From Dexter to Mielle, Ethan and Ava

STATISTICS I A number of factors influence parents’ choice of names from likability to originality to associations with celebrities, or how it sounds with the last name

Chantal Eustace, Vancouver Sun

Published: Saturday, May 10, 2008

Eight-month-old Dexter Kaden is happy with his name and his toy train as he plays with mom Courtney Atmore.

Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun

Dorry Smith wasn’t interested in finding an unusual or quirky name for her daughter, Ava Mae, born just two weeks ago.

She wanted something nice that both she and her husband, Greg, liked.

So she said she isn’t concerned that her daughter will grow up among 236 Avas born in B.C. last year — the most common name for baby girls in 2007.

“It suited her,” said Smith, a Port Moody resident. She said she also liked the initials A.M.S. and the way Ava fits with her surname, not to mention the “vavavavoom” ring to the easy-to-spell name, which is also a palindrome.

“Having an unusual name growing up was always bittersweet,” she said of her own first name, a combination of her two grandmothers’ names: Dorothy and Mary. “As a child I didn’t always want to be unique.”

Smith isn’t the only British Columbian to place appeal over originality.

There were 291 new Ethans born last year, securing it as the top male name for the fifth year in a row, totalling close to 3,000 since 1990 when the name first began to take off.

That’s nearly three times the number of Avas born in that same period.

A searchable database of B.C. baby name trends over the past 107 years, just launched online by The Vancouver Sun, reveals some monikers shoot to meteoric heights before fizzing out completely.

Ava is the new Emma (the top name in 2006) and Emma was the new Emily and so forth.

Take the rise and fall of Barbara for instance.

The Latin name, meaning “foreign woman,” first popped up in B.C. in 1920 with 55 new Barbaras. Ten years later, there were 81 and by 1948, the name peaked in popularity with 367.

It was still popular in 1961 at 270, but a decade later, in 1971, the name didn’t make B.C. Vital Statistics’ list. (It records names only if they are used by five or more babies.)

The name has remained out of style since then, but has popped up a few times here and there in 1980s and 1990s.

Lisa, another once-popular name that peaked in 1973 with 303, has completely fallen off the baby-naming radar.

More dramatic perhaps is the Brittany phenomenon. The peppy name peaked in 1990 with 280 but since 2005, right around the time a certain Britney Spears began her very public nosedive, the name has also plummeted in appeal.

Since then, no little Brittanys, Britneys, Brittanies, or Brittnis have been listed — or any other named with a “Brit” prefix for that matter.

Other names, like Jennifer or Robert, have endured in popularity for decades.

The Sun’s database — it contains nearly 1.5 million occurrences of B.C.’s 3,000 all-time most popular names for the past 107 years — counts 14,822 babies named Jennifer and 39,444 named Robert. And both are still popular: last year there were 27 new Jennifers and 57 new Roberts.

(In the past century, baby boys were named from a smaller pool of names than girls, hence the gap between Jennifers and Roberts.)

Popular culture expert Gisele Baxter says there are a number of factors that determine parents’ choice of name, from associations with celebrities to familial ties to likability or the way it sounds with someone’s last name.

Some names just appeal to people or have a nice ring to them, she says.

“Ava, like Ethan, is one of those names that suits any one of a number of personalities and it also goes with virtually every last name,” says Baxter, a University of B.C. English professor.

She says while parents can’t predict if a name will acquire some sort of notoriety — as with the Brit-based names, thanks to Spears — they can try to avoid names that are overly common, or weird.

“I think the name should be not so common that you run the risk of seeming to have had no imagination in naming the child, you know, just sort of capitalizing or giving in to a trend,” says Baxter.

She says that when parents follow trends, their children are often one of many in a classroom or group, forced to use their last initial or a nickname.

“It should be something that is sufficiently unique that some care and thought has gone into the choosing of it,” she says. “But on the other hand, I think it should be recognizably a name.”

For instance, Baxter points out, when Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow named her daughter Apple, many people wondered if the child had been named after the fruit or the computer brand.

Vancouver mom Courtney Atmore said that even before she had given birth, her husband Mark became hooked on a particular baby name — one she didn’t immediately appreciate.

They both agreed that an uncommon name would be best, but she said they didn’t necessarily agree on which one.

He liked the name Dexter, she said, but she had known a dog by that name and her parents hated the name, as did everyone except her husband’s grandmother.

But when she gave birth and met her son for the first time, she said, she sided with her spouse: “When he arrived, I thought, ‘You probably already know your name,’ ” she said, chuckling.

And so their son, now eight months old, was named Dexter Kaden or Dex for short.

Unfortunately, she said, the name has since gained an unusual association. Dexter is also the name of a popular television show in which the main character, who shares the name, is a serial killer who targets serial killers.

“And now people say, ‘Oh, like the serial killer?’ ” said Atmore.

But she is still pleased with their choice, particularly the way it sounds in short form. “I really like Dex,” she said of her son’s nickname. “It’s kind of neat.”

Choosing a name was a big deal for Gina Allen, particularly since she found it hard to sift through the densely packed name books. Some boasted up to 10,000 names, she said.

“It was really time-consuming,” said Allen, recalling all the research and reading she did. “I was looking for something unique, something inspiring.”

So she decided to put her research to use. While pregnant, she wrote and published an e-book called Fresh Baby Names. Along the way she found the right name for her son, Beckam Tao, now seven months old.

“It all comes down to how much you like it and what it means to you,” said Allen. Her book, found at www. freshbabynamesbook.com, includes chapters on unusual girl and boy names, celebrities’ baby-name choices (Spice Girl Geri Halliwell named her daughter Bluebell Madonna), astrology and a workbook section. It also includes tips like “get wild and daring,” and, “you may be surprised by some of your choices if you give yourself the freedom to explore.” And while Allen encourages originality, she doesn’t think simply misspelling a common name is a good idea. “I think it might cause a lot of confusion in their child’s life,” said Allen. “They’ll have to constantly correct people.”

Interesting spellings are popping up in small pockets, according to 2007’s B.C. Vital Statistics Agency name listings. In many cases, the letter “i” is replaced by a “y” and so forth. For instance, while there were 211 babies named Olivia last year, five were named Alyvia. Ninety baby girls were named Taylor and another eight were named Tayla. There were 10 boys named Phillip, and another five named Filip, and so on.

Spelling was important for Shira and Lucas van den Berg, who wanted an original name for their little girl, one that packed a lot of meaning. They felt it was most important to pay tribute to Shira’s mother, Mel, who died a few years ago. Since her mother used to call Shira by the nickname “Honey,” they created the name Mielle — inspired by the French word for honey, miel. And Mielle’s middle name, Zahava, is a Hebrew translation of Shira’s maiden name, Gold. “[Mielle] was something easily pronounceable but set her apart from the crowd a little,” she said. “You didn’t want it to be so unusual that people can’t relate.” Finding the right name for their daughter was important, she said.

“I felt such a huge responsibility as a parent to find a name that would carry nicely from birth to adulthood,” van den Berg said. “I have a fairly original name and I love that.”

Her husband, Lucas, added their three-month-old daughter seems to like being Mielle. “I love it. It’s her,” he said. “She wouldn’t have any other name.”

Go to www.vancouversun.com/babynames to get the scoop on your favourite name, from Bob to Brooklyn to Sarah and Sophia.

ceustace@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

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