WHAT'S IN A NAME?

by RAM (Riley Bettes, Alyssa Small, and Makayla Sturgeon)

Names are a part of us; they help shape our identity. Without them we'd be lost. A world without names would be a world filled with a lot of "Hey! Hey, you!" Names have been around since the beginning and have changed with the times.
The Social Security website has statistics showing the most popular names of each decade. The top five girl and boy names of the 20th century were Mary, Patricia, Jennifer, Linda, Elizabeth, James, John, Robert, Michael, and William. The top five girl and boy names of the 21st century so far are Emily, Madison, Emma, Olivia, Hannah, Jacob, Michael, Joshua, Matthew, and Daniel. These names have changed over time. Names in the 20th century for girls were more "soccer mom" type names. Now girl names in the 21st century are more based towards the youth. Names have changed to fit society norms to blend in with pop culture. Some families choose to follow certain forms when naming children. In the past naming a first born son after the father was popular due to the issues surrounding inheritance and land ownership. Family names are still around but more for sentimental reasons. Some parents like to do patterns such as all starting wtih the same letter, or alphabetical order based on birth. Other people use what were traditionally nicknames as full names. Overall, everyone seems to be attempting to modernize names with new spellings, and new uncommon names. Names will always be a part of our culture and will continue to change with the times.