I’ve written before about how we arrived at Raymond’s name. We wanted something classical but not currently (or likely to be) popular.
There’s always the concern, however, that you’ll inadvertantly tap into some baby-naming Zeitgeist and pick a name that becomes fashionable. That’s what happened with “Amy” and “Jennifer” in the 1970’s and what’s going on with “Emma” and, inexplicably, “Madison” now. But we didn’t want to try to go with an unusual name — like some of iVillage’s helpful “Name Trends” suggestons such as “Canyon,” “Japheth,” and “Brayden” — even though there was a risk that a classic like “Raymond” might catch on.
According to the Baby Name Wizard’s NameVoyager, I don’t think we’re in danger of that. “Raymond’s” popularity peaked in the 1920’s where it was as high as 15th, but it’s steadily declined since then: 17th in the 30’s, 23rd in the 40’s, 38th in the 50’s, 45th in the 60’s, 61st in the 70’s, 75th in the 80’s, 118th in the 90’s, and a healthy 188th in 2003 when he was born. Just two years later, “Raymond” was clinging precariously to the top 200 coming in at number 200.
Of the 75 kids in the three primary classes at Ray’s new Montessori school, he is the only Raymond. Let’s take a look at some other names.
The top 10 boy names in the United States right now are:
- Jacob
- Michael
- Joshua
- Matthew
- Ethan
- Andrew
- Daniel
- William
- Joseph
- Christopher
Among the Montessorians, there is one Joshua, one Ethan, and one Andrew. “Owen” is the most popular boy’s name with four kids so bemonikered. According to NameVoyager, “Owen” had been in gradually declining from its high point of 194 in the 1890’s until it was squarely in the mid-400’s throughout the 60’s-80’s. After a slight uptick in the 90’s it experienced a steep rise during 2003-2005 ending up at a respectible #60.
“Oscar” (peak of 37 in the 1890’s; low of 239 in the 1960’s; currently 116) belongs to two boys, as does “Noah” (626 in the 1960’s; an impressive 23 now). I was surprised that “Alexander” — also with two bearers — hasn’t been more popular throughout the century. It really started to go up only in the 1970’s; it’s currently #12.
There’s one “Jack” and one “Jackson.” The former peaked at 17 in the 1920’s, declined sharply over the next 60 years, but is now #34. The latter was hardly on the map until the 1990’s; now it’s #44.
Two “Roans” are also in the mix, but that name is not in top 1000 according to the NameVoyager. Neither are the names of Ray’s classmates Stryder, Sigmund, Caetano, or Denali (which I think are all boys).
And there are no Majors.
