Word: popularization
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Racehorses aren't rewarded for their efforts with sneaker contracts and salary hikes. In an age of gazillionaire baseball players and soccer stars, a competitor that races for nothing other than a win lifts the image of sport and the spirit of fans. It's what made Seabiscuit so popular during the Depression - and what makes Sea the Stars so illustrious...
...York University and a second-generation Hispanic American. The emotional complexity of that cultural changeover means that parents don't just switch from Latin names to English ones in a single go. Rather, says Jasso, they may pass through a three-stage process, "with bilingual names becoming popular for a while. Those are names like Hector and Daniel for boys and Sandra and Cecilia for girls...
...Social Security Administration has tracked the fashions in baby-naming since 1880, and confirms that many such bridge names are currently enjoying an uptick. On the yearly list of 1,000 most popular names, Hector has improved from No. 193 in 1981 to 181st most popular in 2008; Daniel has gone from 12th place to 5th over the past decade; and Cecilia has similarly risen from slot No. 300 to 270. Sandra has bounced around in the top 40 for decades, but since 1990 has inched up from No. 33 to 27. (See the top 10 worst corporate name changes...
Certain girls' names, Jasso points out, survive the Spanish-English crossing better than boys' names, since the a ending (Victoria, Cordelia, Diana, Maria) is popular in both languages, while the o ending for boys' names is not. A Spanish Marco becomes an Anglo Mark; Antonio similarly becomes Anthony, and Teodoro becomes Theodore. "If names exert an influence on their own," Jasso says, "then Hispanic girls will be more likely to assimilate, and to assimilate more quickly than boys...
...Petrizzo spent much of the first six years of his Air Force career tending to intercontinental ballistic missiles. But he left his Montana base last weekend for his new permanent Predator posting at Creech. He disputes the popular perception of his new job. "When people say it's a video game - just like playing Xbox - I really take offense at that," he says. "You have to have an air sense and all that aeronautical decision-making down pat." While he has never had to fire a missile in anger, he knows that is likely to change once he begins...