Reagan

I think everyone, or surely almost everyone, knows that Ronald Reagan was President of the United States for most of the 1980's. Is this why Reagan appeared in the top 1000 names for baby girls in 1993, and for boys in 1996? In some cases yes, in others, probably not. The girl's version of the name has been climbing steadily since it debuted on the SSA's name charts, and is now in the top 200. There are actually probably several reasons for the rising popularity of this name. One is simply that quite a few names that were originally surnames and are of Irish origin are lately being used as first names for girls--Morgan is another example. In the book and movie "The Exorcist," the little girl who is possessed is named Regan, and the choice of Reagan for little girls may be partly influenced by that--though why anyone would want that association for their daughter that early is beyond me. She'll seem possessed soon enough (around the age of 13) without any encouragement from her name. There are fewer boys being named Reagan than girls, suggesting that the main influence might not be Ronald Reagan, but it could be that people are just tending to think of it as a girl's name. Those boys that are named Reagan are more likely to be named that in honor of the former president though, just because they're boys. Make sense? I think so, sort of. All I know for sure is that Reagan comes from an Irish surname that itself came from a word that meant "little king." (Yet another reason to wonder why on earth someone would name their daughter Reagan, but you know how parents are.) I also know that Reagan is a wonderful name for a dog, or at least, I know a wonderful dog named Reagan. (And he is named for Ronald Reagan--he came from California. Reason enough.)