I have often noted (though perhaps not on this blog) how frequently I come across the name Sally in songs, books, and movies. Though it's certainly possible that I am more inclined to notice Sally than other names, I have made a point in the last year or so of also looking for the (comparably very common) names of some family members to get a sense of how the fictional instances of these names compare to Sally, and my name still seems to me to be more frequently chosen as a fictional name than would be expected.
My favorite examples are when Sally is used as a fictional name within a work of fiction, such as when an author character is writing a book with a heroine named Sally. Sally is also crazily common in any kind of educational story problem. (You know - Sally and Tom went to the market. Sally bought 3 apples and Tom bought 4. Etc.) In fact, I was distracted by the name Sally in a question on my last marketing test.
But a book I'm reading this week puts a somewhat different spin on this:
"Where is she?" Parrish asked...
"I told you, at the library."
A lie. Ford was deliberately lying. Grace stood still...
"Don't give me that shit. Her car's here."
"She went with a friend."
"What's this friend's name?"
"Serena, Sabrina, something like that. Tonight's the first time I've met her."
Ford had always thought fast on his feet. The names were enough out of the ordinary that it gave the lie a bit of credence, where a plain Sally wouldn't.
And of course, if Ford is smart, he realizes that Sally is a name that sounds really familiar and "normal" but is actually very rare among real, living people. Does he think that the evil guy he's lying to is clued in enough to know this also?
Rankings of first names from the SSA (in the last 100 years):
Sally
1973: 262
2004: 919
highest: 1939: 52
Jennifer
1973: 1
2004: 38
highest: 1970-1984: 1
Susan
1973: 25
2004: 550
highest: 1957-1960: 2
Robert
1973: 7
2004: 36
highest: 1924-1939, 1953: 1
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We knew Sally was not a common name when we picked it, but we absolutely had no clue that Jennifer was one of the most popular girls names when we named her. At the time we didn't know a single person named Jennifer. Go figure.
As for one alternate name:
Doyle
1973: 658
2004: Not in top 1000
Highest: 196 (1933)
I knew about Jennifer. I was a Girl Scout camp counselor from 1981 to 1985, and everyone was named Jennifer except for a few people who were named Stephanie.
Stephanie
1973: 9
2004: 55
highest: 1982, 1988: 7
My feeling that Deborah is becoming an old-lady name is confirmed by these statistics.
(1963: 13)
1973: 56
2004: 643
highest: 1955: 2
I never knew it was quite that popular in the past, though.
My name is the opposite of Sally, in that I almost never see it in fiction.
Once my sister was in a class with five Davids, and if she had been a boy, she would have been another one.
David
1973: 5
2004: 14
highest: 1960: 1
I was named "Tamara" in apparently its most popular year (of the last 100), though it only reached #63.
It was slightly less popular than Heidi, and slightly more popular than Leslie. In percentage terms, it was about as popular as "Samuel" was for boys.
However, "Tammy" was #24 in the year of my birth, between "Tracy" and "Tina" and roughly as popular as "Stephen" for boys (again, by percentage, not rank).
Tamara is now down to #678.
I guess I got used to hearing my name a lot, kind of like hearing "Mom" in a park, who knows which one they mean. Now, being an engineer limits my chances of working with too many Jennifers (unfortunately) but it is interesting in dance rehearsal with my friend Jenn (which usually involves the specification of color, which works until we're both wearing black or something). Better than getting a nickname like Big Chris and Little Chris from years ago. :)
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