Rare but Real (2012)

Time for another round-up! Here are some of the gems somehow at the bottom of the SSA list--only given to 5 kids last year.

Boys:

• Alexius (ah-LEKS-ee-us, Greek)--purely masculine form of the unisex Alexis
• Delwyn (DEL-win, Welsh)--"handsome & blessed"
• Gregor (GREH-gohr, German, Scottish, Slavic)
• Osric (OZ-rik, Germanic)--"divine might"
• Owain (OH-wine, Welsh)--older form of Owen
• Urias (yoo-RYE-as, oo-REE-as, Latin)--from Hebrew, "God is my light"
• Wulfric (WOOL-frik, Old English)--"wolf power"

Girls:

• Alda (AHL-dah, Italian, Portuguese)--feminine of Aldo/Aldous
• Anthea (an-THEE-ah, ahn-THEH-ah, Latin)--from Greek, "flower"
• Cherith (KEHR-ith, keh-REET, [Biblical] Hebrew)
• Floriana (floh-RYAH-nah, Italian)--from Latin, "from/like a flower"
• Oriane (oh-ree-AHN, French)--from Latin, "golden"
• Pascale (pahs-KAL, French)
• Piera (PYEHR-ah, Italian)--feminine of Peter/Pietro
• Sunniva (SOON-ee-vah, Norwegian)

Lyns Throughout the Generations

And by 'generations', I just mean the last 4 or so. :p
I often see "-lyn" names listed as a modern trend, but actually, they're fairly stable part of American names. Between 3-5% of girls get names that end in -lyn every year--of course, which "-lyn" names they get is determined by the fads of the day.
So, I thought it'd be fun to look at the top "-lyn" names for this generation and previous.

2012:

1. Evelyn
2. Brooklyn
3. Madelyn
4. Caroline*
5. Jocelyn
6. Madeline
7. Kaitlyn
8. Katelyn
9. Brooklynn
10. Adalyn
11. Ashlyn
12. Adelyn
13. Adeline
14. Adalynn
15. Jacqueline

1982:

1. Jacqueline
2. Jaclyn
3. Carolyn
4. Caroline
5. Jacquelyn
6. Evelyn
7. Caitlin
8. Ellen
9. Helen
10. Lynn
11. Jocelyn
12. Marilyn
13. Gwendolyn
14. Jacklyn
15. Madeline

1952:

1. Carolyn
2. Marilyn
3. Jacqueline
4. Helen
5. Ellen
6. Lynn
7. Evelyn
8. Gwendolyn
9. Lynne
10. Jacquelyn
11. Pauline
12. Caroline
13. Madeline
14. Rosalyn
15. Jacalyn

1922**:

1. Helen
2. Evelyn
3. Ellen
4. Madeline
5. Carolyn
6. Marilyn
7. Caroline
8. Adeline
9. Jacqueline
10. Gwendolyn
11. Madelyn
12. Marilynn
13. Evangeline
14. Roslyn
15. Hellen

1892**:

1. Helen
2. Ellen
3. Caroline
4. Evelyn
5. Madeline
6. Adeline
7. Carolyn
8. Evangeline
9. Adaline
10. Evalyn
11. Gwendolyn
12. Emeline
13. Magdalen
14. Ethelyn
15. Adline

*Quite a few "-line" names have multiple pronunciations--"lin", "leen" or "line". With many, there's no way to separate them, but I did remove the ones that were rarely, if ever, 'lin'--Pauline, Angeline, Arline, Earline, etc.

**Before 1937, the SSA did not require all citizens to register for a SSN. Thus, data before this time is voluntary, and therefore not as reliable.

Usual Nickname, Unexpected Name--Ari

A Top 500 boy name on the rise, Ari has begun to gain momentum as a girls' nickname--nothing new in the naming world, of course--thanks to the doubly-Top 100 Ariana/Arianna, and wow-it's-rising-fast!-Aria. Ari on its own also had a respectable rise on the girls' charts, now sitting a bit below the Top 1000 at 1326. Although it is a full name in its own right, wanting a full name for Ari is understandable: while it's masculine in most cultures, it's easily mistaken for a girl's name in English.

