Why has the name "Ava" become so suddenly popular?

http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/

Type in "Ava" in the "Popularity of a Name" space and set the year to about 50.

The name was very mildly popular (hovering in the 500s-600s) until the late 1950s, due no doubt to the popularity of actress Ava Gardner. Then it declines and drops out of the top 1000 altogether for much of the 1980s. Then, a slow increase over the course of the 1990s becomes a flood by the end of the decade. For the last three years it's been in the top five names.

Having been born in 1977, I can say that I didn't know a single Ava growing up. Now apparently the name is ubiquitous. Please explain.

_Avatar_, directed by James Cameron

So maybe not "suddenly," but pretty quickly. Did something happen in 1996-97?

Also for LOLs try typing in the name "Britney."

ava gardner died in 1990

after the shock set in ppl set out to memorialize her

amateurist i'll try to respond to this post tomorrow!

Actually, while I'm thinking about it...

One of the most common fallacies when analyzing baby names is to assume that there's an external cultural explanation for everything. When you're talking about drastic or sudden rises and falls in the data, there often is a cultural explanation: like the debut of Miley at #279 in 2007 or the fall-off of Monica from #79 in 1997 to #151 in 1999. Looking at the data, I think you're probably right that Ava Gardner had something to do with Ava's brief entry into the top 400 in the early 1950s. But when a name gradually rises, as Ava has since its reentry in 1984, I don't think pop culture is the answer.

One explanation for its success is that baby name trends occur in natural cycles. Basically, parents today want names that are unique. They've been surrounded their entire lives by the common names of their peers, so many of those aren't considered. The names of their parents' generation seem hopelessly passe and outdated. And so unless you want to invent a name out of whole cloth, the best solution is to find a name from your grandparents', or better yet great-grandparents' generation: a name that doesn't feel rooted to the world you know, and may even carry a bit of old-fashioned charm. So although Ava surged a bit in the 1950s, it was never so popular then that it became a stereotypical "mom name" the way that top 10 names like Carol or Sharon or Linda or Susan did -- before this decade, its actual peak was in 1883, and that makes it seem both unusual and timeless.

More than this, though, it's got the right combination of phonemes for this decade. I can't emphasize this enough. There are plenty of grandma or great-grandma names that never experience a resurgence, names like Gertrude (#22 in 1906) and Mildred (#6 for most of Woodrow Wilson's presidency), and that's largely because the terminal D sound fell out of favor quite a long time ago -- especially for girls -- and that's a lot more difficult to come back from. Parents want names that are unique, yes, but they don't want them to sound weird or ugly. Ava, lo and behold, fits right into a phonemic pattern that's especially popular right now: girls' names that begin with a vowel and end with an A. For instance, also in the top 30 in 2008: Emma (#1), Isabella (#2), Olivia (#6), Alyssa (#16), Ella (#19), Anna (#26). (For comparison, in 1988, the only name like this in the top 30 was Amanda.)

So in the end, I think the rise of Ava may have little to do with that particular name and more to do with its similarity, both in old-fashioned appeal and phonemic attractiveness, to a whole host of other names that were rising just a bit before it. For instance, it's not hard for me to imagine a set of parents-to-be a few years ago noticing all the little Emmas running around on the playground and thinking "I like the sound and general feel of Emma, but the name itself is way too popular," and then choosing Ava as an alternative. Of course, as we've seen, they wouldn't have been the only ones.

Kind of oversimplified some of that, but hopefully it makes sense. If you're at all interested in this kind of stuff from a theoretical angle, Stanley Lieberson's A Matter of Taste is a worthwhile read: academic but very engaging and insightful. Also Laura Wattenberg's Baby Name Wizard blog is great for monitoring current trends, and not only that, she gets how they work, too.

jaymc when are you gonna write a book about this

you can call it babyname.xls!

i was gonna say it's cuz it ends in "a" like all the other girl names this decade, but jaymc said it better, and with science too.

next question is why that phoneme suddenly asserted itself at that point in time, but maybe it really is just a matter of, there are only so many to go around. seems to me that in my generational cohort, lots of girls' names end in -ees: julie, kelly, amy, carrie. there's also the case of "michelle," which seems like a confluence of things -- it was hovering in the 30s in the early '60s, goes to 18 in 1965 (before the beatles' song was released), then after mccartney validates what was maybe(?) a burgeoning francophilia in naming conventions, it zooms straight into the top 5 and stays there til '74 (and doesn't drop out of the top 10 until '81). now it's at 103, its lowest point since 1953.

another interesting case: aaliyah, which doesn't even show up til 1994 (the year age ain't nothing but a number came out), entered the top 100 in 2001, but has had staying power -- 2008 it was at 77, its all-time peak. if it sticks around another 10 years or so, long enough to really embed itself, that could end up being her biggest cultural impact.

i love the social security names site. i have killed hours on it.

