Names Aren't What They Used to Be

Though some are coming back.

The Social Security Administration publishes a list of the names most commonly given to newborns. Here are last year's top 20:

And here are the top 20 in my maternal grandmother’s birth year:

Most of the names in the second list are the solid names that were common even unto my generation. The first list includes a lot of names have been dredged up from the 1700s and from romance novels.

You can follow the link to see how popular a particular name was in any year since 1900. Tyler, for example, has ranked as high as #5 among boy names (1993, 1994), and as high as #238 among girl names (1993).

Thinking of Tyler led me to wonder which president's last names that have been given to famous, infamous, semi-famous, and unknown persons as first names. Here’s what I came up with:

• Washington Irving, author of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" — which engendered the terrible movie starring Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci

• Jefferson Davis, leader of "The Lost Cause"

• Madison Kuhn, obscure historian -- but not a girl

• Monroe McKay, judge

• Van Buren Unknown— un Québécois, go figure

• Jackson Pollock, artist dribbler painter

• Harrison Ford, car dealer? film actor

• Tyler Mathisen, CNBC host

• Taylor Booth, computer scientist

• Fillmore Unknown — 5, count ‘em, 5 (all boys)

• Pierce Brosnan, ex-007

• Lincoln Chafee, RINO

• Johnson Unknown, but many times among the top 1,000 boy names (quelle surprise)

• Grant Sharp, retired Rear Admiral, United States Navy (named for his great-grandmother’s sister’s husband, Ulysses S. Grant)

• Hayes Milam, security guard at the think-tank at which I worked for many years

• Arthur Godfrey, entertainer/radio-TV host remembered mainly for playing the ukulele, buzzing the control tower at Leesburg, Virginia, airport, and firing singer Julius La Rosa on the air

• Cleveland Amory, cat lover and writer

• McKinley Unknown — a semi-popular name for boys and girls in recent decades

• Roosevelt Grier, immovable object defensive lineman

• Taft Unknown — semi-popular back in the day when W.H. Taft was “big”

• Wilson Pickett, R&B and soul singer

• Harding Unknown — semi-popular when Warren Gamaliel was the big enchilada

• Coolidge Unknown — ditto

• Truman Capote, American poof writer

• Kennedy McMann, American actress — fairly populr name for boys and girls since 1960; #54 among girl names in 2014

• Nixon Unknown — oddly enough, in the top 1000 boy names 2011-2021

• Ford Madox Ford, English aesthete writer

• Carter Stanley, Ralph's very late brother

• Reagan Dunn, member of the King County, Washington, council

• Clinton Eastwood, still life film actor -- but you probably don’t think of him as Clinton

By my reckoning, these last names haven’t been used as first names:

• Adams — not to be confused with Adam; John wasn't the first "man"

• Polk — might be mistaken for an invitation

• Buchanan — pronounce it properly: "buck-an-un"

• Eisenhower — no parent should do this

• Bush — don't go there

• Obama — why would anyone do that to a child?

• Trump — double ditto

• Biden - quadruple ditto

Any takers?