Not that Rare

Readers of this blog who do not know me personally are having to endure an avalanche of family news for which they have no personal connection. Sorry about that, but thanks for granting me leave to be grandfatherly for a few days.

Here is another picture of Isai.

I post it not because his appearance has changed any, though there are less tubes, but because we would like of those who pray to keep praying. He is still working to catch on to this whole breathing thing. He’s having to be reminded that breathing is something one should ordinarily do continually. Twice he has stopped and had to be reminded that such is not conducive to good health. Consequently, he will be kept in the NICU until at least Monday. Pray that there are no more ‘breathless’ incidents.

Some have wondered about the name, as if it were rare. It is only rare to those of us who do not spend much time around the Hispanic community.

The Social Security Administration keeps a fascinating web site which lists the frequency of baby names given in the US for any year. So, for example, for babies born in 2008, Jacob was the most popular name for boys. In 1916 it was John. So, to show the relative popularity of names for Barb and I, our children and grandchildren, I will list them below with the name rank for the year of birth. You will see that Isai is by far not the rarest name in our family! (an ‘x’ indicates that the name was not in the top 1000 names for that year.)

Barbara – 7
Randall – 54
Adria – 904
Gamaliel – x
Seth – 95
Amy – 22
Matthew – 3
Alissa – 321
Hannah – 42
Jerusha – x
Colin – 117
Isaiah – 45
Isai – 734 (in 2008; 2009 stats not yet tabulated)

Isai is a more popular name than that of his father, his mother, and his aunt!