[00:00.00](MUSIC) [00:09.58]Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA [00:11.67]in VOA Special English. [00:14.95]I'm Steve Ember. [00:16.36]And I'm Shirley Griffith. [00:18.60]This week on our program, [00:20.85]we talk about baby names in America. [00:24.38](MUSIC) [00:43.98]Every year, [00:44.85]more than four million babies are born [00:47.68]in the United States. [00:49.42]Some parents name their children [00:51.91]based on family,cultural [00:54.58]or religious traditions. [00:56.97]Girls are often named after a family member [01:00.98]but rarely their mothers. [01:03.29]Sons,though,are often named [01:06.13]after their fathers. [01:07.43]George Foreman, [01:10.27]the former heavyweight boxing champ, [01:13.11]has five sons and five daughters. [01:16.86]All of his sons are named George: [01:20.12]George Junior, [01:22.09]George the third, [01:23.55]George the fourth, [01:25.28]George the fifth and George the sixth. [01:29.26]Even two of his daughters [01:32.02]have George in their name: [01:33.62]Freeda George Foreman [01:35.73]and Georgetta Foreman. [01:37.85]OK,so this is an extreme example. [01:42.21]So what are the most popular [01:44.78]baby names in America? [01:46.73]Every year [01:48.24]the Social Security Administration [01:50.46]releases a list. [01:52.01]For boys,names from the Bible were again [01:56.12]the leading choices last year. [01:58.78]Jacob was the most popular boy name [02:02.50]for the tenth year. [02:03.92]Michael spent a tenth year at number two. [02:07.65]Michael had been the number one [02:10.73]name for thirty-eight years, [02:13.43]from nineteen sixty-one [02:15.92]to nineteen ninety-eight. [02:18.41]Ethan,Joshua and Daniel [02:22.23]were also in the top five. [02:24.71]Next came Alexander, [02:27.17]Anthony,William, [02:29.54]Christopher and Matthew. [02:32.15]Last year Emma was the number one [02:36.16]name for girls. [02:38.00]Isabella was number two. [02:40.37]For twelve years [02:42.55]the most popular name was Emily. [02:45.07]But last year Emily fell to third, [02:48.70]followed by Madison and Ava. [02:51.81]The other names in the top ten were Olivia, [02:56.15]Sophia,Abigail,Elizabeth and Chloe. [03:00.65](MUSIC) [03:17.93]These days,the choice of a baby name [03:21.00]seems to be guided as much [03:23.34]by individual desires as by tradition. [03:26.92]This is shown in the fact [03:29.70]that the most popular baby names [03:32.14]are not as popular as they used to be. [03:35.50]Researchers at San Diego State University [03:39.51]in California did a study. [03:42.61]They found that thirty-two percent of boys [03:46.95]received one of the ten most popular names [03:50.33]in nineteen fifty-five. [03:52.55]The same was true [03:54.72]for twenty-two percent of girls. [03:57.11]By two thousand seven,however, [04:00.23]the numbers were down to less than [04:03.51]ten percent of boys [04:05.52]and only eight percent of girls. [04:08.56]Cleveland Evans is an associate professor [04:12.62]of psychology at Bellevue University [04:15.77]in Nebraska. [04:17.11]He is also an expert in onomastics [04:21.16]the study of names and naming practices. [04:25.61]"People are more and more [04:28.77]into finding unusual names. [04:31.94]And now since we have the information [04:34.65]on the Internet [04:35.90]at least in the United States [04:37.47]of what the most popular names are, [04:39.35]the percentage of kids [04:40.86]who get them actually is going down [04:42.52]because people are able to avoid them [04:46.64]much more successfully than they did before." [04:48.91]To get a better sense of the modern name game, [04:52.44]we stopped some families out [04:54.55]on the National Mall here in Washington,D.C. [04:58.07]"Hailey is the oldest. [04:59.79]With her we wanted one [05:01.83]that wasn't too popular. [05:02.95]And at the time we were living in New Mexico [05:04.49]and we didn't know anybody that was Hailey. [05:06.62]And this is my daughter Caitlin [05:08.24]and with this one we just liked the name." [05:11.02]"She's Elizabeth,after Elizabeth Taylor. [05:13.94]I think my husband was in love with her." [05:16.10] [05:17.39]"This is Derek and I have another son,Dillon. [05:20.37]I basically looked through baby books [05:23.45]and just found names [05:24.69]that I thought were a little bit different. [05:27.09]We named both of our kids with Ds. [05:28.83]My husband starts with a D and I'm a D. [05:31.11]And they're both Ds,so . [05:32.54]"Stephanie Rafaella. [05:34.15]She's named after my sister-in-law." [05:36.77]"Well I always liked the name Sebastian, [05:39.37]so I wanted to name our older son Sebastian. [05:41.89]And Jonathan,to be honest, [05:43.62]was kind of random. [05:45.00]But his middle name is Miles [05:45.90]which is my mother's maiden name." [05:47.24]"Elizabeth is named after my grandmother. [05:50.83]Daniel is named after Daniel in the Bible. [05:53.73]And Zachary sounded wild and fun [05:57.27]so we went with it." [05:58.91]Some parents choose names [06:01.24]that really set their children apart. [06:03.61]Actress Gwyneth Paltrow and her husband, [06:07.77]Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin, [06:10.70]named their daughter Apple. [06:13.16]They chose it,they said, [06:15.55]because the fruit is sweet and wholesome. [06:18.83]They chose a less unusual name for their son, [06:22.89]Moses.Singer Ashley Simpson and her husband, [06:28.19]singer Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy, [06:31.31]named their son Bronx Mowgli Wentz. [06:35.13]Bronx,after the area in New York City; [06:38.70]Mowgli,from a character [06:41.20]in "The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling. [06:43.75]Some names can be used for either sex, [06:47.47]like Sidney,Shawn,Alex and Taylor. [06:51.56]Thirty years ago the name Taylor [06:55.04]was much more likely to go to a boy [06:58.48]than a girl. [06:59.50]Today the opposite is true as evidenced [07:03.45]by the young singer Taylor Swift. [07:06.08]Naming expert Cleveland Evans explains [07:09.52]that many of these names [07:12.01]were traditionally female or male [07:15.11]at one time or another. [07:17.24]"For a couple hundred years [07:20.03]we've had names which have switched gender [07:22.74]but they almost always switch [07:24.52]from male to female. [07:26.75]Leslie and Ashley are examples of that. [07:30.23]Now they are overwhelmingly female [07:33.30]even though they started out as male. [07:36.07]There aren't very many examples of names [07:41.33]which are equally popular [07:43.33]for both boys and girls [07:45.42]for a really long period." [07:46.85](MUSIC) [08:27.07]Unisex names can,of course, [08:29.18]make it difficult to know [08:31.29]if someone is male or female. [08:33.77]Alex can be short for Alexander [08:37.23]or the female version,Alexandra. [08:40.70]Charlie was last year's [08:43.25]three hundred seventh [08:44.71]most popular name for boys. [08:47.64]But it also rose [08:50.26]to the seven hundred thirty-sixth [08:52.39]most popular name for girls. [08:55.05]We met a woman on the National Mall [08:58.37]whose nickname is Charlie. [09:00.23]She was named after her father's only brother, [09:04.22]who died a few years before she was born. [09:07.40]She admits that [09:09.05]her name has caused some problems. [09:11.30]"Actually my first name is Charles. [09:13.76]When I was in the military [09:15.12]they would always assume [09:16.02]that somebody had mis-keyed the M versus [09:18.48]the F and would house me [09:20.22]with a male roommate or such." [09:22.77]Sometimes a difference in spelling [09:25.61]can identify whether the person [09:27.84]with the name is male or female. [09:30.84]This brings us to a question [09:32.64]we received from China. [09:34.76]A listener wanted to know [09:37.09]if Billie Jean is considered a girl's name, [09:40.70]or if it can be used as a boy's name. [09:44.23]You might remember Billie Jean