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Speaker 1: Yes, I would like to ask you a question. Did

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Speaker 1: you guys like to answer questions for us? A while back,

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Speaker 1: I visited my alma mater. I'm talking about my first

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Speaker 1: alma mater, Wood Acres Elementary School in Bethesda, Maryland. Him

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Speaker 1: mister Raka, I went to this school. When I first

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Speaker 1: came to wood Acres in the third grade, I wasn't Mo.

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Speaker 1: I was Maurice Raka. Maurice, a name which felt hopelessly

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Speaker 1: out of style. I was the only Maurice in the

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Speaker 1: whole school. But maybe the name has a better rep Now, Okay,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask each of you question, and that's what

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Speaker 1: I've come back to find out. I started off slowly, though,

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Speaker 1: asking about other names which peaked long ago.

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Speaker 2: When I say the name Mildred, what do you think of.

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Speaker 3: London?

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Speaker 1: I think of an old British person.

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Speaker 2: All yeah, yeah, I agreed, me too. Okay, what about

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Speaker 2: what about the name Tha?

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Speaker 1: An old lady?

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Speaker 2: That's fat?

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Speaker 4: I agree?

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Speaker 3: I agree, I agree.

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Speaker 2: It is unmity here.

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Speaker 1: I must confess. I get what they're saying. In the

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Speaker 1: twenty first century, names like Mildred and Bertha conjure certain images.

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Speaker 2: Is it the er? Is it the thaw.

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Speaker 1: I think that, yeah, all of it just all together.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, what about the name.

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Speaker 3: Todd A tall person that plays golf kind of I'm

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Speaker 3: like middle aged, like in his forties, tall brown hair.

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Speaker 2: I think they're kind of weird.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a tar that's a tall.

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Speaker 1: That's finally I mustered the courage to ask them about

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Speaker 1: my name.

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Speaker 2: What do you think of the name Maurice?

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Speaker 3: I think of like an old French dude, like a

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Speaker 3: young person who travels a lot, maybe doesn't.

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Speaker 2: Have a home, see on the run from the law.

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Speaker 3: Why is he Maybe he just kind of like stays

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Speaker 3: in hotels and just goes everywhere.

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Speaker 2: Like some like singer.

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Speaker 5: Maybe that's like they're not really known.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, they're like a local kind of person, but they

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Speaker 3: still chase, they move a lot.

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Speaker 1: Not really known, a local kind of person out But

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Speaker 1: it turns out there is a traveling singer named Maurice

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Speaker 1: van Hokee travel and Maurice is also a portly frenchman

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Speaker 1: in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Help don't help me

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Speaker 1: for Ree's wait, I need to help. But the name

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Speaker 1: Maurice maybe permanently on the way out. We Maurice's reached

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Speaker 1: the height of our popularity in the nineteen twenties, when

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Speaker 1: there were an average of about sixteen hundred born annually.

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Speaker 1: Now just a few hundred come into the world each year.

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Speaker 1: What makes a name rise and fall in the ranks?

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Speaker 1: But makes a name pretty and popular to one generation

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Speaker 1: and unique or downright ugly to the next. From CBS

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Speaker 1: Sunday Morning and iHeart I'm Maurice Raka and this is mobituaries.

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Speaker 1: This moment the death of a name. I knew a

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Speaker 1: kid in elementary school named Jeff Heebner. He was friendly,

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Speaker 1: he was good at soccer, he was cool. He could

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Speaker 1: introduce himself with confidence. Because he was a Jeff. He

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Speaker 1: perfectly embodied his own name. I, on the other hand,

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Speaker 1: always felt awkward telling people my name. Maybe it was

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Speaker 1: because growing up I knew of only three other Maurice's.

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Speaker 1: There was children's book author Maurice Sendak, who wrote the

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Speaker 1: classic Where the Wild Things Are. Was the Maurice from

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Speaker 1: that Steve Miller band song The Joker.

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Speaker 2: Becoming Maice I speak of.

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Speaker 1: That was kind of cool, but that was canceled out

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Speaker 1: by French entertainer Maurice Chevalier. I m I see a

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Speaker 1: little girl of five or six or seven.

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Speaker 2: I can't resist the joy or.

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Speaker 1: Spell that song he sang in Gigi Thick Kevin fall

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Speaker 1: a little girl. I can't believe he hasn't been canceled

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Speaker 1: for that, But that was pretty much it. I was

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Speaker 1: born Maurice Albert Raca. My mother tells me my father

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Speaker 1: was the one who really wanted to name me Maurice.

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Speaker 1: She would have preferred Gabriel. My father is no longer living,

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Speaker 1: so I can't know for sure, but I think he

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Speaker 1: wanted something on the gentler side, since Raca can sound brusque.

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Speaker 2: But I didn't like it.

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Speaker 1: At one point I thought maybe I should go by

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Speaker 1: al I mean, which had been crazy. I mean, like,

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Speaker 1: when I think about it, I'm not crazy. It just

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Speaker 1: would have sounded odd al Raca. I talked to one

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Speaker 1: of my former teachers about it. That day I visited

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Speaker 1: wood Acres. Her name is Miss Venisi, and she was

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Speaker 1: one of my all time favorites. She was patient, kind,

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Speaker 1: and impossibly glamorous. More about that in a bit. Turns

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Speaker 1: out she could have made a pretty decent therapist too.

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Speaker 3: Now you said you didn't like your name, so were

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Speaker 3: you teased in school?

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Speaker 6: You know.

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Speaker 1: I don't know that I was ever teased for my name.

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Speaker 1: It just felt so different, it felt foreign. Everything changed

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Speaker 1: when I graduated from Wood Acres to Pile Middle School,

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Speaker 1: and oddly enough, it was thanks to the aptly named

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Speaker 1: Jeff Heebner.

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Speaker 3: I know him, I mean, I remember him. He was

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Speaker 3: very blonde, very blonde.

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Speaker 1: And when I went to Pile, it's kind of scary

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Speaker 1: all the elementary schools feeding into the big junior high

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Speaker 1: and the fizz ed teacher there of the first days

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Speaker 1: did roll call and said, you know, when I get

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Speaker 1: to your name, if you have a name you prefer

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Speaker 1: you as, I'll write it in the in the book.

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Speaker 2: And then she said Maurice Rock.

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Speaker 1: I said here, and then Jeff Heapner said, he's not Maurice,

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Speaker 1: He's Mo. And that's kind of how I got my.

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Speaker 3: I was going to ask you, so Jeff just came

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Speaker 3: out with it and you preferred it obviously.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, kind of I liked that.

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Speaker 1: It was easy, yeah, and it kind of popped. But

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Speaker 1: now I love when people call me Maurice. So you

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Speaker 1: have to call me for this episode.

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Speaker 2: I'm Maurice.

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Speaker 3: I wasn't sure and what to call you, whether I

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Speaker 3: should call you, Maurice Amo.

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Speaker 1: And if there's anyone who would understand this kind of

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Speaker 1: confusion over one's own name, it's Miss Vanisi, Mildred Vanisi.

