Why name "Madison" so popular for girls?

[James Smith]

Zeitgist might be the best answer!

(The ranking of names in the following discussion is
based on the information at
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/.)

My wife and I struggled over the name of our first
daughter, born in 1975: my wife wanted "Stephanie"
because she held the actress Stephanie Powers in
especial esteem, I wanted something else - something
feminine, uncommon but not bizarre.  We went to see
"Love Bug" (or a sequel), in which S. Powers played a
character named Nicole; well, we both agreed Nicole
was perfect.  Turns out - Nicole was the 11th most
popular name for girls during the 70's; however, we
apparently caught it on the way up as it was number
186 in the 60's and went up to 8 for the 80's. (I
recall reading a news article a year or two after
Nicole's birth that placed Nicole in the top 10 for
1975, but the SSA list for 1975 doesn't concur.)  We
di name our next daughter Stephanie (1978), which
turned out to be number 9 for the 70's (up from 45 for
the 60's and went up to 6 in the 80's).  We finally
got down to number 14 (for the 80's) with our third
daughter, Megan, in 1981, but also caught that name on
the way up, from 417 in the 60's to  84 in the 70's
and up to number 10 in the 90's.  We didn't
consciously perceive any of these names as popular at
the time we chose them, and we were truly trying to
avoid the most common or popular names.



--- Grant Barrett <gbarrett at WORLDNEWYORK.ORG> wrote:
> My niece is named Madison. My sister claims she
> didn't name the child
> after anyone or anything.
>
> Since reading of the name's popularity some time
> ago, I have
> encountered many other Madisons, and their parents,
> and as far as I can
> remember, all seem to believe they plucked the name
> from the air, that
> they didn't borrow it from a television or movie
> character, an actress,
> a favorite book, a friend, or from anyone or
> anything specific.
> "Madison," for whatever reason, appears to have been
> washed ashore by
> the zeigeist.
>
> Grant

=====
James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
South SLC, UT                  |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
                               |or slowly and cautiously.

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