The American social security department publishes the names of all babies born in each year. Baby name resources use these list to collate finding for new baby name trends.
For privacy reasons they will only add a “new” baby name if it appears in the population more than five times.
“To safeguard privacy, we restrict our list of names to those with at least 5 occurrences.”
So when the register throws up some pretty unusual names it means that this name, no matter how random it may seem, has actually been given to five separate babies.
Drum roll….
Here are the five “new” baby names that have made it on to the Social Security extended baby name list BY POPULAR (okay five times) DEMAND:
1. Sadman
If the shoe fits… I guess I can sort of see where they’re coming from with this one. Newborns cry a lot. I suppose. The Meaning of the Name estimate that there are at least 7400 persons in the world with this name which is around 0.001% of the population. Sadman also holds the distinction of being added to the Urban Dictionary in 2012. This definition is actually quite positive:
“Sadman: The name of a guy who is usually cute and smart. He is also athletic for the most part. Unlike the literal meaning of the name, people with this name are actually funny and cheerful.”
2. Xaylen
A quick scout around the Internet threw up a few Xaylen Twitter and Facebook users so I’m not sure just how left-field this one really is. Love an ‘X’ in a name though. It’s got that super-villain buzz, or superhero (Prof. Xavier, Xena) for that matter. If I had been called Xophie, would I have become a super-villain or a superhero…?
3. Wimberly
Ya know, like Kimberly only with a ‘W’.
4. Rooke
Ya know, like Brooke only without the ‘B’. Would ‘Ophie’ work?
5. Swatsik
Call me narrow-minded but this one just gives me a no feeling. This is unfortunate as it is actually a Hindi boy’s name meaning auspicious but when a name acquires negative connotations they can be pretty hard to shake. Like calling twins Adolf and Eva.
