topic Re: British and American baby name trends in Community Chat

British and American baby name trends

LoveMyBaby — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 13:49:13 GMT

The following once-common names are quickly dying out, according to BabyCentre, which used its database of 300,000 parents to determine this year’s most popular and unpopular names, according to Brit + Co.

The company says that not one parent has registered a child with these names in their system so far in 2017.

And here they are — 36 names in danger of becoming extinct:

Angela, Bertram, Beverly, Carol, Cecil, Clarence, Clive, Cyril, Debra, Diane, Donna, Dean, Doris, Dennis, Derek, Duncan, Elaine, Ernest, Geoffrey, Horace, Joanne, Leonard, Maureen, Malcolm, Nigel, Neville, Paula, Roy, Sally, Sandra, Sharon, Sheila, Tracey, Wendy, Yvonne, Wayne

While mostly British parents register with BabyCentre, we’re pretty sure it’s the same story in America.

In 2016, more than 400,000 mostly American parents voted for their favorite names with BabyCenter.com.
The most popular girls’ names were Sophia, Emma, Olivia, Ava and Mia, while the most popular boys’ names were Jackson, Aiden, Lucas, Liam and Noah.

Just for fun, we looked at the most popular names in America 50 years ago.

The most popular girls’ names were Lisa, Kimberly, Michelle, Mary and Susan, while the most popular boys’ names were Michael, David, James, John and Robert.

Re: British and American baby name trends

Trix — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 14:00:43 GMT

This is not surprising. Think about the names of your family members, neighbors, co-workers, etc. Their names generally match up with what was in vogue during the era in which they were born (family names where people are Jr., III, etc excluded). Also, if you meet someone, but have not seen them in person a perception of their age can be formed from their first name. For example whenever I have dealings with a Heather, I automatically assume she is 25 to early 30s. I'm usually shocked if Heather turns out to be in her 50s. Vice versa, if I encounter a (sight unseen) Jane, I perceive her to be an older woman and there is a bit of surprise if she's in her 20s.

Re: British and American baby name trends

cancun08 — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 14:26:31 GMT

@LoveMyBaby wrote:
The following once-common names are quickly dying out, according to BabyCentre, which used its database of 300,000 parents to determine this year’s most popular and unpopular names, according to Brit + Co.
The company says that not one parent has registered a child with these names in their system so far in 2017.
And here they are — 36 names in danger of becoming extinct:
Angela, Bertram, Beverly, Carol, Cecil, Clarence, Clive, Cyril, Debra, Diane, Donna, Dean, Doris, Dennis, Derek, Duncan, Elaine, Ernest, Geoffrey, Horace, Joanne, Leonard, Maureen, Malcolm, Nigel, Neville, Paula, Roy, Sally, Sandra, Sharon, Sheila, Tracey, Wendy, Yvonne, Wayne
While mostly British parents register with BabyCentre, we’re pretty sure it’s the same story in America.
In 2016, more than 400,000 mostly American parents voted for their favorite names with BabyCenter.com.
The most popular girls’ names were Sophia, Emma, Olivia, Ava and Mia, while the most popular boys’ names were Jackson, Aiden, Lucas, Liam and Noah.
Just for fun, we looked at the most popular names in America 50 years ago.

The most popular girls’ names were Lisa, Kimberly, Michelle, Mary and Susan, while the most popular boys’ names were Michael, David, James, John and Robert.

@LoveMyBaby

Uh....yeah....some of those names NEED to become extinct!! Lol.

Re: British and American baby name trends

queendiva — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 14:51:54 GMT

Mine was one of the most popular baby girl names post WWII. It was my mother's favorite then and when I was born ten years later. I believe it is extinct now. Only my youngest sister and I were not named after a family member. She was born mid-60s. I see her name is on the endangered list.

I knew a woman who for her whole life never knew another Emma until she was a grandmother. Often what's old is new again, including the popularity of some names from the Old Testament.

Re: British and American baby name trends

Yardlie — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 15:00:28 GMT

Names come and go. Names like Sophia and Olivia are very old-fashioned, but sometimes "old-fashioned" are the "in" names. Personally, I prefer unique names. To each his own.

Re: British and American baby name trends

OKPrincess — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 15:08:06 GMT

When I looked up my name it was rated #2 in my birth year.

Re: British and American baby name trends

LoveMyBaby — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 15:37:50 GMT

@cancun08

I agree, LOL. Never met a Bertram or Horace. But you never know, it could come back in vogue some day.

