Top 100 baby names 2005 (in U.S.)

[Jeff Wrangler]

My family raised me as Scott, but my mother wanted to name me somehow after my father, whose first name is Barry, so Barry had to go in there somewhere too. My mom chose 'Barry Scott' over 'Scott Barry' because she thought that with 'Scott Barry Moore', people would tease me about being a scion of the Barrymore family. What she didn't seem to realize is that with 'Barry' as my first name, it's right there: 'Barry Moore'! Most folks don't know your middle name unless you tell them.

The Barrymores were actually a Philadelphia family. John is buried here, and the family had a house about a block and a half from where I live today.

'Lynn' and 'Lynne' are fairly common middle names among females, I notice. I have a female first cousin whose middle name is Lynne. It's more unusual seen as part of a boy's name. That reminds me of my late paternal grandfather and his youngest brother--my grandfather's first name was Muriel, and his brother's is Beverly! My grandfather hated his name, and insisted on going by his middle name, while my great-uncle has always been known as Beverly.

My mother always insisted that "Lynn" was a boy's name/the spelling for a boy. I never bought it because it was how the next-door neighbors spelled the middle name of their youngest daughter. Mother also insisted that I was not named for a 1950s B-movie actor, Jeffrey Lynn. I wouldn't have minded if she'd named me for Jeffrey Hunter. He was hot! 

Talk about hating your name, my mother's maternal grandfather, my great-grandfather, who died in his 90th year ten years before I was born, was named William Hiram Bailey.

That's right. ... Bill Bailey!

[moremojo]

Talk about hating your name, my mother's maternal grandfather, my great-grandfather, who died in his 90th year ten years before I was born, was named William Hiram Bailey.

That's right. ... Bill Bailey!

Wow...born circa 1858, died about 1948; impressive life span! I'm not even sure when the Bill Bailey song originated, but your great-grandfather might have been older than it. That would have been way cool!

An uncle of my late maternal grandfather was named Valentine Hardt! Hardt was his last name. That was the source of some amusement in my family, and I bet you can be sure that no one forgot the man's name.

[Penthesilea]

If my daughter Hannah had been a boy, she was going to be Samuel Benjamin, which is a family name....

L

One of my daughters is named Hannah, too  .

Sometimes I wonder about American names. In Germany, it is not allowed to give a girl a boy's name or vice versa (with the exception of Maria as a second name for a boy). And the name must be clearly male or female. If you choose a name like Kim, which can be both, the child must be given a second (clearly female or male) name.

67 Reagan

Reagan as a female first name? I only know Ronald Reagan  .


Kennedy, Brooklyn, Mckenna, Taylor - female first names? Wow.

[moremojo]

Sometimes I wonder about American names. In Germany, it is not allowed to give a girl a boy's name or vice versa (with the exception of Maria as a second name for a boy). And the name must be clearly male or female. If you choose a name like Kim, which can be both, the child must be given a second (clearly female or male) name.

You mean there's actually a law addressing this matter? That surprises me, and seems unnecessary. And ideas of what constitutes feminine versus masculine can shift historically.

Reagan as a female first name? I only know Ronald Reagan  .

Regan I've seen as a girl's first name. Regan was one of the daughters of Lear in Shakespeare's King Lear, and Regan was also the name of the unfortunate girl subjected to the curative powers of The Exorcist (both book and film).

[Jeff Wrangler]

Wow...born circa 1858, died about 1948; impressive life span! I'm not even sure when the Bill Bailey song originated, but your great-grandfather might have been older than it. That would have been way cool!

That's it, Scott, born 1858, died 1948.  Mother used to talk about how after he became very hard of hearing, she would listen to "the fights" on the radio for him and tell him what was going on. She listened to the famous Joe Lewis--Max Schmeling fight for him. Mother was very close to her grandfather. My grandparents, their eight children (including my mother), and my great-grandparents all lived together in my great-grandparents' (my grandmother's parents) three-bedroom house. (Kind of creeps me out to think that my mother and her siblings were presumably conceived in the bedroom that my grandparents were sharing with my great-grandparents.)

