YET MORE ON GIRLS’ VS. BOYS’ NAMES: For those who can’t get enough of that wonderful Duff.

“Girls’ names phase in and out of popularity according to the age of the people holding the names.

“In essence, nobody wants to give their baby daughter an old lady’s name.’ I am in my 30s, to my parents’ generation, names like Molly and Claire and Hannah were old lady names, so they turned away from them. To me, names like Barbara and Linda are ‘old lady

names,’ and have less appeal on a visceral level.

“Why doesn’t the same apply to boys’ names? I think society does not attach a stigma of unattractiveness to older men. I saw a television commercial the other day where they showed an older man, with grey hair and all, swimming at the pool, being ogled by young women, while the music played ‘I Only Have Eyes For You.'”

Perhaps…

And a good point about unusual, traditionally black American names like Latanya and Sharnell: “When you haven’t got much to give your kid, a distinctive name will do, like the good fairy’s blessing at the christening.”