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Your State’s Favorite Name Here

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My favorite story about a person’s name came by way of a friend who had heard of an instance where a group of people were waiting at a government service center.  They had already turned in some paperwork so they were being called to the counter by name.

A puzzled clerk came to the front and hesitantly called out “Dee?  Deeah?”

After a moment’s silence, a clearly frustrated customer marched up to the clerk and demanded to see the name on the paper, which looked like this:  D-ea.

The customer rolled her eyes and huffed “It’s ‘Dee DASH ee ah’!  The dash is NOT silent!”

How could anyone know?  No wonder D-ea was miffed.  She probably realized in that moment she was going to spend a lifetime correcting people.  That can’t be fun, but it’s  the curse of having an uncommon name.

I suppose there’s a different type of frustration that rises out of having a name that is so ordinary, you run into like-named people at every turn.  I can scarcely imagine what it’s like to be a “Bob”.    Or a “Mary”!

Our national naming preferences are nothing more than fashion – a “hot” name sweeps the country and fades away, like weather or the flu.  That’s nicely demonstrated in the image below from the website Jezebel, which clicks through the years to show which girl’s names had favor in which states  at what times.

I’m amazed at the way “Jennifer”seized the national imagination and held it for so many years in the ’70’s.  It’s like the FDR of names – I’m sure parents at the time thought there would never be another top name for girls, ever.  Perhaps we need term limits for monikers.  Or it may be that our population is so diverse, there is less likelihood today that everyone will be on the same page, name-wise.  “Ashley” and “Emily” made a run at “Jennifer”-like status in later years, but the dominance Jennifer showed through Watergate and the Carter Administration is surely impressive and may never be equalled.    Today, it looks like “Emma” is ascendent.

But she’s no “Jennifer”.

How do you feel about your name? 

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63 thoughts on “Your State’s Favorite Name Here”

  2. I’ve never cared for mine, but have made peace with it. To me, it sounds like the name of an old person, so perhaps I’m growing into it. As you may remember my mother was Irish, and when she named me clearly didn’t consider the consequences of giving me an English name that is difficult for a Dane to pronounce. I’m pretty sure she never even considered it, even after we moved to Denmark. I grew up with it being mispronounced by almost everyone. The Danish equivalent, Margrethe, doesn’t sound anything like it.

    Maybe I should just be grateful it doesn’t have dash in it.

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    2. Specking of difficulty with pronouncing: my neighbor Heather married a Frenchman who could pronounce neither the H or the th… came out “ezzer”…

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    3. i love neil daimond. when i was in canada in 1974 the guy whose house i crashed at thought the world revolved around neil diamond. i had never thought anything about him at all. i listened and discovered the guy was right. neil diamond is fantastic. still is today. i was waiting for the theme of today to come into the chorus and was running it through my head then it dawned on me holly holy … nice holly you must have posted this before the drugs huh?

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  5. Rise and Shine Baboons:

    Love the graphic map.

    Well I have NO DASH, but I do have a Q. My parents shortened Jacqueline to Jacque so I did not need to learn to spell it twice. I always thought my name, Jacqueline, was way to elegant for a farmer’s daughter. My nickname was/is Jack or Jack Sprat, which fits my down in the dirt style. Then I discovered that Jacqueline is the feminine French of Jacob and means planter or gardener. Now that does fit! There were always a lot of “Debbies” around when I grew up–a nod to Debbie Reynolds, our parents’ femme fatale.

    The Jennifer craze followed the movie with Ryan O’Neal and Ali McGraw, “Love Story.” Cough, Wheeze, Die.

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  6. Good morning. My official name is James. I prefer Jim to James and always use Jim instead of James. James or Jim was a very popular name years ago. I don’t hear of many people naming their sons James or Jim in recent years. If I could choose my name I would go for one that is less common like Jarrett or Derek. Jim is okay. I would rather have a more distinctive and less bland name.

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  7. I think that map would have showed a wave of Barbaras in the late 40s, perhaps related to stars like Barbara Stanwyck? I often find other Barbaras my age at gatherings, sometimes 2 or 3.

    I like it fine, means “strange or foreign” and I’ve always liked being different. Barbara is a very flexible sort of name – you’ve got your Barb, Barbie (or before the doll, it was Barby), Babs, Barbadino (my dad’s), Barbwire (neighbor kid), Barbarella. Then the lovely song “Ba-Ba-Baaahh Ba-Bah-ber Ann” came along… For a while when he was little, my son called me Barber; my step son knows me as Babbyra.

