Thursday, June 07, 2007
What's in a name?
Having recently turned 40, it is finally beginning to hit me that I am actually older than 20. Or 18. On days when I think I am in reality, I am really 32. Daily reminders are that not everybody understands my "Brady Bunch" references. Not everyone remembers knock-knock jokes on Dixie Cups. That I can handle. But this, this was a little rough.
I played a drop-in tennis match last week with 3 other people at my club. One, high-school aged boy named Mark was one I hadn't yet met - and I thought I was playing with another, high-school aged boy I knew, also named Mark. When I introduced myself, New Mark said "Yes, it is confusing. Mark and I are on the same team at school, and there is another Mark as well."
I remarked that everywhere I go - there is at LEAST one other, if not more, other Suefunkys. (Susiefunky, Susanfunky, Suziefunky, Suzannefunky, etc.) So, I understood his pain.
However, it also occurred to me that there aren't a lot of high schoolers named Suefunky anymore. You just don't see it.
New Mark, calmy, honestly, and very matter-of-factly-without-an-ounce-of-irony replied: "I think it is a generational name."
GENERATIONAL?!?!?!?!? Really?
I guess this makes sense - It is feasible I could have a child his age, and that would be a generation - right? There aren't many people my age who share the same names as my mom's generation (save for the Biblical names, those never go out of style). Think too of what your grandparents were named - not too many of those around either. It is interesting to me that something so personal, so much a part of one's identity is, well, trendy to a degree.
the popular names for 2006
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/
vs
the popular names from 1967
http://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/popularnames.cgi
HA! My name was Top 5 that year! Take THAT Sandra! (#20) But, alas, don't even crack the Top 20 of the 1991 names. (the projected year of New Mark's birth - which is also the year I met Mr. Funky - wow.)
PS - I'll learn that cool blogger trick of putting links under "here" - but I am not there yet. Clearly, I need a 10-year-old to help me with this technology.
I played a drop-in tennis match last week with 3 other people at my club. One, high-school aged boy named Mark was one I hadn't yet met - and I thought I was playing with another, high-school aged boy I knew, also named Mark. When I introduced myself, New Mark said "Yes, it is confusing. Mark and I are on the same team at school, and there is another Mark as well."
I remarked that everywhere I go - there is at LEAST one other, if not more, other Suefunkys. (Susiefunky, Susanfunky, Suziefunky, Suzannefunky, etc.) So, I understood his pain.
However, it also occurred to me that there aren't a lot of high schoolers named Suefunky anymore. You just don't see it.
New Mark, calmy, honestly, and very matter-of-factly-without-an-ounce-of-irony replied: "I think it is a generational name."
GENERATIONAL?!?!?!?!? Really?
I guess this makes sense - It is feasible I could have a child his age, and that would be a generation - right? There aren't many people my age who share the same names as my mom's generation (save for the Biblical names, those never go out of style). Think too of what your grandparents were named - not too many of those around either. It is interesting to me that something so personal, so much a part of one's identity is, well, trendy to a degree.
the popular names for 2006
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/
vs
the popular names from 1967
http://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/popularnames.cgi
HA! My name was Top 5 that year! Take THAT Sandra! (#20) But, alas, don't even crack the Top 20 of the 1991 names. (the projected year of New Mark's birth - which is also the year I met Mr. Funky - wow.)
PS - I'll learn that cool blogger trick of putting links under "here" - but I am not there yet. Clearly, I need a 10-year-old to help me with this technology.
