The Strange Way Hurricanes Shape Baby Naming Trends in Louisiana

🐊 KNGT 🐊 | Louisiana — When a hurricane hits Louisiana, its name can become part of how people remember it forever. I know for a lot of us we will always remember Hurricane Laura.

When these names destroy so much and put a bad taste in our mouth baby names often become less popular. Names like Katrina and Harvey dropped sharply after the storms that shared their names caused much destruction, Stacker reports.

In the 1980s and 1990s, there were only about five weather disasters per year in the U.S. that caused more than one billion dollars in damage. Since 2010, that number jumped to about 16 or so, storms are getting costlier and more common, Stacker reports. This matters because as storms get bigger and news spreads faster, the names might stick more in people's minds, and make those names feel too sad or heavy for baby naming.

What are unpopular baby names in Louisiana?

In Louisiana, names tied to stories of harm can feel too close and painful. After Hurricane Katrina hit the big easy in 2005, the name Katrina fell pretty much off the list of baby names here in the Bayou State. That means many parents decided not to use the name. For boy names, similar changes happened. The name Andrew, once very popular, dropped after Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992. Harvey fell after Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Matthew and Michael also dropped after storms in their names struck, speeding up trends that already were declining, Stacker reports.

But not every name fades. The name Maria dropped a bit after Hurricane Maria in 2017, but then started climbing again by 2020, this was due to some cultural meanings of the name. Some names like Florence and Irene even grew more popular after the storms, they didn’t become less desirable, Stacker reports.

Here in Louisiana, we know storms by their names: Katrina, Ida, maybe Zeta and Laura. It may be that names like Ida or Laura could stay popular, or might drop depending on how big and how remembered those storms become. The main take away is, big storms leave big marks not just on land, but in our memories, and even in the names we give our kiddos.