And if it's a girl, Benjamina Roethlisberger
What’s in a name? Rich material for feature writers. On a Thanksgiving visit to my home town, I enjoyed an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that put a local spin on that perennial trend story: fads in baby names.
Not surprisingly, in a town in which pro football is the official religion, the most cringe-making name in the story derived from our storied NFL team: a boy named Steeler Gerard Petrocky. The grandson of a season ticket holder, little Steeler was born Nov. 19, 2006, “nine months after the Steelers won a fifth Super Bowl.” Maybe he’ll get to share a tailgate party (or an analyst) with Tré Rivers Kemerer, whose name is a Romance language play on the Steelers’ former home field, Three Rivers Stadium. And we laughed when George on Seinfeld wanted to name his hypothetical baby “Seven”!
Steelers monikers aside, Pittsburghers seem to be in the thrall of the same trends evident in baby names across the nation, including the fashion for place-names (Dakota, Montana, etc.)
When I attended my nephew’s graduation from my old high school last year, I noted that the roll call included all the trendy names that were unknown to my generation but ubiquitous on Facebook. You know: Ethan, Jared, Kyle, Joshua, Ryan. The kids I grew up with were named John and James and Robert and William. I did know some kids named Ryan — but that was their last name.
Some things do remain constant, though. Michael, a familiar name in the 1950s, is still popular, finishing second (behind Jacob but ahead of Joshua) in the Social Security administration’s 2006 hit parade of baby names. I just hope some of those Michaels aren’t spelled “Mykal.” I wouldn’t want to win that way.
My daughters are in the habit of inventing fake names for each other like "Dylvia" and "Corndella," so when I asked my oldest kid who her best friends were in kindergarten and she said "Leonella" and "Estefania," I figured she was just making them up. But they're real. And I'm as guilty of trend-following as anybody: She's one of two kids in her class with her name. And all my attempts to pass the name "Bernadette" on to the next generation have failed. Hello, Chelsea, Madison, Dakota and Krystall!
Posted by: Tim Cavanaugh | November 28, 2007 at 05:13 PM
If it makes you feel any better, my dog's name is Bella Bernadette. But since we just call her "doggo," I'm not sure she's aware of this technicality.
Posted by: Amina Khan | November 28, 2007 at 07:18 PM