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The name game

Posted at 12:01 PM on May 10, 2011 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Surveys and trivia

Given my general lack of knowledge and interest in popular culture that appeals to people of child-bearing age, I'm generally unaware of what leads people to pick out names for babies these days. All I know is nobody names their kids "Bob" anymore and I'm not sure we're better off because of it.

The Social Security Administration released the top names for Minnesota babies today. Here are the top 20.

**Popularity for top 100 names in Minnesota for births in 2010**
Rank	Male name	Number of males	Female name	Number of females
1	Mason	406	Ava	384
2	Ethan	343	Olivia	375
3	William	332	Sophia	372
4	Owen	322	Isabella	316
5	Logan	315	Emma	302
6	Jack	299	Abigail	266
7	Samuel	297	Ella	259
8	Jacob	296	Addison	246
9	Jackson	283	Grace	212
10	Carter	273	Emily	200
11	Benjamin	268	Avery	198
12	Noah	262	Chloe	196
13	Evan	261	Elizabeth	192
14	Gavin	255	Lillian	192
15	Alexander	248	Lily	180
16	Henry	248	Amelia	175
17	Isaac	234	Anna	172
18	Liam	230	Evelyn	170
19	Andrew	224	Claire	169
20	Caleb	224	Alexis	161

Some names stand the test of time better than others. My twin brother's name is William. And there he is at #3. Robert is barely on the list at #86Jack is a great name and it fairly represents the old-timers. Henry does, too, although I'm not sure why. Nothing against Henry but when I think of Henry I think of this:

Girls' names honor the past, and have in Minnesota for some time. Gone are Brittany and Jennifer, while Abigail, Olivia, and Emily remain the favorites. Ten years ago, Emily was the most popular name in the state.

That's too bad for Emily, says Jennifer Griffin, author of the book, "Bring Back Beatrice." Name a kid Emily, she says, and your kid will spend her childhood with a last initial. "I am nobody's only Jennifer," Griffin told the Chicago Tribune. "I can never call somebody and say, 'Hi, this is Jen,' except for my husband."

She should've been named Bob.

Comments (6)

"Given my general lack of knowledge and interest in popular culture that appeals to people of child-bearing age..."

Now Bob, Picasso was still playing the " I suppose we should come up with a name" game at the tender age of 70. :-)

Posted by Jim Shapiro | May 10, 2011 12:59 PM

For the record I know baby Bob born last year, so it's there, it's just rare... I find it interesting that 10 of the male names end in "m" or "n" and 9 female names end with an "a". And my own 2 year old twins fit this profile, but none of these names...And 15 of the girl names start with a vowel.

Posted by Mary | May 10, 2011 1:56 PM

I grew up with a few other Susans, but there are enough nicknames for us we never had to resort to initials.

I named my son Henry 10 years ago after a favorite great-uncle. I never thought his name would break the top 20. Although he is still the only Henry in his grade.

Posted by Susan | May 10, 2011 2:03 PM

Not only am I a Jennifer, but I am a Jennifer from Minnesota with a common Scandanavian last name. That's caused me to spend my life not only with a last initial, but with a middle one as well.

Posted by Jennifer | May 10, 2011 4:04 PM

I desperately wanted to name my youngest (now 18) Catherine. My husband nixed it. He wanted Ashley. As you can tell, we were faaar apart.

She ended up Sarah. And on her 10-12 year old soccer team, there were 5 variations of Catherine but no other Sarah. IOh, and two Emilies.

Posted by Cara | May 10, 2011 4:24 PM

I've got a great name. I know a couple people with it (though people younger than me it is more popular) and everyone has heard of it, but I'm the only Kassie around most of the time.

The hard part is the damn spelling. I go by Kassie, with a K. That's a little different. But my real name is Kasandra. That's with a K and only 1 s. My email address has Kasandra in it, but people spell it wrong, or try to send to Kassie, all the time. It bounces back. And they blame me for it.

My name was spelled with 2 Ss in school until the 3rd grade. It was spelled with 2 Ss on my HealthPartners card until I was at least 25 and Hennepin County recently spelled it wrong when assigning me the sole ownership of my home.

In other words, spell your kids name traditionally and consistently. It will benefit everyone.

Posted by Kassie | May 11, 2011 1:54 PM