Why name "Madison" so popular for girls?

[FRITZ JUENGLING]

When I was a kid, Megan was around, altho it was not common--this was in the late sixties and early seventies.  However, there were two pronunciations (I'm not sure Beverly's two pronunciations are the ones I remember): the one with [e] and one with [i:], i.e. [mi:g at n]  (meegun), which I never hear anymore.  I remember having to ask girls which pronunciation they went by.
The name that has intrigued me the most is 'Joshua.'  When I was a kid, NO ONE, abolutely no one, had that name. It was a name that only pioneers would have had.  It was so old fashioned that I couldn't even conceive anyone having it today.  Well, in the last 10-15 years, so many of my students have had it, I can't even begin to count them.  Why its popularity all of a sudden?
Fritz

>>> flanigan at OHIOU.EDU 03/25/04 12:07PM >>>
"Megan" is also variously spelled, I've noticed, sometimes with an 'h' (as
Meghan) and sometimes not.  I don't know if there's a correlation with the
tendency to lax the front vowel or not, but I always have to ask my
students, "Do you say [meg at n] or [mEg at n]?"  And then I have to explain why
I asked the question, which leads into phonetics and a nice lesson on IPA.