TAMPA --Samantha Workman was eight months pregnant and still couldn't decide on a name for her baby, but she knew what it wouldn't be.
No "Ashley." No "Brittany." No "Courtney."
The three made the Top 20 list of girls' names in 1993, when Workman had her daughter, and a lot of her friends had chosen them for their children. She didn't want her child to go through school using her last name to distinguish herself from the other Ashleys, Brittanys or Courtneys.
She chose "Spenser." The name has never cracked the top 1,000 for girls' names, which Workman loves.
"It's not like, 'Ashley who?'" said Workman, of Dunedin.
The Social Security Administration tracks the most popular baby names back to 1879 and released its annual rankings Thursday. The results inevitably please some parents with how well-liked their children's names are and have other moms and dads hoping their choices stay unique and off the list.
"Isabella" and "Jacob" remained the most popular names for girls and boys for the second year in a row. Newcomer "Aiden" bumped "Joshua" out of the Top 10, and "Sophia" moved to No. 2, past "Emma."
The list of Florida's most popular names will come out Tuesday.
Author Jennifer Griffin, whose baby name book "Bring Back Beatrice" was published in March, would like to parents to venture beyond the comfort zone of popular names.
Born in 1969, Griffin grew up at the peak of her name's popularity. "Jennifer" ranked No. 1 from 1970 to 1984 and did not fall out of the Top 10 until 1992.
"Nobody is only 'Jennifer,'" Griffin said. "I automatically say my last name. When you're a 'Jennifer,' you're always 'Jennifer Griffin.'"
A popular name can date you, too. Without knowing Griffin's birth date, strangers could estimate her age from the period "Jennifer" reigned supreme, as well as her likely friends: "Kimberly," "Melissa," "Amy" and "Heather" – names that dominated the Top 10 list in the 1970s.
That said, "Jennifer" does have history, which Griffin likes. It's a Cornish name, popularized by a George Bernard Shaw heroine and 1940s actress, Jennifer Jones.
Griffin selected what she calls "real names" for her book -- names with meaning, cultural or family significance or years of history.
A name such as "Jayden" (No. 4 on the list for boys), meanwhile, seems invented and faddish, getting boosts from celebrities selecting it for their children. Griffin writes in her book that it has a vibe of "I read Us Weekly." People enjoy being on the front-end of a trend, she said, but fad names that drop in popularity wind up looking "low rent."
Compare that to wildly popular names such as "Emma," "Isabella" and "Aiden." Although thousands of 2010 babies will share those names, their classic natures will prevent them from sounded dated or silly, Griffin said.
Her book urges parents to find a balance between popularity and names some might consider made-up, flaky or bizarre. Traditional names are like fine china, she writes. Some have long histories but are underutilized – names such as "Henry," "Everett," "Lydia" or "Evelyn."
Griffin includes "Spencer" as a suggestion for boys for its "classy, formal-sounding charm" and preppy edge. Workman picked it for her daughter after seeing a commercial that featured an adorable little girl called Spenser.
It had the added bonus of pleasing her British grandmother, who had pushed for "Diana" and liked the nod to Diana's maiden name. Her husband wasn't sure it fit his newborn daughter, but Workman was set on it.
Spenser, now 18, likes her name. Workman was also glad that it was tease-proof.
Workman, who was born in England in the mid-1960s, loved that her name, "Samantha," was unique when she was growing up, but she had to deal with kids calling her "Bewitched" or asking her to wrinkle her nose when the TV show was popular.
"They've never been able to come up with something for 'Spenser,'" she said.source
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