不少人名都有着时代特征。新中国成立后的一段时间，名字中“解放”、“建国”、“卫国”都很常见。如今，“20后”的名字就更多元了。
 

 

公安部户政管理研究中心的数据显示，2020年新生儿名字中，“梓”、“宸”、“嘉”、“奕”、“涵”、“睿”等这些字频都排在前列。“奕辰”和“一诺”分别荣登男娃和女娃姓名榜首——有小说那味儿了。

 

类似地，大洋彼岸的美国新生儿名字也有着时间的烙印。埃默里大学商学院副教授Emily Bianchi研究了个人主义与经济状况的关系，研究显示：

 

During boom times, Americans tend to give their children more uncommon¹ names, prize autonomy and independence in child-rearing, and favor music featuring self-oriented lyrics².

经济繁荣的时候，美国人爱给孩子取个性化的名字，看重孩子的独立自主能力的培育，爱听“自我向”的歌（歌词常见I, me, my这类词）。

 

Conversely, during recessions, Americans tend to focus more on fitting in, give their children more common names, listen to more relationally oriented music, and encourage their children to get along with others.

与之相反，美国人经济萧条时则更关注融入（群体），喜欢给孩子取常见的名字，爱听“关系向”的歌曲（歌词常见we, us, our这类词），鼓励孩子与他人好好相处。

 

Emily measured individualism by looking at social security data to see what parents named their kids during good and bad economic times.

艾米丽透过社会安全数据来研究个人主义，观察经济情况好时与差时父母给孩子们都取了什么名字。

 

Emily found that when the economy is doing well, parents are more likely to give their kids unique names — "I'm looking at you, Blue Ivy³". When the economy is struggling, parents choose from a smaller set of more common names, which are often biblical names.

艾米丽发现，国家经济状况好时，父母更常给孩子取独特的名字——“我看着你呢！蓝常春藤”。如果经济状况不好，父母则会从一小组常见名字里给孩子选名字，通常是圣经里的名字。

 

It used to be that, in the 1950s, one out of 15 boys would receive the most common name. Fast forward to 2013, it was one out of 75 boys that receive the most common name of their birth year.

20世纪50年代，15个男孩里就有一个男孩会叫常见名。到了2013年，多达75个男孩里才会有一个叫常见名。

 

经济境况好的时候，美国人取名的花样非常多。美国社会安全局2019年的数据显示年轻宝爸宝妈们取名时从流行文化、文学、乃至食物和州名/城市名里汲取了不少灵感。

 

Parents draw baby name inspiration from a variety of sources — family history, pop culture, literature and even food. For many, geography offers meaningful ideas. Many parents are picking the names of US states and capital cities.

父母们从各种各样的来源——家族历史、流行文化、文学甚至食物——中获得婴儿名字的灵感。对许多人来说，地理领域有不少有意义的名字。许多家长常挑选美国各州和首府的名字作人名。

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