Strollerderby

I don't understand how choosing a less-common name for your child indicates you are a narcissist. I'm not familiar with these authors' work, but it sounds like they are pathologizing a pretty innocuous behavior. Stand in line with everyone else and be predictable, or you have a disorder! (Also, if you are diagnosing narcissism by adherence to a list of most popular names, you'll find yourself diagnosing many cultural and ethnic minorities simply because they don't use the dominant culture's names.)

i think they are leaving out another reason why less kids have common names. with the internet and access to so much more information, we can easily find out what the common names are. back in the 50s, 60s, 70s and into the 80s and 90s, parents may not have realized they were going along with a trend until after naming their kids. my mom always says she had never heard anyone with my name before she named me, but then afterwards, there seemed to be so many. without an official list, like the one from social security, to consult with, parents may have thought they were being more unique than they actually were.

I can explain it.  You can't name your kid after anyone you (or your partner) ever dated, right?  So if every man has a Jennifer in his past (and they all do), there can't be any baby Jennys.  Ditto Mike, Steve, and Dave--poof!  Gone.

I came very close to being a Jennifer too, until my mom's cousin, to whom she is very close, had a baby first and named her Jennifery Lynn (exactly what my name would have been).  It would have been wierd for them to have kid w/the same name so my mom started shopping around and came up with my unique name (from the book Dr. Zhivago).  I think you are right on with the Jennifer Syndrome - it certainly effected our choices for kid names - "something easy to pronounce but there won't be 4 of them in their class" was our guiding principle.

I was one of 8 "Katie M"s in my school--which only boasted 500 kids total (grades 7-12).  My husband is a Matt, his brothers are Scott and Mike.  Growing up, he had 2 other families in their neighborhood with 3 boys named Matt, Scott and Mike.

Which is why we wanted something unusual, but not weird, for the kids.  (Well, the middle names are a stretch, but their first names are "normal").

There are so many more cultural influences in the United States now.  Like bean's dad mentioned, with a greater diversity in population, their will be a greater diversity in names.  Hence the more traditional "Jennifer" will start losing ground to the more "exotic" "Milagros."  People tend to not name from the Bible anymore, either, which was all the rage in the 1880s.  So between an increased pool of "English" names, coupled with the rise of "exotic" names, we are now experiencing a perfect storm of uncommon baby names.

I think picking an uncommon name for one's child is a far cry from being a narcissist.  I think it is more the parents' realization that there are more names out there to choose from, so why should the kid be one of a million Jennifers?

I'm also interested to know the names of Twenge's and Campbell's children (if they have any).

km, if you think Biblical names are out, I have to guess you aren't Jewish.  At our preschool, there's an Isaac, a Noah, and an Elijah in every class.  

Renee, I like your explanation about the past-dating experiences thing. Insightful! =)

I wonder if the authors took spelling differences into account? I know that some lists don't, so "Aidan" and "Aiden" and "Aydin" are considered different names. I almost have a hard time believing the "9 percent" thing otherwise; it seems that there are so many Emmas and Aidans running around!

A pet peeve of mine is people who give their child a popular name but insist on spelling it differently (read, "weirdly"). Madison becomes Mattisun (I read this one on either the NYTimes or babble)? I feel more sorry for that girl than if she had "just" a popluar name!

Jennifer is really a sign of a trend towards originality.  The spike for Jennifer is pretty extreme. And once it hit number one, it plunged quite quickly.

Just before it became a monster hit, Jennifer was highly unusual in America.  (I can’t say how popular this Cornish name was in England.)  

I’m sure boomer parents did NOT choose Jennifer because they wanted their kids to fit in with the sea of Jennifers.  It’s likely that they were trying to do what parents are still doing.  They tried to strike a balance by finding a traditional, established name that was also fresh and fashionable.  

Parents in the 70's didn’t have the internet to research statistics.  Without this data, we tend to assume if we don’t know anyone with that name, it’s rare.  We also assume that the popular names for our generation have continued to be popular. Jennifer is less popular than current hits like Olivia.  ( I had no idea Olivia was popular when my sister picked it.  I just thought it sounded pretty.)

I would name a girl Jennifer.  It’s a new classic.  And just as pretty as it ever was.  

Old testament biblical names are big hit amongst non-Jews.  When you've never known anyone named Asher it sounds amazingly unsual.  And for Jews, many of these OT biblical names have been hidden in previous generations by parents who were wary of making their kids sound too Jewish.  

I see an even mix of Emmas and Hannahs, Haydens and Ethans.  However, we are not immune to style.  I don’t see a lot of Haddassahs or Liebens.

I have no problem with uncommon names or ethnic names.  I dislike misspelled names though.  They don't seem unique or creative to me, just wrong.  Like, poor kid, their parent couldn't even spell their name right.  I also highly dislike the increasingly common use of ys.  It makes everyone seem like teen witches or wannabe pop stars.  

I'm a Jennifer with a daughter named Emma. We didn't realize how popular Emma was when we chose that name. Only one of the names on our short list was not a classic name. And as popular as Emma is, my daughter has been the only Emma in her class every year except 1 so far. But there are 3 Bens in her class this year.

Renee--My kids are Elijah, Gideon and Lukas.  And no, we're not Jewish.

9 of the top ten names for boys and girls are Jewish (and therefore Biblical) in origin.

boys: jacob (#1), michael (#2), Ethan (#3), Joshua (#4), Daniel (#5), matthew (#10)

girls: Madison (#4 son of Matthew), Abigail (#8), Elizabeth (#9)

I think, maybe the unusual name could make people more easy to rememmber their baby.....

I think it is easier to remember common baby names. unusual baby names are sometimes so out of the ordinary, that you forget it.