Parents resort to old trick, pick 'vintage' baby names 

Breanne Gilpatrick and Maria Puente USA Today found at Arizona Republic Oct. 1, 2005 12:00 AM 

But it takes about four generations for the old to seem new again. 

Your mother's name? That's old. Your great-grandmother's name? That's vintage. This is why when Julia Roberts chose Hazel for her daughter, the name sounded dated to people in their 40s. But to 20-somethings, it was a variation of Hailey, and the name became cool all over again.

But it takes more than good timing. Some factors that determine a name's popularity:

• Traditional name is a perennial favorite. 

Just like little black dresses and navy blue blazers, some names are classics. Mary, Katherine, Elizabeth, William and Joseph never go out of style. They've all been in the top 100 for more than a century.

• Sounds like a good baby name.

Sometimes a name just sounds right. In the 1980s, everyone wanted names starting with "J" (Jessica, Jennifer, Jason, Justin, Jonathan). Lately, vowel sounds have been popular with parents, who are choosing names like Ella, Eva and Ava for girls and Ethan, Emmett and Eli for boys.Half of 2004's top 20 girl's names start with vowels.

Another popular sound for boys: names ending in "-aden," as in Cayden. There were more than 30 variations of them in 2004.

So what are the next big sounds? Names starting with "O," like the already popular Olivia and the steadily climbing Oscar, which ranked at 123 last year, says Pamela Redmond Satran, co-author of Beyond Jennifer & Jason, Madison & Montana.

And the long "I," as in Isaac, says Cleveland Kent Evans, president of the American Name Society. "In another 10 years, we'll see Ida."

• Some names just like to be different.

The days of multiple Ashleys and Susans are fading: Today's parents want names that stand out.

In 1880, the top 20 boy names were given to more than half of the boys. Today, it's less than 20 percent. The top 20 girl names covered 14 percent of girls born in 2004, compared with 34 percent in 1880.

Reasons for this: smaller families and a modern emphasis on uniqueness.

"If you're only going to have one or two kids, it kind of focuses your attention on finding the name that is 'perfect,' " says Evans.

• When all else fails, go custom-made baby names.

Some parents make up names by playing with syllables, letters and sounds. Aidan gives birth to Zaden. Mariah is twisted into Zariah. 

And more parents are creating "word names," Satran says. That's a name derived from an object, idea or place, such as Gwyneth Paltrow's daughter, Apple. "People are looking for a color, a bird, a fish, a feeling that embodies something they care about."

Most are too offbeat to make the top 1,000. One exception: Nevaeh, or "Heaven" spelled backward, which ranked at 103 last year. It's a variation on such spiritual words as Destiny, Trinity and Miracle.

• Baby unisex name flexibility has its own appeal.

Call it equal-opportunity naming: It's getting harder to tell which name belongs to which gender.

The trend toward unisex names escalated in the 1980s as parents who grew up with feminism began having children, Satran says. They gravitated toward names like Taylor, Addison, Morgan and Riley.

But though parents will adopt boy names for girls, it generally doesn't work the other way around, Satran says. In most cases, the female version takes over, becoming far more popular than the male version ever was.

But the switch isn't inevitable: Drew, Dylan and Ryan, though not unheard of, just haven't taken off as girl's names.

Other names have stayed popular for both genders, such as Jordan, which could be the result of celebrity influence. "Michael Jordan's aura went a long way toward keeping the name masculine," says Laura Wattenberg, author of The Baby Name Wizard.

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