As Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet,
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”
For today’s Fun Find Friday, I want to share a unique and useful (especially to writers) website I found recently: The Baby Name Wizard.
You may be wondering about my Fun Find Friday choice – it sounds a little quirky, right? Well, it’s a really neat site that shows the popularity of a specific name for boys and girls over time, including the peak of its popularity, dating back to the 1800s. It also relates popular sibling names, name origin, AND a map of its popularity by state! On the home page, the current top ten most popular boys’ and girls’ names are listed.
I thought this would be a fun tool for writers and authors to utilize when researching character names – especially because it illustrates in which time period the name was most popular.
And, it’s just fun to learn about the origin of your own name. Or, if you’re considering baby names, this would be a great resource. So, check it out!
Here’s the graph for my name. I have to say, I was born around the peak time for it!
The Green Mockingbird 