If you've know me for long, you know that I sometimes have to explain my first name to people who have never met me before.
I know there is a tele-marketer on the other end of the line when they ask for Kim Pagel and I answer, "Speaking," and then there is a long pause while the caller tries to collect their thoughts.
I try to bank at the same branch so that I don't get ID'd. But occasionally there is a new teller. I walk up to the window, give him or her my deposit slip and checks, and then watch them begin to get nervous. They might then say something like, "Mr. Pagel, you will need to sign these checks also." Or sometimes I try to bail them out by telling them that Kimberley really is my name. And then one of the veteran tellers will holler out, "He's OK. We know him!"
I've long known that Kimberley is an unusual name for a guy. But little did I know how unusual! I recently stumbled upon the Popular Baby Names website that is hosted by the Social Security Administration.
If you go to the site you will learn that for babies born in 2007 Jacob was the most popular boys name and Emily was the most popular girls name. Jacob and Emily are nice names, I like them.
But what really caught my attention is that the site allows you to search popular names by previous birth years. Cool!
So I went to 1951 and looked at popular boys and girls names. Right at the top of the list you see the usual suspects - names like James, Robert, John, Michael and David. I knew a ton a guys with those names growing up.
So I eagerly went down the list. I came to names like Melvin, Cecil, Claude, Oscar, Elmer, Ira, Homer, Rufus, Dewey, Bert, Amos, Murray, Orville, Harley, Norbert, Dudley, Gus, Ollie, Laverne, Carol, Wilmer.
Good grief, where is Kimberley? Finally, I found my name listed proudly at #709! It was just ahead of Burl and Cleo! And for girls, Kimberly was listed at #366. Just ahead of names like Fannie and Violet!
All things considered, it could have been worse. My mom could have named me Edsel! And just in case you're interested, in 1951 Edsel was the 1000th most popular baby name, narrowly beating out Donal!
Whew! I guess Kimberly isn't so bad after all.
2 comments:
I love this post. I can so relate, and so can my sister Travis. We are somehow all in that boat together. I'm going to look up her name and see where it appears on the boys list...I'm certain it won't be on the girls!
If it makes you feel any better, my name isn't even on the top 1000 in the year that I was born, but now it is like 20 for 2007!!! That's why whenever I go anywhere, there are all of these moms scolding me. I mean, little girls with my name!
Good post!
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