Dillards 94: After Counting the Cost

[nolongerIFBx]

2 hours ago, Sullie06 said:

Courtney is one of those names I've seen on more than one male and always was like "this not the norm." I knew two guys named Courtney when I went to college is Alabama, USA. One was our dorm RA and another was in some of my classes. And currently our security guard in our office is a male named Courtney. 

I've known 2 male Staceys both probably born in the 1950s.

[viii]

Name trends have always fascinated me. I know males named Ashley and Shannon, both which typically have been considered female names for the last little while. 

I grew up with a girl named Brett and I remember just loving that. 

[Cam]

I cannot think of any older male celebrities (say 40 or older) with the first name of Taylor, and very few younger ones. I do not know any males in my life with that name. Was it truly ever all that popular for males? Tyler, yes. Tatylor? 

Edited February 7 by Cam

[viii]

1 hour ago, Cam said:

I cannot think of any older male celebrities (say 40 or older) with the first name of Taylor, and very few younger ones. I do not know any males in my life with that name. Was it truly ever all that popular for males? Tyler, yes. Tatylor? 

Jonathon Taylor Thomas. Taylor Hanson. Taylor Hawkins. Taylor Hicks. That's all I can think of off the top of my head. 

[OHFL2009]

9 minutes ago, viii said:

Jonathon Taylor Thomas. Taylor Hanson. Taylor Hawkins. Taylor Hicks. That's all I can think of off the top of my head. 

Taylor Dent is an American tennis player, now retired but finished 4th at the 2004 Olympics and had a career high ranking of #21 in the world. Taylor Fritz is another American tennis player, who has been ranked as high as #5 in the world. Taylor Hall plays for the Chicago Blackhawks and was the first overall pick in the 2010 NHL draft.

For non-athletes, Taylor Kinney is an actor and was once engaged to Lady Gaga. Taylor Lautner has kind of fallen into obscurity but he was pretty famous during the Twilight days. 

It was never super popular for males, but was definitely in the top 100 boys names at some point in the 90s in the US. 

[JDuggs]

Don’t forget Taylor Kitsch!

Back to my favorite website: Social Security Baby Names:

Spoiler

 

[JermajestyDuggar]

Taylor Bontrager, lol. 

[JDuggs]

8 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Taylor Bontrager, lol. 

And Taylor Spivey.

[JermajestyDuggar]

I would say a lot of names like Ashley, Courtney, Taylor, and Kelly started out as last names hundreds of years ago. But it was common practice for sons to be given their mother’s maiden name as their first name. So last names as first names have always been popular when naming sons. However I think that more recently, these names were seen as more unisex since they are often last names and aren’t biblical names. Once they became more popular amongst baby girls, they were used less for boys. 

[CarrotCake]

I wonder if James is going in the same direction. It is such a classic boys name but I feel like more and more girls are named James since Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds named their daughter.

[medimus]

I love name trends too and particularly enjoy the analysis at namerology.com She has several articles about how unisex names are rarely that. They are either in the middle of switching sides or are brand new so haven't been decided one way or the other yet. It's super interesting.

[Hasunah2]

On 2/6/2024 at 6:18 AM, Maggie Mae said:

Also graduated with a Petra, but more recently than 40 years ago. I believe her mother was from the Netherlands, though she could have been German. I think they moved to Germany for a spell while we were growing up, but she came back before high school. No idea that Petra wasn't a popular name anywhere. 

In Germany Petra is probably a name more popular for women born in the 1950s and 1960s.

[HeartsAFundie]

6 hours ago, CarrotCake said:

I wonder if James is going in the same direction. It is such a classic boys name but I feel like more and more girls are named James since Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds named their daughter.

Katie Bates' daughter is Hailey James Clark, so it looks like the fundies aren't immune to using it for daughters.    

