He was a workhorse of a name, once solidly established in the US Top 100, but now fading fast.
Thanks to Lola for suggesting Wayne as our Baby Name of the Day.
File Wayne with other obscure occupational surnames.
Baby Name of the Day: Wayne
on Apr 22, 2011
Well, seeing as I hail from Edmonton Wayne Gretzky is the strongest reference I have for the name Wayne. I imagine that any Edmontonian who chooses to go with Wayne will have to accept that everyone will assume their little guy was named for Gretzky, whether true or not. My other references are my mother’s cousin Wayne and, of course, the actor John Wayne. I LOVED Hatari as a kid!
Adding. When my Nan named him she thought she was being rather ‘unique’ in using that plonker John Wayne for inspiration. No, Nan, that’s what everyone else did too. Little did she know just how trendy it was in 1956 England. And it hadn’t even peaked yet! She did the same with four childrens’ names.. Epically popular choices at the time. When they emigrated to Aus and NZ the popularity was almost identical there.
To this day she still thinks all four choices were unusual for the period.
Ick. And my father’s name no less. It seems that almost every second middle aged + male school teacher in NZ is a Wayne.
It’s still ultra naff here along with Trevor and Darrell.
Wayne is the name of one of my 60-ish professors. I actually like Wayne. I think he has a bit of the old-man feel of names like Walter.
I would guess that Wayne won’t take too long to come back, especially since many future baby namers are currently bumping and grinding to Lil Wayne 🙂
Oh, I just looked it up – Dwayne ranked #697 in 2009, not too far ahead of Wayne.
@Julie — There’s a running joke (I think it originated in the News of the Weird) column that Wayne is the most common middle name for serial killers and other criminals (John Wayne Gacy, etc). Superstitious, maybe, but I would be rightly cautious of using it in the middle. That may have been your SIL’s reasoning. (Check out C in DC’s link above).
In a round about way, that’s what I was referring to. (This isn’t directed at anyone, I just have insomnia and a mind that won’t shut off.)
When this guy researched the middle name “Wayne” and it’s propensity to criminality he found:
–Wayne is much more common as a middle name than it is as a first name.
–Law enforcement databases are one of the few instances where middle names are commonly listed
“The result of all this is that people don’t see or hear the name Wayne all
that often,… When they do see a list of names that include middle names, the list is often from a law enforcement context, and the name Wayne pops out because it is a relatively uncommon name. (In contrast, there are also lots of
people on inmate lists with the middle name William, but these don’t “pop
out” since William is a common first name as well). Hence, it’s easy to come away with the impression that middle-name Waynes are somehow associated with criminality.”
https://uclue.com/?xq=936
I looked at my family tree, there are six men with the middle name Wayne. Three engineers, one mechanic, one minister and one science teacher… no murderers.
Wayne is a family name in my SIL’s family and just the other day she was mentioned that she regretted not continuing the tradition. But since she’s a court officer, she thought Andrew Wayne Lastname sounded like a bit like a felon.
On the other hand, my stepdaughter’s fianc
My high school nemesis was Wayne. And then there’s this. https://www.newsoftheweird.com/wayne.html
Catherine, my Pop was Wayne too! Mine was born in 1936 and died in 1997. I miss him lots.
But, his name gives me fits. His brothers were: James/Jim (1931), Theodore/Ted/Teddy (1934), Wayne (1936) and Richard/Skip (1938).
My Grandmother always said Pop was her best Valentine’s present ever. (2/14/36 was his b-day). But he could never figure out why he wasn’t William or Thomas, George or something more classic. He hated his trendy feeling moniker. Complained about it constantly, too.
I’ve thought long & hard about using it in the middle but ultimately his hatred of it tells me no. So I’ve thought about Valentine (girl) Valentin (boy) and George (for Pop’s patron saint) St. George. Somehow, I think he’d be pleased by the thought. But I have to admit, I’m starting to see the breezy, happy apppeal of Wayne. Just starting to appreciate the light, lilting sound of Wayne. Next generation for sure. (It’s tops on Leo’s list for a boy. I may have a grandson Wayne in 10 years or less!)
Gooooo Wayne! 😀
I predict that the next generation will start bringing back names like this. They still feel dusty to me.
As my father’s name, I feel some affection for the name but I doubt I would ever use it because of that.
I should add that my father was born in 1947!