No, I’m not talking about kaballah. I’m not even talking about names like Nevaeh, where the so-called secret meaning is quite clear.
Instead, I’m intrigued by the difference between the meanings given by baby books and the reasons our parents pick our names.
The Social Security Administration should release the 2008 US Top 1000 in a few days. It’s sort of like Christmas-meets-the-Fourth-of-July here at AppMtn.
Plenty of parents turn to the rankings as part of choosing a baby name. You’ll often hear expectant moms and dads mention that they’re avoiding the Top Ten. Or Top 100. The question is, though, are the statistics a meaningful guide for determining a name’s popularity?
In 2007, Jacob was the #1 choice for boys, representing a staggering 23,886 newborns given the name. At the opposite extreme, Trystan came in at #1000, representing just 191 babies. But is Jacob so horribly overused that you’d regret choosing it? Is Trystan so rare that you’d never meet another?
Here are ten things to keep in mind as you consider Jacob, Trystan and every name in between and beyond:
The year was 1982. Joan Jett, Survior and the Human League were on the radio. E.T. phoned home on the silver screen, and Rocky fought Mr. T. And in a fictional town called Salem, the character Kayla Brady first appeared on the soap opera Days of Our Lives.
Unlike some soap-sudsy names, Kayla wasn’t created for the show. On the contrary, this obscure variant of Katherine first appeared in the Top 1000 back in 1959.
But the character did lead to an explosion of baby girls named Kayla. In 1981, it was the 581st most popular name for baby girls born in the US. By 1982? It was 133. And in 1983, it broke the Top 100, coming in at 81.
By 1988, it was firmly established in the Top 20, and remained there until 2004, peaking at #11 in 1995.
Today, the Kayla variants are many, ranging from Kaylie/Kaylee/Kaileigh to Kaylynn, Kylinn and Kayci.
But there is a more appealing direction to take your Kayla variant – drop the first “a” and, if you want to really improve on this popular choice, swap out the first letter, too.
