Posted on January 5, 2018
Today's famous birthday is an actress and model. Born on this date in 1978, in South Dakota, January Jones has acted in movies and on television, and she is also working to save endangered sharks with the group Oceana.
I thought that January Jones's first name was unique - but it turns out that it is merely unusual. (Jones's two sisters also have unusual "J" names - Jacie and Jina.)
When I looked up the name January, I read about families that name all their kids after the months in which they are born. But this seems to be much more common for girls - January, April, May, June, and July all work as girls' names. Peaking back in the 1890s, June was a fairly popular boy's name - but then June became staunchly female, and it became quite popular for girls, peaking in the 1920s.
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| One famous June is June Carter Cash, who was a singer / songwriter / actress / etc. She was even more famous because she married the mega-famous musician Johnny Cash. |
I checked out some of the other months that are used more rarely. February, September, October, and December are all girls' names - but so unusual I couldn't spot famous people with those names nor any info on numbers over the years. Ditto for the boy's name March.
August as a boy's name was fairly common in the late 1800s and is making a teeny tiny resurgence in recent years. August is much more rarely a girl's name - but there is a famous woman named August - August Maxwell - who is an artist and activist.
Some people are given month names that are not the month they were born in. This is better for really common names like April and June. Apparently some people with month names get SICK of being asked if they were born in that month, or get tired of people making incorrect assumptions that they were born in the month they were named for.
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| Fictional characters often have unusual, memorable names - but some parents name their actual kids after fictional characters! |
Other calendar names are inspired by season and day names - and they almost entirely seem to be girl's names. Season names Summer and Autumn are more common than Winter and Spring. Day names are more unusual than season names. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday (the only one I discovered a use as a boy's name), and Sunday are all given as names once in a blue moon. Monday and Saturday, for some reason, not at all. I wonder if parents match up these season and day names with the birthdates of their children, or if they just use names they like?
I think if I had a child born on a Tuesday in July and named that child with the first and middle names Thursday June - well, wouldn't people be confused?
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