Popularity Trend in a Sibset

[makeitstopjamie.livejournal.com]

So I was playing the game and I noticed something interesting in the popularity of my sibset:
Melinda Sue (137, -) 1985
Rebecca Ann (26, 222) 1988
Zachary Anthony (12, 18) 1994

My parents have said that wouldn't have used Zachary if they had known it was so popular (he has like six in his grade and a few friends with the same name). And this is also interesting if I had been a boy I would have been Christopher, my sister would have been Brian, and my brother would have been Mallory. I guess my parents just have popular tastes when it comes to boy names.

Comments

[makeitstopjamie.livejournal.com]

I agree. There's nothing wrong with popular names. It just gets a little strange when you encounter so many people with the same name. I think my parents would have chosen something else because there are so many Zacharys his age, not because the popularity made the name bad. If that makes any sense.

[jeweledvixen.livejournal.com]

I agree that there is nothing wrong with liking names that are popular. Some names are popular because they are great names, classic names. As long as your parents aren't going with trendy, misspelled, made-up names, it's fine. I like all the names in your sibset.

[lind-saay.livejournal.com]

I think it's a common trend, though. People tend to really like the traditional-sounding boy names. Obviously, that's not always the case, but look at the top 10-20 names over the last 100 years or so. There are a lot of boy names (James, John, William, etc.) that show up EVERY SINGLE YEAR. But honestly, most of the girl names fluctuate CONSTANTLY. So some years, parents who like really traditional names might like something in the top 10, but if they have a second daughter 5 or so years later, their favorite name might be, like, #597 or something. Generally, though, I find most parents liking traditional sounding boy names and more unique sounding girl names. I think people take more risks with their daughters names, because there's this huge double standard: girls can have funky/weird names and it's not that big of a deal, but if a boy has anything slightly weird about his name, everyone FREAKS OUT. (ie, look at gender-neutral names, like Casey, Morgan, Riley, etc. The second these names start being common on girls, they drop dramatically for boys, but most people have no problem with a girl being given a traditional male name like Logan or Riley, or even Ryan.)

[krosp.livejournal.com]

My brother (born 1990) was going to be Rebecca Ann!

[how-obscure.livejournal.com]

My brothers' names are almost exact opposites of each other in popularity. One is (141, 25) and the other is (25, 172). I thought that was pretty weird when I discovered it.