Unique Baby Names

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COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – The new English Prince, George Alexander Louis, is stirring up a lot of talk about baby names.

Dr. William Hay Alexander, a history professor at Mississippi State, says “names often have a purpose.”

In the modern-day United States, many would say that purpose is to be unique. Unusual names have come back in style lately. Some ways parents are getting creative are by using non-traditional spellings and hyphens.

Nurse Karen Turner says “one of the ones that’s really different is we’ve had somebody name their baby Samej, which is James spelled backwards.”

Names were not always so diverse or unusual. In fact, in the 1920s, the most popular girl’s name, Mary, was chosen for over 700,000 new babies. More recently, it only took around 200,000 for the name Emily to take the number one spot.

Though names are becoming increasingly more different, Dr. Hay says “family names tend to prevail. People will pick names from earlier generations in their own family.”

For statistical information on baby names, visit http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/.