Really Useful Social Security Information

Here is information that a curious American genealogist will find quite interesting and it is published by our own Social Security Administration. Prospective grandparents and parents-to-be can benefit from this too. If you don’t want to burden your newborn with the same first name that one third of the other girls or boys will be wearing on their first day in kindergarten, check out the most popular names for 2006.

1 Jacob
2 Michael
3 Joshua
4 Ethan
5 Matthew
6 Daniel
7 Christopher
8 Andrew
9 Anthony
10 William

1 Emily
2 Emma
3 Madison
4 Isabella
5 Ava
6 Abigail
7 Olivia
8 Hannah
9 Sophia
10 Samantha
(Here’s the site: www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/.)

If you want to spare your child the torment of being one of the forty or so Matthews or Madisons being called across the stage of First Grade Graduation, pick one of these old-timers (except for “Emma”) from great granny’s days, the 1880s:

1 John - Mary
2 William - Anna
3 James - Emma
4 Charles - Elizabeth
5 George - Minnie
6 Frank - Margaret
7 Joseph - Ida
8 Thomas - Alice
9 Henry - Bertha
10 Robert - Sarah
(www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/)

The year that I was born, almost all the girl babies were named Mary, Barbara, Patricia, Carol, and Linda. I wasn’t one of the bunch. In fact, I wasn’t even in the top 100, and for that I owe my parents. The boys were named James, Robert, John, William, and Richard.

It seems that none of the GEEK favorites made the Social Security cut. Whatever happened to Aiden, Caden, Braden and Jayden?

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