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August 27, 2009
Not Popular
Just this morning, my mother sent me a link to a section of the Social Security Administration's website that tracks the occurrence (and thus the popularity) of various baby names in America.
If your name is on the list above, you may glow with pride to know that, had you been born in 2008, your name would be very, very popular.
I could not help but indulge my curiosity and find out just how popular (or not), Alden's name was.
According to my search, had Alden been a boy, her name would not have been very popular.
As a girl, however, Alden is so unpopular that her name does not rate among the top 1,000 in any of the last nine years.
Surely hers is a classic name, I said to myself. I just need to shift the parameters a bit and find the era in which her name was popular. I searched again.
Had Alden had been born in any of the last 99 years, she would still have been spectacularly unpopular.
The realization was crippling.
In a near panic, I searched for the new baby's name, certain that he or she would right the family's ship by surging to the heights of popularity.
Alas, it was not meant to be.
Desperate, I threw a Hail Mary:
But came up empty.
Thinking on this further, however, I am sanguine.
Given that Robbi and I have spent long stretches of our lives in states of profound unpopularity, it seems only fitting that our offspring should taste the bitter pill of like indignity.
That which does not kill us...
...leaves us still woefully unpopular.
Note: I see that this is The Barnstorming's 600th post. If you have found the time read all (or even most of them), I'm guessing that "popular" is not a word you often use to describe yourself.
Posted by bogenamp at August 27, 2009 08:36 AM