Sunday, September 13, 2009

The name game

A great resource for baby names is the Social Security Administration. They keep detailed records on the most common 1000 names for the last 35 years or so, and have records for the most common names going back about 100 years. Great if you're curious minded, really interesting if you're trying to find a good name for a kid.

Here were some interesting girl names from 2008, and their ranking.

164: Erin
429: Lyric
575: Aria
583: Amani (also Armani for boy. Just thought it was strange to see
such similar names side-by-side.)
674: Monserrat
791: Precious
893: Deja
927: Ashleigh
937: Tiara
939: Princess

7 comments:

Amber said...

What I really don't like about those lists, though, is the fact that they treat names that sound the same but are spelled differently as totally different names. Ashleigh might be 924 (or whatever it was) but Ashley is probably in the top 10 and Ashlee is probably 79 and AsshLEEEY is probably 229 and... you get my drift. Now I will step down from my soapbox; thank you for listening.

(Are you the type to tell your name pick before the arrival or do you prefer to keep it secret?)

Dr. A said...

Amber, I totally agree with you. I have a spreadsheet to show you sometime about name picking for Erin. I manually grouped each same name/different spelling and re-calculated percentages based on that. (SSA will give either rankings or % babies with that name). Yes, I am that nerdy.

We will keep the name a secret. And considering I didn't like a single name out of the 1000 I just looked at, this might take awhile.

And Ashley finally dropped out of the top 10 list. It's in the top 20 now. The year of my birth, it was #138. I love this website!

Amber said...

I've spent much time searching that site as well, and have been surprised at how user-friendly it actually is. I can't say that I made up any spreadsheets, but when we started looking up Cayden's name, we realized that there are about a billion ways to spell that name and if you add them all up, it's extremely popular. Which I'm not all that thrilled about, but that's okay. Kudos to you for keeping the name a secret--and good luck finding it! :)

Oh, and where are the weekly belly pictures?

Shannon said...

Um, you can't pick Erin, you already used it! and it would be kind of weird to use Ashleigh... and if you pick Precious, I will never speak to you again.

Kathleen said...

it's so addicting isn't it?

have you checked out Name Voyager? Also really really cool and addicting.

Christie said...

Sweet. I totally didn't even think about using this when we were searching for Henry's name. We used The Baby Name Wizard. I just checked, though, and the girl name we have picked out if/when we decide to start trying to have another kid has not been on the top 1000 list in the last nine years. Score! Have you considered Portland as a name?

Mary said...

Didn't like a single name in the top 1000, eh Ash? I guess you'll have to make up a name. PreciousPrincess?