Namely Marly

Who would have thought that people would name their babies after fictional characters? OK. Well, that doesn’t sound so outlandish. In fact, it probably happens more than we realize. For example, it’s possible that Breakfast at Tiffany’s character Holly Golightly that was behind the uptick in babies named Holly that really took hold in the 1950′s.

But people naming their babies after fictional vampires? That’s quite another story! You would have had to been locked in a cave (hopefully not a bat-infested one) to have missed the Twilight phenomena over the last several years. A series of four books were written by Stephanie Meyer and sold millions of copies. The Twilight series gave an interesting twist on an old theme – vampires that feed on the blood of animals instead of humans (although technically humans are animals too). So they’re still vampires, but they seem to have a conscience. (That’s what I like in my fictional, blood-sucking characters: a conscience.)

Some of the main characters in the Twilight series of 4 books are Bella Swan (a human character), Edward Cullen (one of the undead vampires), and Jacob Black (a werewolf). In fact, Bella finds herself in the midst of a love triangle, struggling to choose between the affections of Edward and Jacob. And true to today’s reality TV voting style, people are selecting their preferred mate for Bella. Those who think she should go with the vampire refer to themselves as in Camp Edward and those who think she should go with the werewolf (Vampire or Werewolf? Wow the singles market really is tough these days) refer to themselves as in  Camp Jacob.

As a result of the books’ popularity and ensuing movies, we now see some subsequent influences in baby naming trends. In the book Freakonomics, authors Levitt and Dubner tried to make a point that baby naming trends are not influenced by celebrities (fictional or not). And they do raise a good example in the book. Madonna has sold millions of records worldwide, but her ability to translate her success into a naming franchise fizzled. The name Madonna never even made it on the top 1,000 names list for baby names.

However, there are some examples including this Twilight tagging trend (pardon the alliteration) that might be an exception to their theory. The names Bella and Jacob are now top of the list according to the Social Security Administration’s recently released list of Top 10 Names for 2009.  Edward ranked 137th and Cullen leaped up to 485th; an impressive showing for both.

Lots of things influence parents when selecting a name for their baby. Levitt and Dubner had this to say about parents and names, “An overwhelming number of parents use a name to signal their own expectations of how successful their children will be.” Let’s hope the Jacobs, Bellas and Cullens take their moniker to a higher level than their fictional character counterparts.

My husband and I walk to the same park nearly every day. I like to call it Marly Park, but for some reason no one else seems to call it that. (Sounds like a personal problem to me.)

Isn’t it beautiful? It has a walking trail that goes around the periphery. The hubby and I like to walk the two pooches on this trail. Usually twice a day! (I know, I know. Our dogs are so spoiled.)

The kids flock to the pirate ship playground. Unless you’re at the park early in the morning like I was on this day.

But do you see what I see? The writing on the path?

No, not the arrow. Although that is rather intriguing. It makes me want to look to the right to see if something is coming up next (I’m such a sucker for things like that).

Yes! This is what caught my eye…and made me run home for my camera. (OK, I didn’t technically “run”…but I walked very fast.)

Benten. I haven’t seen this name before. I looked it up on a couple of name trending sites and it hasn’t appeared on the top 1000 boy’s names, well, ever. The Baby Name Wizard did indicate that Benton was on its list, but the popularity of that name died in the 1970′s. The name Bentley shows an uptick beginning around 2007.

My daughter said she’s heard the name Benten (or Benton) in school so I’m just curious if we’re spotting a new trend. Some people like to follow fashion trends. Others follow home furnishing. I guess there’s trends for us all. I love discussing name trends. Have any of you heard this name? Inquiring minds want to know!

In case you haven’t noticed, odd baby names are in (I sometimes like stating the obvious). According to an article forwarded to me by Catherine Sherman in Yahoo News, “parents are choosing less common names for kids, which could suggest an emphasis on uniqueness and individualism.”

The study published in the Social Psychology and Personality Science journal, points to a broader change in culture as the culprit responsible for this new trend in names; and they don’t paint this movement in the greatest of light either. The study analyzed over 300 million baby names and determined the popularity of various names. Here are some results that they found:

• 40% of boys received names from a list of about 10 most popular in the 1880s. Today only 10% of boys receive names considered most popular.
• 25% of girls received names from the top 10 most popular names in 1945. Today only 8 % receive names considered most popular.

The study indicates that Baby Boomers are responsible for a large part of the shift toward more unusual names, but they also point to increasing immigration rates having an impact on names as well. One of the study’s authors, Jean Twenge, of San Diego State University, notes that individualism can have some positive effects on a culture such as increased tolerance for minority groups. However, taken too far, individualism can lead to narcissism. “It remains to be seen whether having a unique name necessarily leads to narcissism later in life,” Twenge said. “If that unique name is part of a parent’s overall philosophy that their child is special and needs to stand out and that fitting in is a bad thing, then that could lead to those personality traits.”

According to an article in The USA Today, some of the top unique baby names of late are: Samara, Kale, Damari, and Kenley. Have you seen some unique names recently? What do you think about this trend toward individualism and names?

When it comes to naming your daughters, choosing a more masculine-sounding name can help her advance her career. At least if she’s going to be a lawyer.

According to an article published in the Vancouver Sun, “females with masculine names fare far better in legal careers than females with feminine names.” The article points toward research that studied women attorneys (a more male-dominated field) and compared salaries and potential for career advancement to becoming a judge.

This study suggests that if Sue (a traditionally female name) changes her name to Kelly (a more gender-neutral name)  she improves her chances of becoming a judge by 5%. However, if Sue takes a big leap and changes her name to Cameron (a more predominately male name) she has now tripled her chances of hearing the words, “Your Honor.”

Even when they accounted for family wealth, age and experience, they still found that a “statistically significant wage gap existed in favor of female attorneys with masculine names.”

Bentley Coffey, an economist at Clemson University in South Carolina said this in explaining the results, “When we see a masculine name, something in our subconscious is cued. There seems to be a subtle sexist notion, even if it’s not gender discrimination per se.” That’s interesting, but wait a minute. What kind of name is Bentley? And what about people like Hillary Clinton? Hillary is a rather feminine-sounding name and she’s an attorney that seems to have advanced her career quite nicely. Well, of course, we know in research these things happen; they’re called outliers. Malcolm Gladwell even wrote a book on it.

Coffey himself is convinced of the outcomes of this study and as a result he and his wife named their daughter Collins. Beyond the legal field, the article points out that author J.K. Rowling opted for her initials on her books rather than her name (Joanne) to help increase readership among boys. Female scientists have been known to do the same thing – they sometimes use their initials on papers to avoid an overtly feminine-sounding name.

Of course we could discuss the larger societal need to address sexism, but that could take awhile. In the meantime, the best baby names for girls should have some gender-neutrality to them…at least if you want them to grow up to be judges.