The rise in popularity of boys' names that end in ‘n’

http://io9.com/america-why-are-you-all-naming-all-your-boys-like-this-1561328070

by sp332 • 12 years ago

50 61 12 years ago

Of the seven boys I know under the age of 3, six have names ending in N: Mason, Lawson, Hudson, Colin, Callen and Quinn. And while the last one doesn't quote match the pattern as the others, that's a pretty stunning percentage.

prawn• 12 years ago

Can't think of any under three in Australia that match that. The trend of the last few years has been following that cycle of rich/poor/rich/poor. e.g., names that were once royal/grand, then common and poor, now cool again like George, Alfred (Alfie), William (Billy), Edward (Eddy), etc.

dwd• 12 years ago

Try around Elizabeth. At the very least you'll find the practice of spelling a name any way you want to be more common.

You're correct about the English name revival with Oliver going from 50th to 1st in the last decade.

pcurve8• 12 years ago

That is fascinating. Please don't take this the wrong way because I'm genuinely curious, but are they all white kids? I'm curious to see if this is a way for some white parents to give their children distinctively white names.

Elepsis• 12 years ago

The original article points out that Jayden was especially popular among minorities in New York, so I doubt that this particular trend is particularly closely tied to race.

CurtHagenlocher2• 12 years ago

Yep, all but one are white.

poulsbohemian4• 12 years ago

I named my son Quinn - it's a celtic name, even though neither my wife or myself can claim any such ancestry. And no, we didn't really give whether a name sounded like a particular ethnicity even the slightest thought when we named any of our kids.

We generated large lists of names and would read them off to each other. Both of us just liked the sound of Quinn - felt modern yet traditional, masculine, and so we though, unique. Unfortunately it has become the "Sean / Shawn" of this generation - gender neutral and all too common. I feel a bit like Johnny Cash and the "Boy Named Sue" where I hope he doesn't hate me as he gets older. Honestly though, in our small town there's only one other Quinn (a little girl about his same age) and everybody in town knows him because of his unique name and even more special personality. So, guess it's alright in the end.

aagha• 12 years ago

We're not caucasian and our son's name ends in N. My sister, who just recently had a son also gave him a name that ends in N.

poulsbohemian4• 12 years ago

pcurve - responding to your question about why we "felt" that way about the name. So interestingly enough, months after he was born I recalled that my grandparents had good friends with the last name of "Quinn." I had probably only met them once or twice when I was very young, but I have to wonder if it was some kind of subliminal thing in my case. Other people have brought up the movie / song "The Mighty Quinn" - perhaps in the case of some of these trends there is just enough subtle social hints to keep certain names alive. The 2009 increase in Quinn as a female name I'm certain had to do with the TV show "Glee."Much like one of the other commenters in this thread, I felt very odd that the name we'd picked for our son, thinking it was somewhat unique or uncommon, suddenly became part of a social trend.

mhurron• 12 years ago

Hurray I'm popular.

mildtrepidation2• 12 years ago

No, but your name might be. ;)

mildtrepidation2• 12 years ago

This strikes me as the same sort of statistical non-information that people strive to come up with during sports games (at least in the US). "Mr. X is the first person in 17 years to bat Y% during years modulo Z while facing right-handed pitchers with only four fingers on their left hands!"

Houshalter3• 12 years ago

Why is that? It's not just some sampling error, it's the entire social security database, and there is a definite trend over time.

escaped_hn• 12 years ago

Maybe n is a popular letter to end nouns with the same way g is a popular way to end verbs with? (ing)

thaumasiotes4• 12 years ago

The only regular noun inflections append an 's', not an 'n'. Certain people's wishes aside, the ox -> oxen / shoe -> shoon / cow -> kine pattern is dead, and left very little in the way of irregular relics.

sliverstorm3• 12 years ago

My half-baked theory is names ending with "n" are generally all clearly masculine. Many names are being gradually feminized, or at least androgenized, such as Taylor and Kacey. I bet many parents naming boys would try to avoid ambiguous or potentially ambiguous names.

All of the boy names that pop into my head right now that end with "n" are pretty unassailably male.

John. Shawn. Allen. Ben. Brandon. Trenton. Colin. Ethan. Jason.

Of course, the day is coming that some little girl is named Johnathan.

umanwizard• 12 years ago

Roslyn?

pcurve8• 12 years ago

I'm not sure if names that end in 'n' "sound" more masculine, or it's just that there aren't that many female names that end in 'n'. But you might have a point. Most popular female names end in 'a' 'e' or 'y'.

http://www.babycenter.com/popularBabyNames.htm?year=2014

But those female names that do end in 'n', I don't think they sound masculine. (lauren, Kathleen, Evelyn, Lillian, Allison, Carolyn) etc.

freshyill• 12 years ago

Trenton?

twelvechairs• 12 years ago

Counter to your point, Vivian used to be a common mans name but underwent a feminisation so that now it's almost exclusively used by women

cafard2• 12 years ago

Ann, Caitlyn, Eileen, Kathleen, Kathryn, Maureen do come to mind. I guess Morgan can go either way, but the two I know are female.

Houshalter3• 12 years ago

One interesting fact I learned is that all words beginning with "sn" have to do with your upper mouth or nose. E.g. snarl, sneeze, snot, snog, snort, sniff.

kenjackson• 12 years ago

Snip, snag, snow....

thaumasiotes4• 12 years ago

OK, he phrased this incredibly poorly, but he's referring to an acknowledged linguistic phenomenon.

The rise in popularity of boys' names that end in ‘n’

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