From MSN: The top 10 baby names of 2004 (vs. 2003)
Girls' names
Emma (Emily)
Madison (Emma)
Emily (Madison)
Kaitlyn (Hannah)
Hailey (Hailey)
Olivia (Sarah)
Isabella (Kaitlyn)
Hannah (Isabella)
Sarah (Olivia)
Abigail (Abigail)
Boys' names
Jacob (Jacob)
Aidan (Aidan)
Ethan (Ethan)
Ryan (Matthew)
Matthew (Nicholas)
Michael (Joshua)
Tyler (Ryan)
Joshua (Michael)
Nicholas (Zachary)
Connor (Tyler)
I'm intrigued by the ebb and flow of name popularity. None of those names (well, except Michael) were terribly common among my peers, but in talking to my friend last night, trying to remember the identity of a kid in a 4th grade class picture, we realized that every third boy were knew was named Mark.
Then I remembered that the Social Security Administration has a fun web page of baby names, so for comparision I looked up 1969:
Lisa
Jennifer
Michelle
Kimberly
Maria
Melissa
Amy
Mary
Elizabeth
Karen
Michael
David
John
Robert
James
William
Richard
Christopher
Mark
Brian
you know...normal names.
I admit, there's a name on the 2004 list that I don't think I've ever heard: Aidan. So I Google'd it...a saint, apparently. But I was still wondering, why the sudden popularity?
A few clicks later, and I have a theory. People aren't naming their sons after the saint, they're naming their kids after a Sex in the City character.
Posted by Nic at January 6, 2005 08:53 PM