Baby Name of the Day: Crosby

He’s athletic, artistic, and upbeat. And best of all, no one is using him – yet.

Thanks to Leitia for suggesting Crosby as our Baby Name of the Day.

The boys’ Top 100 reads like a phone book: Mason, Logan, Jackson, Dylan, Landon, Tyler, Jordan, Carter, Hunter, Cooper, Chase. We love ends-in-y choices, too, especially upbeat English and Irish surnames, like Brody and Riley and Bailey.

Crosby fits right in with the in crowd, and thanks to a character on television’s Parenthood – the youngest son of Zeek and Camille, played by Dax Shepherd – he’s finally generating some attention. The only question is why it took so long.

Crosby has been around for ages. He pops up mostly in Scotland and Northern England, places with a heavy Scandinavian influence. Kross appears in Old Norse, from the Latin crux, forerunner of our word cross. This doesn’t make Crosby a brother for Neveah, though – instead, it is a place name. If you happened to live near a stone cross set up to denote a settlement or mark a road, then you might’ve adopted the surname Crosby – cross plus byr – enclosure.

Notable Crosbys are plentiful, like an eighteenth century Lord Mayor of London, Brass Crosby. But a trio of twentieth century Crosbys make for an impressive set.

First there’s Harry Crosby, born in 1903, and nicknamed Bing after a comic strip in his town’s newspaper. He started performing while still a student in Spokane, Washington. From Spokane to Los Angeles, and then the world, Bing quickly became one of the most successful recording artists of the twentieth century.

Bing’s heyday was the 1930s through 1950s. He nabbed a Best Actor Academy Award in 1944 for Going My Way, and several of his songs, including the enduring “White Christmas” also won Oscars and Grammys. But that wasn’t the end of his career. He was also a successful innovator, working to pioneer the idea of recording programming for radio.

An equally influential Crosby was David, twice inducted into the Rock and Roll of Fame. First he was part of The Byrds, then he formed a super group with Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, and sometimes Neil Young.

The most famous Crosby of the moment takes his surname in a totally different direction, thanks to Canadian ice hockey star Sidney Crosby. Currently captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins, he’s nicknamed “The Next One” in homage to Wayne Gretzky – “The Great One.” In 2009, he became the youngest captain to lead an NHL team to win the Stanley Cup. A year later, he scored the game winning goal to take home Olympic goal for Canada in the Vancouver games.

Despite all of these possible namesakes, Crosby has never appeared in the US Top 1000. He’s hovering not far outside, though, probably used by a few diehard fans, parents with a Crosby on their family tree, or those disappointed that Brody is so popular. But even if you don’t have a connection to Crosby, he’s a great, on trend choice that should wear well throughout the years.

Not too far outside US Top 1000, but definitely not in and never has been.