King [09:47.43]the women's tennis star. [09:49.29]Of course "Billie Jean" is also [09:52.13]one of Michael Jackson's best known songs. [09:55.37]In fact,the question happened to arrive [09:58.46]just a few days before the pop star [10:01.28]died on June twenty-fifth. [10:03.83]Professor Evans had this advice [10:06.53]for our listener. [10:07.92]"Well,that's one of those things [10:10.21]that a little bit [10:11.15]it depends on how you spell it. [10:12.10]I would expect a male Billy Gene [10:14.59]to be B-I-L-L-Y G-E-N-E [10:18.00]and a female Billie Jean [10:19.92]would be B-I-L-L-I-E J-E-A-N." [10:23.38](MUSIC) [10:45.62]Traditionally,married women [10:47.07]in the United States [10:48.56]have taken their husband's last name. [10:51.30]But now more and more [10:53.89]are keeping their own family name. [10:56.75]Some add their husband's last name at the end. [11:00.90]Some couples even create a totally new name. [11:05.02]But what happens when children arrive? [11:08.24]In some cases the child takes the mother's [11:12.36]surname as a middle name [11:14.61]and the father's name as the family name. [11:18.64]Other times,the child may take on [11:22.25]both names as a family name. [11:25.49]But,this can create problems [11:28.03]in the future. [11:29.06]What happens when Emma Isabella Brown Smith [11:33.10]meets Jacob Michael Williams Jones? [11:37.08]You see how this might be an issue. [11:39.42]Unlike some countries, [11:42.53]the United States has no laws restricting [11:46.25]what parents can name their children. [11:48.80]And if adults decide they want another name, [11:52.83]they can legally have it changed. [11:55.95]Parents can find plenty of advice on the Web [12:00.30]and in bookstores about choosing a baby name. [12:04.84]A lot has also been written [12:07.21]about the possible effects [12:09.41]that a name might have on a child's future. [12:12.88]There are studies [12:15.63]that suggest children with unusual names [12:19.00]are more likely to be teased. [12:22.17]Other studies suggest that as adults, [12:26.07]they might be less likely [12:28.03]to get called for a job interview. [12:30.75]Yet other research suggests [12:33.90]that giving a child an unusual name [12:36.96]might help build character. [12:39.89]What all this adds up to [12:42.98]is a big responsibility for parents [12:46.30]to consider what's really in a name. [12:49.10] [12:52.21]I'm Shirley Griffith. [12:53.32] [12:55.05]And I'm Steve Ember. [12:56.19]Archives of our programs are at www.51voa.com [13:02.54]We leave you with more of the names [13:05.81]we found on the National Mall. [13:07.90]Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA [13:12.34]in VOA Special English. [13:15.73] [13:21.96]"Tre is named after his father David Glenn. [13:24.14]But he's a third [13:25.12]so that's how his nickname is Tre. [13:27.52]Kaylee,we liked that name. [13:29.93]We adopted her and in the hospital [13:33.09]they gave her a name of Cali [13:34.58]which we didn't like [13:36.16] [13:37.97]"Caroline was a name that we liked. [13:39.66]We found it in a baby book. [13:40.91]And then Michael we named after [13:42.93]my husband's good friend and my father." [13:46.21]"Carla Marie. [13:47.68]This is Ashley Lyn and William David. [13:51.41]Carla was from a friend. [13:53.42]William was from my husband's uncle [13:55.53]and Ashley we just picked." [13:58.12]"My mother's was Virginia [14:01.12]so we named after her [14:02.38]and my wife Caty's middle name is Allison. [14:04.59]So we took my mother's name and her name. [14:07.26]"He is a third [14:08.76]so,and I didn't like Trip or Tre, [14:10.61]so Tres had it. [14:12.35]I always like the name Reagan [14:15.86]and I'm kind of a Ronald Reagan fan, [14:17.52]so,voila,here she came along. [14:19.45]And this one, [14:20.45]I was skiing out in Salt Lake City [14:22.35]and the name of a building [14:23.19]out there was Reid with R-E-I-D [14:25.19]and it sounded good at the time."