[quote=“Donald_Petersen, post:39, topic:91284”]
My daughter and I like Esmeralda, since we’ve been reading the Tiffany Aching books, and Esmerelda is Granny Weatherwax’s first name.[/quote]
We have a dog named Gytha.
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I knew at least one '70s-spawned Jennifer named for Ali MacGraw’s character in Love Story, which was the highest grossing film of 1970. I don’t know if that’s the main factor in that particular spike, but I don’t imagine it hurt.
One definite movie-related spike is “Madison”. In 1984’s Splash, Tom Hanks rightly said “Madison’s not a name”. But because of that movie – and its main character with a name cribbed from a street sign – it became one of the most popular girls’ names for several years.
Born in '67, I was the only male Kelly (that I’ve known of) in a bunch of Kellys I knew in Wichita, KS.
We’ve had a few uncommon, even interesting names in our family, though. Boyd, Shannon (male), Lavella, Opal, Hoyt, even my great-aunt Zora (which I always confused with Zorba).
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I guess the extreme popularity of Jennifer in the U.S. over such a long period of time is the the reason this name is even quite widespread over here in Austria. In fact, the name is kind of a social stigma, since mostly people from less-educated backgrounds started naming their girls Jennifer in the late 70s, along with Kevin for the boys.
So these days Jennifer and Kevin pretty much represent a prole stereotype, which is unfortunate for those carrying the names. I even read somewhere that according to studies, these two names correlate with lower chances of improving ones social stratum.
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Considering he’s probably got a sockpuppet here, from your lips to his ears.
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Other than January Jones, I can’t think of another person named January, February or March. Also, September and after don’t seem to roll of the tongue, although I have met someone named December.
Flowers are beautiful and cultivated. Weeds are ugly and we can’t get rid of them fast enough 
Maybe in the 17th century when there were baby girls named Silence and Submit.
True fact: when Wolf Blitzer was writing for Israeli publications, he used the name Zev Barak, which is Hebrew for Wolf Blitzer.
I like it, but it has the potential to be the next lumbersexual trend name.
During this year’s Women’s Chess Championship in Iran, Georgian-born chess player Nazi Paikidze (ranked 4th in the US) refused to play because she would have been forced to wear a hijab. The headlines had a field day 
What, so people really like women who die?
Son of Maud. Not a very compelling girl’s name if you think about it. As a boy’s name it should work, but except for Madison Bumgardner it never caught on.
The name Brooklyn confuses me. I’m reminded of WWII movies where the Jewish soldier is always nicknamed Brooklyn no matter where he’s really from.
Kelly is another one of those girls’ names that just kinda dropped off, but as a boy’s name I think it has character.
All straightforward names, but with a certain regional appeal.
As in Zora Neale Hurston. I like it.
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I’m surprised that Jennifer and Kevin are common in Austria, especially because the hard J is not easy to approximate in German. Do they pronounce the first letter like dzsch or some other fatal typewriter accident, or is the name pronounced Yennifer?
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(although I guess that was a surname…)
I misread that at first as Australia…but:
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Yes, like dzsch.
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