Hello! My Name Is ________.

Since the time when we were deciding on names for our kids, I've been interested in trends in the popularity of baby names.

So I followed a link today to babynamemap.com, which allows visitors to browse and sort baby names by geography and popularity (using 2006 data). The interface is more than a little clunky, but it still makes for interesting browsing.

Discoveries:

Zachary was the 33rd most popular name for baby boys in the U.S. for 2006, one spot ahead of Caleb and one spot behind Jose.

Benjamin was the 24th most popular name for baby boys in the U.S. for 2006, one spot ahead of Samuel and one spot behind Nathan.

Phoebe was the 366th most popular name for baby girls in the U.S. for 2006, more popular than Kathleen (371), Denise (379), and Anne (460), but not at popular as Violet (261), Georgia (273), or London (353). Interesting.

I also discovered this nifty tool which graphs the popularity (in the U.S.) of any first name over the past 130 years.

Zachary is not in the top 1,000 boys names until the 1950s, but then becomes the 16th most popular name in the 1990s.

Phoebe is the 305th most popular girls name in 1890, falls out of the top 1,000 in the 1970s and 1980s, then is back up to #366 by 2006.

Benjamin goes from being 47th in the 1890s to 137th in the 1950s, then back up to 24th in 2006.

I love this stuff.

DISCLAIMER: No, we aren't planning on having any more kids. At the risk of being inappropriately self-disclosing, Houserspawn(tm) is out of the manufacturing buisness, and is now focused solely on the development and promotion of our existing prototypes.

Houserspawn(tm) Classic - October 2004

Fourteen-month-old Ben, dressed as a very frightening sippy cup-toting pumpkin, terrorizes the neighborhood on Halloween night 2004.

Phoebe's Favorite Things

Phoebe made this project in school last week. It represents her favorite sport, the thing that is most important to her, her favorite book, and her favorite food.

(The poster reads "Soccer", "My Family", "Fairy Realm", and "bacon".)

Three things to note: First, as much as we love Phoebe's kindergarten teacher, we're not sure what to do about the fact that she regularly misspells Phoebe's name, transposing the "o" and the "e".

Second, Phoebe wasn't nearly as amused as I was when I asked whether her favorite sport was really bacon.

Third, when I told Phoebe I would put her picture up on our blog, her response was "Ewww, that sounds disgusting!"

Soccer Wrap-Up

Zach and Phoebe's Red Team split the last two games of their season over the weekend, losing to the Green Team 2-1 on Saturday and beating the Yellow Team 2-1 on Sunday.

Phoebe finishes the season with a few nice defensive stops, a better understanding of the game, and a profound feeling of relief that we will no longer be dragging her over to the soccer field on Saturday mornings.

Zach finishes the season with three goals, some renewed confidence in his athletic abilities, and although he would deny it, some small amount of enthusiasm for soccer that comes from being an active player on a winning team.

Ben liked the fact that his friend Asher was on his soccer team, but overall, he's pretty glad that the season's over.

So what's next for team Houserspawn(tm)? This is a good question, and a bit of a dilemma for us.

Given a choice, the kids would prefer to stay home, read books, play dress-up, do crafts, and play video games. But Linda and I agree that they need to be involved in some sort of team sport or activity during the fall and winter months.

The neighborhood league where they played soccer also sponsors basketball and bowling, so these are likely possibilities. We might also look into karate at the local Y. Frankly, I'm fine with anything that doesn't involve having the kids sitting at home all winter.

Houserspawn(tm) Classic - October 2000

I have a strong preference for classic Halloween costumes. I'll take a vampire, ghost, zombie, or mummy over a Power Ranger, Dora the Explorer, Buzz Lightyear, or a Disney Princess any day.

(Sad but true: out of the 70 or 80 kids that came to our door on Halloween last year, close to 50% of the girls were dressed as Disney Princesses.)

I don't have much say in what costumes the kids choose for Halloween these days, and I'm somewhat nostalgic for the days when they were young enough that I could make the decision for them.

This Vampire Zach costume (from his first Halloween, when he was just 10 mos old) is probably my favorite of any that the kids have worn over the years.

Sunday Soccer Highlights

(My apologies for yet another soccer post. I'm increasingly aware that I'm becoming an insufferable Soccer Dad).

Zach and Phoebe's Red Team played the Black Team to a 1-1 draw in their game today.

Phoebe's game continues to improve -- she got more playing time than usual today, and she kept after the ball the entire time she was on the field. She even tried to muscle in front of a much bigger kid while jockeying for position on a throw-in. That's my girl.

