Whatever Happened To Dick and Jane?
Checking through the enrollment forms this week for the Third Grade Academy to determine attendance, it suddenly occurred to me: What happened to Dick and Jane? Remember when they were the iconic figures of all young people learning to read? In the Academy, we don’t have either a Dick or Jane. Of all the cultural changes over the years, new names for kids must be one of the most dramatic.
Nor was there a single Martha, Mary, Helen or Betty. On the boys’ side you don’t find anybody in our list (or any other) named Herman, Gus, Albert, Douglas or Harold. Our list of nine-year-olds still shows one John and one William. Steve is hanging in there with three altogether, one spelled that way and two as Stephen. In the not-too-distant past, you could hardly turn around without bumping into someone’s little girl named Ashley or Nichole. Our list still shows two Ashleys but no Nicoles.
Which brings us to spelling. I’ve always thought that spelling variations were due to the mother’s inability to spell the new baby’s name the way she heard it. Like Lloyd is mostly Loyd now. Probably the most differently spelled name in the English language is Katlin, which can be Katlyn, Kaitlyn, Kaitlin, Kaitlyne, Katelin or Kaitlynne, or a new variety appearing on our list as Kaylyn. Recently, African-American families seem partial to names with apostrophes in them, like La’tisha. We have a sizable number of African-American girls in the Academy but only one Lei’sahe.
The most common names these days include, but are not limited to, Wendy, Chelsea, Haley, Amanda, Abby and Alyssa. Or for boys, Devon, Trenton, Ryan, Dylan, Skylar and Justin – all on our list. And then there are those – also on our list – I’ve never heard of – Nigel, Yenifer, Oshay, Judyanna, Anali and Quantrell.
But the really big trend is for boys to be given Biblical names, including – all on our list – Phillip, Adam, Xavier, Stephen, Jacob, Zachary, Josh (probably started as Joshua), Christian, Nathaniel, Aaron and Levi. Good historic names. You wonder if the parents knew the origins.
So all this is what you can find going down a list checking attendance.
It used to be that most children were named after their father or mother or a close relative or revered ancestor. No more. Poor Uncle Bob and Aunt Matilda.
–VJ
Vic Jose :: Jul.18.2010 :: Uncategorized ::
One Response to “Whatever Happened To Dick and Jane?”
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I read recently that my name is becoming popular, too bad, I always rather enjoyed being the only Charlotte in the room.