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Last year’s most popular baby names were Benjamin and Emma, but this year the top boy and girl names could actually be the same. 2015 is looking like the year of the gender-neutral baby names, according to a midyear report by BabyCenter.com. Currently, names like Amari, Karter, Phoenix, Quinn and Reese have been making the largest leaps in popularity. “As usual, baby names are reflecting a larger cultural shift,” says BabyCenter’s Global Editor in Chief Linda Murray. “Millennials are an open-minded and accepting group, and they don’t want their children to feel pressured to conform to stereotypes that might be...

Well, this is a real head-scratcher — not least because if you want a list of the first and last names of Americans, you'd better have either a lot of time and money or work for the NSA. Unfortunately, I don’t fit either description, so I’m going to try to piece together two separate databases — one for first names and one for surnames. But as I’ll explain, those data sets can’t be stitched together so easily. If they could, we’d be able to say that “John Smith” is the third most common full name in America, but in reality...

America Loves Catholicism: As Seen in Place Names Everywhere By: Msgr. Charles PopeThe video below boasts, “America loves Italy” and features a Fiat car driving through American towns with Italian names.If that is the case then America loves Catholicism even more, since thousands of towns and places are named for Catholic saints, themes, and objects. Consider the following:In California: San Diego, San Miguel, San Francisco, San Bernadino, San Clemente, San Luis Obispo, San Jose, San Rafael, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles (aka Nuestra Senora de los Angeles de la Porciuncula), Santa Cruz, Santa Clarita, Sacramento, San...

William and George both appear in the top twenty of most popular boys names in the UK in 2014 (PA) European-wide Christian names were a product of ChristendomsIt seems to be a solid British tradition now: the annual debate about whether Mohammed is now the most popular boy’s name in Britain, or whether it’s Oliver.The issue comes down to whether one counts all spelling variations as one name, in which case Mohammed/Mohammad/Muhammed etc would be number one; or, as others argue, Oliver and Ollie would therefore be added together to take first place.The difference, however, is that Mohammed/Mohammad are variations...

Most people believe that it is up to the woman getting married whether she takes her husband's last name or not - but that kids should generally get their father's name The wedding of Amal Alamuddin to George Clooney in Venice has been one of the most talked about events of 2014. Amal, who is a prominent human rights lawyer in the UK, caused a certain amount of controversy due to her decision to take Clooney's last name as her own. Furthermore, unlike many women with professional careers, she will also professionally be known as 'Amal Clooney' instead of 'Amal...

The most conservative and liberal names in America are Doyle and Natasha. Crowdpac, a nonpartisan group, focuses on how money and policy work in politics. The group scores all donors who have made two or more campaign contributions since 1980. Using that algorithm — and a cut-off of names with at least 1,000 donations made to avoid unusual names and outliers — Crowdpac built a tool to show how conservative or liberal first names are. You can enter your name in this tool here. (For example, “Katherine” is moderately liberal and people with this name are “less likely to contribute...

A SOUTH KOREAN saying claims that a stone thrown from the top of Mount Namsan, in the centre of the capital Seoul, is bound to hit a person with the surname Kim or Lee. One in every five South Koreans is a Kim—in a population of just over 50m. And from the current president, Park Geun-hye, to rapper PSY (born Park Jae-sang), almost one in ten is a Park. Taken together, these three surnames account for almost half of those in use in South Korea today. Neighbouring China has around 100 surnames in common usage; Japan may have as many...

Yesterday, New York City Department of Health revealed that the number one name Black parents applied to their baby girls was Madison, a name historically and traditionally given by White parents. By contrast, the number one boy name was Jayden, often considered a typical “Black name.” The juxtaposition of the contrast is striking. It is no hidden secret that many Blacks in America for decades have struggled with the decision of whether to name their children a traditional African or African American name. The decision is based on how much they want to give away the race of their children...

In 1991, I was preparing to publish my first book, about a year I spent teaching junior high school in Japan. Stephen Birmingham, the author of “Our Crowd” and an acquaintance of my parents, offered to give me a blurb but recommended one change: that I drop the middle initial from my name on the cover. As a 26-year-old, baby-faced writer, I was eager to appear older and more sophisticated, so I ignored him. I’ve regretted it ever since. I thought of that incident this spring when the actress Ann B. Davis from “The Brady Bunch” died at 88. Her...

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The Chicago Blackhawks declined to comment about the Washington Redskins’ loss of trademark protection Wednesday, but an expert said there’s little reason to believe the hockey team’s name and Indian head logo could face similar jeopardy. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office found in a 2-to-1 decision that trademarks covering the Redskins’ name and associated symbols disparaged American Indians, and thus must be canceled under federal law. The team vowed to appeal, noting it had won a similar legal case a decade ago.

