Unusual and Unique Baby Names

Unusual and Unique Baby Names is a Tripod member site. It's decorated with storks. Its links are pink and lavender. It has a brick background that's clearly from a free clip art site. It's part of a webring.

What sets it apart from other baby-naming sites is its willingness to admit a few oft-glossed-over truths: Some names are just better than others, although it may depend on who you ask. Names don't exist in a vacuum; they all have preconceptions attached to them. And no one cares whether your name means "consecrated to God" or, as mine does, "downy-bearded." So while its design may be stuck in 1996, it's way ahead of its big-budget counterparts.

Naming is a sensitive topic. It carries with it debates about class, gender and race, debates that most of the big baby-naming authorities would just like to avoid. Who are you to say that Kaylee is less classy than Katherine? What if Hunter really is a family name? If you're white, is it racist to make fun of Shawanda? The authors of the popular Beyond Jennifer and Jason books touched on these cultural questions a bit, but mostly stuck to analyzing what Unusual and Unique Baby Names points out were "upper class...urban trends." It's much easier to stay away from the value judgments to avoid drawing ire from members of the public, nearly all of whom have and use names. But UUBN walks right into the line of fire.

Consider the following name descriptions. From babynamer.com: "Braden. This boy's name is used in English. Its source is a Gaelic expression meaning 'Salmon.' Alternate spellings of the name Braden include: Bradden, Braydan, Braeden, Brayden, Braydon." And from UUBN: "Jaden/Braden/Caden... Trendy to the nth degree. Lacking form, soul and substance. Take the suffix -aden and throw the latest trendy starting letter at the beginning. The Garanimals of the naming world."

Granted, that little dig is from the user comments section. The site doesn't provide much in the way of official positions on individual names beyond the stork-carried babies' cries of "Please don't name me Kaitlyn!" and "Please don't name me Tyler!" What it does is provide a framework for users to explore their own naming prejudices and see how they compare to others'.

One way UUBN does this is through liberal use of that weary old standby, the unscientific Web poll. But while you might not care what CNN.com users think about human cloning, an expectant parent might care very much that 29 percent of UUBN users think that the name Angelina suggests a stripper, or that 60 percent see Kennedy as a girl's name. A surprisingly comprehensive survey tells you what your "naming style" is within a continuum of subtle distinctions.

UUBN, as per its title, has staked out a pro-unusual-name position. What makes the site itself unusual is its refusal to fall into two common assumptions: that a name is unusual if it wasn't common when you were growing up, and that more unusual is always better, especially in terms of spelling. The first lets parents think that Madeleine is a name that will set their daughter apart from her peers when, wouldn't you know it, every third toddler down at the Montessori school is Madeleine and they'd have been better off sticking with grand old Mary, which seemed common because both of their mothers had it. The second allows such curiosities as Khrystyne (remember her from "Head of the Class?")

Not that UUBN shuns what they call "kreatyvleigh spelde naims," or names that are simply made up. There's a whole section on how to change spellings. But they're willing to meet the practice with a little good old-fashioned ridicule when it gets out of hand. Their Name-o-tron generates a seemingly endless sequence of frighteningly plausible names. How about McAlly, Bethika or Annbree for a little girl? Or Jonham, Brockland or Abell for a boy? The site prints a letter they claim is from an actual reader who named a son and daughter, respectively, Maxigan and Jacquennette.

And no matter what you think of the site's editorializing, it's worth checking out just for the hard data. They provide a list of the top 1100 baby names of 1998 according to the Social Security Administration. Public information, sure — but where else can you find a list where someone took the trouble to group different spellings, like Haley, Hailey, Hayley, Haylee, Haleigh, Hailee, Halie, Haylie, Hali, Halee, Haylee, Haily, Hailie, Hayle, Hayli, Haileigh, Haille, Haili, Haile, Haliegh, Hailley, Hailea and Haylea, together?

Naming is a virtually unmined area of cultural anthropology. What the field needs is a David Brooks to tell us what Bobos and Organization Kids are naming their own kids. But until then, we've got a colorfully backgrounded Tripod site to raise nuanced questions about naming practices, tackle touchy issues head-on and bring to my attention the existence of "Jewelia."

Please no.

— Julia Lipman (julia@flakmag.com)