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Speaker 1: Despite what those kids said earlier, Mildred Venisi is not British,

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Speaker 1: but the granddaughter of Italian immigrants.

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Speaker 3: And there was a custom I doubt if it's still

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Speaker 3: in existence, that the firstborn I was the firstborn is

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Speaker 3: named either for the father's mother or the father's father,

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Speaker 3: of course, dependent upon the sex. My grandmother's name was Camella,

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Speaker 3: and I'm sure that my parents, being first generation, wanted

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Speaker 3: an anglicized name. Kamella's were called Milly. Millie is Mildred.

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Speaker 1: Growing up, Miss Venisi didn't know any other Mildred's and

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Speaker 1: she didn't really like her name. Lucky for her, she

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Speaker 1: too got a nickname that eventually stuck.

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Speaker 3: Somewhere along the line. I started being called Milly. Not

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Speaker 3: by family, my mother and father. I was still Mildred,

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Speaker 3: but my generation, my friends started calling me that. My

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Speaker 3: sisters call me Milly, and so now I introduced myself

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Speaker 3: that way. It just happened, just happened. I think the

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Speaker 3: name Millie flows better. It's a little more musical than Mildred.

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Speaker 3: I just think Mildred is harsh.

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Speaker 1: She's not thoroughly modern Mildred.

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Speaker 3: No, right, that wouldn't sound good. That just would not

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Speaker 3: sound good.

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Speaker 1: I also never thought Mildred was an appropriate moniker for

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Speaker 1: Miss Venisi, with her luxuriant mane of dark curly hair,

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Speaker 1: her Jackie O sunglasses, her Jordash jeans or were they

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Speaker 1: Gloria Vanderbilt?

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Speaker 6: Look?

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Speaker 1: All I know is that no other teacher looked like

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Speaker 1: she just walked off the setup and Aaron spelling nighttime soap. Honestly,

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Speaker 1: Miss VANSI was so fabulous I could barely contain myself.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if you'll remember, so if you don't,

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Speaker 1: it's kind of like a confession.

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Speaker 5: I guess.

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Speaker 1: But I remember in fifth grade waiting outside the all

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Speaker 1: Purpose room for lunch. But when you walked by, I said, Hey,

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Speaker 1: what's shake and Millie? He wheeled around. Yeah, and I

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Speaker 1: think you said something like, did you ever call me

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Speaker 1: that again? I, Miss Venisi, I probably did.

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Speaker 3: Teach.

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Speaker 1: The name Mildred reached its peak in nineteen twenty, when

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Speaker 1: more than eighteen thousand babies were named Mildred. It was

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Speaker 1: the sixth most popular girls name that year popular enough

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Speaker 1: that there are a number of notable Mildreds throughout history.

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Speaker 1: Mildred J. Hill was the composer of Good Morning to All,

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Speaker 1: the melody of which became the Happy Birthday Song.

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Speaker 3: And then that movie Mildred Piers with Germany Crawft that

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Speaker 3: must have been in the forties.

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Speaker 6: Now I'm sure of one thing, at least, I want

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Speaker 6: my daughter back.

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Speaker 1: Mildred Gillers an American who broadcast Nazi propaganda from Germany

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Speaker 1: during World War Two, also known as Axis Sally. She

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Speaker 1: was indicted after the war in charge with trees and Okay,

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Speaker 1: so that's not a good Mildred.

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Speaker 3: That's not a good Mildred. But I think I've heard

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Speaker 3: of Axis Sally.

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Speaker 1: But after hitting its popularity peak in the early twentieth century,

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Speaker 1: Mildred slowly slid down the list of the thousand most

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Speaker 1: popular names. In twenty seventeen, only eighty three newborn girls

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Speaker 1: were named Mildred in the US. Recent users on one

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Speaker 1: baby naming website dismissed the name as sounding too much

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Speaker 1: like Mildew wrote another makes me think of dreading something.

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Speaker 3: I was the only Mildred in all my years at

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Speaker 3: school there was a period of time when a lot

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Speaker 3: of girls are named Karen, and there was another period

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Speaker 3: of time where a lot of girls name Janet. I

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Speaker 3: don't know, but I just think that names have cycles,

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Speaker 3: and maybe something triggers.

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Speaker 1: It, as she so often was when I was growing up.

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Speaker 1: Mildred Venisi is right.

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Speaker 2: Coming up.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to talk with linguist John mcwardo about what

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Speaker 1: makes names pretty, prickly or popular. But first in in

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Speaker 1: memoriam for another name that left us, Hortense. We hardly

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Speaker 1: knew you. Despite your French origins. Your name lacked the crisp,

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Speaker 1: bright bubbliness of champagne and the addictive qualities of your

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Speaker 1: country's cheeses. Disney must have had a thing for you,

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Speaker 1: because Hortense McDuck is Donald Duck's mother. Donald gets an

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Speaker 1: ostrich named Hortense, and his uncle Scrooge McDuck named his

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Speaker 1: horse Hortense Alas Disney was never going to create a

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Speaker 1: princess Hortense as a name, You're just not pretty. You

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Speaker 1: barely cracked the top four hundred names in the US

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Speaker 1: around the turn of the twentieth century, and you slid

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Speaker 1: off the top one thousand after nineteen forty one. Now,

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Speaker 1: ordensia does have a nice frame to it. It's the

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Speaker 1: Spanish version of hortense or densia also means hydrangia. To

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Speaker 1: be clear, I'm not suggesting anyone named their daughter hydrangea hortense.

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Speaker 1: You are strictly past tense, gone, and yes forgotten. To

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Speaker 1: understand better why names come and go, I talked with

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Speaker 1: an expert, Columbia University Associates Professor of Comparative literature and

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Speaker 1: linguist John mcward. How did you become a John?

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Speaker 5: I'm John Hamilton mcwarter the fifth, and John Hamilton mccuorter

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Speaker 5: the first was a slave, So I was named because

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Speaker 5: of that relentless succession and the idea that you don't

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Speaker 5: break it. And as a matter of fact, I know

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Speaker 5: if my father hadn't been John Hamilton mcquarter the fourth,

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Speaker 5: I would be named Bruce. That's what my mother would

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Speaker 5: have chosen. And I would have named my son John,

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Speaker 5: except he's a girl, and so the name had to

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Speaker 5: stop with my two girls. So she has my middle.

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Speaker 1: Name, Johanna. In Italian, you'd have Johnny and Johanna in

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Speaker 1: English Johnette, none of them. That just sounds like a

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Speaker 1: tiny little bathroom. We live in an efficiency. We only

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Speaker 1: have room for a John after John mcwarter was born

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Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty five, when John was the second most

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Speaker 1: popular name in the country, and the name John isn't

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Speaker 1: going away. It's still in the top thirty names for

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Speaker 1: boys in the US. But if you go back in

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Speaker 1: time to the early twentieth century, John was far and

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Speaker 1: away the number one boy's name. America was producing John's

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Speaker 1: in mass quantities. It was like the model t of names.