Re: British and American baby name trends

summerwind — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 15:47:02 GMT

That's funny, in the 80s I worked with a group of 5-6 women, and some were temps. We learned we were getting a new one named "Madonna". We expected a 20-something teeny-bopper sort. We got a woman our age, in our upper 30s! She and her husband had gone to Woodstock, we were very jealous!

@Trix

Re: British and American baby name trends

puttypiesmom — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 15:45:43 GMT

I think the only time we will see a come back of names that were popular in the 50's and 60's is when the grandchildren or great grandchildren are named after their relative a baby boomer. I did meet a 20 year old recently with a first name from that era and was surprised. She most likely was named after a baby boomer.

Re: British and American baby name trends

2blonde — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 15:47:00 GMT

I think Bertram and Horace are more British names. When I was in school, out of over 400 kids there was only one other Laura, and she was a year older. At first I thought I was weird because kids usually want to fit in, but later I appreciated my name because it wasn't common, but also not hard to understand or to spell. As I got older, there were more and more younger girls with my name.

BTW, my mother came up with my name after watching the movie, "Laura," that came out the same year I was born (1948). There also was a song.....

Re: British and American baby name trends

on the bay — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 15:54:56 GMT

I never particularly liked my name and think its hard to pronounce.

But I still love all my children's names

I remember when we were trying to decide on our first child's name and were looking through a baby name book with it seemed thousands of names and I came upon

Cadwallader!!-hahaha!-So I said how about this? lol!

I still laugh about that.That's a good one we said. Actually couldn't believe that would ever be a name a parent would pick!

No, we didn't name the poor kid that-can you imagine?

Oh Cadwalladerrr...🤣

Cad for short-What a cad!😂

OMG-someone stop me right now!

Re: British and American baby name trends

Carmie — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 15:55:37 GMT

My father had eight sisters,and my mother had 7 sisters, so that is 16 girls that were born between 1911 and 1929 in my family.

Every one of their names were non-existent for young girls when I was born, except for Margaret, but they are back again. Names seem to go in cycles, especially for females.

Many names for males are around forever...probably because many boys are still named after father and grandfathers.

My neighbors new baby granddaughter is named Helen. I haven’t heard that name for a little one in ages.

Re: British and American baby name trends

LoveMyBaby — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 16:01:47 GMT

@2blonde

That's funny, because the same happened with me, no other Laurie's for a long long time. I wanted a popular name too, but then I was happy there were no others. Too funny.

Re: British and American baby name trends

summerwind — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 16:06:27 GMT

My family, in the 1800's, tended to use the names Frederic and George, according to the Ancestry website. In the 1900's, the tendency seems to have been, at least from my grandparents and an aunt, to give one child the maiden name of the mother for a middle name.

As my father died before my two boys came along, my first son has his dad's first name as a middle name, and my second has his middle name as a middle name. It was also his mother's maiden name.

When we were deciding on a boy's name for my second, the three of us (boys are 10 years apart) went to the library, each of us got a baby name book, and made a list of names we preferred. Only one name was on all 3 lists, so his name is now Troy.

ETA: Frederic and George were the 2 brothers who came over from France after the Napoleon debacle. They, according to family history, had been his bodyguards.

Re: British and American baby name trends

Carmie — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 16:07:11 GMT

When I was younger, I was the only Carmela I knew that was around my age. I had an old lady name and hated it. Today, I know a couple of young girls with my name...and they aren’t even Italian.

Re: British and American baby name trends

Bri36 — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 16:16:02 GMT

@Carmie wrote:
When I was younger, I was the only Carmela I knew that was around my age. I had an old lady name and hated it. Today, I know a couple of young girls with my name...and they aren’t even Italian.

My 21 year old daughter has two friends - one named Camille and the other is Carmela.

Re: British and American baby name trends

2blonde — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 16:16:09 GMT

@LoveMyBaby Love it! Sometimes people like to call me Laurie too. Now that I'm older, I rather like it because Laurie sounds younger than Laura!

Re: British and American baby name trends

summerwind — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 16:19:06 GMT

My given name is Laurel. Not even an old lady's name! Was years before I even heard of someone with that name, and even now, only 2-3 others.

I go by Laurie, tho I did have a bf once who called me Laura <3.

Re: British and American baby name trends

Carmie — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 16:25:54 GMT

@Bri36 My niece just had a baby and her name is Camille. They call her Cami for short. It almost sounds like Carmie to me.

Re: British and American baby name trends

handygal2 — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 16:38:20 GMT

My name was not that popular when l was born, and it's still not, lol. It's not a weird or unusual name, but it just hasn't been used much. l'm glad that l don't hear my name coming and going... my parents did good!