The Top Baby Names of 19___ (Fill in the blank)

 

Closest thing I have to a baby picture

Do You Know Anyone Named Elmer?

When Ken Jennings introduced the Jeopardy category “Baby Names: Top 25 of 1922” the other night, I immediately shouted “Elmer,” even though Jennings hadn’t yet revealed a clue.

I was sure “Elmer” had to be the answer to one of the five clues.

My response, which, unfortunately, wasn’t phrased in the form of a question, dates back to an event from 35 years ago.

My son was just a toddler when he befriended an old guy who was waiting for a plane in the Louisville airport. Soon they were playing peekaboo. The old guy asked, “What’s your name, little boy?”

Today that would get the old guy arrested but that, fortunately, was a different time. My son Will told him his name and the old fellow replied, “You'll never guess my name. They don't name kids it anymore.” Will guessed a couple of his friends’ names, Matt and Justin.

That’s when the old guy said, “It's Elmer! My name is Elmer!” And they both laughed.

I laughed too, watching this game.

By the mid-eighties Elmer was already an antique name.

I even thought I knew why: Elmer Fudd. Bugs Bunny’s cartoon nemesis couldn’t talk plain or shoot straight. Who would name a kid after Elmer Fudd?

So I did a little research to see if my thesis was right.

That’s when I found the government’s Popular Baby Names site (www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/index.html). Click here. 

You can search the most popular names by year of birth, by state and you can even check out your own name to see how it has fared over the years.

Elmer was a pretty popular name in 1900 – the year that I would guess our airport Elmer was born - ranking 38th, just behind Andrew and just ahead of Lee.

It ranked 47 in 1910, 45 in 1920, and in 1922, the year of the Jeopardy category, Elmer was 54. There were 3,738 Elmers born that year.

It was already slipping by 1940 when it was ranked 144. That was about the year that Elmer Fudd started appearing in cartoons.

By 1950, when most people knew who Elmer Fudd was, Elmer had fallen to 228, down with Tyrone, Nelson and Laurence.

By 1960 it had tumbled to 342. In 1970 it was 477, two slots above Abel. It was gone from the Top 500 baby name list by 1980. It actually lasted longer on the list than I would have suspected.

In 2007 Elmer ranked 866 in baby name popularity, behind Leandro and Rigeberto and just ahead of Jasiah.

By 2010 it had fallen off the Top 1,000 list. In 2009 there were only 224 Elmers born in the United States.

Having proved my thesis – sort of - I decided to play a little Fun With Names game.

I remembered that Shirley was once a boy’s name. In 1935 it was ranked 259 among boys. That same year it was the number 2 girl’s name. Wonder why? Oh yeah, Shirley Temple.

Shirley disappeared from the boy’s name list completely after 1957.

Of course you have to look up your own name.

I was named Vincent after my father. It was his middle name. He was named after philanthropist Vincent Astor (I don’t know why).

In 1915, the year my father was born, Vincent Astor was known as the “richest boy in the world,” having just inherited $200 million when his father went down on the Titanic. Vincent was the 65th most popular boys name that year.

On the baby name list Vincent has never been out of fashion mainly because it’s never been in fashion.

In 1900 it was ranked 129; in 1910, 99; in 1920, 73; in 1947, the year I was born, it was 105.

The highest Vincent has ever ranked was 1966 when it was 58. In 2008 it was 110, the same rank it was in 1977 and 1946 and 1945 and 1939 and 1938.

But just because you are named after a rich boy doesn’t mean you will grow up to be one.

 

The most popular boys’ names the year I was born were, in order, James, Robert, John, William and Richard. I knew lots of Jimmys and Bobbys and Johnnys and Billys and Dickies.

The most popular girls’ names that year were Linda, Mary, Patricia, Barbara and Sandra. They were all in my homeroom.

 

The Top Five Boys’ Names of 1922 (that was the Jeopardy category that got this musing started) were John, Robert, William, James and Charles.

The Top Five Girls’ Names of 1922 were Mary, Dorothy, Margaret, Helen and Ruth.