"What's in a name? That
which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as
sweet." - Shakespeare
My life’s been uneventful of late. How uneventful? I count a
recent colonoscopy as an adventure. Fear not. I won’t share details except to
say any day without a colonoscopy is a good one.
At dark-thirty on the morning of my procedure, the nurses at
the outpatient center buzzed with excitement over what they considered a strange
coincidence/eerie convergence: four out of eight female patients scheduled were
named Patricia. Spooky?
In fact, there’s a logical explanation. Most Americans
(those of us lucky enough to have health insurance, anyway) are urged to get
our first colorectal-cancer screening at or around age fifty. In other words,
the female patients who showed up that morning likely were born in 1963 or
earlier.
In the 1960’s, Patricia was the sixth most common name given
to girl babies. Don’t believe me? The Social Security Administration keeps
track of these things. In the 1950’s, Patricia was the third most popular name
for baby girls according to the SSA.
Those SSA charts come in handy when I’m stuck for a
character name. But that’s not all, folks. Here’s a fun infographic of THE most popular girl’s name, state-by-state in the U.S. every year between 1960 and
2012. I'm amazed at how fast a name catches on and how far its popularity spreads.
If that infographic’s right, a lot of women named Lisa soon
will make appointments for colonoscopies. Meanwhile, I think about all the Sophias born last year. Forty-nine years from now, will they await
colonoscopies at dark-thirty in the morning, or will medical advances make the
procedure obsolete? I’m betting on the latter.
Is your name commonplace or unusual? If it’s commonplace, do
you secretly long for a name that sets you apart? If it’s unusual, do you yearn
for one that doesn’t cause heads to turn when the barista at Starbucks calls
your name?
