Before Lucy DeWitt and her husband, Steve, chose names for their children, they read the top baby names. Then they crossed them off their lists.
“We wanted uncommon names,” said DeWitt, 33, a real estate agent from Shawnee, Kan. “Not like my brother’s name, Andy. There were so many Andys in his school, he was always Andy R.”
The result was two surnames for first names — Lanning for their son, 2, and Collins for their daughter, 1.
“They set them apart from other kids and say ‘spunk’ and ‘confidence,'” DeWitt said. “When they have careers, they’ll give them an edge because they’re memorable.”
Hang out at a playground these days and you’ll hear first names with surname roots. For boys, they include Carson, Carter, Chase, Hudson, Lincoln and Wyatt. For girls, Addison, Avery, Harper, Madison, Morgan, Peyton and Taylor. Unisex ones include Blake, Kennedy, Logan, Riley and Ryan.
“It started in Tudor England, when parents chose surnames of nobility,” said Cleveland Evans, author of “The Great Big Book of Baby Names” and a psychology professor at Bellevue University in Nebraska.
“Then, in early America, parents used presidents’ names like Jefferson and war heroes’ names like (Francis) Marion.”
Fast-forward to the late 1800s, when upper-class Southerners revived the practice with names like Beverly (for boys only then), Evans said. “Post-World War II parents named girls with preppy-sounding surnames. In my class, we had a girl named Russell.”
Today’s surname-as-first-name practice is fueled by the genealogy craze, said Jennifer Moss, of Oakhurst, Calif., CEO of babynames.com and author of “The One-in-a-Million Baby Name Book.” “We see more of our family trees on sites like 23andme.com,” she said. “Use one of these names, and your family’s happy.”
That’s the plan, said Clearwater, Fla., teacher Kelly McKinley-Ford, 29, who named her 7-month-old MacDerrmott. “My husband’s family had used it and changed ‘Mc’ to ‘Mac,’ so it had a built-in nickname,” she said. “It’s also a tribute to my grandfather, Frank McKinley, who went by Mac.”
For Tracy Gramesty, 39, of Trumbull, Conn., it wasn’t so much who had the name as the name’s nationality. “I’m 100 percent Irish, so we chose Reilly and Delaney,” said the teacher and mother of two. “‘If I had another daughter, I’d name her Murphy.”
Also enjoying a Renaissance are first names that began as occupational surnames, such as Cooper (barrel maker), Marshall (tender of horses) and Thatcher (straw-roof installer). Ditto for “son of” names like Harrison, Jackson and Jamison.
Parents who want to honor pop-culture icons use their last names because they’re easier to identify. You may not see the significance of Jimi, Brad and John, but you would recognize Hendrix, Paisley and Lennon. David Bowie’s death will generate lots of baby Bowies, not Davids, said Linda Rosenkrantz, Los Angeles-based co-founder of nameberry.com and co-author of 10 name books.
Other current name trends include the ongoing use of “grandma names,” said Moss, such as Emma, Vivian and Adeline. Geographical names continue a hot streak that dates back to the births of Paris Hilton and Dakota Johnson. If it’s from the United Kingdom, parents want it, added Moss. Thus, the evergreen Kelly and Casey and more recent imports like Declan and Grady.
Watch for these trends to cross the pond, now that they’re fashionable in England — hyphenated girls’ names and nickname names (Ben, not Benjamin, and Liv not Olivia).
Looking ahead, nameberry.com said we’ll see these gain traction, too:
“Old-man names” such Floyd and Barney, despite the oafish characters baby boomers recall from “The Andy Griffith Show.”
“Th” names such as Thea and Theo.
Celestial names like Luna, Nova and Orion.
Star Wars names such as Poe, Finn and Rey.
Flower names like Marigold and Poppy, although celebrities have worn out Violet and Daisy.
Out-of-state place names. There are more baby Brooklyns, for example, in Montana now than in New York.
If you choose a surname with unknown origins, DeWitt recommends researching it to rule out negative links. “We Googled them to make sure they weren’t names of serial killers or strip clubs,” said DeWitt, half- joking, of her babies’ names.
Worse, has the name sparked a backlash, as has Cohen? “That one is bewildering,” said Rosenkrantz. “Some consider it sacrilegious because it means ‘priest.’ Yet, it’s risen rapidly here, and even more so in other English-speaking countries.”
“Don’t just choose a name because it sounds cool,” added Evans. Put yourself in your child’s shoes. Will he spend his life having to explain its odd spelling? Will he be teased? Does the name clash with your last name?
Although Evans credits his first name, Cleveland, for spurring his interest in onomastics (names), he was taunted when he was young. “They’d say, ‘Hey, Oo-hi-oo,'” said Evans. “Problem is, we lived in Buffalo.”
Leslie Mann is a freelancer.
