Baby Names - Choosing Trendy or Traditional

Lists of baby names are always fun to look at, whether
you're seeking a name for your soon-to-be-born baby boy or

baby girl, wondering about the popularity of your own first

name, or just curious about what baby names are currently
hot.

What I find particularly interesting is tracking the popularity
of baby names over the decades. In looking through U.S.

government baby name lists from 1880 to the present,
some amusing patterns emerge, particularly in regards to
baby names for girls.

For example, in Victorian times Biblical names, such as
Mary, Sarah and Ruth were very popular for baby girls. There
were also many baby names that sounded very

old-fashioned to me, as a kid growing up in the 1960s,
including names like Martha, Alice, Bertha and Minnie.