Expecting a baby and looking for one of those cool baby names?. How about the name Emily? If sheer popularity is anything to go by, then Emily is pretty darn cool. In fact, it’s been number one for an amazing ten years. But before you settle on Emily (if you’re looking for a girl’s name), you may want to consider Lisa. Or Brittany, Heather , or Amanda.
For most of the 1960s, Lisa was the # 1 girl’s name, much as Emily is today. From 1962 to 1969 Lisa was # 1 each year, and it remained in the top three until 1972. But from 1972 through today, Lisa lost ground steadily, registering a new low at # 493 in 2005. In other words, Lisa is off the map. What was once the coolest name in America is now ignored by almost everyone.
Lisa is not alone in its fall from stardom. Heather, the third most popular girl’s name of the mid-1970s, comes in at # 300 today. Amanda, a mainstay of the girls’ top three for most of the 1980s, has slumped to # 80, and is trending its way right out of the Top 100. And most recently Brittany, one of the coolest girl’s names of the early 90s, is # 278, heading for the baby name retirement home (at least until it’s cool again).
The point of all these statistics? Cool names, like any other fashion, are only in until they’re out. And, sooner or later, most names that enjoy a fast rise to the top suffer an equally fast exit. To see how name fads have come and gone, you’ll find some fun tools at the Social Security Administration’s Popular Baby Names
section of its website. You’ll also find the top 1000 baby names, and the top 100 baby names broken out by state, at Baby Names Garden.
Boys’ names also rise and fall with the times, although the peaks and valleys are flatter than for girls’ names. Boys names are a bit more staid. Jeffrey, a top 10 name for about five years in the early 1960s, is down to # 171 today. Brian, a top 10 favorite in the 1970s, landed at # 63 in 2005. And Robert, a top 10 certainty for almost four decades, from the 1950s through the 1980s, is now a humdrum # 39.
Whether for a boy or a girl, if you’re considering a trendy baby name, think about how that name will be perceived in twenty years, when junior heads off to college. Fashions change, and today’s Emily or Jacob may be tomorrow’s Heather or Jeffrey. And finally, before you settle on one of today’s “cool” names, remember the cautionary tale of Donna. A top 10 name for a decade, from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, the name Donna is barely considererd today. It has slipped more than 800 places, all the way to # 830. Come to think of it, maybe it’s time for Donna to make a comeback.
Neil Street is co-publisher of Baby Names Garden, a website dedicated to helping prospective parents pick the right name for their baby. He is also the editor of the Celebrity Baby Names Blog. He can be reached at Neil Street
