The stock market of baby names

A couple of months ago, I posted about baby naming trends, and also listed my favorite names:

Personally, I like Nell and Rosie for my daughters, and Gus and Mack for my sons. Most of these would have formal versions (Eleanor, Rose, and Augustus… I think Mack would stand alone), but they would always go by the nickname.

Well, since that time, the values of Gus and Rosie have taken a bit of a hit, as has the whole formal version concept. I still like Gus, but I’m a little concerned that its scruffiness sounds a bit forced. Mack on the other hand is holding strong and has inherited the top spot as a result as its more effortlessly scruffy feel. As a stand-alone name, it was in the top hundred boys names for the first decade of the 20th century (it hasn’t appeared in the top 1,000 since 1989), making it appropriately vintage. Also, it was rarely used as an independent name outside the U.S., making it unlikely to appear on popularity lists in England (often a pre-requisite for staging an American comeback), so it could very well be overlooked in the wave of laid back retro names.

That whole “climbing the charts in England” problem is also the cause of the Rosie deflation. It’s a shame — Rosie is a good name. But where I had been thinking “the riveter,” now I’m thinking, “oh no, the next Lucy.” Brimming with charm, but a candidate for tomorrow’s quintessential yuppie name. Nell has a little bit of that, but I’m betting on it escaping the ranks of caricatured yuppiedom (as Caroline was in the ’80s, Emma in the ’90s, and Isabelle this decade). Plus, Nell is nice and compact, with the option of the free-wheeling, equally old-fashioned Nellie. I have also scrapped Eleanor as the full version. The argument that at some point she may want something formal to put on her resume has actually backfired with me. I don’t want anyone mistaking my child for a future CEO, and I’d rather not do anything to help that frame along.

So, Mack and Nell for my favorite names… and a whole new set of secondary names…

Now I’m kinda digging Bess for my second daughter. Like Nell, Bess is turn-of-the-century, and also like Nell/Nellie it’s compactness can be easily adjusted to Bessie. Bess had always been around the periphery of names I liked, but I hesitated because I didn’t like Elizabeth as a full name. Wow, scrapping the concept of formal versions sure has been freeing…

Second son… okay, I know its common to the point of anonymity, but I’m having a tough time resisting the name Joe. Average Joe, Cup o’ Joe… it truly is irresistible. On that, I would use Joseph, mostly because even as a formal name, it doesn’t approach pretentiousness, and also because just putting Joe on a birth certificate might re-create that Gus-like forced scruffiness. Added bonus: you can have a city Joe and you can have a country Joe, but its hard to imagine a suburban Joe. They’re all named Brian or Kevin or Alex or Jeremy. In twenty years, that’s where you’ll find all the Jonahs, Ethans and Julians. Y’know, soft names. Thankfully, I don’t see a Joe fitting in there. Joe will also necessarily avoid the trendy bluntness of Charlie and Sam because the name never went out of style to begin with, so measuring a comeback becomes a bit tricky.

Still not thinking of having kids anytime soon, but that doesn’t stop me from continuing to compile the list in the constant search for the perfect names. Nell, Mack, Bess, Joe. That’s where that list stands now.