What's in a Name?

Posted July 16, 2008, 1:43 pm in Family by Growing Bolder


You know the saying "any Tom, Dick or Harry?" It has its roots in the idea of an everyman, and many use it when they want to refer to the feeling that anyone could do a given task. For example, if you ask someone if a recipe is difficult to make, the answer might be "nope, any Tom, Dick or Harry can do it."


So why Tom, Dick and Harry? Well, they're some of the most common names used in the baby boomer years. Growing Bolder took a look at census data from the Social Security Administration, and broke it down to the years 1946-1965. Then, we compared them to the most recent list, taken in 2007.

And then, we had a little fun.

For starters, if your name is James, you're in good company! James was the number one choice for new parents between 1946 and 1952. Let's say that again -- the most popular name in the United States, for seven years running.



Robert made a strong showing in 1953, coming in first, but from then, Michael took over the top spot, where it would stay from 1954-1959 and again from 1961-1965. Today, the name Michael remains in the top 20 list, and proves to endure as a favorite for new moms and dads in the United States.



For women, two names stand out as top picks: Linda and Mary. Linda held the number one spot from 1947-1952, finally giving way to Mary, which had been the top choice for parents in 1946, and made a comeback in the years 1953-1960.

Parents started choosing the name Lisa for their daughters in a big way starting in 1962.

Other names that didn't make the top spot still proved popular, hanging onto the Top 20 list over the baby boomer years and beyond. So if you're Robert (the number two most popular name from 1946-1952), John, William, Richard, Charles, Ronald, Donald, George or Paul, you probably found yourself one of many in your classroom. Commiserate with Barbara, Carolyn, Karen, Donna, Brenda and Sandra, because their names also appeared on the top 20 list throughout the baby boomer years.

When the government collects baby names, it does not combine names that sound the same but are spelled differently, or derivatives of the same name. If you take a look at those (Deborah/Debra, Stephen/Steven, Judith/Judy), you will see that some of the names further down on the list may actually have been more popular than those preceding them.

Phew! Now for the fun part! We went to a great Web site, Babynamewizard.com, and started playing around. They have a great tool called the Voyager, which you can use to track the popularity of names over the years.

If you look at the name James, you can see that it had its peak in the late 1930s, early 1940s. It's taken a tumble since then, dropping to the 15th most popular name in 2007.



Linda came into style all of a sudden in the early 1930s, surging to a peak in the late 1930s, but just as quickly seemed to fall out of favor, ranking as the 496th most popular girl's name in 2007.



Taking the opposite view, what names are popular today that barely made a blip in the boomer years? Check out the graphs for names like Madeline, Nathaniel, Abigail and Andrew.



The Social Security Administration also lets you track a name's popularity over the years:








And finally, just for fun, we plugged in GB staffers' names into Babynamewizard.com. Enjoy.



Try plugging in your own name to these Web sites, and see what happens! Then share your thoughts by posting a comment below. Do you have a popular name? Something unique? How did you come up with the names for your own children?



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