That's The Name Of That Tune

Recently, the Social Security Administration released the most recent list of the top names for newborn babies in the US. The top names names for girls and boys were, respectively Isabella and Jacob (the latter being on top again for the eleventh year in a row). Of considerable interest to me, of course was my own first name: Calder. Other people have frequently expressed some level of fascination with my name all my life, and they had invariably never heard of it before. It's not one of those bizarre names applied to children by whacked-out celebrities, like Moon Unit or something like that, but it's statistically about as uncommon.

Readers will recall that I yesterday posted on this blog an open letter to the only other person with my first name that I have ever met. As I noted, that was years ago. More recently, there is or was in my very apartment building a man with Calder as a surname. He and I have occasionally been delivered each other's mail by a surely harried and over-worked mail carrier. The two encounters were most unnerving for me, as I have felt an exclusivity something like the only man on earth where names are concerned. I rather had gotten to like that.

I looked my name up on the SSA website, which resulted in this. That made quite an impression on me when I saw it, as you can imagine. My curiosity piqued, I did a little additional digging. Last year, exactly sixty-five boys were named Calder- the most since I was born. The top male name- Jacob- was given to 20,858 boys and twenty-six girls. The year I was born, the top male name was Michael, and was given to 67,940 boys and 577 girls. The number of babies christened "Calder" that year was six. It was one of three years since I was born that the name was in single digits. Every other year it was no more than double digits. I guess that it's not terribly surprising. I never was able to find a bicycle license plate with my name, or any other name-emblazoned trinket.

That shows that my name is not absolutely unique and unseen except in reference to me personally. It's a horse racing track in South Florida, and the rookie of the year trophy in the National Hockey League. A handful of notables have had my first name as a surname, including he who I was named for, Alexander Calder. He amounts to the most famous of the bunch. So far, no public figure has ever had it for a first name, but it was said by a family friend of my name that it sounds like the name of a famous person.

Perhaps also revealing is how impervious my name has always been to attempted applications of nicknames. When I joined the Boy Scout troop that I was with most of my youth, I tried for a fresh start by identifying myself as "Cal". No dice. A more colorful failed nickname arose from another scouting story, and would have had me called "Beer Nut". No good either. My childhood plans of legally changing my name to Michael never were followed up on. I'm just Calder for good or ill, and it doesn't appear that the boat is going to get too crowded in this lifetime.