Shane

Shane is a variation of the Irish name Sean; basically just a matter of spelling it the way it sounds when pronounced in areas of Northern Ireland. Currently Shane is a quite popular name in Ireland, but less so in Northern Ireland--which makes sense when you think about it. It is a top 50 name in both cases, anyway. In the U.S., Shane began to be used to name baby boys in the 1950's, almost entirely due to the success of the movie Shane. Shane was a top 100 name during the 1970's and 1980's, but in the 1990's it started to slip in the rankings. It has dropped a little each year since the mid 1990's, but is still currently a top 200 name. Shane is normally a boys name, but is very occasionally (very!) used as a girl's name.

Lamont

Lamont comes from the Irish and Scottish surname, and its use as a given name has been mainly confined to the U.S. The surname is derived from Lagman which was a given name used in medieval times. Lagman comes from the Old Norse combination of log ("law") and madhr ("man"). This gives a resulting meaning for Lamont of "lawman" or "law giver." Lamont began to appear in the U.S. top 1000 names list in the 1940's, and its popularity peaked in the 1970's--though it never was a really "popular" name, at any time. Use of the name has declined steadily since the 1970's, and in 2004 the name was still in the top 1000, but barely. The first thing many of us think of when we hear the name Lamont is that it was the name of Fred Sanford's son in the Redd Foxx television show, Sanford and Son.

Priscilla

Priscilla is a Biblical name; it appears in Acts in the New Testament. Priscilla is a Latin name which comes from the Roman family name Priscus, which means "ancient." Because Priscilla appeared in the New Testament, the 17th century Puritans liked it. Priscilla was popular again in the 19th century, probably largely because of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's classic poem, The Courtship of Miles Standish. Throughout the 20th century, Priscilla was quietly in use, though not really popular, remaining in the top 200 or 300 names for girls, with no apparent effect from the fame of Priscilla Presley. In the years since the turn of the century, Priscilla has begun to slide a bit farther down in popularity, into the top 400.

Gary

Gary has several origins, which mostly all reach back to the same base origin, which is the Germanic element gar, which means "spear." Many names, such as Gareth, Garret, Garland, and Garfield, begin with this element, and Gary was originally a nickname or short form for those names. Widely used nicknames often become given names in their own right, and they also often spawned surnames. Both of these happened with Gary, so today, Gary can be a nickname, a name in its own right, or a transferred use of the surname as a given name. Gary was a very popular name in the U.S. from the 1930's through the 1960's, probably largely because of the fame of actor Gary Cooper. The name is still used, and is still in the U.S. top 500, but has been steadily dropping since the 1970's. Other famous, or at least well-known, Garys include Gary the snail, from the popular Spongebob Squarepants cartoon; actor Gary Dourdan, who plays Warrick Brown on television's CSI; Gary Levox, the lead singer for the country group Rascal Flatts; actor Gary Oldman; and the town, Gary, Indiana. Although this name is still suffering somewhat from its extreme popularity in the 20th century, and not being helped by having a famous snail using the name, Gary will most likely make a comeback and return to popular use eventually.

Kerry

Kerry is a name that is used for both girls and boys. According to Ask Oxford it is a recent addition to the name pool. According to the U.S. Social Security Administration's Popular Baby Names website, however, Kerry appered in the top 1000 names for boys as early as 1934 and for girls in 1943, which isn't that recent, really. Kerry is a county in Ireland, and in most instances, that is probably what inspired the use of Kerry as a first name. It is important to remember, though, that Kerry is also a surname (as in John Kerry, whose website is the first result you get currently if you simply search for "Kerry" on Google.) Although Kerry enjoyed some popularity in the U.S. in the 1950's through the 1970's, it began to lose popularity swiftly after that, and has lately been completely out of fashion for both girls and boys. Any current lack of popularity of the name may or may not be due to the fame of John Kerry.

Susan

Susan is a short form of the name Susanna, which comes from the Hebrew name Shoshana, and means "lily," or "rose." This sort of qualifies it as a plant or flower name (such as Rose or Lily or Heather, but it's not really considered in that group, normally.) From the 1940's through the 1970's, Susan was a ridiculously popular name. Its popularity finally started to wane in the 1980's, and has been declining steadily ever since, mainly because people simply grew tired of the name. Susan is still used, but not nearly as much--it has even fallen out of the top 500 in the U.S. Famous Susans include Susan B. Anthony, actressess Susan Sarandon, Susan Lucci, and Susan Hayward, and in fiction, Susan is one of the children in the Narnia series, and Suellen O'Hara, Scarlett's sister from Gone With the Wind is actually named Susan Eleanor--Suellen is her nickname. Usual nicknames for Susan include Sue, Suzie, and Susie, which makes it a quite versatile name, but those nicknames are in the same boat as Susan--they are considered a little overused and old-fashioned at this point. Susan is a name that has been around for a long time though, and probably should be considered a classic. It is more than likely that in future generations it will regain its popularity once again.

