Some names never seem to go out of style, like David or Emily. Some never really  51  Not many girls are named Laurel,  52  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  53  a name gains in popularity, the more rapidly it falls.

The authors were interested in why products or cultural phenomena  54  Are they displaced by the Next Big Thing? Or do they fade away, leaving behind a void that  55  by something.

Well, one cultural taste that's easy to catalogue is  56  we name our kids. So the researchers looked at the  57  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.

The scientists also asked  58  couples what names they'd consider inflicting on their children, and found that most parents tend to avoid names they feel are too "faddish,"  59  that became overnight sensations, like Kristi and Cody. So those names soon disappear,  60  could mean that the world may be safe from Cody Juniors.