Friday, May 8, 2009

Now and Then

Just in time for Mother's Day, the Social Security Administration has released the list of the Top 10 Baby Names for 2008.

The latest Top 10 names for baby girls, based on 2008 statistics:

  1. Emma
  2. Isabella
  3. Emily
  4. Madison
  5. Ava
  6. Olivia
  7. Sophia
  8. Abigail
  9. Elizabeth
  10. Chloe
The Top 10 names for baby boys:

  1. Jacob
  2. Michael
  3. Ethan
  4. Joshua
  5. Daniel
  6. Alexander
  7. Anthony
  8. William
  9. Christopher
  10. Matthew

Fifty years ago, the list looked like this:

Top 10 baby girls’ names in 1958:

  1. Mary
  2. Susan
  3. Linda
  4. Karen
  5. Patricia
  6. Debra
  7. Deborah
  8. Cynthia
  9. Barbara
  10. Donna
Top 10 baby boys’ names in 1958 were:

  1. Michael
  2. David
  3. James
  4. Robert
  5. John
  6. William
  7. Mark
  8. Richard
  9. Thomas
  10. Steven

The SSA baby names site is pretty fun - you can track your name's popularity through the years, find the most popular names by state or decade, and other incredibly useful information for your day.

Of course, I have to include the song my mom used to sing to me when I was little. It was written by Jack Lawrence about Linda Eastman (who grew up to be Linda McCartney) when she was 5 years old. You can read the story behind the song here.




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    6 comments:

    1. My ADHD MeMay 8, 2009 at 11:56 AM

      Neat song. I'd never heard it before.

      Gee look!! My name is #1!!!
      (fifty years ago...lol)

      ReplyDelete
    2. Sandy @ The Scoop on BalanceMay 8, 2009 at 2:45 PM

      None of my kids' names are there. Phew!!! I never wanted them on "the list". I think this is the first year in a long time "Emily" was not the number one girl's name.

      Blessings!
      Sandy

      ReplyDelete
    3. CarolMay 8, 2009 at 3:48 PM

      Hmmm...thanks for the ideas. We are searching and searching for a name for this surprise baby. We find out what we are having Tuesday, so maybe I can decide then. :)

      ReplyDelete
    4. ShaunaMay 8, 2009 at 3:56 PM

      I was interested to learn that Gemma entered the top 1000 names in 2008 (though Jemma, my daughter's name, has not). It's a common name in the UK and elsewhere but not in the US.

      ReplyDelete
    5. A Stone GathererMay 9, 2009 at 4:31 AM

      Just checked out the names in my family! We ain't very popular!!! How neat that your mom sang that song to you! Very sweet!

      ReplyDelete
    6. Xandra@Heart-of-ServiceMay 11, 2009 at 11:11 AM

      Sadly, Alexandra is not a very popular name. I can remember being in school as a child and desperately wishing I had a "normal" name like Shelly or Susan.

      Xandra

      ReplyDelete