Carla

Carla is a feminine form of Carl, which itself comes from the name Charles. Since Charles means "man" or "free man," then Carla can be taken to mean "woman" or "free woman." Carla is an extremely popular name in Spain. In the U.S., Carla began to be used in the 1920's, reached a popularity peak in the 1960's, and has been declining slowly in popularity ever since. Carla wasn't used enough, even at the peak of its popularity, to be considered over-used, and its decline has been slow; people still like this name apparently. It has remained in the top 500, and could see a revival in popularity at any time--especially if it gets a push from a famous Carla, whether real or fictional.

Barbara

Barbara is the Latin form of the Greek barbarus. The Greek word comes from bar-bar, which was sort of a Greek version of "blah blah" and referred to the language of foreigners which sounded like no more than "bar-bar" (or blah blah) to them. Therefore, barbarus came to mean "foreign," and Barbara means "foreign woman." The word barbarian comes from the same source. Other meanings related to the word are sometimes given for Barbara, including "strange," "exotic," and "untamed." Barbara is a saint's name: Saint Barbara is the patron saint of stonemasons, architects, and artillerymen, among other things. Barbara is currently somewhat out-of-fashion as a name for baby girls. It was extremely popular during the first half of the 20th century, and was a top ten name in the U.S. for most of the three decades (the 1930's, 1940's, and 1950's.) Because of this, many many people have mothers, grandmothers, and even great-grandmothers named Barbara. Often when this happens a name starts to be associated with the "older generations" and goes out of fashion until the older generation has passed. Barbara has not fallen completely out of use, but its popularity has been on a steady decline since the 1960's, and it currently isn't even quite in the top 500. Barbara is a classic name, however, plus a saint's name, so it is doubtful that it will become obssolete. The name can be expected to eventually experience a resurgence in popularity. Barbara is a versatile name, but its versatility is another reason for its decline in popularity; one of the main nicknames for Barbara is Barbie and that name has been virtually taken over by its association with Barbie Dolls. Other nicknames for Barbara are Babs, Babette, and Barb, and Bobbie. The variant spelling Barbra is sometimes used, but I'll deal with that as a name in its own right at some point.

Jewel

Jewel means, well, jewel. That is, a precious stone or gem. Back in the 1800's it was fashionable to use gem names as names for babies--mostly for girls, but in some cases for boys. Jewel is one of these names (though others were more specific, such as Ruby or Beryl.) The popularity of the name Jewel carried over from the 1800's into the 1900's, and the name was somewhat in use in the United States through the 1960's. After that, it disappeared from the U.S. top 1000 baby names until 1997, when it shot suddenly to #667. The reason for the reappearance of the name is most likely due to the popularity of the singer Jewel. The revival of the name hasn't been overwhelming, and its use has been declining steadily since 1998. Many people, rather than thinking of Jewel as a name in its own right, tend to think of it as a nickname for Julie or Julia, but by the same token, there is really no reason that a girl named Jewel could not use Julie as a nickname.

Heather

Most names can go into some category or another, or several categories in some cases. Examples include gem names like Ruby and Jasper, saint names, names that were surnames, and so on. One of those categories is flowers, or plants, and Heather is one of these names. Heather is a plant often associated with Scotland, and the heather page at Electric Scotland has some nice pictures of it, a great legend, and excellent information about the evolution of the word heather from Old Scottish to the present form. Actually that page probably contains more information about heather than anyone could ever need, but go there anyway for the legend and the pictures. It's very nice. The most famous Heather on the Internet is blogger Heather Armstrong, a.k.a. Dooce. And of course there's Heather Locklear, but Dooce is much more interesting. Really. Heather only started to be used regularly as a given name for baby girls in the 1930's, but had made it all the way to the top 10 in the 1970's. Its popularity has waned steadily since the 70's, but it is still in the top 300, so is certainly not out of use. The loss of popularity is almost certainly due to over-use (see the 1989 movie Heathers , with its clique of Heathers.)

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.

Clifton

If you know anything about how words become other words, and if you think about it for a moment, you'll know pretty much where Clifton came from, and what it means. But if you don't want to do all that thinking, here you go: Clifton is from clif, which means exactly what you think it does--a cliff or a slope, and ton, which is basically "town." So, Clifton means a town by a cliff, or on a cliff, or somehow or another associated with a cliff. Clifton is a surname that became a first name. Ask Oxford suggest that it might have been chosen for use as a way to expand the name Cliff without using Clifford. That makes sense, but the only Clifton I know is nearly always called Clifton, and only very rarely is he called Cliff. This name is one that's neither a very good choice for a baby nor a very bad choice. If you really like it, use it. If you don't, don't. The popularity for the name has fallen steadily since the early 1900's, and its well on its way to becoming extremely rare, but due to its status as a surname, it most likely will not disappear entirely.