Boys:

• Aram (AH-rahm, Armenian)--"excellence"
• Aravind (AHR-ah-vind, Hindi)--"lotus"
• Archibald (AHR-chih-bahld, English, Scottish)
• Ardal (AHR-dahl, Irish)--"high valor". Anglicized from Ardghal. 
• Arduino (ahrd-WEE-noh, Italian)
• Argus (AHR-goos, [ancient] Greek)--"shining"
• Arkadiy (ahr-KAH-dee, Russian)--Also spelled Arkady or Arkadi. 
• Arnor (AHR-nohr, Scandinavian)
• Arrigo (ahr-REE-goh, Italiah)--from of Harry
• Arthur (AHR-thur, English)--other forms include Artair (Scottish), Arturo (Spanish, Portuguese), Artturi (Finnish), & Artūrus (Lithuanian)

Girls:

• Araceli (ah-rah-SEH-lee, Spanish)
• Araminta (ah-rah-MIN-tah, English)
• Aranka (AW-rahn-kah, Hungarian)--"gold"
• Arantxa (ah-rahnt-shah, Basque)
• Arendse (ah-REND-seh, Danish)--feminine of Arendt/Arnold
• Arezoo (ah-reh-ZOO, Persian)--also spelled Arezu or Arezou.
• Argiñe (ahr-gee-nyeh, Basque)--"light"
• Ariadne (ah-ree-AHD-nee, [ancient] Greek)--"most holy". Other forms include Ariadna (Spanish), Ariane (French), & Arianna (Italian)
• Arilda (ah-RIL-dah, Scandinavian)--feminine of Arild/Harold. 
• Arlette (ahr-LET, French)
• Armida (ahr-MEE-dah, Italian, Spanish)
• Arneke (AHR-neh-keh, Dutch, German)--from Germanic, "eagle". Also spelled Arnika or Arnike. 
• Arundhati (ah-ROOND-hah-tee, Hindi)
• Aruzhan (ah-roo-ZHAHN, Kazakh)--"beautiful soul"

"Unisex" Names--2012 SSA Analysis

As always, unisex names continue to fascinate me. Soooo......yeah, you know what's coming--a numerical analysis of unisex names. So, I compared the percentages of names that appeared on both lists, and came up with...well, a mess at first. I should have remembered from last year--the names at the very bottom really mess stuff up. :p

But, just for your amusement, the "most unisex" names from 2012 (that is--those that were given to roughly an equal percentage of boys & girls).

1. Ryen
2. Altair
3. Gabriell
4. Adama
5. Teegan
6. Makana
7. Paiden
8. Kmari
9. Sayge
10. Blayke

That includes all names, down to ones only given to 5 kids of the same gender. If you're confused, I looked at the percentages--for instance, Ryen was given to about 0.0016% of boys, and 0.0017% of girls last year. That's about 16 out of every million boys, and 17 out of every million girls. 
So, like I said, analyzing the full list isn't that useful. Let's just include names appearing in the boys' Top 2500:

1. Teegan
2. Marion
3. Jael
4. Linden
5. Jules
6. Daylin
7. Kameryn
8. Taylen
9. Ocean
10. Jackie
11. True
12. Jaidyn
13. Dakota
14. Remy
15. Ryley
16. Finnley
17. Kendell
18. Gracen
19. Aven
20. Jaziah

Now there're some recognizable names! I'm definitely not terribly surprised to see mostly invented names and modern spellings on here. They've not had time to get "set" in one gender or the other. Linden, Ocean,  & True aren't too much of a surprise, since nature/word names are often unisex. Marion & Remy were quite unexpected, though. 

And just to narrow things further, the most unisex names from only the boys' Top 1000:

1. Jael
2. Jaidyn
3. Dakota
4. Remy
5. Justice
6. Oakley
7. Jaylin
8. Dominique
9. Jessie
10. Austyn
11. Frankie
12. Landry
13. Sidney
14. Emory
15. Emerson
16. Charlie
17. Skyler
18. Kamdyn
19. Riley
20. Phoenix

Jessie, Sidney, & Dominique are in the Top 1000 for boys? Color me shocked! I mean, I know they're all historically male/unisex, but wow...that's kind of awesome.

