Thursday, May 19, 2011

What's In A Name

I was reading a blog this morning (sightingsat60) and it was talking about how names have changed in popularity.  In the decade I was born my name Janet was the 21st most popular name in the country.  By the next decade it had moved up to 20th, but in the 60's it had slipped to 47th, by the 70's to 125th, and now it is 894th.  I wasn't named after anyone and when I asked my Mother she said that she just liked the name, well I guess not many Moms do now.
The most popular names for girls the year I was born were:
Mary, Linda, Patricia, Barbara, Carol, Sandra, Nancy, Susan,  Sharon, Judy,Carolyn, Donna, Betty, Karen, Kathleen, Margaret,  Shirley, Diane and Joyce.  And in that list you'll find my two sister's names, Judy and Susan, my best friend, Carolyn, my cousin, Patricia, and two of my aunts, Shirley and Betty.
The blog went on to say that if I'd had the most popular name of my decade, Mary, my daughter would have been named Lisa (most popular 60's name)  and my granddaughter would have been Jessica.  Well my daughter is April and I don't have a granddaughter, just a grand cat named Yogi.  April was the 139th most popular name in the 60's and is now the 378th , but I like it much better than Lisa or Jessica.
All this information came from the Social Security Administrations web site, have a look at your name.
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4 comments:

  1. Loo xx from Jumbles and PompomsMay 19, 2011 at 12:18 PM

    Interesting how names come and go. I'm checking out that website.

    ReplyDelete
  2. LynMay 19, 2011 at 2:42 PM

    I can't believe Mary and John were so popular for so long!
    interesting.
    xxx

    ReplyDelete
  3. RowanMay 20, 2011 at 2:09 AM

    No idea what position my name is on the list but pretty low I should imagine. I'm actually called Dorothy which was my mother's, great grandmother's and gt-gt-aunt's name. Gt Gt Aunt Dorothy was born in 1810 so it goes back a long way.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mac n' JanetMay 20, 2011 at 5:32 AM

    Rowan, as of 2006 your name was 982nd on the list, but in the decade I was born in it was 20th.

    ReplyDelete

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