Zach's scoring streak extended to three games, as he scored the only Red Team goal. He actually created several scoring chances for himself by working hard, being steadfast in pursuing the play, and playing with a measure of reckless abandon. It is so satisfying to see him have some success this year. I'm proud of my boy.

On the other hand, I'm on the hook for another milkshake, thanks to Zach's goal.

Further evidence that I am becoming an insufferable Soccer Dad:

First, "Soccer" now the most 4th most frequently used label on the Houserspawn(tm) blog, after "Phoebe", "Ben", and "Zach".

Second, I turned down Linda's offer to let me catch the kickoff of the Eagles game this afternoon in order to watch Zach and Phoebe's soccer team play. Frankly, I'm enjoying Red Team soccer more than Eagles football these days.

Another Red Team Win

KEDRON (AP) -- Zach, the boy from down the street, the coach's daughter, and the best player on the team all provided goals in a winning effort as the Red team defeated Yellow 4-0 Saturday, giving Red their third consecutive victory.

It started out looking like it might be a rough day for the Red team, as they had just enough players to field a full team. But even though every available Red player was on the field for the entire game (while Yellow had enough players to rest two at a time), the Yellow team was no match for the Red team's offensive attack.

Zach scored his second goal of the season, earning himself another celebratory milkshake at Nifty Fifty's.

Phoebe played mostly on defense, did a good job paying attention to the game, and even kicked the ball a few times.

The Red team has three more regular season games before the big Parents vs. Kids showdown two weeks from today.

Stratego

When Zach and I play a game, it's usually something on the GameCube, or occasionally a card game like Magic.

So it was something of a novelty when we got out the old Stratego board game tonight and played a couple of games.

As the games progressed, I taught him the importance of not signaling your plan of attack too early, using decoys, and waiting for the right moment to strike with the Marshall.

At one point, I even used an old Stratego deception trick: I reached for one of my bomb pieces as if I intended to move it but then changed my mind, all in order to (falsely) signal that the bomb piece was something other than a bomb. Zach took the bait, attacked the square containing my bomb and lost his Colonel. But being a quick study, he added that trick to his arsonal, and fooled me with the same ploy later in the same game.

I think he's hooked.

Houserspawn(tm) Classic - September 2003

Zach and Phoebe lounging out on the front lawn on a sunny September day in 2003.

Crash

It's been a week or so since I've posted, as the Houserspawn(tm) desktop suffered a catastrophic hard drive failure last week.

We're now back up and running and (pretty much) fully restored.

One silver lining in the whole hard drive-replacement-and-recovery ordeal is that it provided us an occasion to re-visit our old digital photos as we were pulling them from our backups.

In the days and weeks to come, I'll post some of these old, rarely-seen photos from the Houserspawn(tm) vaults.

He Shoots, He Scores

Zach scored his first career soccer goal yesterday in his team's game against the Green Team.

Before the game, Coach Vince told Zach that he had a good feeling about him today, and asked him if he thought he could put the ball in the net for him. Zach told him he could, and Coach started him at center.

The game was tied 1-1 when, in the 2nd quarter, the Green goalie misplayed a ball in front of the net, and Zach was there to put it in.

The call (provided by me, while pacing the sidelines and screaming like some kind of unhinged lunatic) went something like this:

"GO, ZACH, THAT'S YOUR BALL! GO GET IT! GO GET IT! SHOOT! SHOOT! SHOOT!"

"Did it go in? Did it go in the net? YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

His goal put the Red Team up 2-1, and they never looked back. Final score: Red Team 4, Green Team 1.

After the game, the kids and I enjoyed a celebratory meal of burgers, chicken nuggets, and milkshakes at Nifty Fifty's.

Three more weeks in the season - here's hoping for more trips to Nifty's before the season's done.

The Red Team

Zach & Phoebe team had their team pictures taken for soccer on Saturday. I'm not going to remember all of the kids' names, but I'll do my best.

Pictured from left to right: the girl who scored one of the goals last week, the overly-energetic boy that makes the coach crazy, the coach's daughter, the boy with the hair (aka Zach), the girl with the best soccer skills on the team, the girl who sometimes runs out on the field when she's supposed to be on the bench, the quiet girl, and the girl who sometimes reaches down and picks the grass during games (aka Phoebe)

Back row: Coach Vince, and the other guy who helps out

Not pictured: The neighbor's boy who shares Zach's Pokemon obsession (and whose mom forgot about picture day), the boy who had his leg in a cast, and the girl whose mom couldn't find the place where the pictures were being taken