I've talked about celebrities and baby names before on this blog, and their influence on baby names continues. At the US Social Security website you can find a searchable database of rankings of baby names since 1880.I mentioned that boys' names become popular as girls' names. Examples: Jeremy, Taylor, and Aiden are now becoming girls names. Parents with boys will steer clear of those names soon. It seems to be okay to be a "girl with a boy's name", but not okay to be a "boy with a girl's name".
Did you know that Paris was originally a boy's name? I didn't know that. However, since Paris Hilton's hit TV show, parents have chosen Paris for their girls. Laura Wattenberg, the author of The Baby Name Wizard says this about the name "Paris": "It was a rare name, especially for girls, but as soon as she hit the news, you could see a nationwide measurable spike."
Experts say that parents may not like a celebrity, but like their name -- Mariah, Shania, Norah, Denzel, Keanu, and Kobe are names parents are choosing. When the celebrity is all over the news, parents are exposed to a name, become used to it, and then love it!
Sometimes a celebrity's name is used a lot and then the celebrity falls into unpopularity. Britney (Spears) was very popular until she started changing her image to "sexy". "Sean" has not been too popular for 15 years or so (in North America), but it may become more popular because Britney Spears named her son Sean.
How about the name Monica? After the Monica Lewinsky scandal it was much less popular.
It all boils down to thousands of people whose names wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for celebrities. Combine celebrities' tastes in baby names and parents from this generation, who want more than common, ordinary baby names, and you get a whole lot of unique, new names.
I'm sure now that Nicolas Cage named his son Kal-el (after Superman), it will become a popular boy's name. Perhaps it will become a popular girl's name too ... who knows.
