Cleveland, Kiev, Cardiff, Vegas
The province next door to me, Alberta, publishes its complete list of baby names annually (BC only lists names used five times or more). Looking at the Alberta list for 2006, the following trends are discernible at the lunatic fringe:
Spelling-shock: Maksymilian, Scye, Skyy, Ui’lliam, Kohnstence, Krymson, Lexzis, MaKynze, Merczaydes, Mystyque, Quynh-Anh (Queen Anne?), Rraevan, Sumr, Xzander, Zohwea (Zoe?)
Sci-fi: Galaxia, Daxx, Darius-Draco, Ja’Naar, Jayzl, Kreg, K’i, Ugnius, X’ziah, Zeryck, Kal-el.
People and places: Beckham, Zidane, Pele, Cleveland, Kiev, Cardiff, Vegas, Eowyn, Paxton, Rogue, Jericho-Rocky.
Hippie names: DylanThomas, Llyric, Soul, Soulsay, Spirit, Autumn-Jewels, Believe, Dusty-Storm, Gladness, Morningstar, Poet, Prophecy, Sundance, Trail-Dancer.
Triple-hyphened-names: Emperor-Phu-Lac, Daniel-Bernard-Danger.
Something-J: A.J., CJ, K.J., LJ, Mj, Rj.
Other nonsense: Furious, Bienvenido, BjornJack, Chypper, Dequawn, Drickus, Jiggs, Kheops, Notorious, Sevn, Stetsun, Thong, Charlatan, Corinthian, Shay-D, Sloane, Tuesday, Tuba, Tymber.
But the weirdest ones for me aren’t these one-off brainwrongs (©Chris Morris), but the popular ones. The Braydens, Jaydens and Kaydens and the thousand variations thereon, and the surnames. There are so many little Carters, Coopers, Pipers, Riders, and Hunters biting our ankles these days that before long we’ll be like the East Asians, with our surnames coming before our forenames. Last year in Alberta there were 191 boys named Carter and 97 called Hunter. What is the allure of Carter, exactly? A carter was a bloke who hauled a cart for a living in days of yore. 200 years from now when everything is teleported, will parents be calling their offspring Long-Distance Trucker? Will that be cool? Probably.
This entry was posted on Monday, June 11th, 2007 at 2:22 PM and filed under New stuff. Trackbacks are closed.
My guess is all those kids have parents who enjoy reading my blog.
If you name your daughter Dusty-Storm, what does she choose for her stripper name? Mabel? There’s nowhere to go.
In the d’s there’s a DoTayne-Tebekew-Belachew. I hate to even imagine what his last name must be.
Posted on 12-Jun-07 at 11:02 pm | PermalinkHis? I thought Dotayne-Tebekew-Belachew was one of those unisex names. Like Hilary used to be.
Posted on 14-Jun-07 at 11:50 am | PermalinkHa! Funny you mention Hilary, but I suspect some of the newly popular boys’ names have become popular because they seem unlikely to suddenly transform into girls names. A guy in a bar (that’s where I do most of my sociological research) told me that was the reason why he and his wife were thinking of naming their kid Carter if it was a boy. I told the guy to be absolutely safe they should name their son Penis.
Posted on 14-Jun-07 at 6:46 pm | Permalink