Each year, the United States Social Security Administration (USSSA) releases the top baby names for the previous year, with related statistics based on 4.2 million Social Security Card requests. I use to have a client that had 3 employees with the same name as mine so it was utter confusion when ever anybody wanted to ask a colleague a question… anyways, here are the results for last year!
Top 10 names
For ease, I have stuck a number beside each name to indicate that names position in 2005, I have added the origin and meaning of the name as well just to give you that much more irrelevant data for the day.
Boys
- Jacob (1 / Hebrew meaning supplanter)
- Michael (2 / Hebrew meaning who is like God)
- Joshua (3 / Hebrew meaning Jehovah saves)
- Ethan (5 / Hebrew meaning strong)
- Matthew (4 / Hebrew meaning gift from God)
- Daniel (7 / Hebrew meaning God is my judge)
- Christopher (9 / Greek meaning Bearer of Christ)
- Andrew (6 / English meaning Man or Warrior)
- Anthony (8 / Latin without any special meaning)
- William (11 / German meaning desire or will)
Girls
- Emily (1 / German meaning industrious)
- Emma (2 / Teutonic meaning universal)
- Madison (3 / English meaning good)
- Isabella (6 / Hebrew meaning My God is a vow)
- Ava (9 / Afghan meaning voice)
- Abigail (4 / Hebrew meaning Father in rejoicing)
- Olivia (5 / Latin meaning olive)
- Hannah (7 / Hebrew meaning grace or favor)
- Sophia (11 / Greek meaning wisdom)
- Samantha (8 / Aramaic meaning listener)
Interesting Observations
- top 3 names of 2005 happen to be the same as in 2006… In the exact same order!
- Biblical names are still en vogue with parents for guys while for girls, traditional were in
- if you are an Atheist and your name is Daniel, now you know why you where born with an internal conflict of interest
- parents act like Lemmings! Mom spends 9 months with a developing child inside of her and the best name parents can think of is the same as everybody else?
Name and Race
I read a while back in a magazine that a name actually shows a lot to others who have never seen you as to your background. For instance, if you had the name Alberto then many people would assume you are from an Italian ancestry while something like Malik would make others assume you are from an African (American) one. My suggestion is that, rightly or wrongly, your child will be judged based on their first and last name throughout their life… so why not come up with something that would give others either no clue or something spectacular. When I have children, if it’s a guy, it will probably be Matrix, Magnison and/or Excalibur while for gals it would be something like… well, I will let my partner at the time choose. I believe the name should be chosen by the parent who is of the same sex as the child, this way, the child always knows who to blame if they hate their name!
The Bottom Line
Each child is as unique as their fingerprint… please… PLEASE don’t burden them with one of these top 10 2006 names in 2007!
References
http://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/pr/baby-names2006-pr.htm
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