Baptiste Coulmont is a sociologist and made an amazing discovery: the names given to dogs predict with a little advance the names given to children.
Giving a first name to your future child is a complicated task: how to find the name that will suit him and follow him all his life? How to find a name that is both original and not out of date?
Sociologist Baptiste Coulmont offers a solution in a column in Le Monde: what if you looked at first names… for dogs? Indeed, he describes a rather astonishing phenomenon: dogs are “cultural sentinels”, with tendencies of names which are found a few years later in humans. He writes :
"In 1981, Sam and Sarah were among the most awarded (to dogs NDLR). Same thing in 2001: Samy and Sandy are not far away. We also find Sonia or Stella. So many first names also worn by small human children, and which will be in fashion a little later. (…) If you have to give a dog a name that doesn't sound too doggy, then you will give a name that is not very common in human babies, but in the process of growing. (…) Sacha was already in the top 50 dog names in 1981, a step that was not taken until 2005 in humans. "
How did this astonishing intuition come to him? After having read the work of Claude Levi-Strauss on the names given to animals which differ according to their species (cows and their floral names for example) Baptiste Coulmont wanted to study the first names of dogs. Sociologist, among other things specializing in what first names say about us, he wanted to learn things about their human owners, he explains to aufeminin. Like the first names given to children, they will not be the same depending on where you come from, your social origin etc.
Sharing of first names between humans and dogs
There are also a third of dogs that have human names (history will tell us if the reverse will ever happen).
"So I wondered what the trends were for dogs. Indeed, it is easy to get the data from the Société Centrale Canine which asks for all dogs a chip or an identification number with its name. In 2011 there were 10 million names, we could make a top name per year. Many have classic names: Rex, Médor; many also names of things or brands: Chanel, Ikea etc. In fact, all the names of things that we do not give to humans (except for the first names of fruits or flowers sometimes given to girls), we give them to the dog, which makes a very wide variety of possibilities. "
So far, it all seems normal. Baptiste Coulmont notes one surprising thing, however: a sharing of first names between humans and dogs. “Not the most donated ones, but those below the hundredth rank of first names given for humans. Some funny exceptions: some years, certain names were in the top 10 canine and human: Théo in 2002, Enzo in 2009, Océane in 1998."
What is this due to? Baptiste Coulmont talks about an old trend, which can be found as early as the 1970s. He has no definite explanations for it, but all kinds of hypotheses. Perhaps this is due to the degree of closeness these animals maintain with their two-legged companions? The trend is also difficult to analyze in cats, for which the identification file is much less exhaustive. The trend could finally be analyzed in other places where such an identification file exists, such as New York, the sociologist said. "What we also see in dogs is that their first name marks their ethnicity: the owners give names that correspond to the sounds evoked by the breed: huskies are often called Nanouk and bulldogs Churchill!" he adds. Finally, masters and mistresses follow very human social rules: from female first names to female dogs and male to male dogs.
See also: Children: having a dog would help them learn social skills
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What trends in first names are currently emerging?
Among children, Baptiste Coulmont speaks of a rumor of biblical first name trends. However, this does not seem so significant to him in view of the rare first names extirpated from the profusion of biblical names: "We find a lot of Gabriel but few Nebuchadnezzar!"
In fact, trends vary depending on many factors, including social class and region. A first name like Yael will be fashionable for girls in the Paris region and for boys in Brittany. "For girls it is from a Jewish prophetess and for boys it is a variant of Gael" explains Baptiste Coulmont.
Know that in 2020, dogs have a name that begins with the letter R; if you are planning to have a child in 5 years, start making your lists! We have already spotted Roy, Rubens or Rita.