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  8. I am also officially hyphenated, no pronounced. It did mean I learned the word “hyphenate” at an early age (officially I am “Anna-Maria” – a way to honor my grandmother “Antoinette” and a couple of Marys in the family…I think there was an Ann or Anna in the farther back generations, too). As a kid I wished for a more common name – Sara or Elizabeth or Lisa – but have grown into being an Anna. It’s nice not having 3 of us in any room I’m in, though there was another Anna B in my junior high and two Annas at my college (one a professor and one a student in one of my major tracks, which was taught by the professor Anna…). Anna seems to have had a brief bit of popularity in Daughter’s cohort, though. There is an Anna in her grade at school and a couple others in the building, which means I have to pay attention to the voice calling my name when I pick her up at the end of the day. I don’t use the full name much, it’s a bit of a mouthful, but the shortened “Anna” seems to suit me. Heck, Anna was a wise woman of the biblical era, I could do worse for a namesake. 🙂

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  9. I’ve always been fairly neutral about my name–I would have preferred something less biblical, but since I was born in 1968 I count myself lucky not to have been named Rainbow or Galadriel or something like that. The most popular name at my tiny parochial grade school was Beth–we had two of them. I knew only one other Rebecca the whole time I was growing up, and at St. Kate’s I was one of perhaps four Rebeccas in a sea of Mary Catherines and Mary Margarets. When I changed my name legally, I replaced my middle name (Elizabeth) with a matronymic but never really considered changing my first name. The only thing I don’t like about it are the nicknames. They all suck, especially Becky. I may have been called Becky when I was little, but I don’t tolerate it now.

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  10. My birth certificate says Sherri Lee. On my dad’s side, lots of my ancestors used double names (John Bill, John Scott, Ruby Allen, Joan Marie, Joe Bill) so when I was in the 8th grade I decided that I wanted to use both my names. Went nowhere fast, except for my mom. She worked very hard to remember that I wanted to be called Sherri Lee; of course, for a couple of months I thought I was always in trouble, because when you’re a kid and your mother uses both your first and middle names, you know you’re in for it. In 9th grade, we moved and I had to change school districts. That’s when I chopped out the space and started spelling it as all one word; that had the desired effect. Changed it legally in my 20s. I do like the fact that there are very few Sherrilee’s in the world.

    Sorry I missed the weekend banter… chained to my Ukrainian egg table, even the extra hour!

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  11. I like to use Jim as my name instead of James. I don’t like Jimmy in place of James. My mother always called me Jimmy. Fortunately she was the only one who has done this consistently.

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    2. Some friends of mine named their firstborn Jamie. They specifically chose the name Jamie, not James, Jim, or Jimmy, but Jamie. When he was about eight he decided he didn’t like his name and wanted to go by James, so he has been James ever since, but the birth certificate says Jamie.

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  12. Never have liked my name. In college this really annoying trumpet player always started singing “Don’t Walk Away, Renee” whenever he saw me.

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  14. Margaret is one of those monikers that invariably is changed to Maggie, Marge, Margie, Meg, Meggy, Peggy or any number of other nicknames, but, for whatever reason, I was well into adulthood (and in the US) before anyone ever thought to ask if I went by any of them. Only one friend has consistently called me Maggie, and while I don’t mind it from him, that’s really not how I think of myself. I kinda like PJ because it sounds more playful and less stodgy in my ears than Margaret, and also it represents my baboon identity here on the trail.

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  16. Watching Lisa rule on that map for so many years is weird. i didn’t meet another Lisa until I was 19 (and, it turns out, that was the year that it faded from the top of the list).
    I have always liked it. Unusual enough in my early years but not bizarre.

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  17. Morning-
    Raining here… and MAN! was it windy yesterday.

    My mom had a crush on Loren Green and ‘Bonanza’ was big on TV when I was born. I tease her she named be ‘Ben’ after Ben Cartwright. Otherwise there’s no Ben’s in the family except our son. And I only knew one other Ben in school. Several around now. I’ve always liked the name. I go the more formal Benjamin on my theater designs, Benji to a few people and my elementary school principal called me ‘Benny’ which I hated. A few random people call me Benny now and it’s OK in the right context.

    I think I’ve said this before, my paternal grandmother was Ernestina. Dad is Joseph Ernesteven and my brother is Ernest Steven.

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    1. coulda been worse hoss.
      we came back form picking up a couple of cats at a cat rescue in a coffee shop and discovered one had six toes so we named that one hemmngweay after the famous 6 toed cats at his house in key west we named the other one ernie untile we found out they were wrong we didnd get two boy cats ernie changed to ernestine. still gets called ernie.

