XLNT! Next time I want to promote my out-of-my-ass "societal trends, generational studies, and demographic shifts" research by declaring a data-free trend and slapping a totally made up explanation on it, I know where to go: Australia. Or maybe not! Mark McCrindle of McCrindle Research has that market all sewn up.
McCrindle's claim that text messaging is responsible for the rise in alternate baby name spellings, including an "epidemic" of Y-for-I and K-for-C substitutions, is not even the most idiotic of his pronouncements:
Analysing Australian births in 2007, social analyst Mark McCrindle found the name Jayden was registered spelt 12 ways, Aidan nine ways, and Amelia and Tahlia eight ways.ORLY? Never mind that I counted up 21 spelling variations of Jaden in Georgia since 1990, and we all know no one in the US sent a text message [1] before 2006 except 50 teenage girls and American Idol voters. So obviously, Americans hate their parents even more. Now if you'll just tell me where I should send my $5,000 consulting invoice...Lachlan had five other versions - Lochlyn, Lochlin, Lochlen, Lochlain and Lauchlan.
"The use of a 'y' instead of an 'i' has hit epidemic proportions, as has the use of 'k' over 'c' like in the names Jaykob and Lynkon, double letters like Siimon and Chriss and hyphens like Emma-Lee," said Mr McCrindle, of private research agency McCrindle Research.
The trend was due to the phonetic spelling in email and text messaging and to parents wanting their children to stand out, he said.
"Gen X parents were the first generation to grow up themselves with mum not staying home with the kids or their parents divorcing, and they hated their parents not being around to show them love.
"Knowing they will probably recreate some of those sins, they now are naming their kids uniquely to show how individual and special they are to them.
"There is also a bit of backlash against the conservative names like Jack, Ella and Olivia."
original story: Roze by any name would spell as sweet [news.com.au via dt reader rolf]
Original story spawns ever-more ridiculous headlines! SMS language sparks off unusually spelt baby names trend! [thaindian.com via textually.org]
McCrindle Research - Shining a light on societal trends, also publishing "Gen Y" slang dictionaries as amusing leave-behinds for corporate clients [mccrindle.com.au]
[1] I TXT LK 24/7/365, & I WTD 2 ABRV-8 'IDIOT,' but it came out 'DT'! LOL-COTI ;(
One might as well just assume that vanity license plates are to blame. Oh that's right, they've been around too long...
And clearly variations on name spellings which are phonetically similar never happened until last year. Clearly, no one ever spelled this idiot's given name as Marc before 2006, right? Wrong.
I completely agree with the idea that we Gen-X'ers are all about individuality. However, I get sick of all these lame reason as to why and how it's going to hurt others.
Hilarious.
I went to his web site and was reassured to find that someone is on top of newsworthy trends like "Australians Eat Lunch On the Go."
What a bunch of hippies!
Or maybe I should say the "sons and daughters" of hippies.
No matter how you say it, I blame all hippies and their devils' music.
I wonder how he explains the trend of the "i" names when I was a kid - Nanci, Staci, Jodi, Lori.
Narcissism I guess.