My blog friend Jessie pointed out to me recently that the Baby Name Wizard posted a list of "The Timeless Baby Names You've Overlooked"...and all three of my children's names are on the list. All of them. WEIRD. Also SO INTERESTING.
It's not entirely chance, of course - the BNW had a specific criteria for including the names that she did [(SQRT(maximum normalized frequency)/SQRT(minimum normalized frequency) ≤ 3)], and this criteria apparently lines up well with my own tastes. I just hadn't thought to write it down as such.
I think her description of names that have been given to at least five American babies every year since 1900, with no sharp peaks in popularity that would date them to a specific era, articulates what Jeremy and I were basically going for with our kids' names. A name that you might not have heard in a while, or only heard because it's your great-aunt's name, but it's not totally out there and will (hopefully) be just as nice in 20, 30, 40 years.
According to the BNW's calculations, we succeeded!
Now why is the boys' list so much more eccentric than the girls' list?
It's not entirely chance, of course - the BNW had a specific criteria for including the names that she did [(SQRT(maximum normalized frequency)/SQRT(minimum normalized frequency) ≤ 3)], and this criteria apparently lines up well with my own tastes. I just hadn't thought to write it down as such.
I think her description of names that have been given to at least five American babies every year since 1900, with no sharp peaks in popularity that would date them to a specific era, articulates what Jeremy and I were basically going for with our kids' names. A name that you might not have heard in a while, or only heard because it's your great-aunt's name, but it's not totally out there and will (hopefully) be just as nice in 20, 30, 40 years.
According to the BNW's calculations, we succeeded!
Now why is the boys' list so much more eccentric than the girls' list?