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May 12, 2009

Popular Baby Names: Whatever Happened to "Mary?"

From 1909 to 1946, and again from 1953 to 1961, the most popular name given to girls in the United States was "Mary."

What else, in a country that has a predominantly Christian culture, if not an exclusively Christian religion? Open a Spanish or Italian - or even Greek - language textbook, and what is the female character in the examples called? Maria. Sempre Maria.

So it might be a sign of secularization and cultural diversity that "Mary" appears nowhere in the top 10 most popular baby names for 2008, and even those names that do have Biblical origins are not those that were popular fifty or 100 years ago.

It might, except that if you look at the list of popular names for boys, almost all of them come from the Bible or refer to Christian saints: Jacob, Michael, Ethan, Joshua, Daniel, Anthony, Christopher, Matthew. Even "Alexander" appears in the New Testament, though the most famous person by that name was a pagan, and Williams and Anthonies got sucked into sainthood, as well.

Fifty years ago, Biblical names for boys were just as predominant, but most of them were shorter: James, John, Mark, David, Steven. Even the longer names were likely to be shortened into one-syllable nicknames. I suspect a short, solid-sounding name seemed not only more masculine, but more American, in those days.

As a nation, we seem to have become more fond of polysyllables and vowels than we were a few decades ago. Names like Isabella, Joshua, Olivia, Alexander have a rolling fluidity denied to us by Susan, Karen, John, Mark. They are a pleasure to say, but also, despite their length, easy to spell.

Of the entire list, only "Chloe" is likely to cause serious difficulty to someone who hasn't encountered it, but given its popularity, there won't be anyone who hasn't encountered it for long. And "Chloe" is actually just as phonetic as "Sophia," the other Greek name on the girls' list; it's just that not many people are familiar with the Greek alphabet and the usual means of transliterating it into the Roman alphabet. (Interestingly, "chloe" means "green" or "pale," where "sophia" means "wisdom." I might think twice about giving that name to my child.)

To someone who grew up when "Mary" and "John" were popular, the top baby names of 2008 seem both slightly pretentious and refreshingly interesting. Except if there are six Isabellas in your class, then it is only annoying. As a friend who changed his name from "John" to "Riley" commented, "It's like having no first name at all. You might as well just be called 'Hey, you.'"

So even though you don't have to worry about trademarking your children, you might want to go a long way down that list before choosing a name.

Technorati Tags: Baby Names, Biblical Baby Names, Popular Baby Names, Baby Naming Trends

Posted by William Lozito at May 12, 2009 8:32 AM
Posted to Naming

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