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Trigger and Wesson? Gun Names Gaining Popularity

Baby names like Colt and Wesson have a decidedly Western flair. (Image credit: <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-683398p1.html">FamVeld</a>, <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/alphabetize-in.mhtml">Shutterstock</a>)

When picking a namesake for their kids, more parents are looking toward the gun cabinet.

Gun-related names are on the rise in the U.s.a., according to an analysis by Laura Wattenberg, a babe-name expert and proprietor of the blog "Baby Name Wizard." More parents are picking names like Gunner and Colt for little boys, and fifty-fifty girls are getting in on the trend with names like Beretta and Kimber (a gun manufacturer).

The tendency is primarily driven by the chase for unique names, Wattenberg told Live Science. Parents are casting a wider net than the Johns and Jameses of the by, so more and more words are off-white game to get names. But names based on other appurtenances, such every bit cars or luxury designers, aren't rising every bit universally equally gun names are, she said, suggesting something special might exist going on.

Triggering a trend

Of class, playgrounds are non exactly brimming with piddling Berettas and Brownings quite nevertheless. No gun-related names take cracked the top ten most popular list; overall, the number of children given a proper noun similar Trigger or Wesson is small. To find out the popularity of these names, Wattenberg cross-checked a listing of names of firearm manufacturers and terms against the U.S. Social Security database of baby names in 2012 compared with 2002. [Sophie's Underground: The x Most Pop Baby Names]

She came up with 15 gun-related names, each given to at least 5 babies in those 2 years: Barrett, Beretta, Browning, Cannon, Filly, Approximate, Gunner, Kimber, Magnum, Remington, Ruger, Cruel, Shooter, Trigger and Wesson. And between 2002 and 2012, the popularity of those gun-related names took off.

"I was amazed at how strong and consequent the tendency was," Wattenberg said. "Every single name had soared."

Non all parents who choose these names are motivated past guns, Wattenberg cautioned. Colt, which ranked as the 328th almost popular boy'southward name in 2012, could also call to mind a equus caballus or the Indianapolis Colts football game team, for instance.

Nevertheless, the joint rise of all these names is suggestive. One possibility for the popularity is that gun names provide a "macho" pick for parents looking for unique names, as many new names, such every bit Madison, are androgynous, Wattenberg said.

Moreover, parents increasingly name their children based on their values, Wattenberg said.

"The parts of the land that have the highest rates of gun buying tend to too be the most open to more than creative names," she said.

Standing out

Gun ownership across the country is downward, only it's no surprise that parents who do ain guns wait to them for inspiration, said Cleveland Evans, a psychologist at Bellevue University in Nebraska who studies naming.

In an individualistic civilisation like the United States, "our self-concept tends to revolve more effectually ways in which we meet ourselves as different from the other people around us, rather than similar," Evans told Alive Scientific discipline.

Thus, every bit fewer people own guns, those who do are likely to see gun ownership as more crucial to their self-concept, he said.

Notably, not every gun term gets to join the pantheon of baby names. Ruger, for example, sounds a lot like popular boy names Ryder and Riker, Evans said. On the other paw, nobody is naming their son after major ammunition manufacturer Nosler.

"It just doesn't sound right" every bit a name, Evans said.

Or every bit Wattenberg put it: "No thing how much you dearest your handgun, y'all're non going to proper noun a child Glock."

It's hard to say how names similar Browning and Ruger will be received. Research suggests that unusual or controversial names are a handicap when trying to get a resume looked at, Evans said. Just in the existent world, having a rare or unusual name doesn't seem to influence bodily income, he said. What initial prejudice may exist appears easy to overcome.

Some gun-loving parents practise seem to exist considering the potential stigma of a gun-oriented name, however. Wattenberg searched through firearms bulletin boards for discussions on naming and constitute many parents kicking around the proper noun John Moses for a boy. John Moses was the given name of the firearms developer John Moses Browning, only but dedicated gun enthusiasts are likely to make that connectedness, Wattenberg said.

"Some parents are indulging their love for guns, only also trying to choose a proper name that volition fit in more broadly," she said.

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter and Google+ . Follow u.s. @livescience , Facebook & Google+ . Original commodity on Live Science.

Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Alive Science, roofing topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the man encephalon and behavior. She was previously a senior writer for Live Science but is now a freelancer based in Denver, Colorado, and regularly contributes to Scientific American and The Monitor, the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association. Stephanie received a available's degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina and a graduate certificate in science advice from the University of California, Santa Cruz.