Curious, innit? We were thinking very specifically of that Hollywood era when we chose Ava (born Feb 2005) and we knew no other Avas at that point; we know one other in the area now (younger sibling of Ava's schoolmate), one other (ex-?)ILXor has a partner with an Ava (9-or-10-y-o), and, clearly, its popularity has gone nuts in the US (still rare here in the UK though). If it had been a boy it might well have been Chet or Bing! (I was glad it was a girl). Ava's middle name is Galv1n (my mum's maiden name).

Our other daughter is T4llul4h Gr33r - more Hollywoodism.

Emma fancies Mathilda as a girls' name if/when we spawn.

Which, obviously, fits what John said pretty perfectly.

imo you shd call at least one of yr children Nicky after the Bolton and Gillingham wing hero

Who distant relatives occasionally thought was me.

I was "Nicky" up until I was about 8, btw.

I can't choose between these two videos. Some people have awesome fixations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJkOXb_kTaQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkSyS4TVLIo

this is well documented in the classic book 'ava or ardor'

(spoiler: more and more people are choosing ava while ardor has seemingly fallen off the map)

Anouk

i was wondering why no one is called mildred or gertrude anymore. i don't think those names are that bad though. is it really the phonemes themselves going out of style? i believe you but i never thought of it that way

this is well documented in the classic book 'ava or ardor'

― =皿= (dyao), Thursday, December 24, 2009 10:05 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i think it's 'ada...'

Real reason for popularity though...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7f/SmashingPumpkins-AvaAdore.jpg

bring back winifred! (hasn't charted in the top 100 since 1965, but was as high as 141 in 1917.)

(i mean, hasn't charted in the top 1000 since 1965)

i never thought of it that way either, but it makes a lot of sense! i feel like such a slave to fashion, all my favorite names also have the "start with a vowel, end with an a" thing. no babies to name, though.

anouk is a pretty awesome name.

Lots of Mildreds in Latin America. I even had a Meldred in my class once.

Then again, most of them have been >20 yrs old.

lots of kids here in hk end their names in a 'ee' sound: candy, daisy, Winnie, koey, Sophie, etc...

s-: ; )

ahah, the "start with a vowel/ end with a" thing is pretty otm thinking about it. I have two pregnant friends who will give birth to a daughter. the names of the two : Mia and Rebecca (and their first ideas were Sofia and Hannah) so there !

I renamed the cat I got from the pound in February, 2003.

Her original name: Bagel (???)
Her new name: Ava

Not sure why. It just appealed.

Names that end in an "ee" sound are awesome.

But in keeping with the theme, I am pretty set on Louise as a girl's name should the need ever arise, but lately I've been toying with Elizabeth Louise and, yes, calling her "Eliza."

Eliza Weezy.

Way to ruin a dream.

My God is an oath. Famous warrior.

One thing I like about Elizabeth is the abundance of diminutives: Lisa, Liz, Liza, Lizzy, Eliza, Betty, Babette, Beth, Bess

Bess is one of my faves. I am fond of Eliza because of Pride and Prejudice, tbh.

im going to name my daughter SUNHAT an my son AVATAR

One thing I like about Elizabeth is the abundance of diminutives: Lisa, Liz, Liza, Lizzy, Eliza, Betty, Babette, Beth, Bess

― Enfonce bien tes ongles et tes doigts délicats dans la jungle de (Michael White), Thursday, 24 December 2009 11:29 (37 minutes ago) Bookmark

That's exactly why my mom didn't name me Elizabeth. She loved the name but knew that noboday would ever actually call me Elizabeth. Don't think I'm really an Elizabeth anyway so prob for the best.

same here

ha

tbf they were going to call me elizadude

Sounds like something Alfred P. Doolittle might say in his cups.

ahah, the "start with a vowel/ end with a" thing is pretty otm thinking about it. I have two pregnant friends who will give birth to a daughter. the names of the two : Mia and Rebecca (and their first ideas were Sofia and Hannah) so there !

― AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, 24 December 2009 15:23 (2 hours ago)

these are all incredibly popular names! i used to work at a children's museum and the number of parents i heard screaming "sophia!" was pretty unbelievable. what impresses me is also how a lot of parents don't use diminutives - they're not sophie and becky, they're sophia and rebecca, thank you very much!

Yeah, Rebecca not so much anymore, but Mia and Sophia and Hannah are all top 20.

http://i47.tinypic.com/23h2cf4.jpg

Consulting my experience as a school bus driver, who therefore is exposed to a wide-ranging sample of child's names, covering a sample size of at least one square mile, I can detect a recent mania for paying tribute to early USA historical personages; specifically Abigail van Buren and Zachary Taylor. I have no end of Abbies and Zachs on my bus.

Last year I had an Ava, too, aged roughly six.

