Popular Baby Girl Names, And Why They Are So Widely Loved
Every generation seems to have its own set of popular baby girl names. You look through lists of girls/ladies born in the 50s, 60s, 70, 80, 90s and since the year 2000, and you notice a trend where some names seem to be occurring more commonly than others in a given generation. Those are the names that almost every parent who gets blessed with a baby girl wants to give to that child. And the trend seems to be more visible when it comes to baby girls, although we also see it to some extent with respect to baby boy names. It is a trend that is bound to cause any critical thinker coming across it to query it, in a bid to understand what is behind it.
As it turns out, there are several explanations as to why some baby girl names turn out to be more popular than others in a given generation.
Often, it turns out that the names in question are also the names of the celebrities of that generation. Now not many people will admit it, but celebrities (and the nitty-gritty issues of their lives) tend to find at lot of focus in people’s minds. And seeing that not too many people are given to much thought over issues, what we tend to see is a situation where, a couple, upon learning that they have been blessed with a baby girl, opt to give her the first ‘beautiful’ name that comes to their mind. And since they think a lot about the celebrities of the time, it often turns out to be the names of those celebrities that come to mind first, and which they proceed to give to their kids. Of course, the world ‘celebrity’ is used in this context in its widest sense (to mean all notable personalities, even beyond the showbiz industry). So, this is where the president of a given point in time, the first lady, remarkable businesswomen and so on make it to the celebrity list, and have their names given to many baby girls born during the years when they are celebrated.
In giving celebrity names to their baby girls, what people subconsciously wish and hope for is that their ‘sweet angels’ will grow to develop the remarkable qualities that led the celebrities they are named after to their prominent positions.
It also seems that the popular baby girl names of a generation are reflective of the values of that generation. This is why we see the situation where previous generations, when ‘character’ was greatly celebrated, also tend to have girl names that alluded to ‘greatness of character.’ During the generations when beauty was the celebrated quality, we see the girl names of that generation being those that allude to ‘beauty.’ In giving their baby girls those names, the parents hope that the kids will grow to be ladies who are rich in the values of their times. Subconsciously, they hope that the kids’ future richness in the values of the time will translate into greater reproductive success, hence giving the parent’s genes greater chance for perpetuation. Nobody thinks this consciously, of course, but it is the subconscious driver for the phenomenon.
There is also the ‘mob’ factor in girl naming. People will opt for the popular baby girl names ‘just because they are popular!’ Just because a relative or a friend named their recently new born girl in a particular way will sometimes be adequate motivation (usually subconscious) for another person to name theirs similarly.
Baby girl names in certain communities are very strange and sometimes cause embarrassment to the child as she grows up.