Here’s what a Name Fad looks like:
Between 1965 and 1985, everyone named their daughter Jennifer, and now, no one does. So Jennifer was officially a Name Fad. What this means for all the Jennifers of the world is that while they’ve enjoyed spending most of their life so far with a cute, hip, young girl name, they are on their way to having a Your Mom’s Friend’s Name. A Your Mom’s Friend’s Name happens when lots of middle-aged people have a name that no young or old people have.
A few decades after that, Jennifer can look forward to having an Old Lady Name, which happens when a name belongs to lots of old ladies, but no one under 75.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s a fact that Jennifer is irreparably branded with her generation forever. Of course, Jennifer is just one of many such names.
In 30 years, the names Natalie, Chelsea, Samantha, and Lindsay will sound how Nancy, Cheryl, Susan, and Linda do today. And in 60 years, the names Ethan, Cody, Brandon, and Matthew will be Earl, Chester, Bernard, and Melvin. These are all just Name Fads—only difference is when they happened.
If you want to know if your name is a fad, type it into the Voyager. If it looks like a witch’s hat, it’s a fad.
So what’s hot right now?
Sophia and Emma in particular are not just sweeping the US, but the whole Western world.
Sophia (or Sofia) is in the Top 6 baby names in Italy, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Argentina, and Chile. Emma is Top 6 in Ireland, Finland, Norway, Canada, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. Emma’s popularity is also clearly caused by a wave of naming after great-grandmothers, another way people sometimes name a child:
To stress how much more popular the biggest names used to be, Mary was six times as popular in 1880 as either Sophia or Emma is now.
And looking at the other top names of 2012 emphasizes just how dead fads are once they’re over:
So to be clear, Gunner and Gael are currently more common baby names than Phillip or Scott. And Lyric, Paisley, and Brooklynn with two n’s are all more common than Lindsay, Caitlin, and Erica. We’re still close enough in time to the red name fads that they seem really common, but they’re actually just fads. And they’re over.
Some other odd fads:
Demographic-related fads
Charlotte has a weird history.
After dying out as a popular name for Southern women a few decades ago, Charlotte has returned as a popular name in the most liberal states. This graph shows popularity in each state over time, with the states going from most conservative on the top to most liberal on the bottom.
So there are a bunch of middle-aged conservative women and liberal toddlers out there named Charlotte.
The only time I ever saw a dead name return in fewer than 80 years is when it caught on with a totally different demographic (Jeremiah is another one of these, which after losing steam in the early nineties in the Northwest, has now gotten hot in the Deep South).
We stole a lot of the hottest current names from Utah.
Here’s the history of the name Brooke:
Utah got into the name in the early 70s by itself, and then suddenly in 1980, everyone else decided to jump on board. The same phenomenon goes for Natalie, Aubrey, Riley (m), Jaxon, Paisley, Braxton, and Lacey. (Yes, those are all popular names right now.) Not sure who made Utah the name prophecy state, but that’s what it apparently is.
We also stole Evelyn from California.
Evelyn’s Popularity Over Time
The popular girl name Reagan is for Republicans.
Same goes for Braxton, Brooklyn, and Jaxon.
Sophia was originally for the richest states, before it got so popular everyone got into it. Sofia is still for rich states though:
Paige is only for Northerners.
Here’s a map showing where Paige was popular in 2008.
Same goes for Alexa, Kathleen, and Nicole.
Meanwhile, Victor is mainly found in the Southwest, Colton in the middle of the country, Caroline in the East, and both Adrianna and Dominic are mostly contained to New Mexico.
Fads around specific letters or sounds
Names starting with a vowel were hottest now and 100 years ago, while many names starting with consonants were biggest in the middle of the century.
Vowel Names
Consonant Names
And F names are for old people.
Names starting with ERI, LA, and the sound CR all went through fads in the 1970s and 80s. They’re all over now.
There’s a current fad going on for names starting in IS.
People used to copy the president.
I’ll leave you today with this puzzle.
NOW WATCH: We Can Guess Your Name Based On What State You Live In
SEE ALSO: Here's The Original Meaning Of 100 Common English Names