So, when is Mabel making its big comeback?

melvin is the cutest name for a lil one imo

http://sekippu.free.fr/images2/Buzz_Osborne.jpg

yeah thats the problem w/that name my son would be all u named me after some weirdo metal band and id be all now sun first of all theyre more of a punk band and no i just happen to really like that name and that band it is a coincidence now go outside and play w/jesus lizard

lol

go play with vision creation newson

probably going to give my kids biblical names like moses, abraham, deuteronomy

i wld recommend u not name your kid deuteronomy

cause the "ee" sound at the end is kind of played?

i had a fish named deuteronomy a few years back!

yeah thats the problem w/that name my son would be all u named me after some weirdo metal band

i have a friend whose wife had "mckaye" as a family name and they both liked the name ian, so their son is ian mckaye [surname deleted]. friend is also a fugazi fan, but he says he didn't tell his wife about that connection. (i know the spelling's different, but close enough.)

baby name trends are exhausting to me, especially girl names. kinda glad my wife & i had a boy this year.

avo

evo morales

dunno if this has been linked yet but this site: http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager is the bomb as far as this kind of thing goes - graphical! animated! interactive!

As an "Addison" I have had to make a lot of adjustments in recent years as Gray's Anatomy (I believe) punted the female Addison into the #12 slot (wow). The male version to which I subscribe has yet to be noticeably affected.

ps jaymc's posts upthread are some of the best ILX reading this month!

prob name one of my kids dr phil

if its a girl mb name her agamemnon - aga for short

lady gagamemnon

Just wanted to add that my mother-in-law went to high school with Ava G in North Carolina.

hey got this from the baby name wizard blog - parents are increasingly avoiding popular names

http://www.babynamewizard.com/sites/default/files/number1-over-time-2008_0.gif

no doubt an effect of the increasing availability of and attention paid to baby name info

also nowadays your allowed to just spell names any dam way you please

macks

marx

wolfenstein

(pronounced 'max')

a boy named lol

jaymc, your post is amazing!

what do people think of the name "delphine."

i'm thinking the next trend for girls' names will be those that end in -ine. delphine, coraline, sabine, etc. or maybe i'm just a francophile.

You can name a girl almost anything (except maybe "klutz" or "doormat" or something along those lines). Therefore "delphine" should be perfectly fine, apart from people butchering the pronunciation, of course.

Stranger still is that the name E$th@r is in the top 300. We thought it would be unique. Apparently not!

probably going to give my kids biblical names like moses, abraham, deuteronomy

You should spell it Duttreonnomeeyie.

what do people think of the name "delphine."

This was one of the names my mother wanted to name me!

Boy names I could have been: Ryszard*, Enzio, Wesley.

* We are not Polish btw.

"probably going to give my kids biblical names like moses, abraham, deuteronomy"

Well, "Genesis" is already an actual name. Albeit a pseudonym for a transgressive musician/performance artist.

i'm thinking the next trend for girls' names will be those that end in -ine. delphine, coraline, sabine, etc. or maybe i'm just a francophile.

i really like armenian/turkish names that end in -ine, like surine (soo-ree-NEH) and lusine (loo-see-NEH), but naming a kid that in the us would give them a lifetime of being "soo-reen" or "loo-seen".

visine

"it's pronounced, 'Vas-uh-LEEN-ay'"

tattooine

probably going to give my kids biblical names like moses, abraham, deuteronomy

You should spell it Duttreonnomeeyie.

dutty ronomy

i really like armenian/turkish names that end in -ine, like surine (soo-ree-NEH) and lusine (loo-see-NEH), but naming a kid that in the us would give them a lifetime of being "soo-reen" or "loo-seen".

that's what diereses are for! Surinë, Lusinë

One explanation for its success is that baby name trends occur in natural cycles. Basically, parents today want names that are unique. They've been surrounded their entire lives by the common names of their peers, so many of those aren't considered. The names of their parents' generation seem hopelessly passe and outdated. And so unless you want to invent a name out of whole cloth, the best solution is to find a name from your grandparents', or better yet great-grandparents' generation: a name that doesn't feel rooted to the world you know, and may even carry a bit of old-fashioned charm. So although Ava surged a bit in the 1950s, it was never so popular then that it became a stereotypical "mom name" the way that top 10 names like Carol or Sharon or Linda or Susan did -- before this decade, its actual peak was in 1883, and that makes it seem both unusual and timeless.

this skews urban / liberal / jaymc imo and doesn't really hold true for the brayden / colton / kaylee demographic. or a lot of other people out there. for a lot of folks naming their kids is about what baby names they're hearing from others among their peers because they want their kids to fit in. in other words i think you're overrestimating the wes anderson gramma name phenom.

cürtïs

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/5478/victorf.png

interesting data for the name Victor. following the Allied victory in WWI and the Paris Peace Conference, no-one wanted to name their sons Victor because they were dead-set on enjoying peacetime and distancing themselves from the war. but after Pearl Harbor, as 'Murricans set out to whoop some Axis ass, the name more than doubled in popularity. pure speculation, mind you.

correction: that last graph is for the name "Victoria". but my point stands (or doesn't stand, depending on how you look at it).