Sunday, June 27, 2004

name curiosities

according to the SSA, Jessica was ranked 18th most popular in 2003, it's lowest rank since 1990. Jessica was ranked 2nd in 1978 (after Jennifer), the year i was born. interestingly, Jessica was ranked 4th in England/Wales in 2003. i also discovered that Jessica was first used by Shakespeare in his play 'The Merchant of Venice.' Jessica means ' wealthy.'



Sabrina ranks 139th for 2003. In 1997 (the year she was born), it ranked 53rd. i find this interesting: i chose that name because i wanted something a bit different, but still something the teacher could pronounce on the first day of school. i thought it was different since i had never met anyone named Sabrina. alternatively (and following the same logic), if i had a boy, the name would have been Dylan, which was ranked 31st in 1997. i had no idea these names were this popular. btw- Sabrina means 'from the border.'



other intersting tit-bits I gathered from the SSA site: 1- the most popular names in 2003 were Jacob and Emily and 2- Bertha is listed in the top ten 12 times (1881-1918).



further research finds that my last name is the #535 most common last name.

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