Map: Six Decades of the Most Popular Names for Girls By State

[methodwriter85]

    This was actually pretty cool to look at- it's a listing of the most popular names for girls by state, starting with 1960 and ending with 2012.

 

     Lisa dominated the 1960's, Jennifer dominated the 1970's to the mid-80's, Jessica and Ashley seem to duke it out for the second half of the 1980's and first half of the 1990's, and then names start to get more creative until everybody starts naming their daughter Isabella, Sophia, or Emma by the late 2000's.

 

    One of my nieces was named Sophia in 2011, which corresponds to being the number 1 name. It's kinda funny- for that niece, Sophia, Olivia, and Emma will be to her what Jessica, Ashley, and Brittany were to me. (Amanda and Sarah were also pretty popular.)

Edited October 19, 2013 by methodwriter85

[Sasha Distan]

can we get boys names too?

[Former Member]

At least I can say that I had my name before it got cool.

[methodwriter85]

   I think it's interesting what naming trends seem to say about their time period. Jennifer was apparently launched into the stratosphere because of the 1970 film, Love Story. You could hazard a guess that the 1970's to early 1980's dominance of Jennifer possibly could have made people more willing to branch out, because the map is pretty diverse for the 2000's (when the Jennifer Generation are in their prime child-bearing years) especially in 2007. The Addison craze was pretty funny, and so short-lived. And come on, you KNOW the domination of Isabella in 2010 has to do with Twilight.

 

   And it's kinda funny my peers just missed the Jennifer thing, though- like, I knew a couple of Jennifers including my 1977-born sister, but it wasn't nearly as pervasive as Jessica and Ashley were. Had I been just a couple years older, like Blue's age, I probably would have known a lot more Jennifer's. The burn-out must have settled in by the mid/late 1980's.

 

     It's also interesting how old-fashioned, traditional names like Sophia, Emma, Ava, Olivia, and Isabella make a huge comeback. Stark contrast to my generation, when Jessica and Ashley ruled. I remember my teacher once went on this rant about how awful trendy names like Tiffany, Amber, and Crystal are. LOL. I can't even imagine what she thinks about Addison and Madison, or on the boy side, Jaden, Aiden,and Cayden.

 

     My guess for the next big girl's name will be Hazel, in keeping with the "old is new again" theme that seems to have taken hold.

[Krista]

Hmm, named my daughter Sophia.  And another daughter named Ashlyn, which really is a play on Ashley and Lynn.

 

Interesting to see how names seemed to catch on and spread through the country.

 

I like older names.

 

Once upon a time, some of my favorite names were Addison, Kathryn, Sara, Abegail, Sebastian, Anna, Alice, Luke, Mitchell etc..

 

I'd take a guess if they did the Boy's naming list through the decades it will switch from some of the names like, Richard, Henry, Samuel, to more common biblical names like, Matthew, Luke, Johnathon, Michael. Then get into the Andrew, Drew, Cody, Christian, they were all commonly used and popular. Then Collin, Aiden, Cayden, Hayden. But I think Micheal and Andrew never really have relinquished their spots in the top five? Where as the female names lose favor in big ways and them come back in big ways again.. 

[Kitt]

I can remember a friend in the early 80's trying to decide on a boys name around her 3rd month of the pregnancy.  She started with Aiden, a name she liked the ring to - and put every letter in front of it in various combos... Baiden, Braiden, Caiden, Craiden etc.  There were some pretty out there names on her list. I will not tell you what she named the boy in the end - but the poor kid was in court and changed it to John as soon following his 18th birthday as he could manage.

 

Guess what I am saying is think twice before saddling a child with an extremely unusual name that might bring him/her a whopper load of teasing.

[paya]

I thought Isabella was linked with increase in Latino babies? Sophia would work with that as well? Maybe two things piling up? 

[Zombie]

What, no Mary-Lou? No Tammy-Lee??
 

[Ashi]

   I think it's interesting what naming trends seem to say about their time period. Jennifer was apparently launched into the stratosphere because of the 1970 film, Love Story. You could hazard a guess that the 1970's to early 1980's dominance of Jennifer possibly could have made people more willing to branch out, because the map is pretty diverse for the 2000's (when the Jennifer Generation are in their prime child-bearing years) especially in 2007. The Addison craze was pretty funny, and so short-lived. And come on, you KNOW the domination of Isabella in 2010 has to do with Twilight.

 

   And it's kinda funny my peers just missed the Jennifer thing, though- like, I knew a couple of Jennifers including my 1977-born sister, but it wasn't nearly as pervasive as Jessica and Ashley were. Had I been just a couple years older, like Blue's age, I probably would have known a lot more Jennifer's. The burn-out must have settled in by the mid/late 1980's.

 

     It's also interesting how old-fashioned, traditional names like Sophia, Emma, Ava, Olivia, and Isabella make a huge comeback. Stark contrast to my generation, when Jessica and Ashley ruled. I remember my teacher once went on this rant about how awful trendy names like Tiffany, Amber, and Crystal are. LOL. I can't even imagine what she thinks about Addison and Madison, or on the boy side, Jaden, Aiden,and Cayden.

 

     My guess for the next big girl's name will be Hazel, in keeping with the "old is new again" theme that seems to have taken hold.

