Names
When Jane and I were considering names for our daughter, in the months before her birth, we settled happily on Hannah. Neither of us had known a Hannah growing up, so didn’t have any of those unpleasant associations (paste-eater, nose-picker) that we had with some of the names of our childhood peers. In fact, we thought we were wildly original, only discovering after the fact that our wildly original name was actually the fourth most popular choice for baby girls that year.
Apparently other gay and lesbian parents are more creative, according to a new list of the top “gayby” names recently released by Goodkin.com. Based on a survey of hundreds of gay and lesbian parents, the top names for babies born into our families are, by and large, not the same as the top baby names overall.
How are they different? Think less Jane Austen, more Harper Lee (Harper, in fact, rings in at number 5 for girl names). Parents overall (which means mostly straight) are still opting for Emma, Abigail, Isabel, Jacob and Ethan. Not so the gay dads and lesbian moms. The top names for boys raised by gay/lesbian parents include Atticus, Charlie, Milo and Dashiel. Girl names include Vivienne, Charlotte, Billie and Scarlett. Remarkably, only 3 names – Alex/Alexander and Noah for boys and Ava for girls – showed up on the top ten lists for both gay and straight parents.
Maybe gay and lesbian parents (other than, apparently, Jane and me) are bigger risk-takers or more out-of-the-box thinkers when naming their kids. It’s possible that gay parents feel they have more leeway to be creative given the fact that our families are already different. Or maybe gay parents are at the front end of the next trend. Who knows? A couple of years from now, little Atticus’ may just be showing up in nurseries everywhere.
I feel compelled to add, though, that Jane and I might have been more daring than it seems. Hannah’s middle name is Elisabeth. With an s.
