Baby names from 1998 - 2002 (i.e. high school students today)

[aliki]

Below is my current class list of students. I have 74 students (43% females and 57% males) this year. My Olivias and Andrews are all in the same class. Two Catherines are in the same class, and the two Stephanies chose to sit next to each other. Both Shanes and Walters are in the same class. One Walter volunteered to go by his middle name, but that

Comments

[aliki]

He's ethnically Indian.

[tediousandbrief]

Two Olivias and two Giannas? I wouldn't have picked those for super popular names.

[tabloidscully]

The popularity of Olivia is surprising. It's been in the top 20 since 1998 and the top 10 since 2002. Since 2008, it's consistently been in the top 5.

[aliki]

Olivia is the second most popular name last year! it is the equivalent of Jessicas and Jennifers of our generation.

Gianna is a popular Italian name. Common in our area.

[falls2climb]

I had two Giannas in a kiddie gymnastics class back in 2011 and thought that was really unusual. Their parents were not especially thrilled about the coincidence.

On the other hand, I've had multiple Olivias in my classes almost every year for the past decade.

[spacefem]

I really wanted to avoid the top names but still agreed to Olive, which is way too close to Olivia, the #2 name for 2013. Marc didn't think this was an issue he just loved the name. I had no idea what to name that kid.

Our alternatives were Harriet or Violet and someday I am going to give those to Olive as suggestions if she wants to change, if she gets sick of being named after a condiment.

[tabloidscully]

Luckily, I doubt Sephie will ever have to deal with that, but I did try to give her a reasonably more common middle name to change to if she ever felt the need. It's not terribly common, but unlikely to cause the confusion we get with her first name.

[aliki]

Sephie is another cool one. Similar to the ever-popular Sophia (ranked in top 5 for last 5 years in USA and ranked the most popular name in the world) but with its own twist.

[tabloidscully]

I never thought of it as a twist on Sophia, but you're right. It's apparently a common abbreviation for Persephone, which annoys me because I thought I was SO BRILLIANT for coming up with it! I assumed the natural abbreviation for Persephone would be Persy, but I digress. I've heard about four other Persephones since mine came into being, and all of them have been nicknamed the same, though two spelled it Sephy rather than Sephie.

[falls2climb]

I'm surprised that my rosters don't overlap more with yours! I'm teaching all freshmen and sophomores, 2001-2002 babies. I have multiple Olivias, Tylers, and Daniels, but only a few other overlapping names.

I'm always entertained by the fact that I might only have two students across all 99 of my students with the same name, but they're almost inevitably in the same class. I have Daniel O and Daniel R in one class, Olivia B and Olivia O, Tyler D and Tyler W, and Sofia and Sophia - both of whom are Sofia/Sophia D.

My favorite name so far this year is Kejsi, pronounced Casey. She's originally from Albania.

[aliki]

Regional differences, perhaps? We are 99% Caucasian school, and they are ethnically Italian and Irish. WHat about yours?

[falls2climb]

We're about 97% Caucasian - there are only two African-American students in the freshman class, and their names are Zyon and Zion. :) There's one family of Albanian immigrants, which is where Kejsi is from, and a handful of Hispanic students.

[aliki]

Sounds similar, then. I think we have no African-American families this year, we have 2 Asian students in the freshman class, and three Hispanic students are triplet..