Walter

Walter comes from the Germanic name Waldhari, which meant, essentially, "ruling warriors." The form Walter was brought to England by the Normans. The English already had their own form of this name, Wealdhere, but since the two names apparently meant the same thing, came from the same original source, and sounded much the same, Walter eventually became the version that was used. Walter was quite popular with the Normans, and then with the English in Medieval days. It has been in constant use ever since and was a top 20 name in the U.S. in the first few decades of the 20th century. Its popularity has dropped since then, but since this name has been around for so long, it will probably continue to be used, and will probably see other peaks in popularity as time goes on. Walter is a relatively common surname, but in this case, the first name came first and the surname came last. Famous Walters include Walter Cronkite, Walter Brennan, and Walter Pidgeon. Incidentally, Walter is wonderful name for a dog.

Wanda

I have several sources that I check for information about names, their histories, meanings, or any other interesting things. None of them really agree about Wanda. One source says that it didn't come into real use until after the 1940's. Another source shows it as being quite popular in the first half of the 20th century. When I went to check this information at Social Security Administration's Baby Name Database, it informed me that Wanda wasn't in the top 1000 for any year. Doubting that, since I know several Wandas, I queried the database with the name Jennifer, and was told that that also wasn't in the top 1000 for any year, which confirmed my suspicion that something there isn't working properly today. At some point I'll need to be reminded to go back and recheck Wanda's popularity. Unfortunately, none of my sources really agree about Wanda's meaning or origin either. Ask Oxford, whom I consider to be the real authority--for the most part--just comes right out and says that Wanda is "of uncertain origin." I'll go with that. We don't know what Wanda means. If your name is Wanda, then Wanda means you. How's that? In any case, Wanda is not as popular as it was in the 1970's and 80's. That's my guess--one day maybe we will see if I was right, if I remember to look it up. How's that for a pointless entry?

Frances

Frances is the feminine form of Francis. Up until the 17th century, Francis was a unisex name, like Terry or Chris. Why "they" suddenly decided that a girl ought to have an "e" in her Frances is just one of life's little mysteries. The name has been in steady use since the 17th century, but is currently in a popularity slump. It was a top 100 name for baby girls in the U.S. until the 1960's. One notable Frances was Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American saint. Another was author Frances Hodgson Burnett, who wrote A Little Princess and The Secret Garden. Yet another was Frances Farmer.

Deana

Deana is considered to be a variant of Diana, but is more likely a feminine version of Dean. It could also be a variant spelling of Deanna, but it's recommended that if you want the name to be pronounced like Deanna (dee-anna), then you should spell it Deanna. Most people are going to pronounce Deana as if it were Dean with an a on the end, and you wouldn't want your daughter to spend half her life correcting the pronunciation efforts of strangers. Deana was used some between the 1940's and the 1990's, but was never really popular, and has now disappeared from the U.S. top 1000. There is some renewed interest in the name however, so it might be worth keeping an eye on.

Darlene

Darlene is an adaption of the word "darling," that uses the fairly common name suffix lene that also appears in Arlene and Marlene. It was a popular name between the 1930's and the 1960's, but went out of fashion with the other lene names and isn't used much today.

Neal

Neal is in some cases simply a variant spelling of Neil, and is also a surname that is sometimes used as a given name. This version of the name was used fairly often through the beginning of the last century, but began to be used less after the 1960's, and in the past few years has fallen out of the top 1000 names for boys in the U.S.

Carol, Carole

Carol began to be used as a name for baby girls in the late 19th century. It was apparently originally just a pet or short form of Caroline, or Carolina, and as such is considered a feminine version of the name Charles. Carole is the French spelling, and this spelling gained much popularity due to actress Carole Lombard (1908-42.) In the 1930's, 40's, and 50's, Carol was a top 20 name in the United States, but has been in decline ever since. Carol will probably make a comeback and regain some popularity at some point, but that may not be in the immediate future; it still seems a bit old-fashioned at the moment--there are still plenty of Carols from the name's peak around. Carol has also been used as a name for baby boys, but more often the male form is Carroll, which will be dealt with in a seperate entry eventually.

Lionel

The name Lionel comes from Latin leonellus, meaning "little lion." Lionel was used as a given name in the Middle Ages and is one possible source of surnames such as Lyall, or Lyell. It has remained in use ever since the Middle Ages; never being used more than infrequently but never falling completely out of use either. Its use has declined even more in the past few decades though, and of late, Lionel has fallen out of the top 1000 names in the U.S. Famous Lionels include actor Lionel Barrymore (1878-1954) and singer Lionel Richie. Many may also remember Lionel as George and Louise Jefferson's son on the tv series The Jeffersons. Why has Lionel fallen so completely out of fashion of late? There may be bad associations with the name that I'm not aware of, but since I'm not aware of any, I'd have to guess that it's some combination of the following reasons: Lionel sounds a bit old-fashioned at the moment, it doesn't have much versatility when it comes to nicknames, and so many "new" names have crowded into the name arena in the past decades as parents (in the U.S. at least) have become more daring, that there simply isn't room for it. Because of the meaning, Lionel makes a great name for a male cat, but if you choose to give the name to your new baby, I'd recommend choosing a strong versatile second name to accompany it, just to give your child some options in the event he hates the name.