I found this cool GIF of the most common assigned-girl-at-birth baby names on The Atlantic's website. I was born in a year when the odds were pretty good that I'd become a Lisa, a Jennifer, or a Michelle. The Michelle part seems funny because I recently went to an event with two friends, both WAY younger than I am and both named Michelle (Hi, MR and MC!). Had my parents not been who they are, we could have been a travelling trio of Michelle's.
But my parents are who they are, and I've always been grateful for my unusual name. (Thanks, R and J!) I like both that it's unusual and what it means. As I used to have a sparkly t-shirt that announced, Carita means love.(As an aside, I think it's also fascinating that Lisa means God's promise, Michelle means Who Resembles God, and Jennifer means The Fair One. None of those makes much sense for me.) For my whole life, I've had a chicken-and-egg fascination with my name and the importance I place on love. Did having my name make me value love more, or would I have valued love more with any other name? Can't know.
For nearly ten years in a row shortly after I was born, Jennifer reigned dominant. (I know they're not all obsessed with beauty.) That's a lot of Jennifers, whereas I rarely meet another Carita. Most Jennifers with the traditional spelling probably don't have to explain their names or get asked about where their names come from, so I guess that's a plus side to having a common name.
I like learning what other people's names mean, too. My sister (Hi, V!) has always been a dive-right-into-things, full-of-vitality person, so it's always made total sense to me that her name means life. She was born in a year when all fifty states' most common names were Lisa.
My daughters were born in the years below, at times when, statistically speaking, I was likely to name them Emily, Madison, Taylor, Alexis, Hannah, or Emma. Emily, the front-runner both years, means rival, wily, or persuasive. Neither of my daughters would fit this meaning. Their names mean sweet-faced, graceful or fearless and paradise/ a place of natural beauty. Both are certainly beautiful, inside and out, though that's never been my primary goal for either.
If you're still reading, you might be wondering what my point is this week. That's a great question. Mostly, I was thinking about names and decided to write about them. Can't that be the point? What does your name mean? Do you like having a common/uncommon name? If you have thoughts on the topic, please name them in the comments.
Glad you still like your loving name and fit it.
Thanks again for giving it to me!
You are the one and only Carita I know, Carita. It is a even cooler name now that I know its meaning.
My name (originally “Eve”) was found in a dictionary by a friend of my mom’s. I think the name was chosen for its simplicity rather than for its meaning. My mom and her friend decided on the phone to name me “Eve,” but they both pronounced it “Eva” for some reason. One day in elementary school, I decided to change the spelling to match the pronunciation. “Eva” was probably popular in the first half of the 20th century, as people often comment that it is their grandma’s name.
That’s so cool that your mom and her friend got to give you the name together. I love the way names can bond us to other people, to our histories, to ideas. Thanks for sharing!
I was named after six (yes, six) family members named Mary Catharine. I absolutely HATED and was mocked incessantly for being “old” where all the other girls in the Irish Catholic neighborhood I grew up in had “cool names” like Jennifer, Michelle, etc. As I’ve come to age, I realize how special to continue the family tradition of being a Mary. I’m so glad that I do have that “old” name now, it just took a while to see the importance.
Wow, that’s so cool to hold the family tradition, and yes, I think a lot of us appreciate such things only once we’re older. Did the seven different Mary Catharines go by different nicknames? Was it ever confusing?
In the Jewish tradition, we don’t name after living relatives, which eliminates much of the confusion. We are also fine with keeping the same first letter rather than using the whole name. So cool how different families/cultures treat names. Thanks for sharing yours.
Also questions on last names, a relatively recent social invention. Easy guess for Smith, Baker. Still, harder question, who, way back when fit that last name. Even tougher, changed names immigrating to USA, and then whether immigrant or USA official choosing.
Yes, I wrote a post about why I have the last name Gardiner back in May of 2021 after learning that my family copied the name of one of my students’ families. Small world and interesting to learn more about last names, too.
I like when names have meaning. I love my son’s name, but especially like that he was named after his great-grandmother. It has created a lovely connection for him to someone he was not able to meet.
I agree. Names can be great because of the connections they make to others, because of their derivation, and because of their sounds. I agree that your son’s name is great!
I like this post so much. Thanks, Carita. I hated my name when I was younger, primarily because, as a four-year-old, I didn’t know how to answer the question, “who’s your Romeo?” My parents picked it because they liked it, plus it was a name that could be easily used in most European languages: Juliette (which I hate being misspelled as!), Julieta, etc. This is one of the reasons we picked out kids’ names, too. Now I am happily a Juliet. Just for fun, I did a quick search of my Facebook friends, and I have over 15 who are some iteration of “Jennifer.” All around my age. Lol!
I like your name and your kids’ names, particularly because I like the way their two names go together so well.
Adding a few stories about our names:
1. When Carita and I were littler, I had fun telling people that my parents were so poor (they weren’t), that they only bought one birth certificate, named us both ViveCarita, and divided it up later.
2. True story (unless R or J corrects me): our parents decided to have two girls, chose our names, and referred to us that way since way before either of us was ever born. They never seriously considered boys names because they never seriously considered having boys.
3. Our parents had each been one of three but decided only to have two kids. They told us that if they had a third, her name would have to start with “Ta” (in order to tag onto ViveCarita), have three syllables (like ours), and mean peace (a natural third for life and love).
I’m super happy with my own name and I love being half of the life and love set!
See, this is why I need you to write another guest post soon — you remember all the cool details I leave out. Yes to all three of these, and to our phantom sister, Tashara (free-spirited) or Talara (honorable).
I have to wiegh in and hope that Judy does too.
To the best of my memory, all that ustedes have written is either true or so close to the truth that I’ll endorse it, and after all these years, I still love your names, but love you both so very much more!
Here’s a story that you may not know. While your grandmother GG was pregnant with your one and only aunt, I (then three years old) thought that she (this was long before diagnostic ultrasound was available) should be named “Leaky,” because I knew that she would be, as all babies were, incontinent (though I did not know that word then). I can’t remember what they felt about my recommendation, but I do know that that was not the name they chose for her, thankfully.
I did not know that story. Funny, and I’m glad my aunt has a much happier name than Leaky.
When I was pregnant with girl #2 (they don’t always like it when I name them online), girl #1 wanted the baby to be named either Cinderella (because she liked the story) or Pizza (because I looked as though I had eaten too much of it)! I think our girl #2 is also happy we didn’t go with the toddler’s suggestions.