The west hallway of our church is adorned with the artwork of the children in the preschool. There are lines strung along the walls to hang the pictures that they make. I enjoy looking at their projects. As entertaining as the art of 3-and 4-year olds, I think the creativity of their parents is equally amazing. I am talking about the names of the children. There are some pretty creative spellings for traditional names and some pretty unusual names up there as well.

There are three Old Testament patriarchs that are named as part of the identity of the people of Israel. Their names are given as one way of identifying belief in God. “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” is one of the ways that God is identified throughout the Bible. When Moses encounters God at the burning bush, God reminds him of God’s deeds in relationship with the three patriarchs. We chose the middle of those three as the name of our son. Isaac was the second son of Abraham, the first and only child born to his wife Sarah. He was the one promised of God to be the beginning of a great legacy and succeeding generations. He was nearly sacrificed by Abraham in one of the Biblical stories. We chose the name partly because it means “laughter.” Being parents has brought us so much joy that the name has always seemed appropriate to us.

Our Isaac was born back in 1981. The name was not common or popular in those days. Since then, however, it has risen in popularity in the United States. Today it is the 35th most popular name for a boy in the US. It is similarly popular in Canada and England, but less so in Scotland, where it is ranked 93rd and France where it is 160th on the list.

The name, however, pales in popularity in comparison with that of Isaac’s second son, Jacob. Jacob was a twin, born minutes after his brother. Biblical legend tells that he was born hanging on to the heel of his brother. Through no small amount of trickery, he ended up with the inheritance of his father and a long period of wrestling with his conscience (and with an Angel) before reconciling with his brother. Jacob ended up being father of twelve sons with four different women.

Jacob is the most popular boy’s name in the United States and has been for 13 years in a row. We have had at least one Jacob in the preschool every year since I began as pastor of this church back in 1995.

It is different from my childhood years, when John, Jim, and David were the leading names for boys. Mary, Susan and Debby were topped the charts for girls back then. Isaac’s wife, Rebecca had a name that proved to be more popular than his. Beckys abound among women born in the 1950’s. We’ve had as many as four Beckys in our bell choir – not bad for an ensemble of a dozen ringers. 30% Becky is an impressive statistic.

These days Sophia and Isabella top the charts. Last year Isabella was the most popular girls’ name. This year the order was reversed and Sophia became most popular. Those two names are followed by: Emma, Olivia, Ava, Emily, Abigail, Madison, Mia and Chloe. Chloe was a surprise to me. I like the name, but didn’t realize it was becoming so popular. Actually, Emily was probably the only name on the list that wasn’t a bit of a surprise for me. Madison is a bit of a quirky name, in my opinion. It is a traditional English surname, only recently becoming popular as a first name. The phenomenon of giving the name to girls seems to be most common in the U.S., Canada and Australia, though it has fallen in popularity a bit in recent years. The quirk is that the name means “son of Maud.” So how does it come that you give a girl a name that means “a boy who is named after his mother?” There’s no accounting for taste. Maud is a medieval form of Matilda. Its use was rare after the 14th century, though it enjoyed a brief surge in popularity in the 19th century. Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote a poem, “Maud” in 1855. Maud is so low in popularity in the United States that it is not ranked. If you want to find a baby named Maud, your best bet would be to check in the Netherlands, where it is the 20th most popular name for girls.

On the boy’s list for this year, after Jacob comes: Mason, William, Jayden, Noah, Michael, Ethan, Alexander, Aiden and Daniel. Three of those names, William, Michael, and Daniel have been on the charts for a long time. This particular generation, however, is less likely to hear themselves called by the diminutives Bill, Mike and Dan. And you hardly ever hear Danny used commonly among little children these days. Most Daniels my age were called “Danny” until they reached the age of 12 or so. There are a few in their sixties we still call “Danny.” I have a brother-in-law that everyone calls Danny. It fits so well with his last name, which is Lynn. In his town, Danny Lynn’s barbecue sauce is a well-known brand. Of course I always thought it would be fun if they had named their daughter Maud. There is a special ring to Maud Lynn (maudlin). I guess I can’t complain, I do have a niece on the other side of my family whose middle name is Lynn and whose first name is Amanda (a mandolin). It has a musical ring to it. Danny is one of those names that you hear associated with both girls and boys these days.

Names are intensely personal. Even if a child grows up with a name that is popular, it gains meanings that are unique to that child. The particular tone with which it is uttered by parents and grandparents is special and wonderful. The child hears the name so many times before she or he has learned any words that the name becomes deeply ingrained in her or his identity.

Names are important and deserve to be chosen with care. How popular a name is shouldn’t be the only reason to choose or reject a name. I am less enamored with the fact that names are chosen because of characters in movies or television series.

Then again, the names of our children, Isaac and Rachel, both came from the same book. I read that book over and over again. Love the book. Love the names.

Copyright © 2012 by Ted Huffman. I wrote this. If you want to copy it, please ask for permission. There is a contact me button at the bottom of this page. If you want to share my blog a friend, please direct your friend to my web site.