By CAROL McGRAW/Freedom News Service

Her name stands out from among the herd of Madisons, Emilys, Emmas, Hannahs, Abigails, Isabellas and Ashleys of her generation. “I don’t know of anyone with the name ‘Barbara’ but my grandma,” 13-year-old Barbara Stattman says.

If she needed more proof that her name is on the endangered species list, she found it at a party for Barbaras, in celebration of St. Barbara’s Day. The other 70 Barbaras attending the party were, except for one 4-year-old, middle-aged and elderly.

How the name game has changed since the 1930s, when “Barbara” began a three-decade run on the list of top 10 girls’ names. This once-popular name dropped out of fashion like a poodle skirt, as did such other stalwarts as Linda, Susan and Carol — which had, themselves, replaced the ubiquitous Mildred, Dorothy and Virginia of earlier decades.

It’s all proof that names go in and out of style, driven by factors including pop/celebrity culture and Americans’ desire to have their kids stand out from the crowd.

“People are looking for something unique. They don’t want a name on the top 10 list, so they dig down,” Linda Murray of the BabyCenter Web site told The Associated Press.

The only problem: Once parents give their kid an uncommon but appealing name, like Madison, others pick up on it. Before you know it, every other little girl is named Madison, and the name makes the top 10 list.

That, friends, is the kiss of death. Soon — maybe not this year, or even this decade, but soon enough — the now-popular Madison likely will go the way of Barbara.

WHAT GOES AROUND...
But take heart, all you Madisons and Barbaras. Names tend to go in cycles — especially for girls. Take some of the top 10 names for girls in 2006: Emma, Isabella, Abigail and Olivia — all war horses from yesteryear.

The unwritten rule is that a name is most often up for revival when new parents no longer connect it to previous generations, says Cleveland Kent Evans, psychology professor at Bellevue University in Nebraska and president of the American Name Society.

One has only to look at the TV show “Friends” to see how this works, he says. Of all the characters on the show, the name that new parents deemed most worthy to pass on to their babies was Chandler, and not because he was a more popular character than the show’s Joey or Ross.

“The names Joey and Ross sounded so middle-aged, but Chandler was a fresh, new name,” Evans says.

And to Angie Stattman, the name Barbara sounded fresh. She wanted to name her daughter something different — so she named the girl after her mother-in-law, Barbara.

“When she was little and would run ahead at the mall and I’d yell ‘Barbara,’ all these middle-aged women would turn around,” Angie Stattman says with a laugh.

Evans’ theory might also help explain why actress Julia Roberts named one of her babies Hazel.

“The younger generations think it is retro and hip. But those who grew up with elderly grandmas of that name undoubtedly thought differently,” Evans says. (We can only imagine what they thought of Roberts’ other twin’s name — Phinnaeus.)

Roberts’ choices have yet to catch on with the masses, but celebrities often have a huge influence on names, says Pamela Satran, co-author of “Beyond Jennifer, Jason, Madison and Montana,” and the upcoming “The Baby Name Bible.”

Celebrities go to great lengths to find distinctive names, like Suri (daughter of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise) and Shiloh, Maddox and Zahara (Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s kids).

Some name mavens say rock musician Frank Zappa started this game of oneupsmanship in the late ’60s when he named his first daughter Moon Unit, and gave his subsequent kids the memorable names of Ahmet Emuukha Rodan, Dweezil and Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen.

But celebrities aren’t the only ones to sidestep the basic “Mary” and “John” for something more unusual. How else to explain “Nevaeh” — heaven spelled backward. It charted the fastest rise to the top 100 names in more than a century, according to the Social Security Administration. The phenomenon prompted a New York Times headline writer to quip “And if It’s a Boy, Will It Be Lleh?”

BACK TO THE BIBLE
Celebrities aren't the only influences on names, of course. One of the earliest and most enduring sources of names is the Bible. But even those names wax and wane in popularity. Rebecca and Rachel, once-hot names, have cooled, but Abra-ham, Isaiah, Sarah and Hannah are making a comeback.

Sounds, too, have their heyday. Words that end in “a” or “ah” have a lot of fans (Emma, Sarah, Joshua, Noah, Samantha), as do names that rhyme with a popular name. Thus, Madison is morphing into Addison. And where once we had Aiden, we now have Jayden, Kaden and Braden.

Still, boys’ names fluctuate much less than girls’. While girls’ are largely cyclical, according to the numbers, boys’ names are anchored by such consistent favorites as John, William and Robert. Much of that has to do with lineage — naming boys after relatives. It’s especially true of the latest wave of Hispanic immigrants. That’s why Jose, Juan and Carlos still abound.

Any discussion of popular names has to address an underlying question: Why do people spend so much time pondering what to call their kids?

Because names are important psychologically, Evans says. Parents have a hard time choosing a name, believing that a name reflects their baby’s destiny.

“Actually, a name is an important part of your self-concept,” Evans says.
Consider kids who get teased about their names, or those who may not appreciate the names they received because their parents had an odd sense of humor — like Shanda Lear, the name that the founder of Learjet picked for his daughter, or Tu Morrow, daughter of actor Rob Morrow.
But outrageous names may be the wave of the future.

“People will push the envelope even further,” Satran says.

They already are using the names of galaxies and superheroes, or appropriating common words for colors and geographical features.
In other words, Bay, Lake and Cerulean may soon be coming to a preschool near you.

The possibilities are endless.

Endless? Say — that has a nice ring to it.
http://www.thetimesnews.com/articles/name_8436___article.html/names_says.html