Brooke

Brooke comes from the surname (Brooke, Brook, Brooks,) and means exactly what you'd expect it to mean; the surname originally described someone who lived near a brook or a stream. It comes from the Old English word bróc. Brooke is currently an extremely popular name for girls in many English speaking countries, including the U.S., Scotland, and Australia. Part of its popularity is due to the fame of actresses Brooke Shields and Brooke Adams. In the U.S., Brooke has been a top 100 name since the 1980's. This means there are currently a lot of Brookes running around out there. This being the case, new parents might want to look for a name that is somewhat less over-used. New parents should also be aware that although most name dictionaries, etc., list Brooke as being a feminine OR masculine name, it is generally the spelling Brook that is considered more masculine (and occasionally Brooks.) Brooke has been so popular for girls that I'd hesitate to give a boy even the "masculine" versions of the name. His life will be much easier without the perception by his peers that he's got "a girl's name."

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.

Aaron

Aaron is a biblical name; Aaron was the brother of Moses. It has been said that the origin of this name is Hebrew, and that it means "high mountain" or "mountain of strength." In fact, the meaning and origin of the name are uncertain. No one really knows for sure where it came from or what it means. What we do know is that the name has nearly always been in use as a Jewish name, and has been used by Christians as well since the 17th century. Currently Aaron is a popular name in nearly all English speaking countries. In the U.S. Aaron has been a top 100 name since the 1970's, and might be due for a drop in popularity soon as parents start to consider it over-used.

James

James is the English version of the name Iacomus, which is a Latin version of the Greek Iakobus. (The name Jacob ultimately comes from the same source, via the Hebrew name version of Iakobus, which is Yaakov.) James is a saint name; in the New Testament, two of Christ's disciples were named James. Several Kings of Scotland were named James. James is a perennial favorite in all English-speaking countries. It is normally a masculine name, but has on occasion been given to girls, as well. (Naming a girl James just isn't recommended. It's not like names for girls are rare.) Because James comes from the same source as Jacob, it also means "supplanter" or "holder of the heel." One reason for James' continued popularity is its versatility. Nicknames for James include Jim, Jimmy, and Jamie. The name is considered by many to be overused, and it probably is, but that overuse is not likely to stop--and there is a big difference between an overused "trendy" name that comes out of nowhere and is overused for a few years, and classic names like James, John, Anne, Mary, etc. James is likely to remain popular, and will also remain a good name choice for boys.

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.)

Ryan

Ryan is yet another first name that comes from a surname. In this case the surname is Ó Riain, which is Gaelic, and itself means "descendant of Rian." So a first name that came from a surname that came from a first name. Isn't it great how names recycle themselves like that? Ryan is an extremely popular name among new parents in the United States these days. Ryan has been a top twenty baby name for boys every year since 1990. This means there are a lot of young Ryans out there. If you are expecting a baby boy and looking for the perfect name, I'd hesitate before naming him Ryan for that reason. Parents of baby girls apparently haven't wanted to be left out of the Ryan-frenzy entirely--the name has been given to new baby girls since the 1970's, but the popularity of Ryan as a girl's name does not seem to be rising. However, it seems that a given number of parents do name their daughters Riane or Rianne or some other variation of Ryan. This is fine but in a lot of these cases they want to use these as variant spellings and keep the pronunciation of Ryan. If you really want to do this, it's your kid, but consider the fact that not many people are going to see Rianne and automatically assume it's pronounced like Ryan. So your daughter will spend a lot of her life correcting people who mispronounce her name. I do know of one couple who chose Ryane as their feminine version of Ryan and so far that's worked out just fine. Worth consideration.

Madison

Madison is a very popular name for baby girls in the United States at the moment. How'd that happen? We'll start with the beginning, and the beginning was Madeline, and/or Maud. Madeline and Maud have something in common other than starting with the letter M, and that is that they both have Maddie (or Maddy) as a nickname. When surnames were being invented, Madison came from Maddie--it may have originally designated a boy who was Maddie's son. Later, a baby's given name--particularly the middle name--was often the surname of a close relative, such as the mother's maiden name, or sometimes just to honor someone with that surname. In this case, Madison was sometimes given to babies to honor President James Madison. Many such surnames became popular names in particular for baby boys, but at some point in the 1900's, apparently people became bored with the "normal" names for girls, and started giving their daughters surnames as their given names. Madison, which had previously been sporadically given to boys, started becoming more popular as a name for baby girls in the U.S. in the 1980's, and has climbed steadily on the name charts since then, and is currently in the top 10 names for girls. Interestingly, it has also reappeared in the top 1000 names for baby boys, but whether it will make any headway there at this time is doubtful. Madison may be well on its way to being thought of as a "girl's name," at least for the next generation or so. Later, when all the Madisons of this era are gone, it might come back into use for boys, or it might become a classic name for girls, or it might just go back to being a surname. Who knows? In any case, this is one transferred surname for girls that I actually do like a lot--mainly because it still has the nickname Maddie. However, Madison is a bit overused at the moment, so you might take a second look at the original form, Madeline. It might be a better choice.