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Speaker 1: In fact, if you were born in that era, it

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Speaker 1: was really common for you to have a name that

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Speaker 1: was in the top ten. People just seemed to want

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Speaker 1: to fit in.

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Speaker 5: You go back to that time and there is a

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Speaker 5: sense of what a normal American person is that would

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Speaker 5: strike us today as almost bizarrely homogenous. And that's not

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Speaker 5: to say that there weren't some ripples going on around

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Speaker 5: the edges, but there was a certain sense that America was,

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Speaker 5: you know, turkey and apple pie, and that's what one was.

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Speaker 5: One was very, very very white.

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Speaker 1: Well that's so interesting because aren't there those are competing impulses, right.

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Speaker 1: I want my child to have a name that makes

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Speaker 1: him or her special. I also want my child to

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Speaker 1: have a name that makes him or her fit in.

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Speaker 2: And that right.

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Speaker 5: So and back then, no special. I mean, if you

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Speaker 5: think of somebody naming their child in eighteen sixty five,

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Speaker 5: most people did not want something that would make the

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Speaker 5: child feel special, or it would be something going on

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Speaker 5: with the middle name, something that was less known. You

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Speaker 5: might play with it.

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Speaker 1: Even when I was in school in the seventies and eighties,

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Speaker 1: I remember the popular names were really popular. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean in junior high I was drowning in Jennifer's.

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Speaker 5: Oh, they were everywhere. That's right.

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Speaker 1: What was going on?

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Speaker 5: Jennifers and Jenny's.

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Speaker 1: That's right, there's so many Jennifers. Oh, it was a

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Speaker 1: tsunami of them in school.

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Speaker 2: Seven Jennifers.

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Speaker 1: But the days of a few names dominating are over.

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Speaker 1: At its peak, a full five percent of all newborn

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Speaker 1: male babies were named John one in twenty Fast forward

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Speaker 1: to twenty twenty one, and the top names for females

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Speaker 1: and males, Olivia and Liam, made up only around one

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Speaker 1: percent of babies born that year. In other words, the

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Speaker 1: most popular names are less popular. Parents today shoot for originality.

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Speaker 5: There's a sense that if you're going to name a child.

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Speaker 5: You spontaneously reach out and you think, how can we

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Speaker 5: have a little bit of fun with this, so you

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Speaker 5: don't want to torture your child. I once knew this

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Speaker 5: poor little boy. His parents had named him Rotunda Thanksgiving Jones. Oh,

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Speaker 5: and it was because he was born when John F.

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Speaker 5: Kennedy was laid out in the rotunda, and they named

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Speaker 5: him Thanksgiving just because, and of course he was made

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Speaker 5: fun of.

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Speaker 1: It sounds like a song, and have forgotten Gershwin musical.

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Speaker 5: That's because there were songs like that Rotunda Thanksgiving. Gents,

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Speaker 5: you can and this guy really had that name. It's

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Speaker 5: a tragic thing, but you want your child to be

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Speaker 5: somewhat different, probably not too different, but I think most

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Speaker 5: people think not the average thing, unless it's named after

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Speaker 5: a grandparent or a father or something like that.

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Speaker 1: John mcwarter says that trend towards uniqueness and away from

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Speaker 1: uniformity tracks with broader changes in American society.

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Speaker 5: I think it's very much a spirit of individuality, and

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Speaker 5: of course many people would say that the spirit of

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Speaker 5: individuality is part of what being an American is. But

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Speaker 5: there's an extreme that happens, and I think it happens

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Speaker 5: after the nineteen sixties, with the sense of what was

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Speaker 5: called the Me generation in the seventies, and then the

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Speaker 5: greater respect for and awareness of the diversity of americannesses

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Speaker 5: that you get that really becomes default starting in the eighties.

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Speaker 5: That's when a certain browning of the culture happens. Think

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Speaker 5: about nineteen eighty four is when The Cosby Show becomes

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Speaker 5: a big hit. Vanessa Williams becomes the first black Miss

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Speaker 5: America and I new Miss America.

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Speaker 2: There's Mavnasillams.

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Speaker 5: Beverly Hills. Cop is almost the biggest selling movie in

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Speaker 5: the country. You know, this is the cleanest and nicest

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Speaker 5: police card ever been.

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Speaker 4: In in my life.

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Speaker 5: That's only eighty four and that's just black diversity. I

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Speaker 5: think we've become much more comfortable with America not just

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Speaker 5: being my three sons starting in the nineteen eighties.

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Speaker 1: As a part of that change, there's a shift in

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Speaker 1: naming traditions, especially among Black Americans. Nineteen eighty is a

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Speaker 1: particularly interesting year for naming kids. That year, sixty percent

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Speaker 1: of black girls are given a unique name, one that

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Speaker 1: no one else has. Mcwarterur points out that after the

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Speaker 1: civil rights movement of the nineteen sixties, afrocentrism gained traction

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Speaker 1: in the seventies and eighties.

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Speaker 5: So once you get past integration as the watch cry,

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Speaker 5: and there's a certain kind of in some ways healthy

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Speaker 5: separatism that's afoot, then it becomes natural to be comfortable

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Speaker 5: making up a name. And so what happens, frankly is

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Speaker 5: I've often thought that black girls in particular tend to

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Speaker 5: have more interesting names because it's considered okay to just

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Speaker 5: make it up. And what you get are all of

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Speaker 5: these beautiful African style names for people born in the

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Speaker 5: United States. And it's all rather pretty, but it really explodes,

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Speaker 5: especially with the sense of Africa and the African heritage

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Speaker 5: rising in the nineteen seventies. That's when you get little

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Speaker 5: girls named Mikiba.

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Speaker 1: Well, I'm going to impress you right now and tell you,

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Speaker 1: and I'm sorry if it sounds boastful. In college, I

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Speaker 1: was in a production of Little Shop of Horrors with

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Speaker 1: Katanji Brown now Katanji Brown Jackson. I was Seymour, thank

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Speaker 1: you very much. She was run at and she was fantastic.

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Speaker 1: She was fantastically you notice, yeah, and she yeah, she

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Speaker 1: was not Crystal. I'm suddenly forging thelast one's name. But anyways,

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Speaker 1: did improv comedy together? But her name, I know you've

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Speaker 1: written about her name improv. H Wow, she thinks really funny?

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Speaker 5: Is she funny? She is?

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Speaker 2: I'm telling you.

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Speaker 1: We will because we are going to make sure that

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Speaker 1: hearings are now you know, the simulcast on Comedy Central.

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Speaker 1: I because she's that funny.

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Speaker 5: I want to know that about her. Yeah, that's a

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Speaker 5: perfect example that her name is Katanji. If she were

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Speaker 5: a generation older, her name would probably be Carolyn. But

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Speaker 5: now it is Katanji Brown Jackson. And that's ordinary starting

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Speaker 5: especially with women of her generation. It's nice to see.

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Speaker 5: I mean, Katanji is a much more interesting name than Carolyn.

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Speaker 1: But one group of people, we expect original names from celebrities.

