Ashley writes:<\/p>\n
So, I am 6.5 months pregnant with my second child, due June 20. We don’t know the sex, but we are fine on girl names (probably Adele). Our 3.5 year old son is Gabriel Christopher. We had three criteria for naming:<\/p>\n
– Not too popular (ie: definitely not top 10, or ideally top 20, right now – since Mike and Ashley, our names, were in the top 3 the years we were born. TOO POPULAR.)
\n– Not too uncommon or trendy (ie: he won’t have to repeat himself five times, spelling it to the credit card company as an adult won’t be a pain, etc)
\n– Not boring\/plain (this is subjective, obviously. His name needn’t be creative & unusual, just not TOO plain.)<\/p>\nI liked that I didn’t know any other Gabriels, but that it wasn’t a name that was unfamiliar. So far he’s the only Gabe in his playgroup, at preschool, etc. But no one ever says, “Oh, interesting name.” So! It was the name for us. I mean, him.<\/p>\n
Our last name is Cadaret – sounds like “cabaret” with a d.<\/p>\n
For this child, we are stuck with boy names. Nothing is sticking. At ALL. To add to our above criteria, I’d ideally like another name that has a nickname (we call our son Gabe) and that isn’t too biblical (No Raphael and Gabriel. Nope.).<\/p>\n
Our (my?) favorites:
\n– Luke\/Lucas\/Luca (young cousin named Lucas, so it might be Luca\/Luke)
\n– Oliver
\n– Julian (worried it’s going to be mistaken for feminine)
\n– Jude (maybe as a nickname for Julian – but sort of a stretch?)
\n– Theodore (Theo!)
\n– Samuel
\n(We do like the following, but start to veer into too plain territory…)
\n– Zachary
\n– Charles\/Charlie
\n– Matthew<\/p>\nNames liked but cannot use (because we have a LOT of young boys in my family, they’re a top 10 name right now, or my husband just hates it)
\n– Leo
\n– William\/Liam
\n– Caleb
\n– Dominic
\n– Henry
\n– Amos<\/p>\nMiddle name will be a family name, probably. Christopher is my husband’s middle name. We’ll likely be doing John, Michael, Anthony, Salvador, William, or Thomas.<\/p>\n
Okay. That is a lot of information. I’d love to hear what you have to say if you have time\/space in your posting schedule!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n
My very first suggestion is a biblical name: Isaac, nicknames Zac or Ike. Biblical names have gone so mainstream: when I was growing up, Noah would have been a startlingly religious name to use, but now it’s the fourth most common name for U.S. baby boys in 2012. If I met a family with a Gabriel and an Isaac, the biblical nature of both names wouldn’t occur to me—and I grew up the daughter of a pastor. But I’m with you on avoiding a household set of archangels.<\/p>\n
Before we go on to discuss other names, I want to take a minute to discuss name popularity. The name Ashley was in the top three from 1984 until 1997. The name Michael was in the top three from 1953 until 2010. But even more impressive than rankings are percentages: at its peak in 1987, the name Ashley was given to 2.93% of baby girls. I didn’t go through all the years for the name Michael, but it looks like it peaked in 1969 when it was given to 4.66% of baby boys; even in 1987 (to match it with the name Ashley and give your husband a more statistically likely birth year), it was given to 3.27% of baby boys.<\/p>\n
Those are ENORMOUS numbers, compared with today’s: in 2012, even the most popular boy name in the United States (Jacob) was given to .94% of baby boys; the most popular girl name in the United States (Sophia) was given to 1.15% of baby girls. To match the popularity of Ashley in 1987, we’d have to almost combine the top three 2012 girl names (Sophia, Emma, Isabella); to match the popularity of Michael in 1987, we’d have to almost combine the top FOUR 2012 boy names (Jacob, Mason, Ethan, and Noah). If I’ve done the math correctly (and I really hope so, because that was some very tedious math), the Top 20 in 1987 accounted for 33.5% of boy names and 26.5% of girl names; the Top 20 in 2012 accounted for 14.9% of boy names and 12.2% of girl names.<\/p>\n
This is not to say we can’t look for less-common names, and we will; and I know what you mean about wanting something that feels more interesting. But comparing 1987 names to 2012 names is like comparing 1987 dollars to 2012 dollars: adjustments are needed or else the results are misleading to the point of uselessness. The number one most popular boy name in 2012 is used at the same rate as the 23rd or 24th most popular boy name in 1987: if you wanted to avoid the equivalent of 1987’s Top 20 for boys, you could still choose 2012’s Top 1.<\/p>\n
I don’t know why I did three paragraphs on that, considering I have no Top 20 names to push on you. But if there are any names you really like but have eliminated purely on the basis of popularity, I urge you to reconsider. William is Top 10 right now and was given to .83% of baby boys in 2012; in 1987 numbers, this level of usage would have put it between #27 (Adam, given to .87% of baby boys in 1987) and #28 (Benjamin, given to .76% of baby boys in 1987).<\/p>\n
As an aside, Benjamin is an interesting example for popularity changes: I see it is currently MORE popular at #16 while being used LESS often at .63%. In fact, would you want to consider Benjamin? Gabriel and Benjamin; Gabe and Ben. I really, really like those names together. Or Bennett, if Benjamin seems too familiar: Gabriel and Bennett; Gabe and Ben. Which makes me think of another idea: if William is too popular, I wonder if Wilson would work: Gabriel and Wilson; Gabe and Will.<\/p>\n
Okay! Let’s get out of 1987. In 2010, the name Gabriel was #21, given to .63% of U.S. baby boys; in 2012, it was #24, given to .57% of U.S. baby boys—very similar numbers. Some possible brother names:<\/p>\n
August Cadaret; Gabriel and August; Gabe and Gus
\nCalvin Cadaret; Gabriel and Calvin; Gabe and Cal
\nDarian Cadaret; Gabriel and Darian
\nDavis Cadaret; Gabriel and Davis
\nElias Cadaret; Gabriel and Elias; Gabe and Eli
\nElliot Cadaret; Gabriel and Elliot
\nEmmett Cadaret; Gabriel and Emmett
\nEverett Cadaret; Gabriel and Everett
\nHugo Cadaret; Gabriel and Hugo
\nIan Cadaret; Gabriel and Ian
\nJames Cadaret; Gabriel and James; Gabe and Jamie
\nJasper Cadaret; Gabriel and Jasper
\nLouis Cadaret; Gabriel and Louis; Gabe and Lou
\nMalcolm Cadaret; Gabriel and Malcolm
\nMilo Cadaret; Gabriel and Milo
\nNolan Cadaret; Gabriel and Nolan
\nRuben Cadaret; Gabriel and Ruben
\nSimon Cadaret; Gabriel and Simon
\nWesley Cadaret; Gabriel and Wesley; Gabe and Wes<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Name update!<\/strong><\/p>\n
Hi there! I am so belated on this update as my son is nearly 5 months old, but we did, indeed, name him Theodore James and call him Theo. We love the name and the comments on your post helped us decide!<\/p>\n
We’ve already learned that people often think he’s Leo or have no idea what we’re saying, so I have to clarify, “Like Theodore,” but oh well! He can also become TJ when he’s older if he decides.<\/p>\n
Thanks!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ashley writes: So, I am 6.5 months pregnant with my second child, due June 20. We don’t know the sex, but we are fine on girl names (probably Adele). Our 3.5 year old son is Gabriel Christopher. We had three criteria for naming: – Not too popular (ie: definitely not top 10, or ideally top […]<\/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":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-2hV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8799","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=8799"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10689,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8799\/revisions\/10689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}