Posted on 01/09/2004 7:07:16 PM PST by VeritatisSplendor
The Top 20 Most Popular Baby Names
For the first time in more than a decade, the year's most popular baby name for boys is not Biblical. Move over Michael and Matthew and make room for Aidan, Jaden, and Caden--the top three boys' names for 2003, according to BabyNames.com.
Meanwhile, Madison has hung on for another year as the top name for girls, which as near as anyone can figure comes from the 1984 movie "Splash," starring Daryl Hannah in the role of a mermaid named Madison.
Top 20 boys' names:
Aidan/Aiden/Aden
Jaden/Jayden
Caden/Kaden
Ethan
Caleb
Dylan
Jacob
Jordan
Logan
Hayden
Connor
Ryan
Morgan
Cameron
Andrew
Joshua
Noah
Matthew
Addison
Ashton
Top 20 girls' names:
Madison
Emma
Abigail
Riley
Chloe
Hannah
Alexis
Isabella
Mackenzie
Taylor
Olivia
Hailey
Paige
Emily
Grace
Ava
Aaliyah
Alyssa
Faith
Brianna
BabyNames.com compiles this annual ranking of the top 20 most popular baby names using the favorite name lists created on the Web site by more than 100,000 expectant parents.
The shift in the choice of boys' names is really quite notable. "Traditionally, you see more of a fluctuation and creativity in girls' names, but this is the first year we have seen such a big change in the boys' name list," admitted Jennifer Moss, a senior partner with BabyNames.com.
"In the past 20 years, Celtic and English names--such as Ashley, Caitlyn, and Brianna--have been extremely popular for girls," adds Moss. "And now that trend is entering the boys' list with Aidan, Dylan, Logan, and Connor--a huge break from the usual trend of Biblical names like Michael and Jacob. We think as names become uni-gender for girls, parents are taking more risks and being more creative and unique with naming their boys."
Used to be a very common name among American Jews-- it was an attempt to Anglicize the Hebrew name Chaim, meaning "life."
Shanda is "SHAME" in Yiddish.
Dylan is an Irish (Northern) name and is not so unusual. In Scotland a "d" is added--"Dyland."
Not a good name: "Schande" (pronounced more or less the same) means "disgrace" in German.
"Delilah" also not a good idea. Apparently it means "amorous" or "flirtatious" -- or worse in -- Hebrew.
Seems like a lot of these unconventional names can be traced back to Celtic or Hebrew roots, though it's not clear how legitimate that is. People may like a combination of sounds and use it as a name. Then babynames.com identifies it with a similar word in a foreign language and gives it legitimacy.
In some European countries, the name parents give a child has to be registered in a list of acceptable names. But American soap operas brought a wave of strange names to some European communities in the '80s and '90s. Some of these names can be kind of low class thing, but the basic mechanism's not so very different from the waves of Jennifers and Heathers in the last generation.
It truly was a "shame" that I wasn't thirty years younger because she was a real babe.
It is also a "disgrace" that God gave so many physical gifts to one girl while leaving others with a bare cupboard.
Johannes Sebastian Bach had the same idea. He had seven sons, I think it was, and he named them all Johannes.
There may just be something in a name, because all of J.S. Bach's sons were succesfull musicians and composers.
Actually, JS Bach didn't name his last, and least, son Johannes, perhaps because he ran out of middle names. His last son was named PDQ Bach. PDQ was moderately successfull, perhaps because of the family name, but he was a terrible composer.
PDQ is the writer of such works as "The 1712 Overture", "Prelude to Einstein on the Fritz" and "The Preachers of Crimetheus". Who could ever forget PDQ's opera "Iphigenia in Brooklyn"?
My Father wanted to name me Juanita and I am glad they didn't.
With the slight amplification that Hillary is wildly popular with the Planned Barrenhood set.
Shanda is a nice name. Better than Juanita. Much better than Monica. Sounds like your mother did what a lot of parents are trying to do -- pick a name that's distinctive and acceptable and not find out later that all the other parents picked the same name.
Schande/Shande does have bad connotations in German and Yiddish, but so does Tod (death). But then, German names sound funny to us as well. I'd give examples but some German last names are obscene in English.
Hahahhhaaaaa!!!!!
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