Why so many kids today have weird names

Don’t be surprised if you see some of your friends name their child something unique, like Gage, Brooklyn or Beckham. After all, American parents want their children to have unique names because they want them to establish their own unique brand, according Time magazine’s analysis of a Goldman Sachs report.

“That’s right: Parents want to give their kids a different name not so they can call it out on the playground and not have five kids look at them, and not so that Olivia (second most popular girl’s name) will be the only Liv in her class, and not so that if she loses her towel at camp everybody will know whose it is, but because they want their kid to have a unique brand,” Time reported.

This is why millennial parents don’t choose names that have been around for thousands or hundreds of years — like Michael, James or Jessica. Instead, they settle for unique names, like Aranza and Gannon, Time reported.

“New parents are choosing from a wider pool of baby names today, a change from the fairly uniform attitude observed during prior generations,” according to The Telegraph.

Of course, some more traditional names are still popular. After all, the most common names of 2014 were Noah and Emma for boys and girls, respectively, according to the Social Security Administration’s list released last week.

But Emma and Noah only account for about 1 percent of total babies, which means that even though those names were the most popular, they make up less of the total number of baby names — mostly because parents are opting for more unique names, Time reported.

This isn’t just a matter of preference for millennial parents. It actually reflects how millennials feel about brands in general. Bloomberg reported that millennial parents want their brands, much like their children, to have a sense of identity and uniqueness.

“The history of baby names possibly provides a window into evaluating parents’ expression towards brands,” the report said, according to Bloomberg.

Overall, millennials aren’t always in favor of bigger brands, according to our own Matthew Jelalian. Millennials prefer brands that are authentic and have mission-related values since they appear more trustworthy, Jelalian reported.“Consumers seek meaning and a brand they can trust,” Bloomberg reported. “They (consumers) are busy at work on Web 2.0 platforms creating ways to cut through the noise in search of products and services that resonate with integrity and transparency; in a word, authenticity. That quest for authenticity is a call to action for any company intending to be relevant in the 21st century.”