 

Back in my time, the popular girl names were Jennifer (which is given) and Susie (but the full name Susan not so much).  Beth/Liza/Lisa was pretty popular, too (but apparently the full name Elizabeth/Isabella wasn't).  Popular guys' name was always Michael/Mike....  Matthew/Matt and Andrew/Andy were common also.  And who knows how many Johns and Bills were there.  Robert/Rob was also popular (but Bob variation wasn't). 

 

Never like names like Jaden, Cayden, Aiden or whatever -den they came up with.  My cousin named one of my nephews that, and he is just your typical manipulative kid you see so much of nowadays.  Maybe that's why I don't like that sort of name too much.

 

Jessica..., this is funny.  One of my middle school teachers has that name, and she told us how unpopular that name was.

 

Emily was not popular back then, but it's a nice name to me.

 

The resurgence of Sophia is weird.  If a girl was named Sophia back my time, she probably would have been teased for being a Golden Girl.  Who knows, maybe the next big girl name would be Bea or Blanche....  I know a girl in RL named Estee.

 

If I ever had kids, the girl would be Lori.  I don't know why I've never thought about boy's name.  I probably would name them after exes....  Someone help me.

[Zombie]

I don't know why I've never thought about boy's name.  I probably would name them after exes....  Someone help me.

 

How's about some gay fic faves - Brett or Brad [the quarterback], sexy farm boi Seth, and Randy (no explanation needed )

[methodwriter85]

I can remember a friend in the early 80's trying to decide on a boys name around her 3rd month of the pregnancy.  She started with Aiden, a name she liked the ring to - and put every letter in front of it in various combos... Baiden, Braiden, Caiden, Craiden etc.  There were some pretty out there names on her list. I will not tell you what she named the boy in the end - but the poor kid was in court and changed it to John as soon following his 18th birthday as he could manage.

 

Guess what I am saying is think twice before saddling a child with an extremely unusual name that might bring him/her a whopper load of teasing.

 

      My Jennifer-named sister named her 18-year old daughter Acadia (as in the Acadia Mountain Range in Maine) and her 10-month old son Chaos Phoenix. He has a comic book villain name. LOL. The first wound up working and being really nice, but I'm not so sure about going around with the name "Chaos".

 

      I do think it's funny that in 40 years, Tiffany, Heather, Brandy, Amber, and Crystal will be senior citizen names, while there will be thirtysomething/fortysomething Ava's, Sophia, Ella's, Amelia's, and Olivia's running around.

 

      Heather and Brandy especially seem like names that just cratered off...I'd be shocked to meet a little girl named Heather or Brandy. They're destined to become the Linda and Susan of the 2020's, i.e. you'll only meet 50-somethings with those names.

 

      My name, Jeremy, was popular in the 1970's and 1980's (a top 30 name), but it fell out of favor, and as a result, I've only met one little boy named Jeremy. Pretty funny.

[methodwriter85]

 

  I don't know why I've never thought about boy's name.  I probably would name them after exes....  Someone help me.

 

     Well, if you want to be trendy, here are the top 100 Boy's Names of 2012:

 

1. Aiden
2. Jackson
3. Ethan
4. Liam
5. Mason
6. Noah
7. Lucas
8. Jacob
9. Jayden
10. Jack
11. Logan
12. Ryan
13. Caleb
14. Benjamin
15. William
16. Michael
17. Alexander
18. Elijah
19. Matthew
20. Dylan
21. James
22. Owen
23. Connor
24. Brayden
25. Carter
26. Landon
27. Joshua
28. Luke
29. Daniel
30. Gabriel
31. Nicholas
32. Nathan
33. Oliver
34. Henry
35. Andrew
36. Gavin
37. Cameron
38. Eli
39. Max
40. Isaac
41. Evan
42. Samuel
43. Grayson
44. Tyler
45. Zachary
46. Wyatt
47. Joseph
48. Charlie
49. Hunter
50. David
51. Anthony
52. Christian
53. Colton
54. Thomas
55. Dominic
56. Austin
57. John
58. Sebastian
59. Cooper
60. Levi
61. Parker
62. Isaiah
63. Chase
64. Blake
65. Aaron
66. Alex
67. Adam
68. Tristan
69. Julian
70. Jonathan
71. Christopher
72. Jace
73. Nolan
74. Miles
75. Jordan
76. Carson
77. Colin
78. Ian
79. Riley
80. Xavier
81. Hudson
82. Adrian
83. Cole
84. Brody
85. Leo
86. Jake
87. Bentley
88. Sean
89. Jeremiah
90. Asher
91. Nathaniel
92. Micah
93. Jason
94. Ryder
95. Declan
96. Hayden
97. Brandon
98. Easton
99. Lincoln
100. Harrison

***

      William, Michael, Daniel, Matthew, James, John, and Andrew are names that just never seem to fall out of favor. I'm also shocked that apparently Jacob wasn't a popular name until the 1980's- I really thought it was a classic like Matthew. Then you've got the Aiden, Jayden, and Braeden brigade.

 

     In general, it seems like people are less trendy with boy names, although you can clearly see how popular Irish names are right now. And I'm thinking the fact that "Jack" is a top 10 name now probably was at least a little bit influenced by Titanic.

Edited October 23, 2013 by methodwriter85

[Ashi]

How's about some gay fic faves - Brett or Brad [the quarterback], sexy farm boi Seth, and Randy (no explanation needed )

 

I don't mean I need help finding names... (though I'm going to have a jock character in my story called Brad, incidentally).  I mean I need someone to fix my CPU, because it's apparently a single core CISC processor.