CALL ME ANYTHING BUT NOT LATE FOR DINNER

I AGED TEN YEARS MOMENTARILY in reading the Social Security Administration’s list of most popular baby names for 2023. Quickly, though, matters got back to what passes for normal in my life.

The SSA publishes this assessment each year honoring Mother’s Day, and the new listing had some familiarities as well as newcomer names. Here are tidbits about these, as well as my own given name. Although, in retrospect I’d have rather it been spelled Denis, but then what did I know at the time?

The Top Ten. Catherine E. Shoichet reports in CNN, May 14, 2024, “The Latest List of Top U.S. Baby Names Has a Few Surprises.” She writes, “Mateo made it into the boys’ top 10 list for the first time, becoming the sixth-most popular boys’ name in 2023 and edging Benjamin off the list, according to recently released data from the Social Security Administration.”

Top Ten list. This and other images from U.S. Social Security Administration. 

Shoichet quotes Sophie Kihm, editor-in-chief of the baby name website Nameberry: “Mateo had a huge jump. … The fact that Mateo went from No. 11 in 2022 to No. 6 in 2023 is insane. We don’t see that very often at the top of the charts.”

Shoichet adds, “Liam and Olivia are topping the rankings for the fifth consecutive year. And Mateo is the only new name to reach the highest tier. The name’s inclusion on the boy’s top 10 list also marks a milestone, Kihm says: ‘It’s pretty much the first identifiable Latino name, too, at least on the boy’s side.” 

Regional Differences. As one might expect, there are regional differences reflecting the cultural diversity of the U.S. Consider, for instance, data from California and Maine, geographical extremes with diverse demographics as well. 

Above, California baby names in 2022. Below, baby names for Maine that same year. 

According to Statista.com, Hispanics make up 40.31 percent of California’s population and a mere 2.07 percent of Maine’s. 

Curiously, Maine’s baby names seem to reflect literary as opposed to ethnic choices. And, of both lists, only Maine’s contains a name within my immediate family: grandson Carter. 

New Ones to Me. Despite my being culturally hep (or so I assume), several of these names are utterly new to me. Fortunately, CNN’s Shoichet fills in my 21st-century gaps. “Officials also point out,” she says, “that pop culture is having an impact on the list of baby names that are rising in popularity the fastest.”

Kaeli. “Kaeli,” says Shoichet, “was the fastest-rising girls’ name last year, jumping to No. 678 in the rankings. In a news release Friday, the Social Security Administration credited a social media influencer for inspiring the trend.”

Shoichet posits, “ ‘Parents must have really smashed the “like” button for YouTube and TikTok star Kaeli McEwen (also known as Kaeli Mae), who routinely promotes a clean, tidy, and neutral-aesthetic lifestyle,’ the news release said.”

Chozen. Shoichet describes, “The boys’ name Chozen also saw its popularity skyrocket, to No. 813 on the list, after a character with that name became a hero in the latest season of ‘Cobra Kai,’ the Social Security Administration said.”

What About Barbie? Shoichet observes, “But one pop culture icon didn’t see a big bump on the baby name list last year, despite the box-office success of the movie that featured her: Barbie. Just 32 people in the United States named their child Barbie last year, according to official data, only a slight increase from the previous year. The name didn’t crack the ‘top 1,000’ baby name list last year. And neither did Ken.”

Or Dennis/Denis? The Behind the Name website cites that “Dennis” had its peak in the U.S. during the late 1940s and early 1950s. I was—of course—a trend setter in 1942. 

No, actually, it was my mom’s being a fan of movie actor Dennis Morgan. 

Of Dennis Morgan Wikipedia observes, “According to one obituary, he was ‘a twinkly-eyed handsome charmer with a shy smile and a pleasant tenor voice in carefree and inconsequential Warner Bros musicals of the forties, accompanied by Jack Carson.’ Another said, ‘for all his undoubted star potential, Morgan was perhaps cast once too often as the likeable, clean-cut, easy-going but essentially uncharismatic young man who typically loses his girl to someone more sexually magnetic.’ David Shipman said he ‘was comfortable, good-looking, well-mannered: the antithesis of the gritty Bogart.’ “

Had I been named Denis.… ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024