‘Brooklyn’ Is a Very Popular Baby Name… Except in NY

“Brooklyn” was the 34th most popular name nationwide for baby girls in 2010, and in Utah, South Dakota, and North Dakota, it was the SIXTH most common. Brooklyn, according to ParentsConnect, comes from the Dutch word “Breukelen,” and probably means “broken land,” which means it’s sort of an odd baby name. Its popularity, at least according to a Utah mayor, can be attributed to 9/11.

Via the New York Post,

“Everyone in the country has an emotional connection to what happened on 9/11, and Utah is a pretty patriotic state,” said Josh Mills, 35, mayor of Herriman, Utah, whose daughter Brooklyn was born in 2002. “When we were picking out names, we wanted to commemorate the spirit of the city. It’s not Manhattan, but it’s close.”

Apparently almost no one is naming their baby “Manhattan,” though it makes for a delicious drink. “Queens” and “Staten Island” have also been pretty much wholly rejected as baby names, though “Bronx” is simply adorable for a little boy, especially if he is celebrity spawn.

But what does this mean for the borough? Can Brooklyn be Brooklyn when it’s attached to the bibs of 1,000 drooling, adorable babies? And can a baby named Brooklyn ever grow up to move to New York City and take itself even remotely seriously? (Yeah, there’s Brooklyn Decker, but she’s kind of a special case.) Is this wise? At any rate, Marty Markowitz doesn’t mind: “The name connotes edgy, innovative and brash. What parent wouldn’t want to call their kid Brooklyn?”

People who name their kid Paris.