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Post by gailkate on May 14, 2015 11:02:54 GMT -5
Fill in your name and DOB, see what rank it had when you were born. "Gail" was 49th in popularity in 1946. Then it shows what your name would be now and by decade back to 1890. Today I'd be Nora, which I like, but in past decades I'd have been racing to court to get my name changed. time.com/3856405/baby-name-popularity/#
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Post by joew on May 14, 2015 12:02:58 GMT -5
I was John (the 3rd most popular boys' name in 1943) until the 1960's. Since then I've been Robert, James, Jason, Matthew, and Matthew. Now Mason is the name.
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Post by joew on May 14, 2015 12:08:28 GMT -5
OTOH, if I use my nickname the way the family spelled it — Jo, which was 543rd — now I'd be Dominik; whereas Joe, 35th in '43, yields Owen.
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Post by Jane on May 14, 2015 15:55:20 GMT -5
I'd be Leah. Not a bad name. I don't like the trend of using last names for first names. Yup, I'm talkin' to you, Mason!
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Post by joew on May 15, 2015 10:42:54 GMT -5
I found Mason jarring.
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Post by Jane on May 15, 2015 14:46:25 GMT -5
Ha!
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Post by jspnrvr on May 15, 2015 20:15:18 GMT -5
Good for you, Joe. Not many people would have come up with that.
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Post by jspnrvr on May 15, 2015 20:18:36 GMT -5
Well, I guess I should be ready to be "jarred"....Mason, here. That's working off my proper name, John
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Post by gailkate on May 16, 2015 9:31:36 GMT -5
Now that I think about it, I have never known a Mason, can't even think of one I've read about. Like Jane, I'm very conservative about names, which I suppose is consummate fuddy-duddyism. I've read that one can trace the tiny influences that subliminally affect the rise of what people suddenly find fresh and unique - Isabella, for instance, now common but in our day totally absent. I think perhaps the move toward androgynous names came from movies and TV. I also think of it as having southern roots, though I'm not sure why. Did they more often use family names as first names? A friend's daughter named her little boy Oz. I've never asked why, but it's cute on him and will probably be well received all his life. Still, what put it in their heads? Surely not just "The Wizard of __"?
So I just googled and found there was a TV series about a prison called "Oz." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oz_(TV_series) We didn't have cable, so I don't remember it at all. It ran from 1997-2003. This mother would have been in college then; maybe it was a dorm favorite and the name got embedded in her memory banks? What really strikes me about the new name choices is that they seem to have nothing to do with family. "Who are you named after?" "A fictional prison."
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Post by BoatBabe on May 16, 2015 11:40:23 GMT -5
Mine was the 716th most popular name (which I think means Not Very Popular,) and today it would be Kourtney. The time travel backwards is more telling: Eleni, Shavon, Angella, Vernita, Glinda, Gemma, Hortensia, Atha, Anner, Mignon, Adel and Gunhild.
Seriously? I'm sure of the pronunciation of Adel.
I hated my name. If the teachers could spell it, they couldn't pronounce it. If they could pronounce it, they couldn't spell it. Then in third grade, we had Debbie B., Debbie R., and Debbie S. No one ever said, "Dione who?" I decided mine was a pretty fine name.
As years have gone by the perception of my name has changed. I am not a black, multi-talented, professional, male athlete, and my name does not rhyme with "neon." It rhymes with "beyond."
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Post by doctork on May 16, 2015 17:18:16 GMT -5
My name would be Gracelyn (is that related to Graceland in Memphis?), as Kristin was 375th most popular. And back through history: Anissa, Chandra (?Levy, the intern), Selina, Darcie, Rebekah, Erlinda, Cordelia, and Kenneth (I have never heard this as a female name).
My daughter Amber has a very popular name (though we thought it unusual), 17th, and today she'd be Ella. Genevieve was the 376th most popular name (I'd thought it was rarer than that) and now she'd be Kelly. Spencer was 112th, and he'd be Leonardo today.
Since I've delivered a lot of babies over the years, I've noticed the trends. They do often mirror TV and movie stars, and in the 1980's there were all these "J" names. I got sick of Jennifers and Justins.
I thought I posted this before, but maybe I got a little confused while I was in Europe. I had a few lost posts.
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Post by liriodendron on May 20, 2015 21:09:28 GMT -5
My name today would be Peyton, but my 2000s name would be Margaret. Really? Margaret was semi-popular in the 2000's? And again in the 1980s, because I have it then, too. I always think of Margaret as an old-fashioned name (or at least a slightly older than me name).
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