Re.: Brittany and other names...

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:36 AM -0600 2/23/03, Millie Webb wrote:
>
>
>Also, our own son is named "Griffin", from my maiden name.  And I have since
>noticed a huge explosion of traditional last names as first names, such as
>Austin, Morgan, Taylor, Tyler, Jamison, Dylan (or Dillon), Logan, etc.
>Seems to me they are most likely to be co-opted for first names if they end
>with [In] or [^n].  And most are almost as likely to be girls' names as
>boys' names.  Then there are children named for towns, such as Madison,
>Cheyenne, Austin (there it is again!), Detroit, Mason, etc.

The explosion of "Madison" as a name for girls (it's now in 2d place
on the list) has been attributed not to the town of Madison, WI but
to the mermaid character played by Darryl Hannah in the movie
"Splash".  In the movie, she is walking (yes, she could walk,
although I forget exactly how) in NYC with the Tom Hanks character,
who she's previously saved from drowning and who she ends up falling
in love with and vice versa, when Hanks asks her what her name is.
Of course she doesn't have a (human) name but can't admit this, and
looks up and sees the Madison Avenue street sign, so she immediately
says her name is Madison.  (I assume that both Madison, WI and
Madison Avenue were named after James Madison.)  Curiously, the #3
name for girls is Hannah, so that was evidently a very influential
movie for parents.   :)

Larry