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  18. I like my name, Kathleen, but called Kay. Dad wanted to name me Judy Kay, Mom insisted on something Irish, so my name is a good compromise!

    Also, when I was teaching kindergarten, two little girls got into a fight on the first day of school. Both were named Emily and were VERY upset to find out someone else had “their” name!

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    1. Totally OT, Clyde, but I am enjoying Looking for Lovedu quite a bit. I can’t remember for sure if you recommended it, but since it’s a travel book, I’m thinking it was you.

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      1. Not from me. First I have heard of it and will put it on my Kindle wishlist.
        Amy Tan’s new book comes out today. The Valley of Amazement. She says she considered calling it “50 Shades of Tan.” I gather it fits her usual mold–about cultural ill-treatment of women, about mothers and daughters. I will read it.

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        2. I guess “sister of equally awful name” tells us what we want to know, Clyde: you don’t like your name. Hope you stay away from sharp or hard objects when you pass out.

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  20. I am having one of those days I get every few weeks when I am very light-headed. Have to be careful when I stand up. I have been known to faint from standing up ot just walking. Not fun. I did this to my wife in Taos 3 years ago. Scared her to death. Glad she is gone today. Kept fainting on the streets of Taos. There’s a book title: Fainting on the Streets of Taos. Today I also have very bad pain in my upper spine and neck. I think I’ll go pass out now, without the benefit of booze.

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    1. i have a person coming from out of town in the late afternoon. let me nail that down and at the moment im thinking our regular 2 is fine but let me confirm after i get eta on flight arrival info.

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  23. A typical class when I was in grade school contained a Karen, Debbie, Terry, Carol, Ann, Cindy, and a couple of Marys and Sues. Or Susans or Suzies. Sometimes there were Mary Anns and Mary Ellens. Lindas were not uncommon, but less common than some of the other names. Almost all Lindas were born before 1960. I would venture to guess that no one here has any grandchildren named Linda.

    The boys were mostly named Jeff, with a few Johns, Toms, Kens, Dons and Jims. Sometimes a Greg or a Scott.

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    1. This was my experience as well. It’s kind of funny, all the names that are so popular today (Emma, Hannah, Sophia, Isabelle) were considered so old-fashioned back then! I think we know at least 10 Emmas in or around Teenagers age.

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  24. my mother was 16 years older than her youngest sister so she told bedtime stories about michael timothy and anne elizabeth. michael timothy went by tim because michael was so common. i was hung. every year i had to explain why my name is michael and i go by tim. i have known a whole bunch of mike jones’ in my life. ive even been related to a couople of them that likely didnt even know i am michale jones too. when i went to frequent flier identity numbers and the like there are so many michael jones’ ion the list i get lost there are even a whole bunch of michael timothy’s. i use sherrilees trick and become michaeltim and i am the only one. when i was a kid tim was very uncommon name. never knew another until jr high. my best firend in jr high was justin. what a cool name i had never heard that one before. my daughters are tara olivia and emma i believe each of these has had a shot at the most popular list for a while emma and olivia back to back if im not mistaken with one being number one and the other being number two for a while
    i always remember the story i wrote in high school where i disguised my english teachers name by breaing it down into sylables and then using a synonym for that sylable. her name was cornelia nachbar so… i took corn and used asperagus, kneel / stand… ya/me asperagustandme knock/ bang…bar/rod. bang . the story of asperagustandme bangrod and the bingo game of life was a high point of my early writing career. i wish i knew where that paper was now. i still have it somewhere.
    you know life is messed up when my trail post gets up at 9pm.

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  25. when i leave my name for a restaurant or on drinks at intermission i always use mahoskowitz, jones is just too easy. my uncle paul always used joe barsocki and it never occurred to me anyone would tink of that as particularly odd but at his funeral it was a major topic of discussion. no one knew where it came from. when i was on the high school newspaper as a columnist i used the name gilligan mahoskowitz as my pen name. names have always come easily for me. when my wives were freaking out trying to come up with names for kids i always told them to cool it. we would certainly come up witht eh right name at the correct time. when i get challanged by pet names it can take up to 2 or 3 minutes to have the name come to me and it always sticks.

    and on name day……

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    1. tim – in case you see this a day late. way back when, during my Software Etc days, my co-workers and I did lunch quite a bit at the old Schlotskis, over near Vikingland off 100. You ordered your sandwich, gave your name and then came back for the sandwich when it was prepared. We used to make up names for ourselves everyday; I don’t think I ever used my real name in the 2 years we were in that office.

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