I think the "Bill Bailey" song must date to around the beginning of the 20th century.

In Germany, it is not allowed to give a girl a boy's name or vice versa (with the exception of Maria as a second name for a boy).

Like the composer Karl Maria von Weber. 

Penthe, I'm curious. Is that "not allowed" by law or just by custom? I seem to remember reading a piece in The New Yorker a few years ago by an American writer living in Paris who had trouble registering the birth of his daughter, who was born in Paris, because the official in charge insisted that the name they had chose for the child (I forget what it was) was a boy's name.

In some of my history reading, I seem to remember coming across some aristocratic 17th-century Frenchman who had "Anne" as part of their names.

[MaineWriter]

I know that there are a number of countries that have laws about what you can name your children and have approved lists of names.

I read an essay (which I could not find, sorry!) about men's names that have become women's names (Ashley, is a good example, and my name, Leslie, to a lesser degree). Once a name has "crossed over" from being a man's name to a woman's name, very few, if any, have "crossed back." A few have become unisex (Robin, Kim).  "Losing" men's names is a problem since there are many more options for women's names than men.

The baby name voyager (link posted earlier) is a good way to see the history of names and how they have changed.

Leslie

[moremojo]

In some of my history reading, I seem to remember coming across some aristocratic 17th-century Frenchman who had "Anne" as part of their names.

Jeff, I found the following examples, one of whom (the second Duc de Noailles) might be your man (so to speak ):

Anne, duc de Montmorency (1493-1567)
Anne, duc de Joyeuse (1561-1587)
Anne, 1ere duc de Noailles (d. 1678)
Anne-Jules, 2 duc de Noailles (1650-1708), son of the preceding, and marechal de France

[Jeff Wrangler]

Jeff, I found the following examples, one of whom (the second Duc de Noailles) might be your man (so to speak ):

Anne, duc de Montmorency (1493-1567)
Anne, duc de Joyeuse (1561-1587)
Anne, 1ere duc de Noailles (d. 1678)
Anne-Jules, 2 duc de Noailles (1650-1708), son of the preceding, and marechal de France

Thanks, Scott. Montmorency sounds familiar (might have been a Huguenot leader, or maybe he had something to do with the Catholic-Protestant conflict in the the 16th century). The two ducs de Noailles sound familiar, too.

[Penthesilea]

You mean there's actually a law addressing this matter?

Penthe, I'm curious. Is that "not allowed" by law or just by custom?

Yes and No. Legislation is not only adressed in laws, but also in guidelines, directives, administrative fiats, and so on. Sorry, I lack the correct juridical vocabulary here. Lets just call it guidelines, but in fact it has the same effects like a law.

Those guidelines say first names must:

- be recognizable as a first name
- be clearly female or male
- be given within a month after birth


First names must not:

- damage the well-being of the child
- be a name of a location (eg city, town, whatever)
- be a last name (with exception of established names)
- be a brand name (eg Ford, Chrysler)

First names can not be given a copyright.

Problem is the lack of clear definitions: what name damages the well-being of a child? A couple of years ago there was a  prominent case when parents wanted to name their child "Pumuckl". Pumuckl is the name of a popular cartoon figure. Here's a picture of him:



The parents were not allowed to name their child Pumuckl and sued against this decision. But they failed, because the court said, this name would damage the well-being of the child.

On the other side, parents sued succesful and were allowed by court to name their daughter "Wolke", what means cloud.

I didn't want to judge which system is better. For me, American names are sometimes odd. Doesn't mean odd in a bad, disliking way - just in the sense of very unusual.

[MaineWriter]

True story:

I had a patient once who wanted to name her baby "Placenta." She heard the word in the delivery room and thought it was "pretty." I talked her out of it.

I had another patient who told me that her baby's name was "Female" (with the emphasis on the middle syllable fee-MA-lay). I asked why and she said, "The nurses in the nursery named her. It's on the card on her crib." We came up with another option for that baby, too.

Leslie