Baby Boy Names – Tradition Is What It's All About

It's a wonderful, healthy, bouncing baby boy!  Congratulations...now what are you going to call him?

Well, if you want him to grow up to become a rough, tough icon of manliness, I suppose you could call him “Marion” – at least that’s what John Wayne’s parents did!

But seriously, if you are an American, there is a very big chance that the baby boy name you select will be something biblical. My own name, “Michael” was the most popular baby boy name in America during every single decade from the 1960s through to the end of the century. I supposed I’m biased, but I love the name!  The literal meaning is “Who is like God”; Michael was one of the original archangels and the leader of God’s armies. Pretty powerful stuff for all the rest of us Michaels to live up to, eh?

Since the beginning of the 21st century, Michael has been at number 2 in the list of American baby boy names, beaten into first place by Jacob – another biblical name meaning “Held by the heel”. 3rd in the list is Joshua (“God is salvation”) – the biblical figure who led the Israelites into the promised land, and 4th is Matthew (“A gift of God”) - one of the 12 Apostles. With Andrew (“Manly, courageous”) and Daniel (“God is my judge”) also in the top 10 baby boy names, it is very clear that Christianity is alive and well in America – at least in the baby boy names!

The overwhelming evidence is that Americans tend to be quite conservative in choosing baby boy names – much more so than with girls. The UK is less conservative – over the last 5 years, the most popular baby boy name has been Jack, a name which has no special meaning and is just a derivative of the biblical name John (“God is merciful”), which now seems to have fallen out of favor.

This movement towards less conservative names in the UK is increasing; at the beginning of the 21st century, 7 out of the top 10 baby boy names were biblical names. This has now reduced to 5, while at the same time, the names William (“Valiant, protector”) and Harry (derivative of the traditional name Harold) have both entered the top 10 – anything to do with a certain couple of Princes perhaps??

A key part of the trend away from traditional boy names is the tendency to use names that are more modern – or “modern-sounding” – derivatives of traditional names. As shown, Jack is the ultimate example of this and Harry is the other derivative name in the UK top 10. And there is a load of other derivative names in the top 100, including Jake (from Jacob), Charlie (Charles), Alfie (Alfred), Joe (Joseph), Billy (William) and Freddie (Frederick).

But is there any real evidence of a move towards much more unique or unusual baby boy names? Well, not really. In the UK the most unusual names in the top 100 list last year were Kian at number 65, Kai (“Sea, willow tree”) at 67 and the Italian name Luca (“bringer of light”) at 83. Meanwhile, over in the US, Angel (“Angelic) at number 44, Hunter at 49 and Jayden/Jaden (“God has heard”) at 62 and 83 respectively, were the only slightly unusual names.

The most conclusive evidence is that, when it comes to baby boy names, we like to keep it traditional. This might have something to do with our expectations of the roles of males in society and the need for them to be respected. This is all very understandable, but it would be nice if we could start thinking a little creatively about how we name our baby boys. Mr and Mrs Morrison did this when they called their son “Marion” – and look what happened to him..!