[AprilQuilt]

On 2/1/2024 at 8:24 AM, Smee said:

Did Emma sound that weird on Friends? Maybe to a US audience, but it was #4 in the UK two decades before Friends came out and stayed in the top 20 until the early 2000s, where it dropped a little and now sits somewhere around the 60 mark. A few years ago I was teaching at a high school (in Australia) where in the staffroom the desks were set up so that we had four adult Emmas all next to each other (a history teacher, two English teachers, and a learning support officer). They were all born before Friends, none of them would be retiring any time soon.

I am sure I read an interview with the writers who said they'd specifically looked up popular baby girl names, and chosen one of those when they went with Emma. They were trying to be part of a zeitgeist rather than coming up with something new. I think that suits Monica, who liked the name first.

(I have always side-eyed Rachel for stealing it from her. I mean I know nobody owns a name, but your oldest friend? Who's struggling with infertility? Not cool.)

[Kiki03910]

On 2/7/2024 at 11:28 AM, JermajestyDuggar said:

I would say a lot of names like Ashley, Courtney, Taylor, and Kelly started out as last names hundreds of years ago. But it was common practice for sons to be given their mother’s maiden name as their first name. So last names as first names have always been popular when naming sons. However I think that more recently, these names were seen as more unisex since they are often last names and aren’t biblical names. Once they became more popular amongst baby girls, they were used less for boys. 

Kelly definitely started out as an Irish surname. True story, in high school I (female Kelly) had a crush on a (male) Kelly. One of my asshole friends once yelled at him, "Kelly, Kelly wants you!"

[Cam]

8 hours ago, Kiki03910 said:

Kelly definitely started out as an Irish surname. True story, in high school I (female Kelly) had a crush on a (male) Kelly. One of my asshole friends once yelled at him, "Kelly, Kelly wants you!"

 

 

[viii]

19 hours ago, AprilQuilt said:

(I have always side-eyed Rachel for stealing it from her. I mean I know nobody owns a name, but your oldest friend? Who's struggling with infertility? Not cool.)

I loved Friends when it was airing but now that I watch it being an adult, they're all so toxic to each other. They're actually a terrible friend group. 

[Smee]

6 hours ago, viii said:

I loved Friends when it was airing but now that I watch it being an adult, they're all so toxic to each other. They're actually a terrible friend group. 

Yeah it did NOT age well. So much fat-shaming, sexism, casual homophobia.

[Kiki03910]

7 hours ago, Smee said:

Yeah it did NOT age well. So much fat-shaming, sexism, casual homophobia.

So much this. Also most 80s movies, including the embarrassingly beloved Top Gun and everything by John Hughes.  Tom Cruise trapping Kelly McGillis in the women's room, I mean, my skin crawls.

[Cam]

Agree with everyone’s above consensus about Friends. I, too, loved it in its heyday. Some of its episodes gave me most memorable TV: Ross saying Rachel’s name in wedding vows to Emily, the surprise of Monica popping up from under the covers in bed with Chandler, Ross and Rachel’s first date overnight at the planetarium. Monica walking into her apt where Chandler has all those candles lit and he proposes to her, Ross grabbing his red sweater saying he’d been looking for it which reveals to Phoebe and Monica that he’s the father of Rachel’s baby. 

But I cannot watch it today. I don’t think it’s at all funny. When there was so much hype about a Friends’s reboot a few years ago, I was like, “please, no.” There’s also criticism that it had very little diversity. 

Regarding movies, critics Siskel & Ebert once did an episode about how misogynistic early 1980s slasher films were: It’s always the liberated woman who acts on her own who gets killed off; violence is sexualized: “the nudity is always gratuitous. It is put in to titillate the audience and women who dress this way or merely uncover their bodies are somehow asking for trouble and somehow deserve the trouble they get. That’s a sick idea.”

The critics went further: “I’m convinced it has to do with the growth of the woman’s movement in America in the last decade. I think that these films are some sort of primordial response by some very sick people… of men saying “get back in your place, women.” 

I tend to agree.

