I noticed this story on Blogging Baby that reports on the most popular names for American boys and girls born in 2003, according to the Social Security Administration. They are:
| Boy Names | Girl Names |
| 1. Jacob | 1. Emily |
| 2. Michael | 2. Emma |
| 3. Joshua | 3. Madison |
| 4. Matthew | 4. Hannah |
| 5. Andrew | 5. Olivia |
| 6. Joseph | 6. Abigail |
| 7. Ethan | 7. Alexis |
| 8. Daniel | 8. Ashley |
| 9. Christopher | 9. Elizabeth |
| 10. Anthony | 10. Samantha |
Well, lookie there. Samantha (my new daughter’s name) is #10. Also on the list are names my friends have given their new babies, like Emma and Hannah. I feel so pedestrian. Or rather, Sam, Emma, and Hannah should. On the plus side, I should have no trouble finding any of them a cheap keychain with her name on it next time I visit a theme park gift shop.
The study by the Social Security Administration that Blogging Baby links to is a real time suck, too. You can look at the popularity of a given name over time (Samantha seems to have been in the top 10 for years), but the really fun thing to do is look at the 1,000 most popular names by decade. So we can see, for example, how someone from the 1920s named “Leroy Woodrow Smith” would feel like he had such a plain, unremarkable name. It’s also kind of fun to look at the girls’ names from the 80s, with entries like Jessica, Ashley, Tiffany, Kimberly, Lauren, Brittnay, and Courtney. Is it me or do those just scream the 80s?
Oh, and by the way if you put in my wife’s name all you get is “The name Geralyn is not among the top 1,000 female names for years 1990-2003.” That’s okay. At least she doesn’t have to worry about the gift shop running out of keychains with her name on them.
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