COMMON & UNCOMMON NAMES (PART 2)

Previously common names like Ralph (No. 762), Howard (No. 820), Bernard (No. 830), Earl (No. 952), Susan (No. 609), Deborah (No. 662), Ann (No. 650), Carol (No. 753), and Donna (No. 830) are no longer in vogue. The forgettable song I Ain't Sharin' Sharon (No. 579), which was the flip side of Like Long Hair by Paul (No. 130) Revere and the Raiders isn't popular anymore and neither is the name. Instead, we have Madison (No. 3), literally named after the New York street where Daryl (No. 940 among boys, No. 2370 among girls) Hannah (No. 7) was given her name by Tom Hanks in the movie Splash.

Among girls, Brittney (No. 549) Spears didn't go over too well and is probably headed downhill. Leslie (No. 143 for girls, but not in top 1000 for boys in 2005, but No. 208 among all American men) Nielsen said in the movie Airplane, "Don't call me Shirley" (No. 883 among girls, not in top 1000 among boys) despite famed sports writer Shirley Povich, the father of newscaster Maury Povich. Incidentally, there are 7295 men named Shirley in the U.S. (probably none under 50 years of age). However, there are 731,720 women named Shirley, according to Mongabay.com, which obtains its information from the most recent U.S. census. But Rebecca, for example shows up only 652,779 times. Even Hillary was No. 882 among girls in 2005 although that may go up this year.

Although Mary is not in the top ten in 2005, it is the number 1 female name in the U.S. with 3,991,000, in addition to 1,256,000 women named Maria. Barbara, No. 715 in 2005, ranks number 4 nationally with 1,487,000 Barbara's. There's even 4554 women named Buffy.

Among surnames, Smith is No. 1 nationally with over 2.5 million, and Johnson is No. 2 with 2,014,000. In case you're wondering, Suskin just makes the top 54,000.

That's all for now.

KENNETH SUSKIN