Why Hasn’t Hopalong Beat Cody?

I was speaking to a college class the other day when I mentioned that I once lived in Cody, Wyo.

Everybody in the class turned and looked at one particular student.

“Are you from Cody, too?” I asked.

“No,” he said. “I am Cody.”

I should have known. America is experiencing a groundswell of kids named Cody. I would have used the word “epidemic” instead of “groundswell,” except for the fact that my boss’s kid is named Cody.

So let me get this on the record: Cody is an outstanding name for a child. An excellent name; a wise choice; a name that only a truly brilliant and tasteful parent would come up with.

However, my wife and I would no more have named a kid Cody than you would name your kid Spokane. The name loses some of its lustre when you have to live within its city limits every day.

Plus, living in Cody, we got just a wee bit tired of hearing about Col. William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, who founded the town and generously named it after himself. Now, Buffalo Bill was a fine scout, a fine horseman, a fine shooter of endangered species, and an excellent Wild West Show impresario. But as worthy names go, you might as well name your kid Hopalong.

For some reason, however, Hopalong doesn’t even make the Top 50 of the most popular boys’ names in America. Cody, however, debuted at No. 39 in 1990 and now has reached No. 21 with a bullet, according to national statistics. It has become more popular than such standbys as Thomas, Anthony and Kevin.

Why? I have no idea, but that doesn’t mean I can’t expound authoritatively on the subject. The baby-name books say Cody means “helpful person” in Gaelic and “cushion” in old English. However, I doubt if people name their kids Cody in honor of a throw pillow. Nor do most of them name their kids in honor of Buffalo Bill. They name their kids Cody because it sounds good and it evokes the West.

The name has the scent of sagebrush, saddles and Rocky Mountains. So does the town itself, although you’d have to add in the scent of a refinery.

I do know that Cody is even more popular in the West than it is in the rest of the country. A recent Associated Press story reported that Cody is now the No. 2 boys name in Idaho, behind only Jacob.

That’s right, Cody whips the tar out of Justin and Zachary and Brandon and practically everybody else in Idaho.

As well it should. Cody is the perfect name for a kid brought up in cowboy boots. I’ve always thought that a certain bull-riding champ had one of best rodeos name of all time: Cody Custer.

Isn’t that perfect? Two yellow-haired Western icons in one handy package.

My extensive research, performed in the Name-The-Baby section of my local bookstore, shows that the name Cody was found almost exclusively west of the Mississippi when it first became popular in the ‘80s. Then, in 1990, an event in far-away New York triggered a profound, nationwide Cody upsurge. Kathie Lee and Frank Gifford named their baby Cody, and what’s more, they couldn’t shut up about him.

Now, you can’t walk Rodeo Drive without running into a Cody, and I don’t mean Cody Custer. I mean Cody Williams. Robin Williams also named one of his kids Cody.

However, popularity has bred its own problems. The name is getting too popular. The most recent edition of “Beyond Jennifer and Jason,” a baby-naming book by Linda Rosenkrantz and Pamela Redmond Satran, listed the name Cody under the heading, “Names So Far In That They’re Out,” lumping it in with the Heathers and Justins.

So the authors recommend proceeding with caution on Cody. This is bad news for parents with their hearts set on naming their kid after a Wyoming city.

There is an alternative. Under the opposite heading, “Names So Far Out That They’re In,” the authors recommend that parents consider another, under-utilized Wyoming city name.

Won’t little Casper just love his new name?

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Jim Kershner The Spokesman-Review