[louisa05]

On 2/8/2024 at 4:16 PM, AprilQuilt said:

I am sure I read an interview with the writers who said they'd specifically looked up popular baby girl names, and chosen one of those when they went with Emma. They were trying to be part of a zeitgeist rather than coming up with something new. I think that suits Monica, who liked the name first.

(I have always side-eyed Rachel for stealing it from her. I mean I know nobody owns a name, but your oldest friend? Who's struggling with infertility? Not cool.)

Monica and Chandler decided to start trying for a baby at the hospital while Rachel was in labor. So no one, including them, knew they had a fertility issue. And Monica gave permission and said it didn’t work with Bing anyway. 

[Giraffe]

I have only seen John Hughes' movies in the last couple years (as a 40something). I  don't know that I've seen more than a couple of them because they were so disgusting to me. I'm actually kind of glad I never saw them when they initially came out!

[kittykay]

7 hours ago, Cam said:

Agree with everyone’s above consensus about Friends. I, too, loved it in its heyday. Some of its episodes gave me most memorable TV: Ross saying Rachel’s name in wedding vows to Emily, the surprise of Monica popping up from under the covers in bed with Chandler, Ross and Rachel’s first date overnight at the planetarium. Monica walking into her apt where Chandler has all those candles lit and he proposes to her, Ross grabbing his red sweater saying he’d been looking for it which reveals to Phoebe and Monica that he’s the father of Rachel’s baby. 

But I cannot watch it today. I don’t think it’s at all funny. When there was so much hype about a Friends’s reboot a few years ago, I was like, “please, no.” There’s also criticism that it had very little diversity. 

Regarding movies, critics Siskel & Ebert once did an episode about how misogynistic early 1980s slasher films were: It’s always the liberated woman who acts on her own who gets killed off; violence is sexualized: “the nudity is always gratuitous. It is put in to titillate the audience and women who dress this way or merely uncover their bodies are somehow asking for trouble and somehow deserve the trouble they get. That’s a sick idea.”

The critics went further: “I’m convinced it has to do with the growth of the woman’s movement in America in the last decade. I think that these films are some sort of primordial response by some very sick people… of men saying “get back in your place, women.” 

I tend to agree.

Very well said, Cam!

[Smee]

15 hours ago, Cam said:

Agree with everyone’s above consensus about Friends. I, too, loved it in its heyday. Some of its episodes gave me most memorable TV: Ross saying Rachel’s name in wedding vows to Emily, the surprise of Monica popping up from under the covers in bed with Chandler, Ross and Rachel’s first date overnight at the planetarium. Monica walking into her apt where Chandler has all those candles lit and he proposes to her, Ross grabbing his red sweater saying he’d been looking for it which reveals to Phoebe and Monica that he’s the father of Rachel’s baby. 

But I cannot watch it today. I don’t think it’s at all funny. When there was so much hype about a Friends’s reboot a few years ago, I was like, “please, no.” There’s also criticism that it had very little diversity. 

My ex copied Chandler's proposal (literally, down to the music) when we got engaged. In hindsight, maybe that should have been a red flag 🤣

Also if we're speaking of TV and movies with AWFUL messages, why oh why did anyone ever think The Notebook was romantic? That's like, a checklist of what NOT to do in a healthy relationship.

[Melissa1977]

Oh that toxic movies we were all feed with! What about Pretty woman? My friends and I thought it was so romantic. Troubled millionary men is all vulnerable girls need, isn't it? Be compliant, cute, make him feel well, he had a bad childhood so has right to have bad temper, you have to calm him, your make up must be nice all day long, his job is important, you have no job... Behave and you'll have diamonds and fancy hotel rooms until he gets a new girl.

At least, my favourite movie as a teenager has aged well. Or at least I think so. Please comment if you agree or disagree. It's Dirty Dancing. I thnk it showed the sexism/class issues of the society but wasn't a sexist/classist movie itself. It was the opposite.