V is for Vicki, sort of
While going to sleep last night, I composed an entire post for V in my head about names. I was going to talk about how trends in names seem to skip a generation but take on their own version when they reappear. For example, the nickname for Victoria was Vicki a generation or two ago. Now the nickname for Victoria is Tori. I had several other examples and personal experiences to relate about how I was named for a neighbor when they were getting ready to turn in the birth certificate. I was the third baby and the third girl in the family. They were sure I was going to be a boy and didn't have a girl's name picked out. And so on. I've had a busy day and it's time to go to bed again. So as not to be writing a post all night in my head, I'm going to put a quick one out now.
Sometime during the day, I realized my personal example wouldn't work with my alias name, so I decided to go in a bit of a different direction. I'm going to give you a few statistics from the Social Security data base for names in the US.
First some parameters.
--They have data from 1879-present, but most of it is only compiled through 2017
--Many people born before 1937 did not apply for a card, so that group is under represented.
--They only use the top 1000 names each year. This represents about 75% (plus or minus) of the data at any one time.
--Different spellings of the same name were counted as different names. For example, Kelli, Kelly, and Kelley were all counted separately instead as one name.
So what are the most popular names of the last 100 years (1918-2017)? James and Mary
How about for 2017? Liam and Emma
But the most important statistics for this post are below.
For the last 100 years here the rankings for the V names that made the list:
Virginia 45
Victoria 58
Vincent 95, the only V name on the boys side
(1 is the most popular and 100 is the least popular.)
If you like numbers and want to check out some of your family names or name trends, this is an interesting site to visit. Be forewarned, that it's an easy place to get sucked in for some time before you realize it. Don't ask me how I know. :)
When I was pregnant in 2006-2007, it seemed like everyone was naming boys Aiden, but with about a thousand different spellings. (Just think of any way possible that you can spell that). We picked Caleb Thomas for a boy, but got a girl. Evita is only my daughter’s blog name. I chose it after a sweet little girl (Evita Fytrou) who lost her life in the wildfires in Greece. Her real name is Annalise Joy, which was my 4th choice and the only girls we could agree on. My real name is Danielle, which I hate the meaning of. It means the wrath of God. My mother wanted to name me Evangeline, which is so much better (it means good news).
ReplyDeleteThat's a whole other subject--naming children. I have a friend who had a boy name, Kevin, picked out from very early on and never wavered from it. Then when she and her husband looked at the baby after he was born, they changed it to Galen because they thought he looked more like a Galen than a Kevin. And that was not even a name they had thought about. We were very surprised. I bet there are as many baby naming stories as there are babies.
DeleteIt sounds like to me that you have a good set of names in your family--familiar, but not too common, and nice to say and hear. If you had been named Evangeline think how long it would have taken you to learn to write your name when you were little. :)
My parents say that three days before I was born, they had a dream about my patron saint at the same time and woke up at the same time from the dream about the saint. They decided that I must be named for him, but the usual English translation for his name is Dennis or Denise, and Denise rhymes with my maiden name. It’s a strange story. I believe in reincarnation and never felt a connection to this saint. I personally believe that I myself gave them that dream, like “get ready here I come”, but they interpreted it according to their own spirituality.
DeleteAnother, very interesting story.
DeleteI cared for a woman in her 90’s who had 68 year old twins named Virginia and Victoria.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting. And they're about the right age for when those names were popular.
DeleteAnd my mom’s best friend had a baby in 1974 named Victoria who only lived a few days.
ReplyDeleteThat's very sad. I'm sure the name, Victoria, has a lot more meaning for her than just what the latest nicknames for it are.
DeleteI like the name Victoria. Trends in names are interesting, aren't they? Back in Sri Lanka, a child's name is often based on the auspicious sound determined according to the time of birth by an astrologer. :)
ReplyDeleteWas your name determined by an astrologer?
DeleteThe starting letter/sound (our alphabet is phonetic) of my name was determined by an astrologer; the actual name was picked by my mother. It is supposed to be beneficial for the child to hear the sound with which her name begins. :)
DeleteVery interesting. Did you continue the tradition with your daughter?
DeleteI did, but used it for her middle name, which she dislikes, by the way! LOL.
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