Why name "Madison" so popular

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated   Wed, 24 Mar 2004 20:57:30 -0600,  Gerald Cohen
<gcohen at UMR.EDU> quoted:
>
>  At 9:36 AM -0500 3/24/04, Bill Hendrick wrote:
>  >Hello.
>  >any idea why Madison has become so popular for girls? It's No. 2
>  >now, but was no. 133 in 1991. Kaitlyn also has gone from 85th to
>  >32nd in popularity. and Grace has gone from 128 to 15. why do these
>  >names move up? I don't remember any of these from movies or TV
>  >shows. what's happening?

I diagnose three long-term trends in naming of baby girls in the US.

1.  Celtic (Irish, Welsh, Scottish) names are more fashionable than they used
to be.  The first time I remember hearing the name "Kaitlyn" was in the Paul
Newman move "The Verdict" (1982) and I failed to recognize it as a Celtic
name.  Nowadays it seems perfectly normal.  Similarly Megan has come out of
nowhere to be popular.

2.   In the last generation or so a number of what used to be exclusively
boy's names or nicknames have become common girl's names, e.g. Lee, Jamie, Kelly,
Kim, Taylor.  It seems to me (but I cannot prove this) that this trend caught
steam a little after the rise of feminism.  Cuase and effect?  Parents were
saying "equal opportunity for girls means allowing them a crack at boys' names"?

     What distinguishes names in this category from other boys' names?  That
these names were somewhat androgynous to begin with, unlike names such as
Joseph, Henry, Julius, or Thomas, which are nailed down as masculine names by
appearing, repectively, in the Bible, as Kings of England, in Classical tradition,
or in the Saints' Calendar.

3.  At one time a number of surnames became first names.  Think of Robinson
Crusoe, for an early example.  Others include Jefferson Davis, Douglas
MacArthur, and Bruce Willis.  (Note: in some cases these "first" names are actually
middle names used by people who dislike their first names, e.g. John Calvin
Coolidge.)

Nowadays there is a minor trend for English and Celtic surnames to become
girl's first names, e.g. the Hollywood actresses Glenn Close, Brooke Shields,
MacKenzie Phillips, and Morgan Fairchild.  (caveat on the last example:  "Morgan"
is well-established as a girl's name from the Arthurian legends---Arthur's
sister was Morgan le Fay.)

Some names fit two of these trends, some (e.g. "Kelly") all three.

What about "Madison"?
1.  It sounds Irish (I don't know if it is)
2.  It is reasonably androgynous, never having been firmly established as a
male-only name.
3.  It is a British-sounding surname.

Hence "Madison" was waiting around to become a fashionable girl's name.  "The
Bridges of Madison County" or whatever was the precipitating event, but the
underlying reason was the trends cited above.

End of diagnosis.

This does not explain the popularity of "Grace", which is neither
Celtic-sounding, androgynous, nor a common surname.  I doubt that people thinking Celtic
names happened to think of "Amazing Grace", which is a very popular song in
Scotland.

         - Jim Landau (unfashionably East European)