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Speaker 1: It's practically a rite of passage. The first time I

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Speaker 1: can remember this happening is in two thousand and four

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Speaker 1: when Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin named their daughter Apple.

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Speaker 1: At the time it was weird. Now totally normal. Kylie

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Speaker 1: Jenner has a daughter named Stormy, and it's not with

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Speaker 1: a y, it's with an eye at the end. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And Elon Musk has won that somebody can pronounce it's

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Speaker 1: a bunch of symbols. I think by the way I

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Speaker 1: looked it up, it's pronounced x ash a twelve.

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Speaker 5: All of that is because they are public figures, and

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Speaker 5: so for them, naming is a public act. And if

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Speaker 5: it's going to be a public act, then you want

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Speaker 5: to do something that's going to stand out rather than

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Speaker 5: something that's going to bore people. If somebody like Gwyneth

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Speaker 5: Paltrow sets off a tradition, next thing, you know, everybody's

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Speaker 5: doing it.

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Speaker 1: So it's sort of a celebrity contagion in a way.

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Speaker 5: I think I would put it just that way. What

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Speaker 5: Jay Z and Beyonce Blue Ivy. That's really beautiful, but

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Speaker 5: it's not African. It's not the usual tradition. That's something

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Speaker 5: they came up with all by themselves, as people who

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Speaker 5: knew that everybody was watching them having that child. So

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Speaker 5: that's where you get that tradition. And that seems to

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Speaker 5: actually cut across races with celebrities too. Yeah, it's it's

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Speaker 5: a show. It's a it's a kind of display, And

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Speaker 5: I don't mean that in a bad way.

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Speaker 1: Most parents aren't going to resort to their kids after

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Speaker 1: a combination of math aircraft and Elvin symbols representing artificial intelligence,

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Speaker 1: which is what Musk's baby's name represents. But throughout history,

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Speaker 1: parents have often taken naming cues from pop culture. Well,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to quiz you on it right now. Actually

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Speaker 1: it's really fun, so I'll start off really easy. Shirley

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Speaker 1: saw a dramatic spike between nineteen thirty two and nineteen

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Speaker 1: thirty five because of I wish mother.

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Speaker 5: Hair of Little Shirley Temple. And if you think about it,

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Speaker 5: nobody is named Shirley before then, and then all of

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Speaker 5: a sudden, everybody's grandmother is named Shirley by the late

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Speaker 5: twentieth century, and now the name is impossible. Meet little Shirley.

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Speaker 1: Never Michelle entered the top twenty in nineteen sixty five

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Speaker 1: because that was the same year.

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Speaker 5: It has to be because of that song.

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Speaker 4: My Bell.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, the Beatles song.

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Speaker 5: Nobody is named Michelle. Maybe in France ants you're just

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Speaker 5: kind of guessing, but not here, I mean you Michelle's.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we've got a lot of Michelle's running around, women

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Speaker 1: named Michelle.

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Speaker 5: Women, but not here, not before then.

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Speaker 1: Oh, I see what you're saying, Like, there's.

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Speaker 5: No first lady named Michelle. Right, and if you think

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Speaker 5: about it, Michelle there was no first lady name Michelle

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Speaker 5: good point right, only only after and she's named around that.

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Speaker 1: Time Michelle Polk.

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Speaker 5: No Michelle Quincatams, Michelle quin No suffragette named Michelle, you

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Speaker 5: know that's that's right, it's Michelle Katie's.

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Speaker 1: The name Layelah first appeared in the top one thousand

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Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy two.

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Speaker 5: No, why then.

403
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Speaker 1: Eric Clapton song Whoops, Yeah, I'm.

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Speaker 5: Not as good at modern pop.

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Speaker 2: Now, that's fine.

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Speaker 1: I love that you and I have the same definition

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Speaker 1: of modern pop. Nineteen seventy two.

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Speaker 5: Everything ends.

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Speaker 1: So this is a trick question. Rosanna shot up in

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighty two because of that Toto song, Right, yes,

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Speaker 1: I interviewed Patricia Arquette. That song was named after her sister,

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Speaker 1: also an actress, But Patricia pointed out to me that

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Speaker 1: her sister's name is really pronounced Rosanna.

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Speaker 3: I'm Rosanna Arquette, and.

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Speaker 1: I'm so they got the pronunciation of her name wrong.

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Speaker 6: Hi, Ronald Reagan, do solemnly swear, Hi, Ronald Reagan, do

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Speaker 6: solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of

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Speaker 6: President of the United States at Iowa Faith.

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Speaker 1: After Reagan became president in the eighties, the name Reagan,

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Speaker 1: not Ronald as much, but the name Reagan surged in popularity,

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Speaker 1: landing in the top one hundred by twenty twelve. Now

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Speaker 1: here's what I think is fascinating is that Republican parents

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Speaker 1: were more likely to pick the name Reagan for their

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Speaker 1: kid if they lived in a district that was purple,

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Speaker 1: that was sort of evenly split between Democrats and Republicans.

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Speaker 1: Then you make a statement exactly, then if they weren't

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Speaker 1: a deep red Republican enclave.

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Speaker 5: Right, then they don't need to stand out, They don't

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Speaker 5: need to stake their individuality exactly. And of course they

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Speaker 5: weren't thinking of this consciously. So much goes on subconsciously.

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Speaker 5: I doubt any of those families said, so many people

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Speaker 5: around here vote Democratic, that let's name her Reagan. It

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Speaker 5: was just part of the warp and wolf of their

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Speaker 5: psychology because of sensing themselves as a minority or as

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Speaker 5: not more than half of their district. Well, that's fascinating. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And if you're in a purple district and you name

437
00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:37,440
Speaker 1: your kid Reagan, do you plant the kid on the

438
00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:41,080
Speaker 1: front lawn during election time.

439
00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:44,000
Speaker 5: That's right, mommy, how long do I have to stand here?

440
00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:52,840
Speaker 1: Spend some time with the Social Security Administration's baby named database,

441
00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:55,520
Speaker 1: and you'll see a sort of pendulum swing over the

442
00:24:55,600 --> 00:25:00,919
Speaker 1: last century, especially among girls. Half of the most popular girls'

443
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:04,680
Speaker 1: names started with vowels in the eighteen eighties. Then we're

444
00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:09,880
Speaker 1: all consonants. By nineteen fifty, Anna and Emma became Patricia

445
00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:13,600
Speaker 1: and Deborah. Now vowels are back in a big way.

446
00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:15,920
Speaker 1: It makes you wonder why.

447
00:25:16,840 --> 00:25:20,760
Speaker 5: Certainly in terms of how we perceive beauty, at least

448
00:25:20,840 --> 00:25:24,440
Speaker 5: in English and in related languages, vowels are beautiful because

449
00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:28,640
Speaker 5: they involve no obstruction of the airflow. Stop sounds such

450
00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:33,200
Speaker 5: as those are the ugliest sounds because you have to stop.

451
00:25:33,280 --> 00:25:35,399
Speaker 5: Those are the ones that you're calling the jabbing sounds.

