Baby Names inspired by text messaging, Web 2.0

We've all heard about those Internet-loving parents who named their kids after popular search engines, the @ symbol, and have even replaced Jr. with version 2.0, but if you thought that was weird, check out the new baby naming trends that has stemmed out of the digital age.

It appears young parents are so desperately trying to be techno hip, that they're going so far as to giving their offspring names inspired by phonetic spelling typically used in email and text messaging. In a study by McCrindle Research that discusses the Top 10 baby names in Australia, social analyst Mark McCrindle discovered a new naming trend among Generation X.

One of the first things he noticed was that parents were reinventing traditional names like Aidan, Jayden, Kaiden, Amelia, and Brayden by giving them alternate spellings. A further look into the different variations of the names revealed people were adding double letters (Siimon), using hyphens or apostrophes (Emma-Lee), and used phonetic spelling (Jaymz). Phonetic spellers were avidly replacing the "y" with an "i" and the "k" with a "c" in many instances. This resulted in names like Alex-Zander, Aren, Cam’ron, Oskah, Rhyleagh and Thaillah for the boys and Abbigayle, Ameleiyah, Bre’anna, Emma’lee, Jazmyn, Kai-leigh, Krystalle, and Sofiya for girls.

So why are parents getting so creative with names? McCrindle says Gen X was the first generation to grow up with working parents, and hated it. Knowing they will probably make the same mistake, they want to give their kids names that show individuality and how special they are to them.

Individuality being the key word for some here.

An article in the Wall Street Journal, sheds light on another baby naming trend that has parents turning to online search engines before settling on a name. Parents want their kids to have unique names because that makes them stand out from the crowd online, so they plug baby names into search engines to find out how popular a name is. If the name is too common, chances are the parents-to-be will opt for a more distinctive name to boost their kid's online visibility in the future.

Other parents are snapping up domains for their newborns even before they leave the hospital in order to secure their kids' future online identity. One parent says, "One of the criteria was, if we liked the name, the domain had to be available."

Oh brother. It's going to be an interesting generation, to say the least.  

 

Image by Blaugh