I think there are several things influencing the name trend. One is canon. In Virtually Destroyed, Lois revealed that she wanted to name a child Clark (granted this was when she wasn't planning on marrying Clark, but it shows a strong tendency to naming a child after someone). And I'm now blanking on the name of the episode, but one of them began with Lois frantically trying to take care of a bunch of superbabies named after Lois, Clark, and everybody they had ever met (and on a side note, that scene was comedy gold!). Lois seems at least somewhat inclined toward using the names of family in thinking of children's names and it's easy to run with that.
I think the second factor is a bit of deference. Giving names is a deeply personal thing, and frankly not all that rational. You can speculate a lot about a person's tastes in music knowing a few of the things they like and dislike. The same goes for movies, food, etc.
Names are kind of arbitrary. I'm not much of a conformist, but most of my favorite names are rather traditional. Why? I have no idea. Most of my favorite names are also the ones that work at every stage of life. I figure, it's kind of tough to be a little kid named Fred. Fred is kind of a grown up name. Similarly, it's probably really tough to be a grown up named Buffy (amazing how that bit of metahumor stayed funny on Buffy the Vampire Slayer). I figure Katherine is a great name because when you're a little kid, you can be Katie, and when you're a sophisticated, yet rebellious teenager, you can be Kate and when you have a fancy nameplate and an office, and a secretary to answer your phone, you can be Katherine. Nevertheless, there are plenty of names that I love that other people I know and whom I consider to have good taste hate. I can also think of names that I hate and they love. Names are kind of funny that way. (And it was also very funny when my best friend and his wife gave their son a very old fashioned name that they figured everyone would be skeptical of, but that is my absolute favorite boy's name). The one thing I do know for certain about names is that I would never impose on Lois and Clark one of my other favorite boy's names, Alexander, because while it works at every stage in life and even has a great meaning, it's got the name Lex built right into it!
We aren't Lois or Clark and while we have no problem picking their favorite songs, ice cream flavors, or books for them, we hesitate to choose what they'd name their kids for fear of subtley or not so subtley imposing our own preferences on them. In terms of literature, music, art, and food, the show gave us plenty of fodder as to what the characters enjoyed and knew. With names, we never got more than Lois's tendency toward choosing 'family' names. While the writers of a show often have no problem pulling things out of the air when determining the tastes of the characters (they sometimes seem to go as far as to forget there is such a thing as canon), fanfic writers seem hesitant to break entirely with the familiar.
Rac