452
00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:39,359
Speaker 5: Then there's everything in between, so you get a buzz

453
00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:43,719
Speaker 5: at least you get a hiss, and then with yeah,

454
00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:48,080
Speaker 5: whoa those might as well be vowels. So having more

455
00:25:48,200 --> 00:25:51,119
Speaker 5: vowels now could have something to do with people looking

456
00:25:51,119 --> 00:25:54,800
Speaker 5: for a certain mollifluousness in names. Now why people would

457
00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:59,120
Speaker 5: have valued it more during the McKinley administration than during

458
00:25:59,119 --> 00:26:02,000
Speaker 5: the Coolidge administers. I have no idea. I get the

459
00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:03,840
Speaker 5: feeling that is random.

460
00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:09,879
Speaker 1: Statistical flutter mc water says that over time, fashions change gradually,

461
00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:14,440
Speaker 1: and something you once found repellent you now find irresistible.

462
00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:17,439
Speaker 5: You know how, today, if you have a dinner party,

463
00:26:17,480 --> 00:26:20,280
Speaker 5: every second time you have brussel sprouts, probably with bacon

464
00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:23,280
Speaker 5: or something like that, imagine how unthinkable that was. Say,

465
00:26:23,320 --> 00:26:25,800
Speaker 5: even as recently as twenty five years ago, you didn't

466
00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:27,240
Speaker 5: give people you liked brussel sprouts.

467
00:26:27,280 --> 00:26:31,720
Speaker 1: You did not russels sprouts or were synonymous with something

468
00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:33,520
Speaker 1: that was visible torture.

469
00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:37,199
Speaker 5: Torture, Yeah, I mean little cabbages. They sucked, and so

470
00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:39,080
Speaker 5: you wouldn't give them to anybody. And you don't even

471
00:26:39,119 --> 00:26:40,800
Speaker 5: have to dress them up that much now we're used

472
00:26:40,800 --> 00:26:42,720
Speaker 5: to them. That's partly fashion. I don't think that the

473
00:26:42,720 --> 00:26:46,600
Speaker 5: Brussels sprout's lobby created this. Sometime early in the George W.

474
00:26:46,680 --> 00:26:47,520
Speaker 5: Bush administration.

475
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:52,840
Speaker 1: One recent trend boys' names ending in a certain consonant.

476
00:26:53,720 --> 00:26:57,439
Speaker 1: What is this with all these boys today? Baby boys

477
00:26:57,880 --> 00:27:01,040
Speaker 1: having an N at the end of their We've got

478
00:27:01,080 --> 00:27:04,800
Speaker 1: all these logans, Masons, Ethan's, Jackson's.

479
00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:08,800
Speaker 5: We subconsciously associate that un with a kind of a

480
00:27:08,840 --> 00:27:12,240
Speaker 5: gracious masculinity. It's what you want to name your little boy.

481
00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:14,800
Speaker 1: As opposed to Jack, which is always too severe.

482
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:18,000
Speaker 5: Jack might be a bully. Yeah, not only old fashioned,

483
00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:22,520
Speaker 5: but Jack Jack's people up. You know, Ethan has conversations.

484
00:27:22,920 --> 00:27:28,600
Speaker 1: You imagine Ethan is open to change, like he's right, right.

485
00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:32,800
Speaker 5: He reasons right. Ethan reasons as opposed to Jack, who

486
00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:35,399
Speaker 5: just sits yeah.

487
00:27:35,640 --> 00:27:38,440
Speaker 1: But even names that hit that right mix of vowels

488
00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:42,720
Speaker 1: and and just right, ones that are pined after in

489
00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:46,080
Speaker 1: song or become famous in the names of movie characters

490
00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:49,040
Speaker 1: or the actors who play them. Well, just like we

491
00:27:49,200 --> 00:27:52,680
Speaker 1: as a society can birth the name, we can also

492
00:27:52,760 --> 00:27:59,560
Speaker 1: let it die. But first another in memoriam for sid

493
00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:03,760
Speaker 1: stan irv Cy, Shelley, and Morty. No, they weren't the

494
00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:06,960
Speaker 1: original white staff at the Carnegie Deli. In the late

495
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:12,720
Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds, Sidney, Stanley, Irving, Seymour, Sheldon, and Morton were

496
00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:16,720
Speaker 1: all popular baby boy names with WASP that is, White

497
00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:21,440
Speaker 1: Anglo Saxon Protestant parents. Then in the late nineteen twenties,

498
00:28:21,680 --> 00:28:26,040
Speaker 1: many American Jewish parents began choosing these names for their

499
00:28:26,119 --> 00:28:30,560
Speaker 1: baby boys to help them fit in. But America's wasps

500
00:28:30,680 --> 00:28:37,919
Speaker 1: apparently felt stung and took flight from these names. Soon enough, Sidney, Stanley, Irving, Seymour, Sheldon,

501
00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:42,200
Speaker 1: and Morton were seen as stereotypically Jewish, and their assimilation

502
00:28:42,400 --> 00:28:48,920
Speaker 1: value greatly diminished. As documented by sociologist Stanley Lieberson, American

503
00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:54,040
Speaker 1: Jews eventually abandoned the names as well. Incidentally, another name

504
00:28:54,080 --> 00:28:57,840
Speaker 1: in that category was Morris, a sort of cousin to Maurice,

505
00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:01,200
Speaker 1: but at least Morris was the name of a terrifically

506
00:29:01,280 --> 00:29:05,840
Speaker 1: droll tabby who used to sell cat food on TV commercials.

507
00:29:05,760 --> 00:29:15,480
Speaker 6: Nine Live Seafood Pladder anchors away.

508
00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:20,720
Speaker 1: Pop culture and big news events can correlate with names surging,

509
00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:26,480
Speaker 1: even when those events are disasters. After Hurricane Katrina, names

510
00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:30,640
Speaker 1: that began with the letter K actually jumped by nine percent,

511
00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:34,200
Speaker 1: according to an analysis by professors at Wharton Business School.

512
00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:37,880
Speaker 1: The sheer repetition of the name Katrina, it seems, had

513
00:29:37,880 --> 00:29:41,920
Speaker 1: a subliminal effect that K sound got stuck in people's heads.

514
00:29:42,280 --> 00:29:45,720
Speaker 1: But the name Katrina itself, well, Katrina had been a

515
00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:48,720
Speaker 1: pretty popular name and even broke the top one hundred

516
00:29:48,720 --> 00:29:52,000
Speaker 1: for a while in the late seventies and eighties. After

517
00:29:52,040 --> 00:29:54,920
Speaker 1: the storm, though the name quickly fell out of fashion

518
00:29:55,360 --> 00:29:58,240
Speaker 1: and in twenty thirteen dropped out of the top one

519
00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:03,680
Speaker 1: thousand entirely. Indeed, history can be a name killer as well.

