I’m seeing this so many times… Like Aiden, Caiden, Braiden, Jaiden, Paiden…

  • Boozilla@lemmy.worldEnglish
    48·
    2 months ago

    There’s a well-studied phenomenon called “social diffusion”. People of higher socioeconomic status seek out novel, unique, or fashionable baby names and start using them. These names gradually get picked up by families of lower socioeconomic status. Eventually the names become mainstream, and then finally decline in popularity.

  • yesman@lemmy.world
    28·
    2 months ago

    Unique names and spellings became popular in the US during the 70s as part of the Black Power movement. The politically conscious black parents didn’t want to name their children European names, for some reason. The problem is that these black parents had no cultural link to Africa because that had been stolen from them.

    Fist came Arab names. I presume this has to do with the NOI and the black celebrities who converted to it. Some of these names are still popular like Omar and Jamal. Of course Black Americans have no more connection to Islam than they do to Christianity, So black parents just started making new names for their children.

    American popular culture tends to incubate in the black community and slowly drift into white culture. So it has gone with the unique baby names.

    • thermal_shock@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      very good answer. white people have tried to take everything from the black community, and now the names…

  • EABOD25@lemm.eeEnglish
    26·
    2 months ago

    Aiden is tradition Gaelic and it means “fire”. Caiden is also Gaelic meaning “battle” Braiden is Gaelic meaning “salmon” Jayden is Hebrew for “God will judge” Hayden is old English meaning “hedged valley”

    • JackGreenEarth@lemm.eeEnglish
      5·
      2 months ago

      I’d like to see your source for those. I don’t know Gaelic so I can’t fact check those ones, but I do know a bit of Hebrew, and names that mean ‘God X’ usually end in el, not en. Also, Hebrew doesn’t have an English J sound, it has the IPA J sound though, or English Y sound. The Hebrew word for judge is ‘shofet’.

      • lath@lemmy.world
        3·
        2 months ago

        Probably taken from this.

        The name is probably a modern invention, formed by blending the “Jay” sound from the 1970s-popular name Jason with the “den” sound from names like Braden, Hayden, Jordan and Zayden.[1] The biblical name Jadon (or Yadon), Hebrew for “he will judge”, appears in the Bible in Nehemiah 3:7,[2] but it is unlikely to be the source of the modern name.[1]

    • BJHanssen@lemmy.world
      3·
      2 months ago

      So I’m guessing it’s a combination of dun/den/tun etc being a common suffix in a lot of historical languages, and ‘ei’ being an extremely common diphthong worldwide just… leading to a lot of similar-sounding names that also converge in spelling in modern English?

    • BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee
      1·
      2 months ago

      When i read that i imagined that scene i. Fear and loathing in las vegas when they sniffed ether.

  • Plopp@lemmy.world
    6·
    2 months ago

    Paiden? That’s a weird one. Payme on the other hand, now that’s a good name.

  • Jackie's Fridge@lemmy.world
    6·
    2 months ago

    It’s been around for a while. Over a decade ago Target ran a cheeky back to school advert featuring a slow pan across school cubbies with lunch pails all labelled with variant spellings of “Braiden”. I thought it was hilarious.

  • meyotch@slrpnk.net
    6·
    2 months ago

    Meanwhile, in Utah, a pair of new parents are becoming really charmed by the idea of ‘Brexit’ as a name for their next child.

    This has all happened before and it will all happen again.

  • rhythmisaprancer@moist.catsweat.com
    4·
    2 months ago

    I understand the pushback against names like this, and concern for kids receiving these names, but I think it is misdirected. Ya, sure, maybe sometimes the name is literally made up, or in other cases has multiple variations on a theme, but anyone with immigration in their ancestry can tell you that naming conventions do not always move well to other countries. In the USA, we have multiple spellings for names like Muhammed and Dermitt because of this. I don’t see why this is a big deal and think it potentially enriches culture.

  • Surp@lemmy.world
    3·
    2 months ago

    As usual…who cares what someone names their kid even if it sounds dumb to you don’t worry about it go live your life not worrying about this shit.