Baby names are recorded in the UK using birth records to show popularities and declines. We know then, that the rather traditional name “Oliver”, for example, had held top spot in the boy’s camp for 8 years according to official reports, only being pipped by the name “Noah” in 2021.
Similarly, other classical style names have continued to sit in those coveted spaces on the name leader board, across genders, for decades.
Until, perhaps, now…
More unusual baby names are on the up…
If the past couple of years’ stats are anything to go by; proving that a post lockdown world is potentially not being played as safely as we’re used to. At least when it comes to choosing a name for a baby at any rate. I say safe but I think long-established is more the term.
And is it really all that wild to go off-piste with a name for your child anyway?
If it’s good for celebrities like the Beckhams, who famously named their first-born after the area in NYC in which he was conceived, then surely, it’s good enough for everyone else? However, history tells us we are but mere dabblers when it comes to breaking out of social norms, at least on a permanent basis, when it comes to baby names – as a nation we do tend to slip back into our more conventional ways.
A little like taking a walk on the wild side when it comes to home décor, getting carried away with Pinterest worthy walls of feature and hard backed, yet aesthetically pleasing, places to recline. However, at the end of the day, don’t we tend to gravitate towards that comfy old saggy sofa we’ve always known and loved?
A recent news article discussing the more “out there names” being chosen for 2024 shows that we are either changing, or in the midst of such a dabble right now. Rising popularity for names right now include choices such as, well, “Choice” would you believe.
So, is now the time these less than traditional baby names actually become staples?
After all, language, and the way we use words in general, does develop with the decades doesn’t it, so why not with names too? Will the current “unique” (that’s a name too apparently) transform and lose its exclusive status, becoming as regular as any other Tom, Dick or Harry?
Time will, of course, tell but… well, I don’t think so.
It would be my guess that we will continue with a little toe dip in the water of dreamy style names, only to then continue as we were, yet again. Despite the way we evolve with language.
Look back to Shakespearian times, where commonly used names of the era are still in regular circulation now. Including, of course, Shakespeare’s own first name “William” (which has been consistently listed in the top 100 baby boy names for the last decade).
Though some things DO change in the name popularity stakes, I think this is more down to a welcoming of a growing multi-cultural society, more than a shift in taste. On the whole, the stats tell me that we like to name babies with a time-honoured, even ancestral edge. We simply don’t like to: “seek though art a name by any other rose to smell as sweet”, even though we’d just say: “why look for something different when we’ve already got a good’n’ right here” in today's speak.
It might be worth noting that my own children do actually have quite unusual middle names as chosen entirely by me. My husband would very much like that to be noted.
I’m definitely not anti going against the grain when it comes to deciding on someone’s name, their real name, the one which will be read out as they get married and stamped inside their passport for forever more. But he did wince a bit when we chose Ladybird, Bumblebee, Cricket and Honeybee (I had a theme clearly) for our four children.
They mean something to me.
Those insect names which might sound ridiculous to some, or just a laugh to others. They have deep meaning, despite the running collective and unusual nature. But it would be my guess we’ll always have more first name Olivias and Olivers for the foreseeable than anything more avant-garde.
But you do you eh, I certainly always do me and that’s exactly as it should be! Nothing is boring, and everything is beautiful when looked on with love.
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind – William Shakespeare (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
What are your thoughts...
