of vampires taking all the good names.

[mcconnellboys]

Other! Neither of my boys makes any of the lists I looked over, so I must assume their names are as unpopular as ever....

[Shellydon]

All rising, although the most popular is only 167. Dang. I had hoped they would stay very uncommon.

[Jilly]

My kid's names are so unique that they will never be on any list. :001_smile:

[Shellers]

My kids names are falling but I really don't care either way.

 

Alyssa

Now #19

Back when she was born #27

 

Ashley

Now #20

Back when she was born #2

 

Kristi

Hasn't been in top 1000

 

Rodney - Named after his father

Now 551

Back when he was born 342

[historically accurate]

I find name popularity and trends to be fascinating. My favorite website for baby names is www.babynamewizard.com. It shows the popularity over the last 100 years or so, as well as names that people named siblings of that name. It also shows popularity by state, which is cool. So for my daughter, Lydia, it shows on the graph that it was much more popular in the 1800s, but is rising in popularity now. My other daughter, Eleanor, is staying pretty steady, with a very slight upward trend.

 

When my second was being born, my husband really liked a name that was in the top ten. I liked it too, but having a top-ten name my entire childhood turned out to be really annoying (my screen name is what I was called all through elementary school). I vetoed any name that was in the top 20, preferably top 50 for that very reason. Luckily, neither are in the top 100!

 

According to that website, my kids' names spelled like we spell them have never been in the top 1000.

[Word Nerd]

Neither of my kids is in the top 100. My older DD's name is falling in popularity but is very similar to one of the top 10 names. My younger DD's name made it inside the top 1000 for the first time in 2010, so I guess that means it's gaining in popularity even though it's not popular at all (in this country, anyway) and we have yet to meet any other kids with that name.

Edited May 6, 2011 by WordGirl

[dirty ethel rackham]

None of my kids names have been in the top 25 for the last 5 years. My boys' names weren't in there for the last 18 years.

[MamaT]

Three of my children aren't on there at all, one of them is falling, and two are holding steady in the top ten.

[mommaduck]

Three have decreased. One has increased. The others were never on the top 25 and still aren't.

[daffodil]

My girls' names are both ranked between 100 and 200 and increasing in popularity.

[Dmmetler]

Staying about the same-We deliberately picked a name for DD which was towards the bottom of the top 100, and had been at that level for awhile, and it seems to be holding. It's well known enough that everyone can pronounce it, and DD has the most common spelling of her full name, although apparently when people shorten it, they tend to add a letter (which DD has been correcting people on since she was two-"There's no "E" !")

[Miss Marple]

Oldest has risen 20 places since 1990. The other 3 don't even make the lists.

[Ibbygirl]

Both. My dd's is increasing, my ds's is decreasing.

[sassenach]

Our boy names are decreasing, our girl names are increasing. All are currently less popular than the year they were born, except my oldest. However, the 3 are still in the top 100, while hers is in the 330's.

[QuirkyKapers]

My kids names are both decreasing. However they have always been ranking in the 200's anyway :)

[creekland]

I have both, so I couldn't vote. Oldest's has gone from #63 --> #165 in the past 10 years, so is declining.

 

Middle's has gone from #95 --> #202 so is also declining (BUT, if you'd asked me, I'd have said his was the most popular of my three, so wow, would I have been incorrect!).

 

Youngest's has stayed roughly the same at #26 --> #22 over the past 10 years. There aren't many in the high school where I teach, so I guess they are all younger than my guy. Either that or it's really regional.