Thoughts on "trendiness"

[tunknut.livejournal.com]

What makes a name "trendy"?  
Can a name be trendy without being very common?  
Are there certain names you will always think of as "trendy" regardless of their popularity?
Is trendiness necessarily a bad thing?
If your favorite name that you were planning on using suddenly became very trendy, would you be less likely to use it?
What do you think are the trendiest names right now?  Do you like these names?

I'm just curious about what you all think :)

Comments

[duckduckcaboose.livejournal.com]

What makes a name "trendy"?
~Following any distinct pattern that a lot of other people are following, whether it be a celebrity, your neighbors, etc.

Can a name be trendy without being very common?
Yes, like... someone spelling Gertrude "Ghertroud" or Arthur "AreThorr"... the name might not be popular, but the pattern the parents are using is.

Are there certain names you will always think of as "trendy" regardless of their popularity?
Jamie, Lindsay, Brittany... most two-syllable names ending in an "ee" sound.

Is trendiness necessarily a bad thing?
It can be, when it leads to people spelling normal names in an awful way.

If your favorite name that you were planning on using suddenly became very trendy, would you be less likely to use it?
Maybe, if only because my sister Emily was born in 1991, and I know it can be rough having a popular name.

What do you think are the trendiest names right now? Do you like these names?
The -ayden names, the -adison names, etc. I like Aiden, but I've never liked Madison, Addison, etc. and I don't care much for Brayden, Cayden, Jayden, etc. either.

[charlotteattack.livejournal.com]

I agree!

[laminy.livejournal.com]

What makes a name "trendy"?
- When it's really popular, but not for a very long time; it's sort of a flash-in the pan.

Can a name be trendy without being very common?
- I think that it can. One crappy spelling of Jayden could be uncommon but still trendy.

Are there certain names you will always think of as "trendy" regardless of their popularity?
- Chloe automatically comes to mind, for some reason.

Is trendiness necessarily a bad thing?
- When I have kids, I really don't want to use a popular name, or a name that follows a pattern like Kayden/Aiden/Jayden.

If your favorite name that you were planning on using suddenly became very trendy, would you be less likely to use it?
- Yes. Ruby is moving on up, and if it keeps going, it's going to be so popular by the time I have kids. I wouldn't use it then. Also, Braeden was one of my favourite boy names, until it got so popular.

What do you think are the trendiest names right now? Do you like these names?
- Aurora, and I hate it. Braeden, and I still like it, but it's the only one.

[kitchen-poet.livejournal.com]

I think of trendy as names that are extrememly popular and highly visible in the media for a short period of time.

To me all the surname craze seems pretty trendy.

And, actually, I would have to say it was a bad thing because trendy=fleeting, a craze, temporary. I think someone's name should have more meaning behind it then a temporary celebrity hype.

[tryyingtoevolve.livejournal.com]

To me, trendiness is about the sounds involved and the whole "This didn't exist very much a few years ago, but not it's mega popular." That is, Jayden or something similar. However, I think a name can definitely be trendy without being popular, and popularity doesn't always mean trendiness. For example, the name Rayden is probably not very popular at all; however, if someone was to name their kid that, I'd definitely think it was trendy. However, although the name Elizabeth is very popular, I wouldn't consider it trendy at all because it's ALWAYS been popular and it's nothing new.

I wouldn't use a trendy name like Jayden, Aidan, Madison, etc. but I would definitely still use the name if it was simply more popular than I had hoped. Most of my names come from that "classic" category, so they tend to be slightly more popular than others. However, I don't really care. I wouldn't, however, use one that just popped up out of nowhere and sounded like a five year old's name.

Trendiest names right now:
Aidan, Jayden, Cayden, and the others
Logan
Jackson
Landon
Tristan
Wyatt
Chase
Carter/other last names

Madison
Katelyn
Hayley
Mackenzie
Kylie
McKenna
Riley
Mikayla
Addison
Chloe

[krosp.livejournal.com]

1. Trendy to me is a name that fits in with a current naming fad. Normally the name itself will be quite popular, but it could more be features of the name. It is a trend when someone who pays attention to things like this can go "man there are a lot of babies being born lately with names that have [some identifying feature]. Examples being... ending with -den, having ay in it, starting with K, having Mc, being a surname, being a short and sweet old fashioned name, ending with "anna" or "lyn", swapping Is and Ys, etc.

2. Yes. For example (I can't be bothered checking) let's say that there aren't too many babies born this year called Kyla. If Kayla, Kylie and Karla are all common names, then Kyla is still trendy.

3. I'm not sure, probably that if I have known a name to be trendy, it will never become a normal name again - it might just graduate to "outdated trendy" after a while. Although I might be finding Caitlin less trendy than I used to...

4. Not really. It just puts me off a name personally. Some trends are really bad because they look tacky or give connotations of naming very childishly, others are trendy in a yuppie way, and either way I guess every generation has names that most people use. It's not the worst thing to have a trendy name... especially if it's more just a popular name rather than a name that seems tacky or stupid to a lot of people.

5. Yes, I would be less likely to use it if it became really trendy. It isn't an automatic thing that I can only use a name that is below a certain number on the charts, though, but I would consider it in my final decision.

6. I think Ava is really common, and I'd associate names with similar features to be trendy, such as Ada, Ayla, Ida, Isla, Ivy, Eva, etc. Even though many of these names aren't common, it seems that a lot of people are loving short old fashioned names that have a vowel-consonant-vowel sort of sequence. I do quite like these names but have no plans to use them. Personally I like Anna and might use that. Other names that are trendy but in a more bad sort of way are names that have the spelling changed, I don't like that. I don't like trendy boys' names, such as surnames or -ayden names. I don't like Landon, Owen, Chase, etc either.

[thejoysofjess.livejournal.com]

Trendy to me is when everyone with that name is around a certain age.

Most Jessicas are in their 20s. That's a trendy name.

Christopher, while popular, has stood the test of time and when you think of it, there's no real age that comes to mind.