Baby Names

The Social Security Administration released today its top 1,000 baby name list for 2011.

For boys, the big news is that Mason has cracked the top ten. The sudden surge in popularity just might be because that's what Kourtney Kardashian named her son. Talk about keeping up with the Kardashians.

For girls, Sophia and Isabella still rule the roost.  Top girl trenders  in 2010 include Briella, Angelique, and Aria. Names that end with the letter "a" are hot.

In 2007, we talke with Laura Watternberg, creator of "Name Voyager" about what kids names say about our culture. In that hour, we looked at the relentless quest for parents to find unique names--or at least unique spellings.  The weekend after the show aired, I was at a baptism in Michigan. Thirty babies were baptised that day, and I can attest to some very unusual spellings. One adorable girl was Brooklynnne. (Extra consanants are one way to stand out from the crowd, according to Watternberg.)

In 2008, we loooked at bad baby names  with Michael Sherrod and Matthew Rayback. They had poured over a century of census data and came up with some really awful names. Can you mimagine going through life as Mary Christmas or Zombie Davenport?

I was one of three Karen's in my fifth grade class. In 2011, "Karen" wasn't so common, coming in at a distant 287 .  Maybe, I should add another "n?"