Community Corner
Want An Original Baby Name? Try Harper Seven
From Apple to Zuma, celebrities throw parental curveballs by thinking outside the baby name status quo. But for the rest of us, Isabella and Jacob reign supreme.
On July 10, David and Victoria Beckham welcomed their first baby girl, and the Internet was abuzz over the first female offspring of the power duo. Everyone was really talking about baby girl Beckham’s name.
Like many celebrities, the Beckhams favor nonconformist monikers for their children. All three sons of the Beckhams bear hip first names—Romeo, Cruz and Brooklyn. The announcement that the Beckhams named their daughter Harper Seven sent many searching for the meaning behind the unusual middle name. The number seven is David Beckham’s jersey number, and the number also has spiritual meaning.
For most parents, choosing the perfect baby name is an agonizing process. The name is, after all, forever. Unless you’re Prince. Or Destiny Hope Cyrus. Everything is in a baby name.
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My older sister and I both have common names for our generation. Jennifer (she goes by Jenny) was named for the main character in the movie Love Story. My name was selected because it began with “J” and my parents liked the sibling alliteration. Jenny and I also have the same middle name. Personally, I think my parents were lazy baby-namers.
In my high school, there were only four Julies. Each of us, thankfully, was in a different grade. My sister wasn’t so lucky. According to statistics from the Social Security Administration, the name Jennifer was the top-ranked name for girls from 1970 to 1984. The name was so popular among parents that it remained in the top 10 through 1991.
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As I moved into college and beyond, Julies seemed to surround me. At times, I found myself having to throw in an extra initial to identify myself from other Julies. I vowed to never make my child bear the same common name as their peers.
But, I’ve discovered that the first names of each of my sons were far more common than I realized. My youngest son’s name has remained in the top five for multiple years. In preschool, there were two other children with my oldest son's name, and it wasn’t even a top 10 choice.
My husband and I paired common first names with unique middle names. Both children have unusual literary-inspired middle names. Our oldest son’s middle name, Avaric, was a character from the book Wicked. The youngest son was given the middle name Ender from the science-fiction novel Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. My husband desperately wanted one of them to have the middle name Phaedrus, which was the main character from the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I had to put my foot down at some point.
For celebrities, though, anything goes. Gwyneth Paltrow has an Apple. Gwen Stefani named her sons Zuma and Kingston. Ashlee Simpson named her son after one of New York City’s boroughs, Bronx.
In 2010, the most common names in the U.S. were Jacob and Isabella followed by Ethan and Sophia. Rounding out the top five were Emma, Olivia and Ava, and, for boys, Michael, Jayden and William.
For parents who are looking to be more Gwen Stefani than status quo, do yourself a favor and keep tabs on baby name ranks. You can search a name's popularity over the years on the Social Security Administration's website.
I sure wish I had.