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ArchivesCadence - where did it come from?
Can anyone guess what provoked the dramatic leap in 'Cadence' as a given name?
http://www.behindthename.com/top/search.php?terms=Cadence&popterm=&gender=both
It seems to have gone from obscurity as recently as 2001 to widespread use by 2004. I wondered if there was some film or soap that draw sudden attention to it around this time. Or did people just latch onto it en masse because the sound was so fashionable?
♥Elinor♥
http://www.behindthename.com/top/search.php?terms=Cadence&popterm=&gender=both
It seems to have gone from obscurity as recently as 2001 to widespread use by 2004. I wondered if there was some film or soap that draw sudden attention to it around this time. Or did people just latch onto it en masse because the sound was so fashionable?
♥Elinor♥
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Replies
I don't know where it came from, but maybe someone just liked the sound of the word cadence and decided to use it for a name and it spread from there. It always makes me think of the word, but I'm in a marching band so maybe that's just me... :P
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I don't think there's a full explanation of this one yet, though I think that a lot of the impetus for its use is that Cadence has been adopted, consciously or unconciously, as the "feminine form" of Caden.
There are isolated examples of girls named Cadence in both Australia and the USA in the 1920s. The heroine of Armistead Maupin's 1992 novel Maybe the Moon was named Cadence (though much of the time she is called Cady in the book.) There was a character in the 2001 film Shallow Hal named Cadence, and the name first entered the SSA top 1000 list in the USA in 2002. A character in the 2003 film American Wedding probably didn't hurt the growth of the name. It would be interesting to find some of the parents who named daughters Cadence in 2001 and 2002 and see if they were inspired by the Shallow Hal character or heard the name somewhere else.
There are isolated examples of girls named Cadence in both Australia and the USA in the 1920s. The heroine of Armistead Maupin's 1992 novel Maybe the Moon was named Cadence (though much of the time she is called Cady in the book.) There was a character in the 2001 film Shallow Hal named Cadence, and the name first entered the SSA top 1000 list in the USA in 2002. A character in the 2003 film American Wedding probably didn't hurt the growth of the name. It would be interesting to find some of the parents who named daughters Cadence in 2001 and 2002 and see if they were inspired by the Shallow Hal character or heard the name somewhere else.
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I thought of it independently while on a bike trip. Just thinking of the word cadence. It's too popular for me though.
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Cadence = rhythm
I believe you may be at least partially correct about the influence of male Caden on female Cadence, but in at least one instance I know of, there was more to it than that. In 2002 or 2003 (several years ago, anyway) I helped a birthing mother who had chosen not to find out the sex of her baby. She liked the sound of Caden for a boy, but it inspired her husband to suggest Cadence for a girl because he was a high school percussion teacher.
Playing with spellings is quite popular these days as well; could be some folks stumble upon it while toying with Candace.
Could be also that Katie being so popular (and may I interject here - ick) led to Cady as an alternative spelling, which itself inspired the full name Cadence simply to flesh out or justify Cady.
ETA And while we're at it, betcha $50 somebody's already named a twinset Cadence and Candace. Betcha.
I believe you may be at least partially correct about the influence of male Caden on female Cadence, but in at least one instance I know of, there was more to it than that. In 2002 or 2003 (several years ago, anyway) I helped a birthing mother who had chosen not to find out the sex of her baby. She liked the sound of Caden for a boy, but it inspired her husband to suggest Cadence for a girl because he was a high school percussion teacher.
Playing with spellings is quite popular these days as well; could be some folks stumble upon it while toying with Candace.
Could be also that Katie being so popular (and may I interject here - ick) led to Cady as an alternative spelling, which itself inspired the full name Cadence simply to flesh out or justify Cady.
ETA And while we're at it, betcha $50 somebody's already named a twinset Cadence and Candace. Betcha.
This message was edited 7/11/2007, 10:49 PM
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