Some names never seem to go out of style, like David or Emily. Some never really catch on. Not many girls are named Laurel, even fewer are named lauryl sulfate. And now a study in the May 5th issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that the faster a name gains in popularity, the more rapidly it falls.

一些名字似乎一直没有过时，比如大卫或艾米丽；一些名字则从未变得流行起来，没有太多女孩被起名为劳瑞尔，叫“劳瑞”或“索菲特”的就更少了。发表在5月5号出版的《美国科学院院报》上的一项研究表明，一个名字流行开来的速度越快，它被人忘记的速度也越快。

The authors were interested in why products or cultural phenomena die out. Are they displaced by the Next Big Thing? Or do they fade away, leaving behind a void that has to be filled by something. Well, one cultural taste that’s easy to catalogue is what we name our kids. So the researchers looked at the popularity of baby names in France and the US over the past 100 years. And they found that names that enjoy a meteoric rise—Madison and Brittany come to mind—fall from the charts just as quick.

研究者们对一种产品或文化现象消亡背后的原因非常感兴趣，它们是被新的事物取代了？还是自身逐渐消失，留下亟待填补的空白？我们知道，人们怎样命名他们的孩子体现了一种文化趣味，而这种现象又很容易被统计分析，所以研究者们就统计了过去一百年法国和美国两地新生儿名字的流行度，他们发现名字（比如麦迪逊或布列塔尼）的流行就像流星，来得快去的也快。

The scientists also asked expectant couples what names they’d consider inflicting on their children. And found that most parents tend to avoid names they feel are too “faddish,” ones that became overnight sensations, like Kristi and Cody. So those names soon disappear. Which could mean that the world may be safe from Cody Juniors.

研究者们也询问了准爸爸妈妈们将如何命名他们的孩子，发现这些夫妇并不打算给自己的孩子取太过时兴的名字，就好比“克里斯特”“科迪”这样一夜之间流行起来的。这样，那些名字也会很快消失。这可能意味着，将来不会有太多叫科迪•朱尼尔的人了。

（英语点津Jennifer编辑）

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