It’s All About Tradition: Baby Boy Names
Posted by admin on August 2nd, 2009Congratulations on your new baby boy. And what did you say you were going to call him?
Seriously though if you live in America then the chances are that the name you choose will have some form of biblical background. If, like myself, you come from someplace like Ireland then names will have a more national favor – my name is Kevin.
An examination of American baby boy names would suggest that Americans are rather choosey in picking baby boy names. Since the start of the millennium Michael has been at number two in the American baby boy names and Jacob has held the first place.
Parents in the UK are just not as conservative. Over the last 5 years, the most popular baby boy name in England has been Jack. As a name Jack has no special meaning it is derived from the name John.
This trend towards less conservative names in the UK is increasing; at the beginning of the century, 7 out of the top 10 baby boy names were biblical names. This has now reduced to 5.
Events also have an effect on baby names. Since the beginning of the century the names William and Harry have both held top 10 positions. William and Harry are the names of the two children of Prince Charles, the future king of England.
Part of the trend away from traditional boy names is the tendency to use names that are more modern – or “modern-sounding” – derivatives of traditional names. As shown, Jack is the ultimate example of this and Harry is the other derivative name in the UK top 10. And there are a host of other derivative names in the top 100, including Jake (from Jacob), Charlie (Charles), Alfie (Alfred), Joe (Joseph), Billy (William) and Freddie (Frederick).
But is there any evidence of a move towards much more unique or unusual baby boy names? Well, sadly, the answer is No. In the UK the most unusual names in the top 100 list last year were Kian at number 65, Kai (“Sea, willow tree”) at 67 and the Italian name Luca (“bringer of light”) at 83. Meanwhile, over in the US, Angel (“Angelic) at number 44, Hunter at 49 and Jayden/Jaden (“God has heard”) at 62 and 83 respectively, were the only slightly unusual names.
The overall evidence is that, when it comes to baby boy names, we tend to keep it traditional. Probably this has something to do with our expectations of the roles of males in society and the need for them to be respected. This is understandable, but perhaps we should be thinking a little creatively about how we name our baby boys. Mr and Mrs Morrison did when they called their son “Marion” – and look what happened to him..