| When I first joined a young church plant a decade ago, none of us had kids. One couple in our group was expecting and soon had a baby boy named Malachi Enoch. At the time, I wasn’t familiar with the biblical origins of the name, and I certainly didn’t know anyone else digging deep into Hebrew prophets and obscure figures for their baby names. But nowadays, I thankfully know the Scriptures a bit better, so I understand the context a bit better when my friends pick names like Ezekiel, Josiah, Cyrus, Elias, Eden, and Selah. My experience with the shift toward biblical “deep cuts” parallels a trend covered by researcher Lyman Stone in a recent CT article: According to current data from the Social Security Administration, “unusual” biblical names are getting more common for baby boys, with historically “rare” Bible names rising from about 0.5% of boys in the 1950s to a whopping 6.5% of baby boys today. Of all baby boys given uncommon or unconventional names, 17% had uncommon biblical names—the highest share since 1880. But anyone who’s read an elementary school class list recently will know that quirky names are on the rise across the board. Like the popular Freakonomics chapter found, research shows that names can have an effect on us. And oftentimes, they reflect the intentions and values of the parents who chose them. Moms and dads who prioritize a “unique” name are likely hoping their that their “unique” child lives up to it. You may have seen the 2012 viral photo of a pregnant mom posed beside a chalkboard with these possible names for her daughter: Taylee, McKarty, Nayvie, Maylee, and Lakynn. The blogger (who has her own creatively spelled moniker: McKinli Hatch) comes from Utah, where modern Mormon communities are known for coming up with their own creatively spelled baby names—as a way to assert uniqueness within communities that can feel homogenous. “Perhaps because naming is one of few areas in which the Church has not formally instructed its members, Mormons in heavily Mormon areas might use naming as a way to set them apart and express individuality to some degree,” wrote Jennifer Mansfield, whose thesis project was titled “‘It’s Wraylynn—with a W’: Distinctive Mormon Naming Practices.” “Ironically, the act of unique and creative naming does not set them apart, but instead is another characteristic shared with many of their Mormon neighbors.”
African Americans have also developed creative naming practices, particularly in the 1960s through the 1980s, when “a wave of creativity … allowed for names like Shalondra, Shaday, Jenneta and Travounda—inventive names with creative spellings” and “you had an influx of hyphens and apostrophes in all their glory,” wrote The Root editor Stephen A. Crockett Jr. Plus, more kids in the US now come bearing names from immigrant-born parents, introducing new cultural names into our classes and communities. And Lyman Stone, the researcher, says if the unique name trend continues, we’ve got plenty more biblical choices to choose from: “If we’re lucky, then, maybe we’ll live to see kids named Maher Shalal Hash Baz once again.” Kate |