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.

Matthew

Matthew comes ultimately from the Hebrew name Mattathia,which means "gift of God." The apostle Matthew was author of the first gospel of the New Testament. According to Ask Oxford's name dictionary, the name Jonathan comes from the same root, only reversed, so Matthew and Jonathan might be perfect names for a pair of twin boys. The name was used in the Middle Ages, and several surnames, including the obvious "Matthews" are derived from it. Matthew is currently going through a popularity spike; it has been a top 10 name since the 1970's. For this reason it might be a little too popular to be a good choice right now--then again, if you don't mind that your child might be in school with several other Matthews, there's no reason not to use the name anyway. Pair it with a somewhat less common middle name, and you're good to go. Matt is the common nickname for Matthew, but since it's also a short from of Matthias, and also has been given as a name in its own right at times, I'll deal with Matt as a seperate name at some point.

Ashley

Ashley comes from the Old English aescleah, meaning "ash wood." This was a common place name--for obvious reasons--which became a surname. Ashley began to be used as a given name in the 1860's, possibly inspired by Anthony Ashley Cooper, the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, who was a well known 19th century social reformer. It is also more than possible that the use of Ashley as a given name came from the common practice of giving a child the mother's maiden name as a middle or second middle name. "Ashley Wilkes" was a major character in Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone With The Wind, which provided a popularity boost to the name. Until the 1960's Ashley was mainly used for baby boys, but once it began to be used for girls, it caught on quickly. Ashley entered the top 10 names for baby girls in the 1980's and it remains there today. As the use of the name for girls rose, baby boys named Ashley became fewer and fewer, and the name disappeared from their top 1000 list after 1994. Alternate spellings of the name will be listed seperately at some point, but include Ashlee, Ashleigh, and Ashlie.

Olivia

The first known use of the name Olivia is in Shakespeare's Twefth Night. It was later used by Oliver Goldsmith in The Vicar of Wakefield in 1766, and again in 1768 in The Good-Natured Man. It was probably Goldsmith's use of the name Olivia that made it popular in the 18th century. It was given a much later boost by actress Olivia de Havilland, and still later, by pop singer Olivia Newton-John. Olivia is enjoying a revival in the U.S., and has been a top 10 name since 2001. It may be becoming too common for this generation of babies, so unless you really can't choose another name for your new daughter, I'd recommend against it.

Donna

Donna is Italian for "lady," and its use as a name in English-speaking countries only began in the 1920's. According to some sources it has been used as a feminine form of Donald--I'm guessing that this basically means daughters of men named Donald who wanted to name their children for themselves. Donna was a very popular name from the 1930's through the 1960's, making it as high as #8 in the 1960's. In fact, it was used so much that even though it is a relatively late addition to the name game, it now sounds rather common, and so has dropped in popularity, all the way into the 700's.

Emily

Emily comes from the old Roman clan name "Aemilius," which may or may not have meant "rival," although some say that it comes from German and means "eager." Since neither of these meanings are for sure, and since neither of them are really relevant to the image that most of us have of "Emily," they can probably be safely ignored. Emily is currently the most popular name in the English speaking world. The name had been reasonbly popular since the 19th century, but really started to take off in the 1970's. In the U.S., the name has been in the #1 spot since 1996, making it the "Jennifer" of the newest generation. For this reason, new parents would be advised to find another name for their baby girl--it has to be annoying to share the same name with half your classmates. The relatively sudden rise to popularity of this name is interesting; previous Emily's that come immediately to mind are Emily Dickenson, Emily Bronte, and the etiquette advice of Emily Post. The common mental image of an "Emily" is likely to be far different a few decades from now.

Dorothy

Dorothy is closely related--or maybe derived from--Dorothea, and also is considered a feminine form of Theodore, of which Dorothea is essentially the dyslexic feminine version. They all mean "gift from God," and their origin is ultimately Greek. But who thinks of Theodore when they hear Dorothy? What we do think of when we hear the name Dorothy is "The Wizard of Oz," and most of us probably mentally picture Judy Garland. I do, and I know a real-life Dorothy who (trust me) is nothing like Dorothy Gale. Dorothy was a very popular name with British parents from the 15th century through the 18th century. Dorothy was also very popular in the U.S., consistently appearing in the top 10 baby names for girls from the 1900's through the 1930's. It started to lose popularity after that, and is still in a slump: Dorothy remains in the top 1000, but not in the top 500. The name lost popularity due to over-use, and parents in the U.S. became more concerned with trendiness than tradition. At this moment it still sounds a bit old-fashioned, but considering the re-emergence of the old classic Emily, Dorothy may soon be due for a comeback of sorts. In any case, it's a classic name and probably isn't going to go away entirely.