The Name Game, Part II
As some of you (whoever you are) know, I am very intrigued by names, and it's one of the many reasons I loved Freakonomics and the blog its writers contribute to daily. That's why one of the most recent posts caught me a bit off-guard.
You see, the wife and I are about to embark on the process of having a child, and like many people our age, have tossed around possible baby names for the child that isn't even conceived yet. I'm not going to necessarily say what those names are -- but the following list has SEVERAL of them:
1. Molly (24)
2. Max (29)
3. Charlie (10)
4. Holly (26)
5. Poppy (30)
6. Ben (11)
7. Alfie (16)
8. Jack (1)
9. Sam (8)
10. Barney (-)
As does this list (with some obvious duplicates from the one above):
1. Molly (24)
2. Charlie (10)
3. Tigger (-)
4. Poppy (30)
5. Oscar (47)
6. Smudge (-)
7. Millie (20)
8. Daisy (25)
9. Max (29)
10. Jasper (-)
So, why am I a bit miffed? Because these are the most popular names OF BRITISH PETS. The first list are dogs names, the second are cats names.
I'm not sure what this means, but it troubles me.
Edited to add this -- yes, you got me - we are hoping to name our first child Tigger Greber.
I like Jack Greber and Charlie Greber (Charlie Grebs!!!). They sound good.
ReplyDelete'max'?
ReplyDeletefrom page program? interesting.
This doesn't surprise me too much. I read an entertaining essay several years ago, somewhere... salon.com, maybe?
ReplyDeleteIn any case, it discusses the fact that many people bestow favorite names on pets, only to later wish that they'd saved the name for their children. If you want to search for the article, I think that the author had a dog named Rosie, and later wished that she had saved it for her daughter.
A couple that I know is facing a similar dilemma. They are expecting a boy, and would love to name him William, but they already used that name for one of their dogs.
My husband and I routinely told our parents that if we had a boy, we'd name him "Beowulf." After all, a man could do worse than having the name of the oldest documented English epic hero. We were kind of teasing them and probably wouldn't have chosen it. Hasn't mattered yet... nothing but girls for us thus far.
But I'd definitely name a dog "Beowulf."