Offsprung

An irreverent, inclusive, alternative parenting community

The latest top baby names are in, via this article on PBS or directly from the Social Security Administration, and I guess I should not be surprised how much pop culture influences the choice of baby names. From vampires to glee clubs, football players to reality TV stars, ideas come to us from the tabloids and tubes.

What influenced your choices? Family, a list and some darts, rock-paper-scissors? At the SSA site above you can see how your choice ranks. Our kids get in at just over 500 and 700, respectively.

Views: 11

Tags: Glee, Obama, Twilight, pop culture

Comment by Mamawho on June 23, 2010 at 6:07am
My name doesn't even make the list! GirlWho's is in the 300s.

We decided we didn't want to use a family name - mostly because they're all redneck double names, like mine. We just looked in a name book and found ones we liked and then didn't talk about it for a while. There was very little discussion, really. We both liked the same name and its meaning. Our main criteria was that the name could be formal or informal and mature with her, so she's not a 95 year-old Miffy. DaddyWho and I both have to spell our names for everyone, including our last names because there is an "ow" sound made by an "au," which confuses the hell out of people. We wanted our child's name to be one with a standard spelling. Oh, it is, but no one can freaking spell it. And some assholes like to tell us that we spell it wrong. It's Madeleine. I've seen it as Matalynne, Madalyn, Madaline, Madelin - but no one ever lands on Madeleine. Too French? Dunno.

I narrowly escaped being named for either Mickey Thompson tires (father is a funny car driver) or Rita, because my mom loves "Lovely Rita." I'm not a Rita.
Comment by Gumbo Momma on June 23, 2010 at 6:46am
None of our kids' names made it into the top 200 even. Which is fine with me. All of our kids' names have a little meaning to us. The Girl's we found in a baby book under "creative power names" and it also happened to be a Russian/scandanavian version of the hub's mother's name. We aren't of Russian or Scandanavian descent or anything. We just like the way they sound. Her middle name is VERY french (my heritage) and came from her godmother. Tim's (husband) grandmother HATES her names. HATES it. The boy was named after the hubby's grandfather and is a family name, but a very cool family name. His middle name is the same as my father's. The new baby's name took me awhile to settle on, but we finally decided after months of fiddling around with names. My best friend is standing in as her godmother and had suggested the name of a very good friend of hers who passed away when they were very young. When she first suggested it I was a little unsure, but the more I said it, the more I liked it.

I love our kids' names because they aren't too common or too ridiculous: We have a Nadia, Calvin, and Helena(Lena for short) respectively. And yes: Calvin has like 4 Hobs-es. Our good friend, also named Hobs, has supplied him with several!
Comment by kanachick on June 23, 2010 at 7:16am
Well I have one in the top ten but he was named after my grandfather so who knew a name would rise in popularity in 90 years. We use a less common nickname for him but it is still a bit of a pain in the ass since I feel my use of the name is valid (with him being named after his great grandfather) and everyone else who picked it just cause they liked it is a hanger-on and a wannabe.

Oh..and we picked the other two just cause we liked them. Snort.
Comment by Gumbo Momma on June 23, 2010 at 9:16am
Kanachick- Don't you just hate that? I feel the same about the boy's middle name. It's my father's, but I still feel almost like I have to explain that to people so they don't confuse me with the crazies who picked the name because of fandom
Comment by Herasmus B. Dragon on June 23, 2010 at 9:41am
We have #3 and #195.

I wanted names from a Spanish tradition, to at least hold on to their ancestry. Plus Hubby's last name rolls better off the toungue if it's proceeded by a name ending in a vowel. Both times I scoured Spanish Baby Name lists, and we just said them out loud several times before writing them on a list if accepted. By 6 months we had Big O's name decided, with her middle name (itself #110) came about a month before birth. For Ebay I went back to those same lists and we did the same thing. Since we didn't know her sex for sure until she was born we had two names at the top of the lists but we hadn't chosen for sure, other than to know she'd be Felix if she was a boy. When the doctor talked to Hubby before I came out of anesthesia, Hubby said "Her name's Ebay". When I came to, the nurse asked what I wanted to call her, and said "Ebay". So I guess that name had stuck in both of our minds. Three days later we settled on her middle name Hope (#233) because it is the middle name for the women on my dad's side of the family, and it also signaled our hope for her well-being. We briefly thought about Esperanza, Spanish for Hope, but I nixed that because it would be two E's in a row.

I doubt that we'll ever have a third child, but Felix is still on my list. Maybe a dog someday.
Comment by Mommy Monster on June 23, 2010 at 10:19am
The girl is #488 (I think). We picked it because it's a lovely name that everyone has heard (so it wasn't like "Huh? what?") but we didn't know anyone with that name....Meredith. Meri for short.

We also picked "Jack" which again, was completely unused in our area of the country at the time. Then we moved to Atlanta where every third boy is named Jack or Jackson. Sigh.

I lobbied hard for Miles (after Miles Davis), but lost.
Comment by mcglory13 on June 23, 2010 at 10:27am
Smudge's name cracked the top 100 this year. My name was 1 the year I was born, and I went through life having my last name or initial or whatever attached. I didn't want that for him. We picked a name that was a traditional name, but wasn't super popular (we thought). So of course there was another kid in his preschool class with the same name. Sigh.
Comment by Kiwi on June 23, 2010 at 10:33am
I am a big Weezer fan so 1st Kid's name was easy. In the year he was born it was 437 and is now 379. He was the only person in his elementary with that name (it has about 1,000 students in grade K-5).

2nd Kid was more a challenging because The Companion and I could not agree on anything. We looked through like a dozen baby books before we found a first name we agreed on. Her name was number 78 the year she was born and it is now 82.
Comment by DLBK on June 23, 2010 at 11:27am
My son's name is in the top 50 for 2008. I've always liked his name and always thought I'd name my son that name.
If I ever have a daughter I'd want to name her Isabella, but I don't like that it's the most popular name on the list.
Comment by Herasmus B. Dragon on June 23, 2010 at 11:53am
DLBK- Stupid vampires.

Comment

You need to be a member of Offsprung to add comments!

Join Offsprung



blog advertising is good for you>

© 2013   Created by Offsprunger.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service