Trying to name a pet can be tough. Trying to name a kid can be torture. Agonizing over whether or not to use a family, a name that sounds good with your last name, a name that won’t cause your kid to get the crap kicked out of them on the playground is all part of the joy of parenting. I discovered recently that the Social Security Administration maintains a searchable database of baby names ranked by popularity in a particular year and US state. Jacob and Emily won the popularity contest in 2006. It’s actually allot of fun to see where your own name stands in the rankings - apparently my name was the 5th most popular name the year I was born, and it’s popularity has decreased every year since.

According to the SSA website “All names are from Social Security card applications for births that occurred in the United States after 1879. Names are restricted to cases where the year of birth, sex, State of birth (50 States and District of Columbia) are on record, and where the given name is at least 2 characters long. Many people born before 1937 never applied for a Social Security card, so their names are not included in our data. For others who did apply, our records may not show the place of birth, and again their names are not included in our data.”

There are dozens and dozens of baby name indexes that you can access online such as BabyNames.com, BabyNamesWorld.com and ThinkBabyNames.com. But if you want a good laugh check out Baby’s Named a Bad, Bad Thing: A Primer on Parent Cruelty. It’s a catalog of naming questions and suggestions posted on several different baby naming bulletin boards going back as far as early 2001. All entries are left unedited except for length. Hysterical.

And if you are completely at a loss you could let the fates decide over at BabyNameGenie.com. Or consider the name generator over at BabyNamesEtc.com where they take into consideration your answers to such questions as “What’s your favorite pie?” Apparently my love of peach pie has resulted in twins named Marisela and Marcellus.

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