Friday, May 08, 2009

A rose by any other name

William's name continues to be popular. It's the No. 8 name for boys on the Social Security Administration's list of most popular names for 2008.

I'm not feeling guilty about choosing the name for him, though. Hello, my name is Jennifer. My first name was the No. 1 most popular girl's name for about 15 years back in the '70s and early '80s. See? It was the No. 1 name for the whole decade of the 1970s. (Incidentally, if you go back to that list and look at boys' names, you'll see David at No. 4 and William at No. 9.) And to my surprise, it hasn't totally gone away yet, either. And it's still in the top 100.

Also, William is a classic name that's good for a boy or a man, and it pays homage to numerous men on both sides of the family. And doesn't his name fit him? Can you really see him having some other name?

1 comment:

JenFen said...

William def. suits him. I strugged with Jake's name as well because it fit on so many levels but I didn't like that it was so popular. Then I gave Jadyn what I thought was a more unique name and while her exact spelling is 396 on the SS list, Jayden is #11 on the boys list. What can you do? I still love her name name and have no regrets about my choices for either child. Thanks for reminding me the list was out.