Naming Names

[Brownian Motion]

The New York Times

September 17, 2005

In New York Cribs, Jeff and Lisa Give Way to Ahmed and Chaya

By JENNIFER 8. LEE

In the last several years, New York City has had more baby girls named Fatoumata than Lisa, more Aaliyahs than Melissas, more Chayas than Christinas. There have been more baby boys named Moshe than Peter, more Miguels than Jeffreys, more Ahmeds than Stanleys.

Yesterday, the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released the name breakdown for the 124,099 babies born in New York City in 2004. That, together with data stretching back to 1920, shows that in a city that is fashion-conscious and full of immigrants, some foreign-sounding names have become arguably more New York than American classics like Carol, Susan, Stephen and Harry.

But the reverse also happens. Jose and Luis were the top two names for Hispanic baby boys in 1980. But today they have slipped out of the Top 10, behind names like Brandon, Kevin and Christopher. The top Hispanic baby name today is Justin.

There is a lot in a name. One of an individual's most defining characteristics, a name also says just as much - if not more - about the country, the city, even the family to which a person belongs.

It is not news that the ethnic makeup of New York City is changing and has been for decades. But the effects this has on the names of the city's newborns can be dramatic, and surprising. "When you look at the incredible diversity of the top of the New York naming list," said Laura Wattenberg, author of "The Baby Name Wizard" (Broadway Books, 2005), "there are two different phenomena working together. There is the rising diversity of the population and the willingness to use names from your ethnic background rather than adopting an Anglo name, which is a change from past generations. At the same time, there is a fall of the usage of the Anglo-Christian classics."

Names speak to parents' aspirations for their children. Everyone has one, and, of course, they are free, said Stanley Lieberson, a Harvard sociology professor who wrote "A Matter of Taste: How Names, Fashions and Culture Change" (Yale, 2000). And because few special interest groups have anything to gain in baby name selection, "It's clean from commercial influences and not simply a reflection of affluence," Professor Lieberson said.

According to the names released yesterday, Michael and Emily still hang on to their top positions, with Daniel and Ashley close behind. However, there were differences across groups, with Emily the most popular name among Asian-Americans, Ashley the top name for Hispanics, Kayla among blacks and Sarah for whites. And, just for the record, there were 27 Katrinas born last year, placing the name out of the top 300.

But look more deeply into the list, beyond the Top 10, and the ebb and flow of changes over the years becomes more apparent.

Religion is far and away the biggest influence on names around the world. Some of that is reflected in New York City, which attracts a wide cross section of Catholics, Jews, Muslims and Hindus, all of whom have strong religious naming traditions.

Added up, the spellings of Muhammad, which vary across the Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia (Mohammed, Mohammad, Mohamed, Muhammad, Mouhamed), make it a Top 50 name - ahead of Richard and Charles.

The city's large Orthodox Jewish population has helped to push Moshe to No. 68 , Mordechai to 155 and Shlomo to 199. Angel (26 in 2004 over all) and Jesus (96) are popular among Hispanic boys, as are names of Catholic saints traditionally.

Esther, Grace and Hannah have long been popular for Korean-American girls nationwide due to the Christian missionary influence, Professor Lieberson said. Fatoumata, a popular West African name that was given to 41 of the city's baby girls in 2004, may be a local variation of the Arabic Muslim name, Fatima, though its exact origins are unclear.

Currently, the stylish trend for boys is two-syllable names ending in "en" that feature strong vowels and soft consonants. In particular, the "aden" family of names are surging up the charts in New York and the rest of the country: Aiden, Caden, Hayden, Jayden. The myriad various spellings of Jayden (Jaden, Jadon, Jaeden, Jaiden, Jayden, Jaydin, Jaydon) added together make it a Top 10 name in New York City.

Immigrant influences can be spotted in baby name data through New York City history. Francesco, Antonio and Giuseppe were Top 20 baby boy names in 1920, at the tail end of the great wave of immigration from southern Italy. No longer.

Likewise, a century ago, Germanic-influenced names were popular in New York City and beyond: Bertha, Mildred, Gertrude, Herman.

In New York, as in the rest of the country, some standard-bearers have been spurned by parents who are looking for fresher, more original names. Lisa, the top girls' name throughout the 1960's, has slipped out of the top 200. But Lisa has hung on better than Carol, which hit its peak in the 1940's in the Top 5, but by 2003 had since fallen out of the city's Top 500, far behind Luz, Yocheved and Fatima.

Some classic men's names - Michael (1), David (6) and John (19) - have hung on in the Top 20. Others - Edward, Charles and George, (all names popular with British royalty) - no longer make the cut for the Top 50, at Nos. 78, 81 and 91, respectively.

Black female names tracked white female names until the late 1960's. The city's top five black girls' names in 1965 were Lisa, Sharon, Kim, Denise and Karen. But spurred by the black power movement and media phenomena like "Roots," certain prefixes and suffixes inspired by Islamic and African names, like "Lat," "isha" and "ika," became fashionable for black girls in 1975: Tamika (No. 3 among black girls in 1975), Latoya (16), Latisha (20), Latasha (75) and Shameka (88).

Since then, the divergence has kept growing. In 2003, not a single one of the top 20 girls names for blacks and whites overlapped - though both strongly featured names ending in the "a" sound. White families often try to revive classic names that have fallen out of use like Olivia or Hannah, whereas blacks are more likely to improvise, Professor Lieberson said. But now improvisation is becoming more common across the board.

And Asian-American names have their own quirk: They lag mainstream America, with last year's top 10 list of Asian-American baby names filled with names that hit their overall peaks a generation ago: Jason, Brian, Eric, Michelle, Tiffany, Nicole, Amy and Kelly. This results from a tendency of Asian-American parents to take a cue from the names of adult peers, Professor Lieberson said.

There is one popular name on which New Yorkers differ sharply from the rest of the country: Brooklyn. The name, a combination of two girls' names, Brooke and Lynn, has soared up the list of the nation's top 1,000 female baby names since 1990, landing at No. 101 in 2004. But in New York City, Brooklyn has barely registered, appearing nowhere in any of the Health Department rankings.

"New Yorkers hear Brooklyn, and they have an image of a place, despite its many charms, that doesn't seem very delicate and feminine," Ms. Wattenberg said.

Andy Lehren contributed reporting for this article.

[JSngry]

Whatever happened to "Buster"?

[RDK]

A buddy of mine named his kid "Buster" - bout five years ago now.

[RDK]

When we named our daughter "Dinah," the name didn't appear on the national list of top 1000 names.

[ghost of miles]

Whatever happened to "Buster"?

←

He's riding again. Or making his last stand.

[Brownian Motion]

When we named our daughter "Dinah," the name didn't appear on the national list of top 1000 names.

←

And it's such a nice name, and old testament, too. Don't understand how it and similar names--Martha, Leah, Rebecca come to mind--have fallen so far out of favor.

[GA Russell]

I'm surprised that Edward and Charles have fallen so far down the list.

Perhaps the popularity of Brooklyn has something to do with the fact that Posh Spice and her husband Beckham named their daughter that, because she was born, or maybe conceived, there.