The Name Game

So I spent a large portion of yesterday evening on the couch with Amie and her laptop as we explored names for our future children. (No, I'm not preggers.) But there's this site--baby name wizard--with a graph where you can type in any name and then see its popularity through the ages. It's really cool.
Enter a name, and the graph will tell you the name's ranking (out of the top 1000 names during that same year) at any time interval on the graph (decades). On the y axis (yes, a throw back to 7th grade math terms) you can see how many kids per million babies actually got that name. And, ps, Laurel tops out at #280-something at its peak--not the most popular name, by far.
Then, to round out the slightly obsessive evening of name exploration, we checked out the social security name index and had a laugh over the popular names list from 1890. (Don't worry, I won't be having any kids named Herman or Myrtle-- both in the top 50 in 1900.) But, interestingly enough, some names simply stand the test of time--popular from the 1800s through today-- names like Hannah and Matthew and John.
Warning: these sites are incredibly addictive. Amie and I wasted a good hour and a half naming her future children (I'll let her blog about those) and my future dogs (Stanley for a boy and Roxy for a girl.)
As for my future furless children, well... the jury is still out. I love the names Lily, Lila, and Kara for girls, but my husband isn't on board. And I'm completely stuck on boys' names. The only one I can definitively rule out is John... and Thaddeus... and probably Elvis... OK, so there a lot to rule out. I guess when the time comes I'll have to hash it out with that other boy in my life.
Anyway, if you're curious where your name stacks up, or the name of those near and dear, I suggest you give these sites a look-see.