It must be said that while we’re wild about Wyatt, this cowboy cool name has galloped up the popularity charts in the past fifteen years.

Still, it is one of those rare choices that conjures the best of the West – good guys in white hats, fast horses, convivial saloons and shiny silver stars – without sounding impossibly silly on, say, a 40-something dentist from Red Bank, New Jersey.  So if you’ve got a Stetson in your closet and Garth Brooks on your iPod, Wyatt might just be the baby name for you.

Bear in mind that we’re not exaggerating Wyatt’s appeal.  The best known bearer of the name, Wyatt Earp, was indeed a lawman who took place in the Gunfight at the OK Corral, and so he’s been immortalized in countless histories, works of fiction and TV shows and movies, some more accurate than others.  He died in 1929; the first movie version of his life debuted in 1934.  Most recently, Deadwood on HBO has included Earp in its plot.

While the name has appeared in the Top 1000 more years than not, it’s been relatively rare until recent years.  In fact, it never went much higher than the 400s until 1994, when it charted at #197.  Since then, it has steadily climbed the charts, arriving at #69 in 2007.

That’s a lot of babies teething on tin stars and wearing tiny cowboy boots.

While Wyatt is a starbaby choice – Sheryl Crow chose it for her son in 2007 – that doesn’t explain the name’s appeal.  Instead, chalk it up to the Oscar-nominated film, Wyatt Earp, gracing the silver screen in 1994, coupled with the growing crossover appeal of country music.  If you don’t recall, in 1994, Garth Brooks even recorded a cover of Kiss’ “Hard Luck Woman” for the tribute album Kiss My Ass: Classic Kiss Regrooved.

Maybe that’s not one for the lullaby compilation, but it does suggest that the American West was much in our minds, and far more mainstream than once was the case.

So while some parents have opted for the kind of baby names once heard only in elite East Cost prep schools (think Sawyer and Brooks), others are looking to the wide open spaces of the American heartland for inspiration.

If you’re more comfortable in cowboy boots than wingtips, Wyatt is a popular choice that just might work for you.