New Trend In Baby Names Is Just Weird

If Madison or Michael are just way too commonplace for your taste in baby names, look around your house, closet, or garage to get the latest ideas for naming Junior. News Interactive reports that some parents are naming their sweet little babes after shoes. Or cars. Or cheese.
Timberland. Reebok. Camry. Chanel. Gouda. Snicker if you will, but according to Social Security records, five babies were named Timberland in the year 2000. Give it a decade, and Timberland could be in the top 10 names. Forty-nine kids were named Canon in 2000. That same year, there were 11 Bentleys, five Jaguars, and a Xerox.
Many American parents are marching to their own baby name drummer, spurning traditional names. Here's a fun fact: At least 10,000 different first names are now in use in the United States, and two-thirds of them were basically unheard of before World War II. Edward Callary, a past president of the American Names Society, said parents are choosing these unusual names to be purposefully different. He said, "The more we feel defined by numbers, in our postal codes and bank statements, the more we need to shout out a unique name into the world." Well, maybe not totally unique. The Social Security records show that 24 children were named Unique in 2000.