520
00:30:04,320 --> 00:30:07,480
Speaker 1: The name Isis saw a burst of popularity in the

521
00:30:07,520 --> 00:30:11,600
Speaker 1: early nineteen seventies thanks to a Saturday Morning superhero of

522
00:30:11,640 --> 00:30:13,040
Speaker 1: the same name, and.

523
00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:17,080
Speaker 6: Found she was heir to the sacrets of Isis.

524
00:30:17,560 --> 00:30:20,720
Speaker 1: And so it has since fallen out of favor with

525
00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:24,560
Speaker 1: the rise of the Islamic State, which I find reassuring.

526
00:30:27,560 --> 00:30:32,360
Speaker 1: But Bertha toppled from a much greater height. In nineteen eighteen,

527
00:30:32,800 --> 00:30:36,920
Speaker 1: mothers birthed more than five thousand Berthas. Try saying that

528
00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:41,720
Speaker 1: five times fast. So what happened to Bertha? Well, Bertha

529
00:30:41,840 --> 00:30:44,640
Speaker 1: was the name of a German heiress to krupp Ag,

530
00:30:45,320 --> 00:30:49,520
Speaker 1: a German weapons manufacturer, and during World War One the

531
00:30:49,560 --> 00:30:54,120
Speaker 1: company began making heavy guns. Those guns were dubbed big

532
00:30:54,160 --> 00:31:00,960
Speaker 1: Berthas by the Germans. The Allies then this nickname that

533
00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:03,360
Speaker 1: was being called the Big Bertha, and they began using

534
00:31:03,400 --> 00:31:06,080
Speaker 1: it for all heavy artillery, so it suddenly became synonymous

535
00:31:06,320 --> 00:31:09,200
Speaker 1: with big heavy portly right.

536
00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:12,160
Speaker 5: Right, yeah, So the next thing you know, Bertha is overweight.

537
00:31:12,600 --> 00:31:14,520
Speaker 5: Is it's associated with being large?

538
00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:19,680
Speaker 1: That's linguished John mcwater again. But is there also something

539
00:31:19,720 --> 00:31:23,080
Speaker 1: about just the sound of it birth thought? I mean it,

540
00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:25,800
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of girth birth.

541
00:31:26,280 --> 00:31:28,600
Speaker 5: The error is not pretty because it's not as open

542
00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:32,000
Speaker 5: as other vowel sounds. The thuh is a little unpleasant,

543
00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:35,720
Speaker 5: and it begins with a stop consonant. But er, I

544
00:31:35,720 --> 00:31:38,720
Speaker 5: mean it's it's nasty in that way. But then, especially

545
00:31:38,800 --> 00:31:42,080
Speaker 5: just because it was associated with something that was portly.

546
00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:45,560
Speaker 1: I work with a woman who was telling me about

547
00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:48,280
Speaker 1: a person in her neighborhood that she doesn't like, and

548
00:31:48,320 --> 00:31:51,840
Speaker 1: she said, oh, I cut her a wide berth.

549
00:31:51,760 --> 00:31:54,600
Speaker 5: And it's a wide berth. Right. I never thought about that, right, Yeah.

550
00:31:54,640 --> 00:31:57,560
Speaker 5: And you wonder why that expression catches on? Yeah?

551
00:31:57,600 --> 00:31:59,400
Speaker 1: Boy, I wonder what it would take for Bertha to

552
00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:08,840
Speaker 1: come back, Hi, Bertha, I don't see it. After World

553
00:32:08,920 --> 00:32:12,640
Speaker 1: War One, Bertha faded into obscurity and was off the

554
00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:16,640
Speaker 1: top one thousand list by the mid nineteen eighties. But

555
00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:20,080
Speaker 1: a name doesn't have to become synonymous with military weaponry

556
00:32:20,360 --> 00:32:23,600
Speaker 1: or get added to a terrorist watch list to fade.

557
00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:26,800
Speaker 5: Sometimes names just wear out. They fall out of the

558
00:32:26,920 --> 00:32:29,840
Speaker 5: rotation in the same way you'll find a shirt that

559
00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:31,840
Speaker 5: you really like and it still fits, and it's in

560
00:32:31,880 --> 00:32:33,720
Speaker 5: your closet and you haven't worn it for five years

561
00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:36,760
Speaker 5: for no real reason. A name with ugly sounds can

562
00:32:36,840 --> 00:32:41,800
Speaker 5: last almost a counterintuitively long time. For example, Richard, what

563
00:32:41,920 --> 00:32:44,320
Speaker 5: an ugly name that is? And think about how much

564
00:32:44,480 --> 00:32:48,480
Speaker 5: uglier the nickname is, and how there were, until about

565
00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:53,600
Speaker 5: ten minutes ago, normal male people running around in Anglophone

566
00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:56,720
Speaker 5: America named Dick and nobody bad at a nine. It

567
00:32:56,760 --> 00:32:59,560
Speaker 5: wasn't only Dick sargent at dick yorke. I knew a

568
00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:01,400
Speaker 5: Dick back in the eighties.

569
00:33:01,080 --> 00:33:03,040
Speaker 1: Has anything to do with the wedshed.

570
00:33:04,400 --> 00:33:07,160
Speaker 5: Dick Lincoln, and he was taken seriously as an executive.

571
00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:10,200
Speaker 5: Only with the past generation or two has that stop.

572
00:33:10,560 --> 00:33:13,720
Speaker 5: And not only is dick ridiculous and dick was used

573
00:33:14,040 --> 00:33:16,200
Speaker 5: to mean what it meant long before it went out,

574
00:33:16,360 --> 00:33:18,440
Speaker 5: but dick is an ugly word by these standards.

575
00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:22,960
Speaker 1: Composer Cole Porter would beg to differ many time.

576
00:33:26,480 --> 00:33:26,720
Speaker 6: Time.

577
00:33:34,440 --> 00:33:37,640
Speaker 1: One of the other names I've been pondering is Todd.

578
00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:41,520
Speaker 1: Todd showed up in the thirties and just grew and grew.

579
00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:45,040
Speaker 1: We hit peak Todd in nineteen sixty four. More than

580
00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:48,400
Speaker 1: fifteen thousand were born that year. I used to know

581
00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:52,000
Speaker 1: tons of Todd's, but now I haven't met a baby

582
00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:55,400
Speaker 1: Todd in decades. What do you think the appeal was

583
00:33:55,480 --> 00:33:56,440
Speaker 1: in the first place.

584
00:33:56,960 --> 00:34:00,480
Speaker 5: I think it's partly because ah is the most basic

585
00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:03,680
Speaker 5: sound and humanity. It's the first sound that babies make.

586
00:34:04,080 --> 00:34:06,960
Speaker 5: And then with Todd, what you have is a kind

587
00:34:06,960 --> 00:34:10,680
Speaker 5: of a nice assonance, as it were, because tou and

588
00:34:10,760 --> 00:34:14,200
Speaker 5: duh are the same sound but different. Duah is too,

589
00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:15,800
Speaker 5: with a little bit of belly in it, so you

590
00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:18,440
Speaker 5: don't have to make a change. There was something pleasant

591
00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:24,560
Speaker 5: about Todd. Todd was like a little white potato that's

592
00:34:24,600 --> 00:34:27,719
Speaker 5: one of those little balls and it's boiled just right.

