How do name trends happen?

[volezvoo]

sorry if that sounds like a stupid question but I’m genuinely interested in how and why naming trends and patterns form. It came to mind yesterday when a friend named their new baby boy Arlo- the third baby I’ve known to be named this this year alone, yet a decade ago it was pretty much unheard of. Where did it suddenly spring from and shoot up the popularity tables? Ditto other names.

Maybe to do with Reggie Yates? He presented TOTP with Fearne Cotton

I liked the name Amelia, twenty years ago, as I had met one. Went to baby group to be met with two other babies called Amelia. She was in school with loads of them, often 2-3 per year group. Sometimes I do regret it. Buuuuut we loved the name and still do. I just think that sometimes lots of people have the same idea at once.

@beetree1 , Cora, Cillian, Arthur, Ada, Polly and Tommy spring to mind

Kit probably popular from Kit Harington

It's really interesting. My son is 14 and has a name that is suddenly becoming popular - I work with children and young people and have met 4 toddlers with my son's name recently, yet have never met another one older than about 7. I named him after a pub in my uni town 😂

I think the idea is that whatever influenced you to notice an 'unusual' name was probably influencing lots of other people at the same time. Whether that's a current tv show/movie or something from your childhood.

Eg my friend has a 3yo Lola. When she was born I didnt know any Lola's so thought this was pretty unique. My friend liked the name after reading Lola Rose by Jacqueline Wilson in the 00s. Now I've had my own DD I know LOTS of Lola's (plenty of dogs too) probably because all the kids reading Lola Rose in 2003 and mentally noting the name are now in their 20s and 30s and having children. That's my theory anyway!

@Chaoslatte, forgot about him. Would also explain Fearne/Ferne/Fern

TOWIE alsoo made names popular, I think

I think there is something about names that were of your grandparents generation coming back round. I named one child Stanley and my Nan was horrified! My daughter was talking about baby names she liked and said her fave was Cheryl! That would be her grandmothers generation (boomer)

How funny I’m mid 20s and also mentally noted Lola after reading that book. I wouldn’t use it now as I feel I know lots of Lola’s but I still love it!

Yes, and previous generations probably wouldn't pick Lola because of the association with Lolita or maybe the song by The Kinks? So it wouldn't have seemed like an attractive option yet for adults having children now, they probably don't have those two strong associations so it is open to more positive associations such as the JW book.

I’m not sure I buy that Archie / Reggie etc are all from specific celebrities or children of celebrities because they fit within the general trend of names from c 1920s coming back - also general trend of “cutesy” names / shortened names without the full name / names ending in y/ie.

If Archie, Alfie, Reggie etc are all back you don’t need a celebrity’s child to be called Ronnie for instance to bring Ronnie back, because it’s part of the trend and they will tend to all come back together.

My uneducated guess is that it’s a combination of:

1. 100 year rule (grandparents of parent and older)


2. Names of a particular feel all coming back together - trend for vowel heavy, frilly girls names currently.


3. Slow burners - names that gradually increase in popularity over a generation or so (already mentioned this, but I believe names like Sophia took hold in a minor way in the 80s/90s and then inspired current parents to use the name as they saw it as fresh, sophisticated, fairly unusual etc).

@WestminsterCrabby I guess Jacqueline Wilson did a lot better naming that character / book than she did with Tracey Beaker!
I remember reading Tracey Beaker as a child and the name putting me off a bit. It was very much a name from 20 years before. I’ve checked and Tracey Beaker was written in 1991.. but the name was already kind of “over” by then wasn’t it?
Whereas I suppose she caught Lola at the start of its ascendancy.

Lola-Rose was published in 2003, a bit behind my time as I’d never heard of it. The Charlie and Lola books were published around the same time. It looks like the name Lola was just gaining in popularity then (the peak has well past now) so it was a name just starting to feel fresh and modern..

I agree with you in parts @thewhatsit , but not completely. Harper was popular in the USA before Dave&Vic's DD. That sort of thing is in the Freakonomics book

What I don't understand is why someone would be really stuck for a name they liked other than two or three that have been hugely popular for a couple of decades when there are so many to choose from.

Says I who gave DC very popular names

popular names are popular because they are often lovely names, but there are so many names that are well known but have very low incidence of use right now.

I was looking up baby names using ONS in the early noughties but I’m always fascinated by the rise and fall of different choices

Loveliness is in the eye of the beholder though, @HorribleHerstory

Some of it is fashion. I don't see anything lovely in some names, and often names are nice if they are a bit different but seem stale when lots of people have a DD or DS with that name

My middle name is Anne and although it's a lovely name I was so embarrassed to have what I thought was an old fashioned name I never told anyone and was mortified if anyone discovered my middle name growing up! Nothing wrong with it just wasn't fashionable in my generation.
I think there's lots of lovely names people would not use because there're not popular at the moment but someone brave does and it catches on.

I really like Ann but as a first name. For some reason, the Annes I know haven't been pleasant, but the Anns are lovely.

It's a bit boring as a middle name, although it often was to honour a relative, which is nice. Same as Rose now, overused

Cole became popular about 10 years ago after the release of the video game LA Noire, Jackson after the release of the latest A Star is Born film. Popular culture influences a lot.

I admit to having never heard of LA Noire but apparently it was released in 2011?

names.darkgreener.com/#cole

Cole peaked in popularity in 2010 and began its upwards trajectory in 2000 or so. I don’t know what is behind that (still a pretty uncommon name though) although I would guess names like Cole, Jackson etc are part of a bit of an American / surname as first name trend?

Jackson looks to have peaked in 2017.

Can probably see it happening with Ottilie now, what was once quite a rare name you'd see among the upper echelons of society has now been used by Zoella and so will lose its shine and become more and more mainstream.

I remember writing a story when I was about 12 in 1995 and naming the characters Ethan and Aurora which were my favourite names at the time.

I can't remember where I heard Aurora at the time (it wasn't influenced by Sleeping Beauty, I don't think) but Ethan was after Ethan Hawke which was probably the only Ethan I'd heard of then. I thought it was really cool and edgy.

It's funny how there weren't that many Ethans and Auroras then but they both became popular 20 years later when I and my generation were having their kids. Just an anecdote, of course, but it feels like there might be something in it.

I think Sophia's popularity is partly cross-cultural too, so it works if you're European or Middle Eastern, although may be Sofia. I wonder how much the shrinking globe drives trends too, so you get names that work in many languages - like Luca, Amelie or Ottilie.

I've got a 12 year old and remember meeting my first Arlo at her baby group. Within a year I knew 3 more. I know far more Arlos and Zachs now than Olivers or Jacks.

I know one of those Arlos!

Yes can definitely see Ottilie in the top 100 very soon