I just don't see how a name that was in the top 10 for 91 years (out of 131 years of data) can sound fresh. At all. There are more women named
Mary in the US than with any other name. How is that fresh?
Anna was in the top 10 for only 40 years and it was from 1880-1920, so a long time ago. Also you need to look at how often a name is actually used. From 1880-1889
Mary (#1) was used 91,673 times and
Anna (#2) only 38,159 times, a HUGE difference.
I think
Anna is boring, too.
Katherine and
Elizabeth as well. But
Anna has never been as common as
Mary, it never even came close. It had a break, actually. It was hardly out of the top 100 but for almost 30 years it was near the bottom of it, which isn't that popular. Also, as I said, it has never been as overdone as
Mary so I can see why parents still liked it.
I also think that
Anne is boring, but not as boring as
Mary. It has been used as a middle name quite a bit but that doesn't bother me. Middle names are hardly ever used and I know quite a few girls with
Mary as their middle name as well.
This message was edited 5/29/2012, 11:25 AM