Bennett MuraskinJan. 8, 2014 Richard Andree's 1881 map of the Jews of Central Europe. Ashkenazic Jews were among the last Europeans to take family names. Some German-speaking Jews took last names as early as the 17th century, but the overwhelming majority of Jews lived in Eastern Europe and did not take last names until compelled to do so. The process began in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1787 and ended in Czarist Russia in 1844. In attempting to build modern nation-states, the authorities insisted that Jews take last names so that they could be taxed, drafted, and educated (in that order...

(CNN) -- Michael and Jacob, your reign has ended. In 2013, for the first time since 1960, a new name unseated Michael or Jacob as the most popular for newborn boys. That's according to the Social Security Administration, which releases the list of most popular baby names each year. American parents want unique baby names The new king's name? Noah.

Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry has banned 50 names they argue contradict the culture or religion of the Kingdom, according to reports by local media. Parents in the Kingdom will reportedly no longer be able to call their children by names such as Linda, Alice, Elaine or Binyamin (Arabic for Benjamin) after the civil affairs department at the ministry issued a list of the prohibited names. Binyamin is believed in Islam to be the son of Prophet Jacob, but is also the name of the current Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. …

Top IRS officials in Washington, D.C. planned and oversaw the agency’s improper targeting of conservative groups, according to the 72-year old retiring IRS lawyer who will testify Thursday before the House Oversight Committee. Retiring IRS lawyer Carter C. Hull implicated the IRS Chief Counsel’s office, headed by Obama appointee William J. Wilkins, and Lois Lerner, the embattled head of the IRS’ exempt organizations office, in the IRS targeting scandal and made clear that the targeting started in Washington, according to leaked interviews that Hull granted to the Oversight Committee in advance of Thursday’s hearing. Treasury Inspector General J. Russell George...

* * * * The sounds of liberal and conservative names varied, too. For both boys and girls, liberals tended to pick more feminine-sounding choices, such as Liam, Ely and Leila names that include lots of L sounds and soft-A endings, including popular choices Ella and Sophia. Conservatives, on the other hand, tend to pick names with more masculine-sounding Ks, Bs, Ds and Ts, such as Kurt. A couple of famous national political families demonstrate that pattern, Oliver said: The liberal Obamas named their daughters Sasha and Malia, both names heavy on As and Ls, whereas the conservative Palin family...

News Print Article | Email Friend | Reprint Permissions Today we gave names to Gosnell’s abortion victims. Why was this important? by Fr. Frank Pavone Thu May 09, 2013 11:30 EST Comments () Tags: abortion, kermit gosnell This is the Memorial Basket where we placed the certificates with the names of the babies on our Altar in our chapel at Priests for Life. May 9, 2013 (PriestsforLife) - The trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell is about much more than the man himself. In a painful way, it brings America face to face with abortion, which, as the defense argued, is...

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the U.S. Navy had no formal procedure for naming ships. It wasn’t until 1819 that Congress passed an act stating “all of the ships, of the Navy of the United States, now building, or hereafter to be built, shall be named by the Secretary of the Navy.” The secretary has fulfilled this role ever since, even though the passage expressly assigning authority for designating ship names was omitted when the U.S. Code was revised in 1925. In addition to recommendations from Congress and the president, the secretary traditionally has been guided by...

A 15-year-old Icelandic girl has won the right to keep her first name, despite it being "unapproved" by the state. Why do some countries restrict baby names? Parents-to-be often find it hard enough to find a name they both like, let alone one the state might also be in favour of. Bjork Eidsdottir had no idea when, in naming her newborn girl Blaer 15 years ago, she was breaking the law. In the eyes of the authorities Blaer, which means "light breeze", was a male name and therefore not approved. It meant that for her entire childhood, Blaer was known...

Living and working the African American Catholic Community I have been subject to some time with names that are often unpronounceable. It is a controversial practice even in the Black community for parents to name their children all sorts of crazy, made-up names that are often intentionally misspelled.DeQuanna, Sharkeisha, LaDarrius, Shamyra, Marketta, Shontella, LaRochelle, Shandrika, Charmonique, Myosha, LaKeisha, DeQuan, Rhondella, Raviona, Rominthia, Tomika, LaVenia, Trishela, LaTasha, ABCDE, Tyeisha, Mootron, Knoshon, Keyshawn, Tarquisha, Q’J'Q’Sha, Laquintas, Jamarcus, JoNathans, et al.I trip over this especially at Baptisms when I am supposed to solemnly pronounce the name of the child. Even after the irritated...