Horizon

Now, now ...

My own name hit its peak in the Fifties, ranking 45th, before going into a long recession from which it's only partly emerged (currently rank 131 and counting). But if you want a How-the-Mighty-Have-Fallen, check out 'Harry' or 'Gertrude'.

I see 'Martha's' on a slow slide to Nowheresville too ...

Looks like my real first name peaked in 1900 or before. That's Ernest, for those who might be tempted to ask.

So, after all, there's no importance to being Alan? Sniff.

One interesting thing is the saddle effect of names starting with vowels or fricatives.

Betty is my favorite of the has-beens. If you want to guarantee your daughter doesn't have to go by her last initial, there's your choice.

Another interesting thing that's a bit hard to see, is that naming seems to have become a lot more diverse in the last few decades. It seems like everyone's an Emily or Madison these days, but they represent a smaller proprotion of the total than do similarly ranked names ninety years ago.

It seemed awfully important when my peers were still of an age at which Sesame Street jokes seemed funny. Ah, and then there were the "Know what I mean, Vern?" commercials that got going right around puberty and then culminated with such acclaimed titles as Ernest Scared Stupid in high school.

I'll take Oscar Wilde any day.

The only other Martha I know well is a Mexican-born nun at least 20 years older than I am. It never was a popular name here.

No, I'm not bored with history, nor politics. Just feeling like we've gotten into narrow ruts within those subjects.

Well, now we can get into a rut over baby names.

Thing I've noticed over the last few years is that people get 'bored' with politics when it ain't a good time for their politics. My girlfriend's coke-tooting Blairite brother-in-law now will not discuss politics but was vocal when the going was good to firm (horse racing term). I know that nobody here would be bored of politics for those reasons, it's just an observation.

One aspect of this matter I haven't seen addressed here yet is the modern and spreading penchant (in the US) for parents to make up original names for their sproggen. Here in Finland, as elsewhere in Europe, there is an Official Register of Permissable Names which, pretty much*, circumscribes your options. (*However, if--for example--one of the parents is non-Finn and can make a case that the desired name, although completely unknown to the Population Registrar, is in fact--for example--a traditional Nepalese name, then it _might_ be possible to have that name recorded, if you're lucky.) Reading American stories and news reports, one can only marvel at the cleverness of parents who eschew boring old Mary or Henry for more kRe8iV names.

cheers,

Henry

The Scandinavian register thing came up a while back and I got in some hot water over it.

A friend tells the story that he was born somewhere overseas where the law prohibited ordinals (e.g. "the third") for anyone outside of the nobility or somesuch. His father, Scott Smith III, asked the nurse if there was a law requiring a son to have the same surname as his father. On hearing her negative reply, he said, "Then his name is Scott Smith Iv."