Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Most popular in DC:
1 William Allison
2 Michael Sophia
3 James Ashley
4 Alexander Katherine
5 Daniel Abigail
6 Christopher Elizabeth
7 John Taylor
8 Joshua Charlotte
9 Elijah Zoe
10 Jacob Anna
That list of names for DC sounds odd to me. Isn't DC majority African American? The AA families I know do NOT name their girls Ashley, Katherine and Zoe.
Allison looks like it's on the rise in DC: #40 in 2007, #13 in 2008, then #1 in 2009. Total numbers of babies born in DC are small though--that's 41 Allisons versus 40 Sophias for 2009.
Also, the most popular names do not necessary represent the majority population--just group think that may be occurring in a smaller population. If you look at the top 100 list, you might see more names that suggest the large African-American population that DC has, but I'm not personally in a position to label particular names as white or African-American.
That said, I some of the names listed are more race neutral--Ashley comes to mind. In "Beyond Jennifer and Jason" (a book that is a bit dated), "many of the same names—Taylor and Ashley for girls, for instance, and Christopher and Michael for boys—are most popular for children of all races."