Georgia

Georgia is, of coure, the feminine form of George. George means, more or less, "farmer," so I guess we take Georgia to mean "lady farmer?" Or "farmer's wife" if you'd rather. In the U.S. if we hear "Georgia," we don't think of George though, usually. We think instead of the state named Georgia, or we automatically get "Georgia On My Mind" or "Midnight Train To Georgia" stuck in our heads. Georgia is also a country in the land formerly known as the Soviet Union. I only know one Georgia, and she gets called "Georgie" almost exclusively. In case you wondered. Georgia is a much more popular name in other English speaking countries than it is in the U.S., probably for the reasons I mentioned about what we think of when we hear the name. It's certainly not rare here in the U.S. either though, and its additional status as a saint's name probably guarantees that it's going to stick around.

Aylin

Aylin has appeared on the list of U.S. Top 1000 names for baby girls at this site since 1997. The name hasn't appeared high on the lists for any year, but since names that I'd have guessed were more common aren't necessarily appearing at all, this name made me curious. What is it? Where did it come from? Why have people been giving it to their daughters in the U.S. since 1997? Why why WHY? Alright, I feel better. All I've found is that Behind the Name thinks it might mean "moon halo" in Turkish. This one will require actual research, so I'll get back to you. If anyone has any ideas or knowledge about this name, please share. Thanks.

Jacob

Jacob is the English version of the Hebrew name Yaakov. Jacob was of course a very important person in the Old Testament, and the name Jacob means "holder of the heel," and "supplanter." The story there is that the biblical Jacob was born holding onto his twin brother Esau's heel, and later "supplanted" him--basically by being pretty tricky, when you come right down to it. First he persuaded Esau to trade his inheritance for a bowl of soup (mmm mmm good but surely not that good,) and later Jacob tricked their blind father into giving him instead of Esau. The lesson here might be that resourcefulness is an important asset to survival, because Jacob went on to have twelve sons who became the twelve tribes of Israel. Jacob is at a peak in popularity right now, having held the number one spot for more than five years. It's never really been an unpopular name, anyway, having always been in favor with Jewish families. If you name your baby Jacob he will most likely go through school with a few other Jacobs, so you might want to look for something a little less popular. If you have your heart set on the name though, go ahead. It's fine. Just pair it with a less common but still "normal" middle name, preferably one with a lot of nickname potential, like Robert or William, and there you go: the perfect baby name. The most usual nickname for Jacob is Jake, but since that name has also been given as a first name in its own right, I'll deal with it seperately at some point in the future.

Tabitha

Tabitha is of Aramaic origin, and means "roe," or "doe," or "gazelle." The name Tabitha appears in the New Testament--she was restored to life by St. Peter. Consequently, this was a very popular name with the Puritans from the 17th to the 19th centuries. After the age of the Puritans, Tabitha became a very rarely-used name, until the 1960's, when it came back into use, inspired mostly, if not 100%, by the birth of the character Tabitha on television's Bewitched in 1966. Currently the use of the name is slowly declining once again, but it remains in the top 500. All the sources I check make a point of saying that the Greek version of this name is Dorcas, so I guess I'll mention it too, even though I can't think of how this information might be useful. It would be difficult to find a more versatile name than Tabitha in terms of what it can be used for. It's a good choice for a baby girl--actually a better choice than it was at the height of its popularity, since Bewitched isn't so popular as it was. But it also works well for a wide range of fictional characters, from authentically-named Puritan to fantasy rpg characters. In addition, it's a fine name for a cat, particularly since the obvious nickname is Tabby.

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.)