by Daniel Bentley

Created on: June 14, 2009   Last Updated: June 22, 2009

As the world becomes more tolerant of different cultures and beliefs, there is a significant increase in contemporary names. There are so many of us and people want to stand out and be individuals. For example, if you were to type in the name "John" into a people search criteria field on-line, the results yielded would be overwhelming. Even with a last name you would usually find that there are hundreds of people with the same exact first and last names in the world.

Biblical names are no longer necessarily names of the people in the bible themselves, but the popular trend as of late is actually naming children religious nouns and adjectives such as Hope, Destiny, Faith, Charity, or Freedom, to list a few of the more popular names. Mothers are not as subject to persecution from their peers in comparison to years passed concerning what they name their children. This is partially due to the fact that market places are more frequent and communities are more diverse with a growth in renting versus the old tradition of everyone owning a permanent domain.

In relevance to the subject at hand, however, unique names do not appear to have a negative impact on children in this era. Other children their age find them interesting. Angela may be less popular with the other children compared to Angel. While Angela is a common name, Angel is unique and in the perspective of a child's frame of mind, that individual seems special and might actually be an angel. It romanticises their opinion on that person because children are more naive and would be prone to link a word or name directly to what it is named after.

Another advantage of a contemporary name is that when an employer is searching through the dossier of applicants and thumbs through a dozen Christine's he is instinctively dis-positioned to halt when he reaches Charity's dossier. It was "different" and caught his eye. Therefore, Charity is now employed and there is a score of Christine's seeking employment elsewhere. Freedom is likely to stand out in a crowd of Frank's, to make a point. If a teenager is separated from her youth group at a theme park she knows where to look if she hears someone calling for "December." It may be more difficult to find Ashley in the skating rink when you call her name and catch the attention of thirty concerned parents thinking you may be a pedophile.

My point is that a unique name is exactly that. Standing out in a crowd is an advantage when you live in a highly populated world. Put into more analogistic terms, finding "Nero" in a haystack isn't so difficult with a magnet, and recognition draws in the same manner as a magnet.

Learn more about this author, Daniel Bentley.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.