Door Number 15 by cogdogblog via Flickr
Since I’ve starting writing AppMtn, I’ve learned that I can usually tell you why a name rose – hindsight is 20/20 – but I cannot tell you, with any certainty, which names will make the US Top 1000 in the year 2020.
I can say, with some confidence, that the majority of the names in the Top 100 will likely still be there in another decade.
I like Meridian, but more for the name of a character in a book, although with the nn Meri, it works IRL too. If I wrote stories, I’d also use Magellan (nn Maggie) for a girl. (I *hate* the Dr. Scholl’s for ruining this potential name.)
Magellan would be fabulous – except your kiddo would be asked “are you jellin'” from now until the end of days, and that is NOT fun.
Tom Brady!! Swoon!
And Giselle (?) Bunchausen (?). Whatever. Women like other beautiful women, it sells.
Having lived in England and America, I’d class Landon & Brady as American-sounding. My associations are Michael Landon and the football players with the lastname Brady, plus the ‘Days of our Lives’ character.
I was trying to think of what sounded “English gentleman” to me. For some reason, Cuthbert popped into my head. 😛
I especially enjoyed the British sib-set names. Lovely!
I’m glad someone else finally linked Brady to Days of Our Lives because that’s all I think of when I hear that name!!
I think of The Brady Bunch, plus Miranda’s son on Sex and the City.
I also have no idea how people can pick in advance what names are going to be successful and which aren’t. I’m glad Griffin and Adele are going up though, as I keep pushing these onto people like a greengrocer with cheap bananas. I did see an article on how names can be predicted using a computer programme – rather above my head, but I’ve bookmarked it for future reading and possibly writing.
Very interested to hear that the appeal of Brady and Landon is that they sound like English gentlemen. I have no idea why they think that, but it helps explain it for the rest of us. Do they mean an English gentleman’s first name, or his surname?
Thanks for the rec!
As for Landon and Brady, I’ve checked and there are only 47 Landons and 32 Bradys (two of whom are girls) registered in England between 1838 and 1960.
Other surnames-firstnames like Roscoe (145) and Pelham (216) count much higher and even they are rare.
There is also only one Landon and no Bradys announced in the Telegraph since 2005 – and if you’re looking for contemporary British gentlemen, that’s the place to look.
Leopold and Bertram, yes. Landon and Brady, no. At least not in actuality.
Roscoe outranks Landon in the UK! Be still my heart. I may relocate, if only to name-spy on your playgrounds.
Well, unfortunately Roscoe did outrank Landon for over a century but not anymore. There is a big American influence amongst the British masses (not the uppers though) so we now have plenty of Madisons and Jaydens. There were 20 boys called Landon registered in 2009 and 12 called Roscoe. Neither are in the top 1000.
As I’ve mentioned before, I have a hard time imagining Meridian on a child since I grew up calling the dividing area between opposing lanes of traffic a meridian. To me, it would be like naming your baby Boulevard or Curb: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/median+strip
It also makes me think of the Emmylou Harris song “Red Dirt Girl.” Lovely, haunting song, but they’re trying to get out of tiny town called Meridian.
Interesting about Bella B. Even though Bella’s common, I find it sweet and much nicer than Bardot. I think it’s great they had the courage to change it.
I don’t remember where I read this, but there is some speculation about the reason they changed her name. Apparently, David is the one who wanted Bardot. Then the whole cheating scandal came to light soon after the baby was born, with the revelation that he was texting his mistress during the birth, and suddenly they aren’t calling her Bardot. Scandalous!
Oooh … that is awful. Since their first kiddo has such a regular kid name, I always wondered if Bardot was chosen, at least in part, to grab attention.
It also goes better with big brother Jaden’s name.
I noticed Meridian on YCCII’s site too and thought it was weird, because I think I’ve seen two baby Meridian’s in all my years of collecting baby names, although I really like it and wouldn’t mind seeing more. FYI: There were 15 baby girls named Meridian last year.
More evidence that Louisa is a classic!
Abby, there is a billboard up in Dallas that says, “Picking a baby name? Consider Margot.” It’s an ad for the Margot Perot Women’s Center at Presbyterian Hospital. Isn’t that awesome??
Noooooo!!!!! Margot is my super top secret name! And I live in Texas, no less. This is terrible news.
I felt the same way when Abby has covered Louisa and Gray…nooooo!!!
Oh, I love the billboard! I’ve been doing an image search and can’t find a picture – if you do, please let me know!
I’ve seen that billboard too–it’s by my RE’s office (ironic?). I’ll try to get a picture for you.
Brady and Landon sound very far from English gentlemen. More like the Midwestern sons of a high school football coach.
Exactly! Not bad names, but not tea-sipping, horse-riding, this-is-my-dad-Colin-Firth kind of names.
I went to high school with a woman who now has a 2 year old son named Landon. She and the baby’s father are farmers…in Michigan. Kind of a spot-on comment Caroline 🙂
Just wondering what the ‘Midwest’ defines as a culture? As someone who doesn’t come from the US, I have a vague understanding that the South favours old family names like Mary Elizabeth and Walker, while the North East is supposed to be quite highly educated and culturally sophisticated, right? When I think of the West Coast I’m afraid I think mainly of California so names like Archer and Fable spring to mind; sort of hippy, literary choices? Or have I got this all wrong?
Funny you should ask – it makes me think that “Midwest” is actually stand-in for “Middle America.” Which is something of a myth. I’ve been to very cool cities in the Midwest and incredibly anonymous ‘burbs in New Jersey and metro DC. And I’ve met great baby namers everywhere …
Strictly speaking, the Midwest starts in Ohio and Michigan, travels as far south as Missouri and Kansas, and goes back up to North Dakota – twelve states. But that excludes places like Idaho (that’s the West) and Arkansas (that’s the South) that are probably pretty similar. Need to think about this …
As an English native names like Landon and Brady just seem quite downmarket to me. I imagine them being either very American or maybe characters in an Australian soap!
And I love Rufus Theodore and Lily Louisa (not so sure about Lottie infront though)
Looking forward to nameberry tomorrow, if I’ve guessed your theme correctly!
Why are names that appear American “downmarket”, Fran?
British elitism and snobbery.
Sorry I really didn’t mean that all American names seem downmarket. I think I’ve just watched too much tv in my life and those names in particular give me an impression of a certain type of person. I really didn’t mean any offence by it, there are some perfectly nice American type names 🙂
Sarah, it took some huge cojones for her to post that on an American site, hm?
Whoa! I don’t think Fran meant any harm.
The question is whether they sound like British gentlemen, and they don’t – they sound like, as Caroline put it, Midwestern sons of a football coach. That’s downmarket only in the sense that they’re not sipping tea with the queen, but it is fair to say that they’re not especially sophisticated choices. They’re ordinary, and that’s not bad – but it does surprise me that one parent perceived them as aristocratic.