Like skinny jeans and no-show socks, there are baby names we're seeing less and less of these days.
Take Karen, for example. While it peaked at number 4 in the 1950s and 1960s, it's fallen over time. It was ranked 823 among the most popular baby names in 2023. 331 baby girls were named Karen in 2023.
But Karen was on the way out long before the name came to be used as an insult.
"People weren't using it much in the first place," Namerology.com founder Laura Wattenberg tells TODAY.com. She is also the author of the Baby Name Wizard books.
Wattenberg said there's been an "evolution" in baby names.
"More than ever before parents are determined to find something that feels fresh. The names that are the most common in the cohort are the ones that are disappearing," Wattenberg said.
Wattenberg also said that often names people expect to become popular, don't.
"People keep expecting Taylor [to become popular] because of Taylor Swift. There's no chance," she said. "Taylor is a mom name."
In 1989, the year Taylor Swift was born, the name ranked at number 75 among the most popular baby girl names. It quickly rose in the coming years, peaking at number six from 1994 - 1996.
It's that generation of names — millennial names — that are disappearing the fastest, Wattenberg said. Millennials are generally identified as the generation born between 1981 and 1996.
Names that ranked in the top 10 for boys in the 1980s included Michael, Christopher, Matthew, Joshua, Jacob, Nicholas, Andrew, Daniel, Tyler, and Joseph.
For girls, the top 10 names of the 1980s were Jessica, Jennifer, Amanda, Ashley, Sarah, Stephanie, Melissa, Nicole, Elizabeth, and Heather.
None of those names are in the top 10 today.
Wattenberg called out a few more names that are disappearing fast: Brittany and Justin. In 2023, just 309 babies born in the U.S. were named Brittany, as compared to the 29,090 in 1991. For Justin, 1,925 boys were given the name in 2023 as compared to 35,057 in 1988 when it reached its peak.
