Where Have All the Kerrys Gone?
People occasionally come by here via the Google search is Kerry a boy's name? or some variant thereof. They're looking (though, of course, they can't know it) for this post, in which I make what I think is a pretty airtight case that Senator John Kerry single-handedly destroyed the popularity of "Kerry" as a boy's name.
The argument, in a nutshell, from the time of it's introduction in the 1930s through the 1960s, Kerry was an ever-increasingly popular boy's name and a substantially less popular girl's name. Starting in the 1970s, these trends reversed somewhat, and the use of Kerry as a boy's name went into freefall. (The use of Kerry as a girl's name briefly increased and then shot back down as well.) I link this trend to the 1971 appearance of John Kerry before the Senate, at which point the dour, dull future Senator became the country's most famous Kerry. I mean: would you want to associate your kid with this guy?
Anyway, read the whole thing. I think it holds up fairly well for one of my old pieces. Also, for more name-related fun, monkey around with the Baby Name Voyager.
The argument, in a nutshell, from the time of it's introduction in the 1930s through the 1960s, Kerry was an ever-increasingly popular boy's name and a substantially less popular girl's name. Starting in the 1970s, these trends reversed somewhat, and the use of Kerry as a boy's name went into freefall. (The use of Kerry as a girl's name briefly increased and then shot back down as well.) I link this trend to the 1971 appearance of John Kerry before the Senate, at which point the dour, dull future Senator became the country's most famous Kerry. I mean: would you want to associate your kid with this guy?
Anyway, read the whole thing. I think it holds up fairly well for one of my old pieces. Also, for more name-related fun, monkey around with the Baby Name Voyager.
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