Conservatives tend to give their babies “trendier” names than liberals, who favor traditional names, according to NPR:
Styles of baby names, it seems, are nearly as different in various parts of the country as voting habits. “There is an enormous red state and blue state divide on names,” says Laura Wattenberg, founder of BabyNameWizard.com and author of The Baby Name Wizard, which claims to be “the expert guide to baby name style.”But this doesn’t play out the way you might expect. More progressive communities, Wattenberg says, tend to favor more old-fashioned names. Parents in more conservative areas come up with names that are more creative or androgynous.
While it is unclear exactly how or if data was collected — it appears to be the opinion of Wattenberg — she does provide one theory to explain the assumption:
The reason for more outlandish-sounding names cropping up in conservative quarters is simple, Wattenberg says. Women in red states tend to have their first children earlier than women in blue states. A 23-year-old mom is more likely to come up with something out of the ordinary than one who is 33.
Neither NPR nor Wattenberg define what “trendy” names are, or if it is possible for traditional names to themselves be trendy.
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