Nanny to Mommy

It may seem strange to some but it appears that old fashioned baby names are coming back in style. In a list that was released that showed the 100 most popular baby names for 2013, it is clearly shown that the oldies are making their way back on the scene.  The top four baby girl names for 2013 included, in order, Sophia, Emma, Olivia and Isabella. For the most popular baby boy names of 2013, the top four on the list were Jackson, Aiden, Liam and Lucas, respectively.

This comes as a surprise to many people who have begun to get used to the rather unusual names that have shown up over the last couple decades. Still, it as an old saying that trends go in cycles, this seems to be further proof of that theory’s validity. As many of the names found on the list have fallen out of regular use, it stands to reason that they would actually seem new to this new generation of parents. As one factor that parents will consider when deciding on a name for their baby boy or girl is uniqueness, it also makes sense to pick a name that has not been used for decades. With a large generational gap in between the last time these names were popular, it makes sense that a parent would give an old-fashioned name to their child with the thought that they will be the only one in their class who has it. Unfortunately, for that train of thought, it appears that everybody had the same idea at the same time.

There is a definitely a special elegance that goes along with many of these old-fashioned names that is just not apparent in some of the more recently invented ones. When choosing between names for boys and names for girls, many parents have tried to be as creative as possible. This trend went on for some time and it may be easy to see why it seems to be coming to an end. However, for parents-to-be who value uniqueness especially, this creates a great opportunity. If the majority of kids in a future classroom will have names that were popular a century ago, giving a child a “modern” or invented name will almost assure their name’s uniqueness in that class.  The question becomes rather, how unique is too unique?

With old-fashioned names coming back in style, it’s likely that a greater number of future parents will name their children after family members or close loved ones. This also opens up the possibility of naming children after grandparents and great-grandparents, without them having a hard time at school. To see girl’s names on last year’s list like Annabelle, Gabriella, and Penelope, or on the boy’s list like Sebastian, Wyatt, and Xavier, certainly denotes a shift in the culture.  Perhaps it’s about time. The next question is whether or not children will actually go by their full name or by a unique nickname.