Could some of the names that we've been given or names we've given to our children be on the verge of extinction? If you believe the data from BabyCenter.com, a website dedicated to all things baby it certainly could happen. Just over the past 12 months, that website has noted that several once-popular names have taken a nosedive in popularity.

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It was Dale Carnegie who said, "A person's name is to him or her the sweetest and most important sound in any language." Carnegie made that revelation decades ago but it still holds true. We all love to hear the sound of our own name. But for some of us the days of hearing that name as often are growing short.

Oddly enough many of the names dropping in popularity all seem to start with one particular letter. That letter is "K". The BabyCenter.com site noted that many names that begin with "K" had dropped in popularity on their list of preferred names. Some of the names had fallen some 138 positions on the list of popular names for kids in 2022.

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As you might imagine, Karen is a name that has fallen out of favor among new parents. But other "K" names like Kobe, Kyle, Kian, and Khalid had fallen significantly in popularity as well.

You can visit the BabyCenter.com website for their complete list but among boys' names Walter was down 162 spots, and Rory was down by 127 spots. Seth, Kyle, and Steven were down by 86,86, and 84 spots respectively on the Baby Center list.

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Lucy Wolski via UNsplash.com
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Some of the more common girls' names to make the list included Hayden who was down by 203 spots and Katherine who had dropped 127 spots on the list. Other once-popular girls' names no longer making the grade were Vanessa, down 111, Paige down 99, and Annabelle who dropped 98 spots.

The website offered no particular rhyme nor reason why some of the names had fallen out of favor with parents. We can only speculate that parents are looking for unique, creative, and innovative monikers for their offspring and these names were no longer fulfilling that need.

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I guess the popularity of certain names does tend to go in cycles. I think we are all aware that we are about a decade away from a multitude of grandmothers named Brittany, right? Oh, and there will probably be just as many creative ways to spell it too. But who are we to criticize, after all, no matter how you spell your name, it's still the sweetest sound that your ears will ever hear.

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