{"id":6002,"date":"2013-01-16T14:29:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-16T18:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2013\/01\/16\/name-to-consider-blythe\/"},"modified":"2014-06-17T13:07:27","modified_gmt":"2014-06-17T17:07:27","slug":"name-to-consider-blythe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2013\/01\/16\/name-to-consider-blythe\/","title":{"rendered":"Name to Consider: Blythe"},"content":{"rendered":"

L. writes:<\/p>\n

The name Blythe has that spunky feel that I love, and I love the happy, joyous meaning. It seems classy and sophisticated. But, in practice, it’s difficult to say and sounds a bit like “blight” to me. Curious to see what others think of this name.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I too am curious to know what people think of the name Blythe! I’ve seen it on a few name lists recently, which makes me think it may be coming into style. My own opinion is affected by how difficult I find the name to say aloud: for a name with only one syllable, it has so many sounds.<\/p>\n

I looked it up on the Social Security Administration’s web site, and I see it hasn’t been in the Top 1000 for the entire online portion of the data (1880-2011). I looked in the individual year files for each decade, to get a sample of how many Blythes were born in various years):<\/p>\n

1880: (none in data base)
\n1890: (none in data base)
\n1900: (none in data base)
\n1910: (none in data base)
\n1920: (none in data base)
\n1930: 7
\n1940: 8
\n1950: 22
\n1960: 22
\n1970: 50
\n1980: 47
\n1990: 73
\n2000: 60
\n2010: 85<\/p>\n

And in 2011, there were 105.<\/p>\n

The Oxford Dictionary of First Names<\/a> says it’s a modern coinage, most likely based on the word blithe. To me it sounds French and elegant and wealthy (gold cigarette case, fur cape, lovely long neck with hair in a French twist)—but quite elderly, like Blanche: the hair I’m picturing is white. That’s the sort of impression that turns on a dime when the next batch of babies start receiving the name: I remember when the names Eloise and Ruby seemed elderly to me, and now not at all!<\/p>\n

Let’s have a poll over to the right to see what everyone else thinks! [Poll closed; see results below.]<\/p>\n

(Also see our follow-up post: How Do You Pronounce the Name Blythe?<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Poll results for “What do you think of the name Blythe?”<\/b> (605 votes total):<\/p>\n

I love it! I’d want to use it! – 67 votes (11%)
\nI like it! I’d want to consider it! – 126 votes (21%)
\nI like it for someone else’s baby – 242 votes (40%)
\nNo particular opinion – 26 votes (4%)
\nSlight dislike – 93 votes (15%)
\nStrong dislike – 51 votes (8%)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

L. writes: The name Blythe has that spunky feel that I love, and I love the happy, joyous meaning. It seems classy and sophisticated. But, in practice, it’s difficult to say and sounds a bit like “blight” to me. Curious to see what others think of this name.   I too am curious to know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-to-consider"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6002"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9068,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6002\/revisions\/9068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}