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’Net Junkie Shawn "Speedy" Lopes |
Site lists top baby names
In his stage act, comedian George Carlin has an amusing bit about how much he detests trendy names for kids. Voguish handles like Tyler, Ashley, Brianna and Cody raises the ire of the Bronx-born funnyman, which is why he probably shouldn't log on to the Social Security Administration's popular baby names site at www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames.
It is an interesting Web site that lists the top 1,000 baby names of the last century, by decade, beginning with the 1900s, which saw John, William, James, George and Joseph for boys and Mary, Helen, Margaret, Anna and Ruth for girls as the most popular of the era. Names like Flossie, Luella, Callie, Tillie, Virgie, Dollie, Harlan, Omer, Orval and Aloysius may seem a tad peculiar these days, though apparently they were not entirely uncommon a century ago.
The most popular name for boys last year was Jacob, with 29,195 Social Security forms attesting to that fact. Michael was a close second, with 26,991, followed by Joshua, Matthew, Andrew, Joseph, Ethan, Daniel, Christopher and Anthony. For girls, Emily took the top slot, followed by Emma, Madison, Hannah, Olivia, Abigail, Alexis, Ashley, Elizabeth and Samantha.
The results are not much different from the previous year, though Sarah and Nicholas were knocked out of the top 10 by Elizabeth and Anthony.
What's not explained is how a name like Madison, for example, which ranked 539th overall for girls during the 1980s, behind such exotic monikers as Mercedes, Mackenzie and Tameka, became such a hot property in recent years, seizing the 37th position in the 1990s. Since 2000, Madison has never fared worse than third for girls.
At 268th, Mariah was not a particularly popular name in 1990, the year the most famous of all Mariahs, Mariah Carey, debuted on the music scene. The following year, however, after a string of hits for the singer, the name Mariah skyrocketed to the 69th position, staying in double digits for the next decade. The Social Security Administration's Web site makes no assumptions here, but methinks it's more than coincidence.
The Web site also lists the most popular baby names in every state each year, from 1990 to 2003. Last year, Hawaii's top baby names for boys were, in order, Joshua, Noah, Jacob, Dylan and Ethan. For girls, it was Emma, Alyssa, Kayla, Taylor and Mia. Emma was tops in 23 of the 50 states, Jacob took 25 states in the union. Interestingly, the name Jacob was surpassed by Jose in Texas as the most popular boys' name, despite only showing in the top five in California, Arizona and Nevada. At least Jacob wasn't beaten out by Tyler.
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’Net Junkie drops every Monday.
Contact Shawn "Speedy" Lopes at slopes@starbulletin.com.
