I was named for my mother’s sister. She was named for my grandmother’s favorite actress at the time. I have met one or two Phyllises in my time, but not many. When I was growing up, kids had trouble either pronouncing or spelling it and I really hated my name. But now, I kind of enjoy being different.
I went on the state Department of Health Web site and checked out some of the names given to newborns and found that there was only one Phyllis born in Pennsylvania in 2006 (the most recent record I could find). As far as girl names, I’m right up there with Plum -- another unique name for that year.
The most popular was Ava, with 872 girls given that name.Checking out names for other coworkers, I searched for Natalie and found 357, to which Natalie replied, “I knew I wasn’t unique.” Actually, there are 11 Uniques -- which I guess makes them not so.
On the boys’ side, the most popular was Jacob with 1077. There were 407 Justins (another coworker) and 95 Scotts (my husband). Unfortunately for this poor child, there was one Chubby. Would I love to jump ahead to elementary or middle school and see what comments that name gets!
You know, there are some countries that legislate what names are permissible to give your children. For the sake of some children, that might not be a bad idea.