Times are changing, and with them, names are rapidly changing too. No, we don’t mean that people change the names under which they came into this world - it’s just that the fashion for baby names changes almost faster than the fashion for clothes, hairstyles or accessories.
It would seem that just yesterday some name was incredibly popular among parents-to-be - and now, at first it falls out of the top ten, and over time it completely disappears into history. The BabyCenter community traditionally collects data on the most popular baby names at the end of the year - and now we bring to your attention a selection of names that in 2024 may even be ‘in danger of extinction.’
More info: BabyCenter
Image credits: Vika Glitter (not the actual photo)
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Of course, BabyCenter isn’t an official institution, but the history of this community goes back to 1997, so the statistical collections they publish look quite reliable. So, according to the study's authors, female names that were popular among millennials, especially Amanda, Angela, Brooke, Diana, and Michelle, are gradually going out of fashion.
As for names for boys, names ending in -aden, which were so common throughout the 2000s, are now in big decline: Aiden, Raiden, Jaiden. And finally, names formed on the basis of last names, and suitable for both girls and boys, like Baylor, Bradley, Brady, Clayton, Hendrix, Preston, Reid, McKenzie, Raegan and Sawyer are also out of favor among newly minted parents.
However, there is no stability and never has been in the matter of picking names for kids. Why go far for examples? This year, the four quarterbacks who led their teams to the NFL conference finals are Lamar, Patrick, Brock and Coleridge (yes, CJ Stroud's official full name is Coleridge Bernard), twenty years ago it was Tom, Ben, Michael and Donovan, thirty years ago: Steve, Troy, Neil and Stan.
Accordingly, forty years ago it was Joe, Dan, Jim and Mark, and half a century ago: Terry, Fran, Daryl and James. As we can see, not a single repetition (although if I took a step of ten years, the name Tom would be repeated more than once...) - and even this random statistical experiment shows that fashion for names just comes and goes.
Oaklee
No it's not there's loads of Chevvy mums naming their kids Oakley, Oaklee
Another example, this time a very personal one - one of my 10 Y.O. twin daughters is named Eva, and according to the statistics that my wife and I had, in 2014, it was not a very common name. At least that's what we thought... As Thorin Oakenshield once said, "I've never been so wrong in all my life!" Now my daughter has two Evas in her class, another one is a neighbor’s daughter, about the same age, and at least three of our acquaintances also have Evas, a little younger than my daughter. As we can see, statistics can also mislead us heavily...
Charli
Be that as it may, you will probably be interested in reading or just scrolling this list - especially if you have children yourself, or are planning to become parents in the near future. Who knows, maybe you will like one of the names from this selection so much that you will pick it for your kid-to-be and, who knows, set a reverse trend towards a return to popularity? After all, history, as we have already said, often moves in a spiral...
Adelynn
Sawyer
I have a cousin named this. His parents called him "Soi-soi" as a baby and it stuck as his nickname. So now everyone calls him "Soy". :\
Raphael
Brooke
Bo
A pretty common swedish male name. Used by old folk and babies now that the name did a new round
Finley
What's wrong with Finley? It's a good, solid, ancient Gaelic name with an easy, inoffensive nickname/short form ("Fin").
Norah
I love the name Norah. I made 14 unsuccessful attempts to get one of brothers to name any one of my nieces this.
Angela
This is one of the only one on this list that looks like a good standard name. Everything else seems like those trendy names from the late nineties
Note: this post originally had 40 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
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. . . nor should they. There's absolutely nothing wrong with some of them, other than perhaps being somewhat old fashioned, so you know they'll circle back in a few generations.
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Did something happen around then that people stopped using it? /j
Load More Replies... I checked the first ten names. They were all in the top 500 in the US in 2022. Many are in decline, but none are anywhere near to extinction. Take Jaiden, for instance. Between this and more popular spellings Jaden and Jayden, there were over 8000 Jaidens born in 2022. It's in decline, but hardly in danger of extinction.
Thank you! Everyone is named Jaiden. It's not "extinct."
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anything with Lynn, aiden etc is not unique. its dumb. You want unique? Name your kid something cool like "Lampshade" or "potholder"
Almost none of these are disappearing. Karen is likely #1 (which is unfortunate, my wife's name is Karin and she hates that her name has been hijacked by stupid people). But the rest of the list would be old school names. Bob is probably up there. Not seeing many Nancy's around anymore. Etc. etc.
They won't go extinct; they'll just be used with the most cumbersome spelling possible.
. . . nor should they. There's absolutely nothing wrong with some of them, other than perhaps being somewhat old fashioned, so you know they'll circle back in a few generations.
Load More Replies... Did something happen around then that people stopped using it? /j
Load More Replies... I checked the first ten names. They were all in the top 500 in the US in 2022. Many are in decline, but none are anywhere near to extinction. Take Jaiden, for instance. Between this and more popular spellings Jaden and Jayden, there were over 8000 Jaidens born in 2022. It's in decline, but hardly in danger of extinction.
Thank you! Everyone is named Jaiden. It's not "extinct."
Load More Replies... anything with Lynn, aiden etc is not unique. its dumb. You want unique? Name your kid something cool like "Lampshade" or "potholder"
Almost none of these are disappearing. Karen is likely #1 (which is unfortunate, my wife's name is Karin and she hates that her name has been hijacked by stupid people). But the rest of the list would be old school names. Bob is probably up there. Not seeing many Nancy's around anymore. Etc. etc.
They won't go extinct; they'll just be used with the most cumbersome spelling possible.
