Jessica writes:<\/p>\n
I hope you and your readers can help us. We have narrowed our list down to our final 2 – but my husband wants one name and I want another. We are due at the end of June, and I promise to send an update after she is born! This is our first child, and if it had been a boy our list included Hayes, Henry, Parker, Jack, and Wells. My top pick is Katherine (called Kate) and my husband’s is Charlotte (called by her full name). My husband’s argument is that Kate is so common and ordinary, and that it is much more used than Charlotte. I know that it is a common name, but I think Charlotte is currently more popular and also a little more trendy. We both like the other’s name, but we each feel strongly about our favorite. This will likely be our only child due to complications we have had.<\/p>\n
Any input you can provide as a 3rd party is greatly appreciated. Especially regarding popularity, style, etc.<\/p>\n
Thanks so much!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n
Comparing Charlotte to Kate is a little like comparing Henry to Jack: because one name of each pairing is used as a name AND a nickname, it can be hard to compare popularity—especially when we don’t know how many boys named John are being called Jack, and we don’t know how many girls named Katelyn or Katherine are being called Kate.<\/p>\n
Let’s see if we can look a little closer anyway. The Social Security Administration reports that in 2012 the name Charlotte was given to 7418 new baby girls; it was the 19th most popular girl name in the United States, and it has increased in popularity every year since 1999.<\/p>\n
Now for some Kate-based figures. Here are the number of new baby girls born in 2012 with each of these names:<\/p>\n
Katherine: 3923
\nKatelyn: 2396
\nKate: 1623
\nKatie: 1427
\nKathryn: 1213
\nKatelynn: 732
\nKathleen: 420
\nKatrina: 269
\nKaty: 164
\nKaterina: 154
\nKatharine: 106
\nKatelin: 65<\/p>\nThis isn’t going to include everyone: there might be some Katias and Ekaterinas going by Kate, and I didn’t bother with unusual spellings such as Kati. And I didn’t even start in on the C’s: Catherine, Catelyn, Caitlin—those could all be going by Cait or Cate. But I think even this partial list gives us an idea of how things are. Looking just at the name Katherine, it was #64 in 2012 and falling somewhat in popularity. (The spelling Catherine is #167 and also falling.) The name Kate is #194 and I’m not sure what it’s doing; I suppose I’d call it “hovering,” except that it’s fluctuating more than that. It was mostly rising until 2009 when it started going up and down; that looks to me like uncertainty brought on by the appeal and fame of the royal Kate.<\/p>\n
We are limited here primarily by the issue I mentioned earlier: we don’t know how many Katherines\/Katelyns\/etc. are going by Kate and how many aren’t. On the other hand, even without the information, we can see that Kate is a popular sound in the United States, and that comparing the 7418 Charlottes to the 1623 Kates or to the 3923 Katherines wouldn’t answer the question.<\/p>\n
The actual answer is probably that both names are quite common right now. Charlotte is “spikier”: getting common in a way that’s sudden enough to be remarked upon. On the other hand, the name Kate is being repeatedly brought to our attention by current royalty, and may feel more common because of the recent popularity of the name Katelyn\/Caitlin.<\/p>\n
The more relevant answer is that it sounds like both names are out: you each feel strongly about your own favorite, and it’s hard to imagine either of you saying “Oh, I see—yes, mine is more ordinary\/common\/trendy, so let’s use yours.” I suggest taking both names off the list and looking for something new. It’s hard to come up with a list when we don’t have a surname to work with, but Charlotte makes me think of Violet, and Katherine\/Kate makes me think of Margaret\/Meg, and of Josephine\/Josie\/Jo; Kate alone makes me think of Kaye, Jill, Jane, Claire, and Rose. Or perhaps you’d like Vivian, Genevieve, Evelyn, Eleanor, Catlin, Clara, Phoebe, or Emeline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jessica writes: I hope you and your readers can help us. We have narrowed our list down to our final 2 – but my husband wants one name and I want another. We are due at the end of June, and I promise to send an update after she is born! This is our first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-206","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7694","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=7694"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7697,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7694\/revisions\/7697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}