Tatum

We were surprised to see Tatum only first appear on the female naming charts in 1994. We would have expected to see it show up in the mid-1970s when precociously cute Tatum O’Neal earned an Oscar at the age of 10 for “Paper Moon”. But nope. The name didn’t emerge on the U.S. female charts until 1994; and for some reason the name jumped a whopping 550 positions up the female charts in two short years (1997-1998) – another thing we can’t figure out. In the meantime, over in the boy’s camp, Tatum first emerged on the Top 1000 list in 2010 (although the name is much less popular for baby boys). We’re not sure why the sudden interest in this name? Today Tatum O’Neal is divorced from her tennis star husband, John McEnroe, and purportedly a drug addict (not to mention her famous feud with her father, Ryan). She’s resurfaced a little here and there in the news in recent years – maybe that’s what’s keeping Tatum top-of-mind for some parents of baby girls. For boy’s we don’t understand the motivating factor behind Tatum’s usage. This name is strongly identified with Tatum O’Neal which diminishes the name’s masculinity some; however, people will soon forget about Tatum O’Neal as generations progress. Tatum is a unique sounding name; we’ll give it that. But the meaning and origin (Tate’s homestead) is rather [yawn] bland. We would still consider Tatum an original name choice: androgynous, offbeat, different.