Woman in the Middle

The Social Security Administration released the list of top 10 most popular names for boys and girls in 2011 last week. I soon received an email from Hubby concerning the new list. His reaction was “Really?!?”  Needless to say this drove me to take a look at what Americans are naming their children nowadays. I just have a few comments.

1. We seem to have an obsession with Italy, as least when it comes to naming girls, thus the top ten names Sophia,  Isabella, and Mia.

2. Being at war for what seems like decades in the middle east has not affected the popularity of the Persian name Ava, especially since Reese Witherspoon named her daughter Ava.

3. The name Jayden (or Jaden) wasn’t even on the radar before 1994 when it first cracked the top 1000. Then in 1998 Will Smith and his wife named their son Jaden and off it went!

4. The nerd-tastic name Mason was 39th in 2006 and now it is number 2. The jump in popularity is attributed to Kourtney Kardashian naming her son Mason.

5. While names of Italian origin might be popular for girls, names of Biblical origin still win out for boys with top ten names Michael, Noah, Jacob,  and Daniel. Who am I kidding? Jacob is popular right now because of the Twilight books. But it is still biblical and that sounds a lot better than “My mom named me after a character in a teen vampire book.”

6. When it comes to naming our children, too many of us are incredibly shallow and will name our precious darling after some celebrity’s kid at the drop of a hat.

The top ten names for 2011 are below:

For boys:

• Jacob
• Mason
• William
• Jayden
• Noah
• Michael
• Ethan
• Alexander
• Aiden
• Daniel

For girls:

• Sophia
• Isabella
• Emma
• Olivia
• Ava
• Emily
• Abigail
• Madison
• Mia
• Chloe