This is true for most things, from fashions to music, and even baby names.
But, as always happens, when enough time has passed, the tide will turn again, and things that have fallen out of fashion will come to trend again. This is certainly the case for this Irish baby girl name that was popular with parents in the 1970s, and that is now climbing the trend charts.
The name Bridget, an anglicised version of the old Irish name Brighid, became a common Irish-American name for girls in the 1970s. The old Celtic name Bríd means “the exalted one.” In Irish mythology, Brigid was the pagan goddess of fire, poetry and wisdom.
St. Brigid of Kildare was also a charitable nun and eventually became canonised in the Catholic Church.
However, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the moniker slowly declined in popularity both in Ireland and the US.
Here in Ireland, the name Bridget peaked in 1964 with 595 girls given that name, and only dropped out of the top 100 most popular girls’ names in 1998. Fast forward to 2020, only 23 girls were named Bridget in Ireland.
Across the pond, according to the US Social Security Administration (SSA), during the 1970s, 18,871 babies were named Bridget, ranking in the hundreds of top female baby names. But since then, the popularity of the name declined sharply, until now, when it has started climbing up the charts again.
Names follow a 100-year rule
As for why Bridgid fell out of fashion, only to come back again now, it seems there might be some logic behind it.
"One thing that makes a name go out of fashion is that it’s been in fashion for too long," baby name expert Pamela Redmond told The Guardian.
Redmond argued names tend to follow a "100-year rule."
"It takes a century for a name that’s gone out of style to come back in," Redmond explained.
"The Breda variation hit its stride in 1982 when 49 girls were called Breda. In 2020, Ireland had six baby girls called Breda. The use of the Bríd variation peaked in 1980, with 58 girls. In 2020, less than three girls were named Bríd in Ireland."
* This article was originally published on Rollercoaster.ie.
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