593
00:34:28,040 --> 00:34:33,879
Speaker 1: That's like Todd, like a tater Todd. Yes, I guess

594
00:34:33,880 --> 00:34:36,600
Speaker 1: he would have to be deep fried as well as

595
00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:42,279
Speaker 1: Todd off and a lovely woman named Millie with a

596
00:34:42,280 --> 00:34:47,000
Speaker 1: hairnet giving it to you. Personally. I like Todd, and

597
00:34:47,040 --> 00:34:49,640
Speaker 1: I brought in one of my favorite Todds to defend

598
00:34:49,719 --> 00:34:54,400
Speaker 1: his name, Todd Bridges. Todd Bridges was born in nineteen

599
00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:58,359
Speaker 1: sixty five, just one year after peak Todd, and when

600
00:34:58,360 --> 00:35:00,920
Speaker 1: he was a teenager, he got a starring role in

601
00:35:00,960 --> 00:35:05,280
Speaker 1: the hit TV show Different Strokes as Willis Jackson, opposite

602
00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:06,800
Speaker 1: Gary Coleman as Arnold.

603
00:35:07,320 --> 00:35:08,120
Speaker 4: Yeah, Phyllis is in.

604
00:35:08,160 --> 00:35:09,440
Speaker 5: Man, Why don't you ask her? How Arnold?

605
00:35:09,800 --> 00:35:11,240
Speaker 4: Are you kidding? So starter?

606
00:35:11,400 --> 00:35:12,480
Speaker 1: She doesn't even known me.

607
00:35:13,200 --> 00:35:16,799
Speaker 4: My mom said that she dreamed my name because there's

608
00:35:16,800 --> 00:35:18,600
Speaker 4: not very many black Todd's. I don't know if you

609
00:35:18,600 --> 00:35:21,279
Speaker 4: know that or not, but there isn't. I think I

610
00:35:21,360 --> 00:35:24,960
Speaker 4: know Todd Gurley, the football player, and that's about it.

611
00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:26,760
Speaker 4: I don't think I know anybody else named Todd.

612
00:35:27,320 --> 00:35:27,799
Speaker 5: That's right.

613
00:35:28,040 --> 00:35:31,120
Speaker 1: Even though Todd was near its peak when Bridges was born,

614
00:35:31,520 --> 00:35:34,200
Speaker 1: it was indeed as white as those potatoes.

615
00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:37,319
Speaker 4: And I'll tell you what happened, which is really funny.

616
00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:39,600
Speaker 4: One time I got a check somewhere that I was

617
00:35:39,640 --> 00:35:41,640
Speaker 4: living at and it said Todd Bridges and I'm looking,

618
00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:43,960
Speaker 4: I don't know of his company, and it's for a

619
00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:46,000
Speaker 4: couple thousand dollars. I'm like, I know, I say, this

620
00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:49,399
Speaker 4: is not me. So what happened was the postman thought

621
00:35:49,440 --> 00:35:51,880
Speaker 4: it was me, and it was an address down the street,

622
00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:53,800
Speaker 4: and I went down the street and bringing the bell

623
00:35:54,080 --> 00:35:55,760
Speaker 4: and I go, hey, man, is there a Todd Bridges.

624
00:35:55,800 --> 00:35:57,799
Speaker 4: He goes, yeah, it's me, and he goes, oh, hey Todd.

625
00:35:57,840 --> 00:35:59,440
Speaker 4: I go, hey Todd, and I gave him it was his.

626
00:36:00,480 --> 00:36:03,080
Speaker 1: There's another Todd Bridges right down the street.

627
00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:04,759
Speaker 4: It was right down the street fromhere I used to

628
00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:06,719
Speaker 4: live at. Yeah, another guy was a white guy.

629
00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:09,399
Speaker 1: That's kind of crazy. People get their names made fun

630
00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:11,759
Speaker 1: of for all sorts of reasons. Is there anything you

631
00:36:11,800 --> 00:36:13,719
Speaker 1: can do with Todd? Were you ever teased?

632
00:36:14,880 --> 00:36:17,960
Speaker 4: Well, a lot of people thought that Todd was short

633
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:19,919
Speaker 4: for Theodore, but I'm like, no, that's Ted.

634
00:36:20,360 --> 00:36:21,320
Speaker 5: That show for Theodore.

635
00:36:21,640 --> 00:36:22,560
Speaker 4: Todd is just Todd.

636
00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:27,560
Speaker 1: Then in the nineteen seventies, Todd fell off the baby naming.

637
00:36:27,360 --> 00:36:30,799
Speaker 4: Cliff oh Man. Todd fell off the Matt dang.

638
00:36:31,120 --> 00:36:34,240
Speaker 1: In twenty fifteen, there were only two hundred and twelve

639
00:36:34,280 --> 00:36:38,480
Speaker 1: baby boys named Todd. And did you ever consider naming

640
00:36:38,560 --> 00:36:39,840
Speaker 1: any of your children Todd?

641
00:36:41,640 --> 00:36:46,960
Speaker 4: No? No. I named my son Spencer, but I spelled

642
00:36:46,960 --> 00:36:51,680
Speaker 4: it differently, Okay, I mean we spelled his SPN C

643
00:36:52,080 --> 00:36:55,160
Speaker 4: I R. And it's been serious.

644
00:36:55,239 --> 00:36:56,239
Speaker 1: Now, why did you do that?

645
00:36:57,520 --> 00:36:59,560
Speaker 4: We just thought it'd make it just original because Spencer

646
00:36:59,600 --> 00:37:02,040
Speaker 4: is out there and it's you know, SBN cer. We

647
00:37:02,120 --> 00:37:03,840
Speaker 4: just wanted to make it original, and it's original.

648
00:37:03,920 --> 00:37:08,160
Speaker 1: Spencer, it totally is. George Carlin had a whole bit

649
00:37:08,440 --> 00:37:10,920
Speaker 1: a routine in two thousand and one where he actually

650
00:37:10,960 --> 00:37:12,080
Speaker 1: made fun of the name Todd.

651
00:37:12,080 --> 00:37:14,080
Speaker 2: He made fun of a number of he really did.

652
00:37:14,160 --> 00:37:14,880
Speaker 4: I didn't see that.

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00:37:14,920 --> 00:37:16,000
Speaker 5: What did he say?

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00:37:16,239 --> 00:37:17,279
Speaker 4: And I'm getting.

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00:37:16,960 --> 00:37:19,320
Speaker 1: Really sick a guy's name Todd?

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00:37:20,640 --> 00:37:22,760
Speaker 4: You know, Yeah, it's just a goofy.

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00:37:22,440 --> 00:37:23,759
Speaker 5: It's a goofy fucking name.

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00:37:23,800 --> 00:37:28,560
Speaker 4: Okay, Hi, what's your name? Todd? Is he still around?

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00:37:28,719 --> 00:37:31,239
Speaker 1: He is not still around, but great stand.

