The king is dead: Noah replaces Jacob as No. 1 name for boys

Every year I find this list more interesting than I probably should.

Jacob had been king since 1999. Before that, it was Michael in every year but one since 1954. This is a real dynasty-ender here.

http://news.yahoo.com/baby-names-noah-ends-jacobs-14-run-top-122221855--politics.html

Sophia stays No. 1 for girls, but that top spot changes every few years.

The full year-by-year top five, which explains why every girl I dated, befriended or had a crush on in high school and college was named Jennifer.

http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/top5names.html

 

Sophia is interesting. I, and I'm sure most others on here, see to a lot of names looking through sports rosters while covering games. I can think of only one Sophia out of hundreds (maybe thousands) of girls over the last 15 years. I always thought that was a dated name -- I guess because Golden Girls.

Sophia sure beats Brittany or Ashley, though.

 

One wonders how parents can creatively spell Noah in the name of being unique and then take offense to having it misspelled in the paper.

 

I'd like to see how many of the Sophias have an older brother or sister who watches Disney Jr.

 

I thought that too, and I'm sure that's some of its staying power, but the name hit No. 1 in 2011 and the show didn't debut until a year later.

I think it's more that an enormously high concentration of Latina girls are named that, so if the rest of the population is split about the same as always, the one in-favor name in Latin culture can rise to the top pretty easily. Probably explains Isabella ranking consistently in the top five as well.

 

No-uh

 

My son has a boy named Noa in his kindergarten class. Then again, we named our son Jakob, so we are in a lesser position to throw stones regarding spelling of first names.

 

Coming up on the outside ...

Social Security also charts the fastest-rising names each year. These names may not be in the top 10 or even the top 100, but they moved up more spots than any other.

For girls, the runaway winner was Daleyza, which jumped a whopping 3,130 spots, to No. 585. Daleyza is the name of the young daughter of Larry Hernandez, a singer who stars in a Spanish-language reality TV show called "Larrymania."

For boys, the fastest rising name was Jayceon, which jumped 845 spots, to No. 206. Two hip hop artists are named Jayceon. One simply goes by the name Jayceon. The other, Jayceon Terrell Taylor, is a rapper who goes by the stage name The Game.

 

There used to be a thread on here filled with stupidly spelled names. It was one of my favorites.

A Facebook friend was soliciting the masses to help name his daughter a year or so ago (Yes, he is what is wrong with Facebook, to a hilarious degree). His initial suggestion was some horridly spelled version of a normal name. I offered the advice that, hey, do whatever you want, but realize now that people will spell it wrong her entire life, and may mispronounce it on a regular basis. If that's something they're willing to accept, great, but don't be surprised. My fiance's name is spelled stupid and I know it's always bothered her a little that people always get it wrong.

I got absolutely shouted down by the rest of the commenters. It was hilarious. They were saying all the stereotypical stuff, "special spellings will make her unique!!!" "People won't get it wrong. They'll know she's different!!!!"

Ugh.

(As I was posting this I went back and tried to find this comment, with no success, but Jesus this guy is a bad Facebooker. They ended up naming the daughter Raegan before she was born, using this constantly on Facebook, as in:

"Fell asleep With Tiffany in my arms and a hand on her belly, so Raegan got some cuddle action too. I slept great and now I'm at work at a job I love. Please don't kill me anyone but Happy Monday!"

Imagine about four of those a week, every week. It's car wreck Facebooking, in that I cringe but I can't look away or un-friend.

Eventually they decided they didn't like Raegan, so they changed it when the baby was actually born.)

 

Pilot, I wonder if your friends ended up on this list. The amazing thing here is not that someone named their kid these but that FIVE DIFFERENT SETS OF PARENTS chose to, the minimum number required to be on the list:

Boys: Clever, Klever, Furious, Happy, Boulder, Colorado, Zurich, Chevelle, Subaru ,Pacer, Tripper, Trotter, Edge, Gatsby, Hawkeye, Kubrick, Machiavelli, Rambo, Rodman, Spartacus, Zevon, Anchor, Bison, Obsidian, Son, Swade, Vice, Jaxzyn, Jaxxin, Kaelob, Acxel, Doak, Keno, Relic, Deking.

Girls: Fancy, Happy, Icy, Shiny, Skylit, Snowy, Sweet, Crosslyn, Gatlynn, Kenzingtyn, Mandalynn, Oakland, Portlynn, Sierraleone, Icesis, Jazzman, Fergie, Gunner, Hermon, Moe, Moxxi, Pennylane, Avamonroe, Kayleeonna, Cattalaya, Bayleen, Camaro, Ransom, Tuba, Zeppelin, Amyracle.

 

Gneau-uh.

 

Zeppelin? For a girl? Really?