Is it just the SF Bay Area, or this happening everywhere? In the eight months since Miles was born, I haven’t met a single baby named John, Michael, Amy, Cathy, etc. “Normal” names are just plain old out the window. The babies in Amy’s mommies group are named:
Asa
Eliana
Miles
Simone
Ariel
Amelia
Shiva
Liam
Ruby
Is it the same deal in Durham, Fort Lauderdale, Madison, Akron… ?
Music: Air :: Electronic Performers
When I was born (1974) my parents thought “Christopher” was a nice, unusual name.
It was the second-most popular boy’s name that year. I don’t think I’ve ever had a class that didn’t have another Chris, often more than one.
Times change, eh?
I bet you the canonical donut that at least some of those weird names turn out to be common in 20 years’ time.
You’re totally right. And it’s been amazing to see how many other Mileses we’ve encountered in the last six months. We only knew of one other initially, now we know of five or six.
BTW, you’ve got me hungry for a canonical donut.
There seems to be a whole range up here in Davis… Bram, Nicola, Milo, Che, Delaney, Keaton, Matthew, Ari, Megan, Mitch, Jesse, Cooper, Kinsey (what her parents were reading when…? :)
I had 2 Riley’s on my soccer team last year…
and I kind of like some of the “old is new names”… Sam, Henry, Walter, Molly, Audrey, Spencer. Thems are some cool names.
I certainly met enough other Steves growing up. (thanks to the ultra-cool Steve McQueen no doubt)
Well, my son’s name is Spencer (thanks Steve, we think it’s cool, too ;) Here in suburban N. Texas you run across alot of names like Austin, Courtney, Chase, and others that sound vaguely pretentious to someone like me who grew up in middle class Texas during the 60’s. Of course, some might think “Spencer” falls in that category, too ;) I kinda like the name “Miles” – different and cool without being too out-there.
My wife picked “Spencer” because she likes the Spenser books by Robert B. Parker and we couldn’t come up with another boy’s name we liked (if he’d been a girl, we’d chosen Laura Elizabeth).
Here in Europe, there are no Miles – just Kilometres…
In our case we used an ‘algorithm’ for the name of our first child (hey – what can I say, I’m a nerd).
In our case in honour of my maternal grandmother and her sisters who all had French names (that side of the family is Hugenot) we choose a French name (Sylvie) for our baby girl.
Since we’re now expecting a second child we’ll be employing a variation of the algorithm for the next name, looking for ‘classic’ Scottish names to honour Michele’s maternal grandfather (who’s scottish)
BTW – Names in France are ‘easy’ since there’s an approved list (yep the government regulates childrens names)
Whoa, did I hear that last bit right? The French govt tells you what you can and cannot name your child? What do they do if you choose an unapproved name? Who controls the name list? Gotta say, this is a freaky notion.
Until very recently in Spain you could only use a name from the Catholic church’s list of saints, seriously. That’s why there are so many people called Jesus, Pablo, Francisco, or Maria, Magdalena, Asuncion, Inmaculada… oh and if you want Spanish citizenship you have to have your name translated into Spanish. Philip would become Felipe, I don’t know how they’d handle Scot :)
My nephew is nearing two years old and his name is “Gavyn.” His parents have another on the way, so we’ll see if the trend holds.