The Baby Name Debates!!

I flipped on the television this morning and was watching a show on G4Tech TV that I find myself watching more and more. The show is called Call for Help with Leo Laporte. They often troubleshoot computer software issues, answer inquiries on effective programs, and often provide nifty little tools and tricks for computing.

I'm sure today's episode was a repeat at this time of year but if you haven't seen it before, a repeat is just like the first time.

I'm getting to the age now where relatives, friends, acquaintances, and random people often ask when or if I'm going to have any children. I don't see it happening in the immediate future. I'm too much of a kid myself right now and until I/we are comfortable in the idea there will be no little mini-Mathers running around. For some of you who know me...you're thinking "Thank God!"

However on the show today, they highlighted a website that provides some interesting information on selecting baby names, their popularity, their history, etc. The website is basically designed to promote and sell a book on the topic but the site is still pretty cool. The Baby Name Wizard was kind of fun to play with not that I'm looking for any baby names for people though.

I was able to look up a few sample names to take a look at their

1) popularity/rarity (ranking)
2) Style of name (not sure what this really is...but offers "biblical", "Antique", Guys and Dolls")
3) Variants of the name (i.e. Hannah - Hanna - Hana)
4) Suggested names for brothers and sisters that fit the same genre of name
5) Then a little commentary on the name to make it more personal from writer to reader.

Of course the sample names are meant to give you a taste so that you'll perhaps buy the book and I'm sure many expecting parents do such things. I think it would be brilliant for a web site to produce such a book online and charge a one week viewing fee or something for people to look at the entire database rather than sell it as a book...well maybe not brilliant...and it's probably been done...but much more interactive that way.

The feature that really drew my attention though was the Name Voyager (requires Java). "The Baby Name Wizard's NameVoyager is an interactive portrait of America's name choices. Start with a "sea" of nearly 5000 names. Type a letter, and you'll zoom in to focus on how that initial has been used over the past century. Then type a few more letters, or a name. Each stripe is a timeline of one name, its width reflecting the name's changing popularity. If a name intrigues you, click on its stripe for a closer look."

You can search your own name and see when it was popular in recent history and it charts its incline or decline in popularity. For example, no one really had a name like Britney until the 1990's. Name like George were much more popular earlier in the 1900's and since the introduction of the Simpsons, I don't think anyone in their right mind now would choose a name like Homer for their son. My apologies to all the existing Homers out there...you may have gotten a raw deal thanks to Matt Groening.

Another note for Seinfeld fans....George Costanza's Soda and Seven both did not make the list of names. Check it out...have some fun...let me know what you think. Any other cool baby name sites out there?