Parents Drop the Mike

If I may toot my own horn, I made the Wall Street Journal today. At least the online edition. Hopefully I'll make the weekend hard copy. As I mentioned in the thread 2016 Baby Names, Social Security just released the most popular baby names for 2016. For those who don't know, I started those lists, in part because I hated having a popular name and wanted to kill the name Michael.

Although Michael went up in rank, from 9 to 8, between 2015 to 2016, it fell in total names to 13,998. The reason it climbed in rank is there is more diversity in all names so the top ten names share a smaller percentage of the total than they used to. Anyway, it is all in the Wall Street Journal. Here is a link to the article, although it is password protected: Parents Drop the Mike. However, I did make some screenshots for the few of you who don't subscribe to the WSJ. Here they are:

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Links to scans of the print article:

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What I found surprising was the drop in parents naming their kids Caitlyn.

Quote: billryan

What I found surprising was the drop in pare t-shirt naming their kids Caitlyn.

I think it is due to the association with Caitlyn Jenner.

That's a pretty great article, Mike. Congrats! I wouldn't call that horn - tooting at all, especially since many (most?) of us don't subscribe. Hope it comes out in hard copy; it's worth framing , even if you have to do a good download and print of the online version.

Michael is a nice name, as well as Mike. I think parents are screwing their kids up with these unique names, so you can take credit for it. First of all, as has been said by Dale Carnegie, "a person's name is the sweetest sound". By having a unique name, you're dooming your kid to not even be remembered, and for him to grow up thinking he is special when he is not. They're not going to be Sir Galahad, Aldous Huxley, Link from the legend of Zelda, they're going to be unnamed and forgotten red shirts on Star Trek that are killed and forgotten.

Quote: onenickelmiracle

Michael is a nice name, as well as Mike. I think parents are screwing their kids up with these unique names, so you can take credit for it. First of all, as has been said by Dale Carnegie, "a person's name is the sweetest sound". By having a unique name, you're dooming your kid to not even be remembered, and for him to grow up thinking he is special when he is not. They're not going to be Sir Galahad, Aldous Huxley, Link from the legend of Zelda, they're going to be unnamed and forgotten red shirts on Star Trek that are killed and forgotten.

I have nothing against the name Michael, except its popularity. It works well with short last names, like Jackson, Jordan, or Pence. Combined with a long last name like mine and you have a real mouthful.

In my opinion, the middle ground is where you want to be. Somewhere in rank between #100 and #1000 is the sweet spot.

Also, what is with all these people who can't spell Michael? I can understand asking me to spell my last name, but my first?

In Catholicism, Michael is not only a Saint, but an Archangel, the only entity granted both honors.
Given that a person is supposed to be under the protection of their Saint, I can understand why so many parents pick the Avenging Angel to look over their sons.
Perhaps the solution is shortening your surname.
Mike Shack has a kick to it.
Michael Ford has a calming effect.

One of my many regrets is not adopting a nom de plume when I started out as a gambling writer, like Bob Dancer or Stanford Wong.

Quote: Wizard

One of my many regrets is not adopting a nom de plume when I started out as a gambling writer, like Bob Dancer or Stanford Wong.

First World Problems.

Hmmm...I wonder how the popularity of the name Donald will trend in the coming years?