One book that's really interesting if you're into this stuff is "Beyond Jennifer and Jason" and its second edition "Beyond Jennifer and Jason, Madison and Montana." They're baby name books, but unlike traditional baby name books, they don't list the meanings and origins of names. Instead, they track how different names are perceived, how trends in naming start, alternatives to names that are too popular, etc. They've tracked naming trends across the country, and they're pretty good at predicting what's going to be popular in years to come -- the first edition of the book, which was published in the 80s (I think), correctly predicted the growth of place names like Madison, Dakota, Chelsea, Savannah, etc., as well as a return to traditional names like Emma. One thing the authors did notice is that naming trends -- like most other trends in this country -- start on the coasts and gradually work their way inwards. They've been pretty successful at catching onto naming trends by studying birth registers in NYC and California, because the names those kids have will be the names kids in North Dakota have in ten years.
Anyway, my name basically followed the same trend as ZTAngel's and mu_agd's . . . I agree that it can "date" you really fast. Anyone who hears my name will pretty much be able to tell that I was born in the 80s -- any time I hear the names Heather, Nicole, Michelle, or Kimberly I automatically think "80s!"
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