If you search for the most popular names of the past century, on a year-by-year basis, you’ll notice something interesting. Until the middle of the 20th century, names really didn’t change much; they stayed the same as time went by. Until the 1950’,s the most common names for a girl or boy were Mary and John, and the other choices were very consistent.
As people were increasingly influenced by pop culture, names became more faddish. Tiffany, Brittany, and Whitney, anyone?
My personal favorite is what I call “Generation J”—babies born during the 1980’s – 1990’s and named Jennifer, Jessica, Jason, Justin, Jared, Joshua, Jacob, etc.
My runner-up is the use of Irish names, which are often mispronounced. The name Caitlin, usually said “Kate-Linn,” is really “Kat-Leen.”