I Wanna Be in a Bob Dylan Song

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I started first grade in 1948 and graduated in 1961. Our graduating class had 68 students and most of them started and ended their school years in Port Townsend.  I’ve always been interested in where these kids went and what they did. They’ll always be “kids” to me and as my annual alumni reunion approaches, I’ll be there with camera in hand to record how well we’ve weathered the years.

When your class is small and you live in a small town, it’s not unusual to include all those students you went through grade school and junior high with as part of your class--even those who didn’t actually march with us at graduation.  Many of these “other kids” stayed in touch and were happy to be included in our annual get togethers.  We’re in our mid-seventies now and 22 have died of our regular class and 16 of the “other kids”.  The youngest died at age 20 and 23. But this blog isn’t about the statistics of death. It’s about names, and about my name.

I read an article a while back about how baby names continue to evolve through the years. It’s a fascinating subject called onomastics.  I looked over the list of my classmates and discovered we had 6 Sharons, 6 Davids, and 6 Richards. We also had 3 Lindas, 3 Barbaras, 3 James, and 3 Donalds.

In the 1940s, the five most popular names for babies were James, Robert, John, William, and Richard. For girls, it was Mary, Linda, Barbara, Patricia, and Carol.  The 1960s had Michael, David, John, James, and Robert along with Lisa, Mary, Susan, Karen, Kimberly.  The 1970s was Michael, Christopher, Jason, David and Robert, with the girls being Jennifer, Amy, Melissa, Michelle, and Kimberly. 

The 2000s gave us Jacob, Michael, Joshua, Matthew, and Daniel with the girls being Emily, Madison, Emma, Olivia, and Hannah.  In the 2010s we welcomed Noah, Jacob, Mason, Liam, and William along with Emma, Sophia, Olivia, Isabella, and Ava.  Parents want to choose a name that is different but not too different. Sometimes they slightly shift the sounds of names that were popular a decade earlier.  In the 19th century, parents were influenced by movies and in the 1950s and 1960s, television was the influence.  Once VCRs and DVDs became popular, parents started to be influenced by movies again.  People tend to avoid the names of infamous celebrities and recent horrible storms, and while it’s not the majority yet, several new parents are taking babies names off of video games.

Two names that never go away in American culture are Elizabeth and Katherine.  Not because of their stately-like names but because the possibility of chopping them into pet names is endless.  For example, Betty, Beth, Liz, Lizzie. Starting in 2015, female names often had a nobility theme. Reign, Reina, Raina, Rayne, Reyna.  Right now Aria is the 23rd most popular name for baby girls along with Ariah, Ariyah, and  Arya. Maybe from ‘The Game of Thrones’ or ‘Pretty Little Liars.’ Who knows?

Naming trends are directly connected with the greater acceptance of gender fluidity so that names can be used for either sex. Sloan and Sloane are more common as are Harlee, Frankie, and Landry. Girls names that have shot up in popularity include Adeline with variations of Adelina and Adelaide; also Kehlani, Kaylani, Ailani, and Nalani. The boy’s name that surged in popularity in 2016 was Kylo (from the villain in the new Star Wars movie). Other superhero names showing up include Ajax, Lex, Atlas, Kang, Jadis, Jareth, Loki, Math, Sylar, Faora, Hela, and Siryn. Zayn was in the top 10 list for boys names, along with Shepherd, Denver, Joziah, and Finn.

In the United States, the greatest number of people given the name Joyce was in 1942, when 16,718 people were given that name. I don’t meet that many people with the name Joyce although ironically, my only Port Angeles pal is a Joyce and she’s a Port Townsend graduate.  We just kind of found each other at a high school alumni one year.

I named my second daughter after my best friend who is a Mary. My oldest and youngest daughters are Susan and Jenni.  Sometimes I wonder if I didn’t subconsciously name them after songs I liked –Wake up Little Susie by the Everly Brothers and Jenny Jenny by Little Richard.  I wish my name would come up in a song now and then but it never does.  My middle name (Alice) doesn’t show up either. Merle Haggard did sing ‘Holdin’ Things Together’ but that Alice wasn’t much to brag about.  I’d die happy if Bob Dylan wrote a song about Joyce. Even if she was rotten, I’d like it.