When I was pregnant with my first child, my husband and I started experimenting with names. We’d write them out, say them out loud, and place name-cards on the fridge of ones we liked… moving them up and down the line towards most to least favorite… and then remove them all together when we grew less enthusiastic about them.
The name we eventually chose felt “pretty and unfamiliar” to us. We didn’t know anyone by that name, and none of our family or friends had named their children that name. Equally helpful, we didn’t know anyone who had called their pets by that name either!
As it turned out, there was a brand new collective love for this name that landed it in the Top 10 of baby names (in Australia) that year.
Sigh.
Our unique daughter ended up being one of several girls with that name when she started school a few years later.
We then repeated the same trick with our second daughter; “slightly old-fashioned name that you don’t hear spoken often” – until we named our daughter, that is… then kids with that name were everywhere.
In the weirdest of moments, I was at a park once, and a lady yelled out the two names back-to-back as if she was calling out to my two girls. Only she wasn’t. She was calling out to HER two daughters who had the same combination of names.
My daughters are teenagers now and their names STILL rank highly in popular baby names in Australia in 2024: Most popular baby names of 2024 in Australia | BabyCenter
The reason I’m reliving this whole long-winded backstory, is that I found an article that suggested the exact opposite is happening for my name: Linda.
According to the article (here: 10 baby names at risk of dying out completely | HELLO!) there are several girls names that will soon become “extinct”, in this order: Linda, Kathy, Karen, Tiffany, Caitlin, and Courtney. [For boy’s it’s: Gary, Bob, Greg and Jeff.]
I get that mean memes gave poor old Karen a rough trot, but Linda? It means “beautiful” – what went wrong that the world doesn’t want any more beauty??
It does seem to be true though. I almost never meet anyone called Linda, and if I do, they tend to be my age. Here’s a graph that shows it was big before I was born in the 70s but has been dying out ever since (along with their owners I guess):
[Image source: interactive name tracker: NameGrapher : Namerology]
What does all this mean in terms of healing chronic migraine?
Nothing other than the fact that it is a reminder that things come and go – what’s hot is not always… what seems to be all the rage, or all-rage, can in fact calm down.
Hang in there.
Nothing lasts forever. Not pain. Not names.
On the other hand – good things like my kids’ names (or you) – seem to be ongoing.
Anyway – I feel like I’ve made a bit of a mess of this post… and it seems to have a sense of sadness to it that wasn’t intended… sorry… I’ll be clearer and more positive tomorrow!
Take care taking care, “Linda” xx
The Mindful Migraine 
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