Baby Emma, David or Elizabeth? For American parents Caitlin and Luke McNeal not.
Instead of naming their children after grandparents, biblical characters or the British monarchy, the couple chose places to keep meaningful travel memories for their children.
Caitlin said: “Kinsale was when we lived in Ireland, and we went on vacation to Kinsale and loved it. “Keeneland is from Kentucky, where we first went on vacation together to watch horse races.”
And finally Sabi – “from Sabi Sands in South Africa, where we went on our first solo vacation without Kinsale.”
McNeals is part of a growing trend of choosing baby names based on travel destinations.
The McNeal Family – Keeneland, Luke, Sabi, Caitlin and Kinsale.
Source: Caitlin McNeal
The popularity of “travel-inspired” names increased 14% between 2000 and 2020. According to a study by luggage storage app Bounce. The company compared a short list of destination names and travel-related words with data from the US Census Bureau and the UK’s Office for National Statistics, it said.
The results showed overlap in baby name choices in both countries. However, the trend to name children after countries and cities was more pronounced in the US than in the UK, even after accounting for differences in population sizes, the study found.
Most popular ‘travel related’ baby names
Preston, Israel, Phoenix and Orlando appear on both lists, but Preston – which means town of priests – is generally the most popular.
Baby website Bump calling the name “old fashioned and rather quirky… Although some might consider this a title reserved for the wealthy, Preston is the landmark of a northern English town once known for its its role in the industrial revolution.”
American parents with boys tended to prefer domestic city names, while British parents showed a preference for heading abroad, with names like Milan, Orlando and Rome topping their list. surname.
Sydney makes the “top 10” lists of baby girl names in both the US and UK, but is much more popular with American parents. It was the only name chosen more than 100,000 times over the 20-year period analyzed in the study.
However, Sydney’s popularity is dwindling in the United States. After peaking in 2002, the name has fallen from 23rd most popular name that year to 249th in 2021, according to the US Social Security Administration.
Historically, baby names have been inspired by literary figures, biblical figures, and the British monarchy. Currently, there is a growing trend to add tourist destinations to the list.
Source: Ria Hoban
London also made it into the top 10 of American baby names – for both boys and girls – but might be a little too close to home for British parents. It was picked up only 220 times in the UK between 2000 and 2020, compared with 44,556 times in the US, according to the study.
According to Cody Candee, CEO of Bounce, of all the names in the study, Atlas is the most famous. Only eight babies were named Atlas in 2000, he said, but nearly 2,175 in 2020 – an increase of more than 27,000%.
This may be because parents favor more unique and meaningful names, with Atlas being derived from Greek mythology and meaning ‘to endure’, he said.
“On the other hand, there are a few names that have dropped in popularity,” he added. “In fact, 11 games have completely disappeared, the largest of which is Montreal, from 23 to zero.”
Baby names that match country names
Ria and Connor Hoban with their children, (from left) Bruno, Joaquin, Bode and India.
Source: Ria Hoban
Ria Hoban said: “Indus is the female for the river. “I happened to get my elemental readings during a night out when I found out I was pregnant, and I learned that I was of the water element.”
“Also, Connor and I have honeymooned in India – Delhi, north and south Goa, and Rajasthan, and I’ve always been intrigued by the area. I’ve always loved the regal name and [I’m] a fan Design by India Hick“, she said, referring to the British designer and relative of the British royal family.
In both the US and UK, the trend of naming babies after country names is more common for girls. With the exception of Israel, Trinidad and Cuba, the names on both lists are reserved or more popular choices for girls.
Baby names that match city names
Though London, Kingston (name of singer Gwen Stefani and eldest son of Gavin Rossdale) and Paris dominate the list, one name is noticeably absent from this list: Brooklyn.
That’s because the study didn’t include the names of suburbs or counties, Candee said.
Brooklyn’s popularity skyrocketed after Victoria and David Beckham chose it for their first son in 1999, Candee said.
If the name were included, Brooklyn would be “the second most popular tourist-inspired name for girls in the United States, with 75,948 girls being named Brooklyn in the past 20 years,” he said. . However, boys’ names are less common, he said – it was chosen only 1,412 times for boys in the US during the same time period.
Candee also said that some names were excluded from the analysis because they were too commonly used for travel inspiration. These names include Jordan, Madison, Austin and Charlotte, he said.
It’s not clear to what extent the other names were inspired by travel or some other association parents may have named those names to.
One example is Hamilton. Although there are towns and cities named after Hamilton in Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US, the hit Broadway play “Hamilton” or Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton may have inspired some parents. Choose a name for your child.
Similarly, it’s unknown whether parents who named their children Paris were inspired by the French capital, the social networking site Hilton, or Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” – or something entirely different.