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00:37:31,080 --> 00:37:33,719
Speaker 4: He is lucky because I'd have to go choke him

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00:37:33,719 --> 00:37:37,919
Speaker 4: out messing with my name. It's not a goofy name.

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00:37:38,320 --> 00:37:45,360
Speaker 4: It's a cool name. It's Todd.

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00:37:51,920 --> 00:37:55,800
Speaker 1: We end this episode with a nod to Western civilization's

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00:37:55,920 --> 00:38:00,840
Speaker 1: earliest baby naming book, the Bible. From Adam and Eve

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00:38:01,080 --> 00:38:04,640
Speaker 1: to Ahab and Jezebel, there are well over a thousand

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00:38:04,680 --> 00:38:08,920
Speaker 1: different names mentioned between the Hebrew Bible and Christian New Testament.

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00:38:09,560 --> 00:38:13,239
Speaker 1: People have been blessing and sometimes saddling their kids with

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00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:17,480
Speaker 1: the names of patriarchs and prophets patriarchs in magi for

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00:38:17,600 --> 00:38:21,680
Speaker 1: over one thousand years. The most recently popular baby names

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00:38:21,680 --> 00:38:26,280
Speaker 1: in the us have included Jonah, Elijah, Naomi, and Noah.

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00:38:26,560 --> 00:38:29,359
Speaker 1: I was surprised to see that even the name Lazarus

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00:38:29,440 --> 00:38:33,040
Speaker 1: has risen from the dead. Of course, not every biblical

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00:38:33,120 --> 00:38:37,440
Speaker 1: name is heaven sent. Judas, if we ignore your history

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00:38:37,440 --> 00:38:41,560
Speaker 1: for a second, you're not terrible. Your spelling makes sense,

675
00:38:41,640 --> 00:38:45,479
Speaker 1: and you have no off putting hard consonants. Then again,

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00:38:45,640 --> 00:38:48,040
Speaker 1: your behavior toward Jesus was more.

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00:38:47,840 --> 00:38:48,720
Speaker 2: Than off putting.

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00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:54,120
Speaker 1: Your name has been permanently shunned. Earlier biblical outcasts haven't

679
00:38:54,160 --> 00:38:57,680
Speaker 1: fared much better. Sure, there were three hundred Canes born

680
00:38:57,760 --> 00:39:00,759
Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen, but nearly ten ten times as many

681
00:39:00,760 --> 00:39:03,839
Speaker 1: Abeles were born that year. It doesn't pay to kill

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00:39:03,880 --> 00:39:07,360
Speaker 1: your brother. Jesus, of course, is a popular name, especially

683
00:39:07,360 --> 00:39:11,440
Speaker 1: as Heesus. But Judas, I don't see you ever cracking

684
00:39:11,600 --> 00:39:12,760
Speaker 1: the top one thousand.

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00:39:13,520 --> 00:39:16,160
Speaker 5: Come here, little Judas, Yeah, there are more than time

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00:39:16,280 --> 00:39:16,959
Speaker 5: for your dip.

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00:39:17,840 --> 00:39:18,279
Speaker 2: They're not.

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00:39:23,200 --> 00:39:25,000
Speaker 5: Friendless, dateless little boy.

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00:39:26,200 --> 00:39:29,800
Speaker 1: Esther and Ruth your solid names, if not always easy

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00:39:29,840 --> 00:39:33,319
Speaker 1: to say. Hey, Esther, meet me at Ruth's Christ's Steakhouse.

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00:39:34,520 --> 00:39:36,720
Speaker 1: You're the only two women with books of the Bible

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00:39:36,800 --> 00:39:39,960
Speaker 1: named after you. But after the nineteen thirties, your name's

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00:39:40,080 --> 00:39:44,560
Speaker 1: made a quick exodus, Yet history shows us that most

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00:39:44,680 --> 00:39:51,719
Speaker 1: names are cyclical. What's old, sometimes very old is new again. Indeed, Genesis,

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00:39:52,080 --> 00:39:54,680
Speaker 1: the very first book of the Bible, has seen a

696
00:39:54,800 --> 00:40:02,160
Speaker 1: surge in popularity as a first name since the nineteen nineties. PS.

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00:40:02,280 --> 00:40:04,479
Speaker 1: If you ever see me out on the street, feel

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00:40:04,520 --> 00:40:07,640
Speaker 1: free to call me Maurice. I kind of miss it.

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00:40:12,920 --> 00:40:16,719
Speaker 1: I certainly hope you enjoyed this Mobituary. May I ask

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00:40:16,760 --> 00:40:19,600
Speaker 1: you to please rate and review our podcast. You can

701
00:40:19,640 --> 00:40:23,080
Speaker 1: also follow Mobituaries on Facebook and Instagram, and you can

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00:40:23,120 --> 00:40:28,000
Speaker 1: follow me on Twitter at Morocca. Hear all new episodes

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00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:32,120
Speaker 1: of Mobituaries every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts, and

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00:40:32,280 --> 00:40:36,000
Speaker 1: check out Mobituaries. Great Lives Worth Reliving, the New York

705
00:40:36,080 --> 00:40:40,200
Speaker 1: Times best selling book, now available in paperback and audiobook.

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00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:44,719
Speaker 1: It includes plenty of stories not in the podcast. This

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00:40:44,840 --> 00:40:49,280
Speaker 1: episode of Mobituaries was produced by Jake Harper and Aaron Schrank.

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00:40:49,640 --> 00:40:53,680
Speaker 1: Our team of producers also includes Wilcoe Martinez Caccero, and

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00:40:53,800 --> 00:40:57,360
Speaker 1: me Mo Roca. It was edited by Mara Walls and

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00:40:57,520 --> 00:41:01,600
Speaker 1: engineered by Sam Bear, with fact checking by Naomi Barr.

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00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:06,440
Speaker 1: Our production company is Neon Humm Media. Our archival producer

712
00:41:06,600 --> 00:41:10,560
Speaker 1: is Jamie Benson. Our theme music is written by Daniel Hart.

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00:41:13,960 --> 00:41:18,920
Speaker 1: Indispensable support from Craig Schwegler, Dustin Gervais, Alan Pang, Reggie

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00:41:18,920 --> 00:41:24,080
Speaker 1: Bazil and everyone at CBS News Radio. Special thanks to

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00:41:24,160 --> 00:41:28,520
Speaker 1: Megan Marcus, Alberto Robina and the staff of wood Acres Elementary.

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00:41:30,719 --> 00:41:35,719
Speaker 1: The inimitable Aaron Schrank is our senior producer. Executive producers

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00:41:35,719 --> 00:41:40,120
Speaker 1: for Mobituaries include Steve Razis and Morocca. The series is

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00:41:40,160 --> 00:41:46,520
Speaker 1: created by Yours truly and as always undying gratitude to

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00:41:46,680 --> 00:41:51,040
Speaker 1: Rand Morrison and John Carp for helping breathe life into

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00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:52,320
Speaker 1: Mobituaries