And here're all the "unisex" names in both Top 1000s, from most masculine to most feminine (ratios rounded to nearest 1/2, and keep in mind that girls are much more likely to have alternate spellings):

• Ryan (22x more popular for boys)
• Jayden (18.5x more popular for boys)
• Logan (16.5x more popular for boys)
• Dylan (15x more popular for boys)
• Blake (14x more popular for boys)
• Cameron (13x more popular for boys)
• Micah (12x more popular for boys)
• Kayden (7.5x more popular for boys)
• Kai (6.5x more popular for boys)
• Rylan (5.5x more popular for boys)
• Jordan (5.5x more popular for boys)
• Parker (5x more popular for boys)
• Angel (5x more popular for boys)
• Sawyer (5x more popular for boys)
• Elliot (4.5x more popular for boys)
• Zion (4x more popular for boys)
• Dallas (3x more popular for boys)
• Ali (2.5x more popular for boys)
• Hayden (2x more popular for boys)
• River (1.5x more popular for boys)
• Amari (1.5x more popular for boys)
• Rowan (1.5x more popular for boys)
• Armani (1.5x more popular for boys)
• Casey (1.5x more popular for boys)
• Phoenix (1.5x more popular for boys)
• Skyler (1.5x more popular for boys)
• Charlie (1.5x more popular for boys)
• Landry (1.5x more popular for boys)
• Dakota (about equal)
• Justice (about equal)
• Jaylin (1.5x more popular for girls)
• Jessie (1.5x more popular for girls)
• Sidney (1.5x more popular for girls)
• Emory (1.5x more popular for girls)
• Emerson (1.5x more popular for girls)
• Riley (1.5x more popular for girls)
• Finley (2x more popular for girls)
• Sage (2x more popular for girls)
• Harley (2x more popular for girls)
• Peyton (2x more popular for girls)
• Quinn (2.5x more popular for girls)
• Tatum (2.5x more popular for girls)
• Jamie (3x more popular for girls)
• Kamryn (3.5x more popular for girls)
• Alexis (3.5x more popular for girls)
• Emery (4.5x more popular for girls)
• Teagan (4.5x more popular for girls)
• Lyric (4.5x more popular for girls)
• Avery (4.5x more popular for girls)
• Camryn (4.5x more popular for girls)
• Payton (5x more popular for girls)
• Reese (5.5x more popular for girls)
• Taylor (5.5x more popular for girls)
• Eden (6x more popular for girls)
• Ariel (6x more popular for girls)
• London (7x more popular for girls)\
• Kendall (7.5x more popular for girls)
• Skylar (7.5x more popular for girls)
• Morgan (8x more popular for girls)
• Jordyn (10x more popular for girls)
• Rylee (11.5x more popular for girls)
• Reagan (14x more popular for girls)\
• Harper (18x more popular for girls)

And with all the boys' names being spotted on girls nowadays, I bet you're wondering if there're any boys' names that didn't appear on the girls' list. Of course! Over 11,000 actually. Most of the boys' list doesn't appear on the girls', which is rather reassuring. In fact, 488 out of the boys' Top 1000 doesn't appear at all on the full girls' list. I'm not listing them all.
But, I will give you the 20 most common, and 20 least common. :)

• Adam
• Nathaniel
• Luis
• Damian
• Vincent
• Eric
• Diego
• Steven
• Antonio
• Colin
• Miguel
• Mateo
• Patrick
• Joel
• Edward
• Axel
• Grant
• Weston
• Kenneth
• Mark

• Aditya
• Briggs
• Immanuel
• Malaki
• Kase
• Reuben
• Yandel
• Franco
• Simeon
• Anton
• Darnell
• Roderick
• Deon
• Graeme
• Howard
• Kael
• Jarrett
• Apollo
• Denzel
• Gilbert

If you really want the full lists, you can find them here, on Google Docs. :)