Here's Why Every Baby Girl You Know Has a Name Starting With "E"
My name is Kaitlin and I'm a millennial. It's possible that the first fact could have helped you guess the second, as Kaitlin is an extremely late '80s-early '90s name. There's been more than one Kaitlin (or Caitlyn, or Katelynne, and so on) in every class I've ever taken and, now that I'm an adult, in every office I've ever worked in. My mother is apologetic about my name's ubiquity: "It was rare in 1987 when you were born!" she claims.
It might be due to this very unspecialness that I've always had an interest in baby name trends. And, lately, every single pink onesie-wearing newborn on my Facebook newsfeed has a name starting with an E. Every blogger has a daughter named Eleanor; every coworker of mine has chosen Everett or Emerson or Eva. All the Elles and Ellas. Every baby produced by a member of my high school class is Everly (as is Jenna Dewan Tatem's daughter).
What gives? Was a memo distributed at pre-natal yoga classes across the country? Hoping for an explanation, I reached out to Lisa Spira, a linguistics expert with a focus in onomastics, or the study of names.
"Yes, there is a trend toward feminine names beginning with the letter e," she agrees, noting that their popularity has grown steadily since the 1970s. In the '70s, Elizabeth was the only girls' name with an E in the top 30 of baby names; by the 2000s there were three (Emily, Emma, Elizabeth). Now, in the 2010s, there are 5 (Emma, Emily, Elizabeth, Ella, Evelyn).
Oddly, it's the millennial name trends that got us here, Spira believes. "New parents reuse the most familiar-feeling names of that past generation, the names that sound like other recently popular names," she says. "In the 1990s, popular names like Ashley and Amanda brought these vowel sounds into our consciousness. That propelled Emily, Emma, Olivia, Abigail, and Isabella to the top of the list in the 2000s. Following those, Ava, Evelyn, Ella, Amelia, and Aubrey resurfaced in the 2010s."
"New parents reuse the most familiar-feeling names of that past generation, the names that sound like other recently popular names."
That brings me to one of my personal baby name pet peeves: the Aiden-Brayden-Jaden phenomenon for boys, which is just now losing steam. "Many parents want a name that is different, but not too different. Aiden has been a top 100 boys name since 2003, peaking at number 9 in 2010 and 2011," she says. "In emulating these sounds, parents arrived at Braden, Caden, and similar iterations. These parents didn't want to choose the popular name, but still wanted the name to feel like it fit in." She connects the Aiden name construction - two syllables, the vowel a, and a final n - with the rising mania of Mason, Jackson, Dylan, Logan, and Ethan.
I wonder how long the feminine E thing will last. How long does it take a popular name to rise, peak, and subside? "Baby name trends are influenced by factors such as sounds, celebrity usage, and how popular individual names become. Some trends spike and others evolve more gradually. Since names generally cycle every seventy to one hundred years, the names that come back also influence how long names stay," Spira says.
She also has a prediction for which letter is coming next for little girls. "While the 'E' trend could last for a while, other sound features in these names, as well as in names that are rising in popularity, can point to the next trend," she says. "Take a look at Emily, Olivia, Isabella, Abigail, Evelyn, and Amelia, in combination with lower 2015 top 50 names such as Lily, Lillian, Layla, Alexa, Penelope, Riley, and Leah. I think we will soon feel the 'L' the same way we feel the 'E' right now."
Though it seems like we're all doomed to choose monikers for our offspring based on this mind control and peer pressure, there is a way to evade giving your kid a #basic name. "Use the resources available on the internet. The Social Security Administration publishes baby name statistics," says Spira. "Check the popularity of the names you like, and others that look or sound like them. Popular baby name websites such as Baby Names and Nameberry have similar statistics based on users search data."
And since trends usually occur in a 100-year cycle, go back 50 years instead. "Consider names that weren't popular in your grandparents or great-grandparents generations, such as Pamela and Shirley (both around #20 in 1950) or Shannon and Patricia (both around #20 in 1970)," Spira suggests.
With all due respect to any Shirleys reading this right now, doesn't that name just seem like an incredibly odd choice right now for a baby? Like your baby Shirley would emerge from the womb smoking Parliaments and wearing a bathrobe? But that's pretty much the point: It sounds weird because it's out of date. With that in mind, maybe Kaitlin isn't the worst choice. It peaked in 1995 and isn't even in the top 2,000 (!) baby girl names now. May your daughter feel a bit more special than I did.
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