Top 100 Baby Names of 2006

In the utterly frivolous category, we link to a list of the 100 top baby names for 2006.

There definitely are some imaginative parents out there. “Aiden,” which doesn’t even appear in many baby name reference works, is the #1 name for baby boys. “Nevaeh” (heaven spelled backward) cracks the top hundred for girls, yet doesn’t appear in reference works, either. “Trinity” beats “Faith” for girls; this must tell us something theological. A high church resurgence is looming, perhaps.

“Peyton” hits the top hundred for both boys and girls — no doubt, inspired by the National Center’s Peyton Knight’s work in defense of our Constitution’s Fifth Amendment. Apparently, parents of girls appreciate the Fifth Amendment just slightly more often (53rd most popular name for girls) than parents of boys (99th for boys), a theory supported by the fact that “Madison,” as in the Father of the Constitution, is the #2 name for girls.

Many names are too imaginative for the baby-name databases. “Jayden,” #19 for boys, doesn’t show up on this list of names, nor this one, nor this one, but this one and this one claim it is modern English with no meaning while this one says “Jayden” means “God has heard” in Hebrew. (I wouldn’t rely on that last database.)

Not all the unusual names are meaningless, however. “Caden,” #13 for boys, apparently means “spirit of battle” and is Welsh.

The American Baby website gets unusually specific for “Logan” (#10 for boys), defining Logan as “a tan, good-looking soap star, or a serious, strong but gentle, hardworking bodybuilder who’s hard to get to know.” Baby Names World shortens that to “empty.”

One thing’s for sure: “Logan” is not the name to pick if you are shooting to send junior to Harvard.

#54 on the baby girls’ list is “Brooklyn.” “Manhattan” does not appear. Nor, thankfully, does “Staten Island.”

In the strangest of all search results, American Baby’s result for “Kennedy” (#77 for girls) links the name to “Oswald.”

Not the best combination.

Note: After this post was written, the website that defined “Jayden” as meaning “God has heard” in Hebrew removed that definition from its website.



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