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HelpBaby and Infant
Does anyone know why the names "Baby" and "Infant" were so popular in the 1990s? I don't get why so many people would just name their baby after... being a baby. It's almost a non-name.
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they didn't actually do that ...
Those are cases where the baby's name was unknown or not official/legal yet when the Social Security number was given.
Those are cases where the baby's name was unknown or not official/legal yet when the Social Security number was given.
I know in the 90s there was a mini-revival of Flashdance around my area (PNW) growing up. Baby was the nickname of the main female character so it could have been contributed to that as well.
This message was edited 2/15/2024, 11:20 AM
I think you are thinking of "Dirty Dancing"
The main female character, played by Jennifer Grey, was Frances, nn Baby.
The main female lead in Flashdance was played by Jennifer Beals and was named Alexandra, nn Alex.
The main female character, played by Jennifer Grey, was Frances, nn Baby.
The main female lead in Flashdance was played by Jennifer Beals and was named Alexandra, nn Alex.
Forgive me I'm old (not really I'm only 37). However, both movies in my area where huge in the 90s.
I'm 43, and while I was really too young to remember "Flashdance" firsthand, as it came out in 1983, I was almost seven when "Dirty Dancing" was released and I was crazy about it too. I don't remember those movies having any kind of revival in the 1990s though.
Like I said, without going into specifics of where exactly I live, it might just had been my area where the mini revival happened, because I distinctly remember my older cousins being obsessed with both of the movies and it seemed like everywhere around 1994-ish. I'm on the west coast of Washington State and it feels like we're always a step behind the rest of the country when it comes to fads or what not. So I could be (and probably am) wrong. I merely said it as an amusing ancedote.
No matter what, it doesn't matter in the long run. It's most likely the fact that the child wasn't named by the time the birth certificate was written out so it's that data that got recorded first.
No matter what, it doesn't matter in the long run. It's most likely the fact that the child wasn't named by the time the birth certificate was written out so it's that data that got recorded first.
They are not names. They are just what is put on the certificate if no name is chosen. You see this all the time in old records too.
Why did that happen more often in the 1990s?
Maybe a lot more people didn't have names picked out before leaving the hospital, or the requirement to fill the certificate out before leaving changed. Maybe the "name" was removed from census data more thoroughly in other decades. I'm not sure. But I'm confident that very few people actually named their babies Baby and Infant.
In the old days, there were more listings of "boy" "girl" "female" "male" and "unknown."
Ah, so it's kind of a symbol of our society starting to reject the gender binary, haha.