Name fame

When Lynne and Matt chose Mark Stewart Hanley's name, they weren't thinking about how rare the name was, or how many other Marks there might be in his first-grade class. Obviously, they were honoring family members - trying to show Mark how important family should be in his life.
In fact, Lynne and Matt never gave much thought to how rare or common Mark's name is. Matt had a common name growing up - there was usually a Matt H. and a Matt A. in class - but it never bothered Matt much. And he figured Mark was pretty much a common name because, well, Lynne and Matt know a lot of Marks.
But, the new list of most popular baby names is out and Mark has fallen again. Who knew the name was so unique?
Mark is 154th most popular name in 2009, down from 140th. Right behind Omar.
This was totally shocking. Mark finished behind a few names that Matt would have considered unusual. Understandably, some of those names reflected ethnic or geographic differences. But others were just flat-out surprising.
Mark was also behind Trevor, Marcus, Emmanuel, Jonah (a whale of a name), Kayden, Cayden, Gage (huh?), Giovanni, Jaxon, Devin, Damian, Micah, Kaleb, Kaden, Jaden, Colton, Haden, Eli, Ayden, Josiah, Tristan, Ashton, Aidan, Chase (southern gentleman only), Hunter (no gatherer), Liam, Brayden, Mason (no. 34!), Gabriel, Elijiah, Logan, Gavin (boat captains only), Aiden, Ethan, Jayden.
All good names, just surprising. Matt imagines Lynne's freshman history class in 2026 when the boys are: Kayden, Aidan, Kaiden, Jaden, Cayden, Hayden, Ayden, Kaden, Aiden, Caden, Brayden, Jayden and Mark.

The rank of some other local names: Joshua - 6th; Matthew - 13th; Megan - 105th (in a free fall from 13th in 2000); Leslie - 160th; Laura - 235th; Adeline - 351st; Elaina - 462nd (Eliana 193rd, Elliana 515th); Marc - 560th, Markus - 642nd, Elyse - 651st; Stanley - 676th; Diane - 903rd (Diana - 165th);
Not in the top 1,000: Lynne (or Lynn), Barry, Sue (Susan - 763rd), Mookie