COLUMN: List of most popular baby names of 2011 released

According to an article I recently saw on the Internet, an organization called BabyCenter, which apparently keeps track of such things, revealed the most popular names given to American children in 2011, based on some 300,000 names that were registered on their website.

I won't keep you in suspense any more than I have to, so here they are in order of popularity (faint drum roll in the background):

Sophia, Emma, Isabella, Olivia, Ava, Lily, Chloe and Madison were the top eight monikers for girl babies. For baby boys the top eight were Aiden, Jackson, Mason, Liam, Jacob, Jayden, Ethan and Noah. You may have noticed that a majority of the most popular girl names ended in "-a," while five of the boys' names ended in "-n." These are known as "trends."

It just so happens that I know of two boy babies, born this year, named "Jackson," and my youngest grandson, who is 5, has "Mason" as his middle name. The only "Liam" I know of is Liam Neeson, the actor.

Having once been a school teacher I feel it is my duty to offer a few suggestions.

1. Avoid too-clever names. "Robin Banks" may make you smile now, but after your kid has heard it about 100,000 times, the humor will wear off. If your surname is "Combes," for instance, resist the temptation to name your girl "Honey."

2. Make sure the child's first name is the name you will call him or her by. The child will get mail, be on lists, etc., by last name, then first name and middle initial, so give him or her a break. If you want to call the boy "James," that's fine, make it his first name.

3. Refrain from creative spellings. I once had a student who had a name like "T'yphphaniee" that was, she informed me icily, pronounced "Tiffany." I would wager I was not the only teacher to misspell and mispronounce her name. Do not give a child a false French name with an apostrophe or an accent mark in it. I know it was not the student's fault; her parents should have been sent to detention.

4. Check out if the child's initials will be the source of future embarrassment. Ashley Sarah Smith is a nice name, but her initials will be "ASS," which will not be so cute on her luggage and sweaters.

5. A first name, a middle name and a surname are enough names for anyone. My uncle — this is true — was named for all four of his grandfathers and so was officially christened "Paul Joshua Thomas Elbert Rhodes." When he got old enough, he had it legally changed to just "Paul Joshua Rhodes." Most of the family called him "Bud," and boyhood friends called him "Dusty."

6. Do not go past "Junior" in naming boys. Naming a boy "John Franklin Smithers III" or the "William Nathan Osgood IV" will only confuse everyone down the road and it sounds pretentious.

7. I am sure you remember the Johnny Cash song, "A Boy Named Sue." Please make an effort not to give a child a first name that is usually associated with the other gender. This is particularly true for boys with a name that might be mistaken for a girl's name. It will not build character; it will build resentment. I had a male teacher in high school with the first name "June" and a male Boy Scout leader whose first name was "Shirley." I flinch at the grief these two fellows must have endured while growing up. What were their parents thinking?

8. If you have a long last name, say something like "Throckmorton," you don't need a long first name. Go for a short first name. Name the kid "Ray," not "Raymond," or if a girl, "Ann," instead of "Elizabeth-Anne." Your progeny will thank you when they have to fill out forms and they are given an inch in which to write their complete name but four inches in which to write their age. 

Remember: Children's names are not like clothing fashions to be discarded next season. They are attached to them for the rest of their lives. And just because your parents saddled you with an ill-fitting name, you don't have to do the same to your kids.

Some 60 years ago we did not have names like you see in the 2011 list. I know of no student in the Mooresville High class of 1966 who had any of the 16 above names. Most of the girls I knew were named Susan, Linda (or Lynda), Kathy (or Cathy). Diane or Dianne and Donna were also popular. There were eight girls named "Judy" or "Judith" in our class. I married one of them. 

Most of my boy classmates had names like James, Robert, Thomas or William and so we called them Jimmy, Bobby, Tommy and Billy or Bill. We had a number boys named Gary, George, Gerry and Freddie. Larry was a popular name as was Richard. Wayne was a common boys' first or middle name. 

The kid in our graduating class with the most unusual name was the late Nemat Allah Mawardi, but he was an exchange student from Syria, and so had a good excuse and no one gave him any grief over it. Besides, for all I know, "Nemat" may be the Syrian equivalent of "Jimmy."