What's in a name?

Thanks to the Daddy Types blog, I found yet another way to ignore the looming deadlines at work: The Baby Name Wizard. Developed by Laura Wattenberg, a self-described "writer, researcher, software designer, and mother," the blog grew out of her book of the same name, which she researched and wrote when frustrated in her own search for a name for her child. In her words:

The Baby Name Wizard is the result of my years of research into name trends across the country and around the world. I built a computer database of thousands of names, tracking popularity, ethnic origins, cultural references, and dozens of other subtle cues that help shape each name's unique image. From soap opera cast lists to Ivy League alumni rosters, I built a complete portrait of America's naming style. Then I used that data to create computer models to help guide parents' choices.

One incredibly interesting link on the site is to the Name Voyager (requires Java). Type in a name (or part of a name) at the top, and it will show you the usage trends from the 1900s to 2003. I typed in DOM's name, which (with our spelling) never has been hugely popular, but has had a substantial following over the years. Interestingly enough, the usage bottomed out to zero right around the time I was born, and then rebounded.

The end result is that I feel pretty good about the name we chose for DOM. We wanted her to have a name that was common enough so that people knew how to pronounce it at first glance, but rarely used enough so that she wouldn't have to go through life with her last initial tacked on to differentiate herself from her similarly-named classmates.