Names Revisited

Back in '08, I wrote a post about baby names. It was essentially valueless, but a lot of fun for me! If you want a refresher, go here.

Or, actually, you can just stay here because I'm about to post the original post. Here goes:

This post is pointless to anyone but me. And pointless to me, come to think of it. But, just to let you in on a little secret about me, I'm kind of obsessed about names. I wrote a paper about names in one of my linguistic classes (how Mormon naming trends are oddly similar to deep South naming trends), so I've been fascinated by names and naming trends long before I had kids. Picking out names for children just intensified it. Since I've been thinking about this the past few days, here are some name-related things I've been noticing about my own family.

A--Anders, Ashlee, Ana
B--Brynne
C--Cassidy, Cowen, Chad
D--Danica
E--Emeline, Ethne, Elena, Eli
F--
G--Garrett, Gideon
H--Hailey, Hazel
I--Isabel
J--Jethro
K--Kiersten, Katelyn
L--Lynnaea
M--Myles, Miriam, Megan, Maloree
N--
O--Olivia
P--
Q--
R--
S--
T--Talmage, Tyson
U--
V--
W--
X--
Y--
Z--

First: we like the top half of the alphabet. Also, we really like names that start with vowels, except the vowel U. We also really like names that start with M (Timothy and I would totally have a Megan if we didn't already have two in the family). We stick pretty much to standard spellings. The exception is Maloree (the standard spelling is Mallory). We have quite a few names with a several standard spellings or no standard spelling, including: Ana, Ashlee, Brynne, Cowen, Danica, Emeline, Ethne, Hailey, Isabel, Katelyn, Lynnaea. About half our names end with a vowel sound ending. Most of our names are not on the super-popular chart. The exceptions are Isabel, Katelyn (although that has peaked and is now waning), Olivia (also peaked and now waning).

Amy and Derek picked the trendiest names. Amy's are: Olivia, Megan, Garrett, Brynne, and Chad. Chad is the exception to that. Derek's are: Katelyn, Tyson, Maloree, Gideon, and Ashlee. Mal and Gideon are the exceptions there. Tim and I have an old-fashioned motif going, which is trendy in its own right. Cowen is our exception--although it is a very old name in Ireland. Kayli has the most unusual names. Hers are: Jethro, Hazel (although it is slowly gaining popularity), Ethne, and Talmage. Kami's are the most Hispanic (she planned that): Ana, Elena, Isabel. Megan wins second place for most unusual: Danica (gaining popularity), Myles, Lynnaea, Kiersten, and Anders.

What does all this mean? Not much. All of us have very definite naming patterns. Anyway, I feel better now that I've gotten all that off my chest.

Okay, that was the original post. Now I would like to revisit the theme and see if anything has changed in the past two years and 6 (almost 7) grandkids. The new names are: Devaney, Karlee, Harriet, Sebastian, Orrin, Jack and for Lindsay's baby either an "R" girl name or "I" boy name. (Unless Sterling gets a Sterling Jr., but I'm not betting on that.)

The new chart:
A--Anders, Ashlee, Ana, Amy, Andrea
B--Brynne
C--Cassidy, Cowen, Chad
D--Danica, Devaney, Derek
E--Emeline, Ethne, Elena, Eli, Ethan
F--
G--Garrett, Gideon
H--Hailey, Hazel, Harriet
I--Isabel
J--Jethro, Jack
K--Kiersten, Katelyn, Karlee, Kami, Kayli
L--Lynnaea, Lindsay
M--Myles, Miriam, Megan, Maloree, Megan
N--
O--Olivia, Orrin
P--
Q--
R--
S--Sebastian
T--Talmage, Tyson, Tyson
U--
V--
W--Wyatt
X--
Y--
Z--

Yeah, the trends have stayed exactly the same. Kami picked a name below the "M" barrier, but she stayed in keeping with her Hispanic names. Kayli also picked a name below the "M" barrier, but it was a vowel name, and we already concluded that our family likes vowel names. Megan picked an unusual name with Devaney, like she usually does. Harriet is old-fashioned, like Timothy and I are prone to liking. Jack is the trendiest name of the bunch (Wyatt's boy) and Karlee matches the rest of Derek's kids' names. Two of the names end with a vowel sound.

Kayli pointed out that our parents had the same above the "M" barrier naming trend going on so I put all of my sibs names--and mine--in red on the above chart. The parents also liked names that ended with a vowel sound--Amy, Andrea, Kami, Kayli, Lindsay.

Notice how far Wyatt is below the "M" barrier. Maybe there is a proportional relationship between weirdness and distance from the "M" barrier. I mean, for those of you who have met Wyatt you get what I'm saying. Sebastian (he eats a lot of dirt, people), Talmage (clearly maniacal), and Tyson (Derek's boy--he didn't have much of a chance from the outset). You're just taking a risk, naming below M without the safety of the vowel, that's all I'm saying.

I also realized lately that Kayli and I have the exact same name categories going on. Bible: Jethro, Miriam, Eli. Irish: Cowen, Ethne. Old-fashioned: Hazel, Orrin, Harriet, Emeline. I'm not sure where to put Talmage. Probably in the ultra-trendy last name as first name category. Cowen (Cohen) could go there too. AND YET, when you read through our name groups as a whole, they don't really sound the same. Try it.

Jethro, Hazel, Ethne, Talmage, Orrin.

Miriam, Cowen, Emeline, Eli, Harriet.

Weird.

Fun times. I love names.

PS My favorite Sackett name?? Galloway. Totally.

PPS If you read the comments in the original post, I wrote a comment in response to someone else and said that Timothy would never let me have a Harriet. I really thought he wouldn't--right up until the moment he said: "Name her whatever you want."

THANK YOU, TIMOTHY!!! I adore her name and I adore you.