Saturday, May 13, 2017

A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME.....BUT NOT CAITLYN

by Bob Walsh

Name trends are interesting. They are actually followed by the government. Take for instance the name Caitlyn.

The Social Security Administration tracks names on newly issued SSA cards. There are four common variations of that name. Caitlin, Caitlyn Katelynn and Kaitlynn. In the year after Bruce Jenner announced his new name and new gender identity as Caitlyn Jenner that name has dropped in popularity like a dead rat off a power line. All four have fallen out of the top 1,000 names.

As a matter of general historical interest Oscar was at one time an extremely popular name in the U.K. However, immediately following Oscar Wilde's unsuccessful lawsuit against the Marquis of Queensbury and Wilde's being successfully prosecuted for sodomy, landing him in prison, the name virtually disappeared from new birth registrations.

I am confident there is no real connection between the two items of historical interest.

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