The fleeting popularity of women's names (or boring repetition of men's names)

Since I'm old, this isn't a surprise: The five most popular names for girls in the year I was born were Lisa, Mary, Susan, Karen and Linda.

That was how things were in a world where many TV shows were still in black-and-white, but things have changed.

Out of those five names, only Mary (which ranked 124th) was among the top 700 names for baby girls in 2020. Linda (825th)  and Karen (831st) were among the 1,000 most popular names for girls, while Lisa and Susan fell off the list.

I presume that a 20-year-old reader of this column (welcome, young person! Now turn down that music and stop looking at your phone!) would feel the same way about those facts as the 20-year-old version of me would have felt hearing an old person talk about Ethel, Maude and Gertrude being popular names when they were young: Who cares?

But my point isn't just about names becoming less popular. It isn't to make fun of unusual names are now high on the list.

My point is that women's names are much more mercurial than men's names. Way more.

Consider this: The year I was born, the top five boys names were Michael, David, John, James and Robert. In addition to being very vanilla (which, coming from someone named "Brad" is worth noting), those names maintained popularity over the years.

In 2020, they ranked 12th, 28th, 27th, sixth and 80th among boys names.

The top-five boy names from nearly 60 years ago are still among the top 100 (and all but one are among the top 30). The top five girls' names from the same year? One is 124th, two rank in the 800s and two dropped off the top-1,000 list.

In fact, of the top 20 girls' names from my birth year, only Elizabeth ranked among the top 100 in 2000. Eleven of the top 20 boys names remain in the top 100 and all of the top 20 remain in the top 600 names for 2020.

Boys names are stable. Girls names fluctuate dramatically.

Why is that?

By the way, I checked 1880, the first year for which the Social Security Administration provides this information and the boys' names were consistent with 1962 and 2020 to some extent. Among the top 20 girls names were Minnie, Ida, Bertha, Cora and Nellie. The top boys names are largely still popular, 140 years later.

Why did this happen? Why do women's names change so dramatically over the years, while many of the core boys' names remain the same over time?

Here are three theories:

a. Boys are often named after a father, grandfather or uncle, leading to a repeating of the same male names.

b. Girls are much more creative, so parents are more creative in picking girls names.

c. I have no idea.

And of course, I also did what you would do. For the year of my birth, Bradley (my full name) ranked 87th. Last year it ranked 272nd. Still a classic, right? (The first name "Mrs. Brad" didn't make it on either year's lists. Hmmmm.)

Oh, and a final request.

Will the last Lisa, Karen and Susan please turn out the lights when you leave?

If that's your name and you're reading this, you're a classic. But a classic like the dinosaurs, not like a classic car.

Don't get mad at me, Karen!

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.