Names that Peaked in 2012

Skyla is the most feminine form of the Skylar / Sklyer trend - little Skyla will never be mistaken on paper for a boy.

Blending classic with contemporary elements, Alayna is considered a spin on the name Alana, which also draws inspiration from Elaine and Elena. An obscure choice until the 80s, it began to climb the charts after fencer Alayna Snell took part in the 1984 Olympics.

Italian names like Gianna, Giovanna, Giulia, and Giuliana are being used increasingly by trendy baby namers — whether they have Italian roots or not. The Gi standing in for the more conventional J at the beginning seems to automatically make a name more appealing to some.

Streamlined spelling of Sophie popular in several European nations.

Most names that start with Cam- are on the upswing, so why not this obscure term for Wales as well as for a prehistoric time period.

Mayson, usually a spelling variation of the popular boys' occupational name Mason, has been on the US Top 1000 since 2010. This follows as trend for adding the letter Y to a name or substitution as Y for another vowel, as in Ayden or Kaytlyn.

Though it's lost ground in recent years, Brylee is the kind of Smoosh Name -- combining Bryan and Lee -- that's gaining more notice.

The K makes this slightly more modern than its more traditional original

An alternative to the highly popular Aubrey.

Deriving from "Lilian", as an elaborate form of the flower name, "Lily", Lilianna is a clean and polished spelling for those wanting the pronunciation Lily-Ann-uh.

Similar to Malaysia, except completely invented.

Madelyn is the most popular, phonetically-clear spelling of the lovely and stylish French name. Madilyn edges it toward Marilyn, though that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Names that sound and/or are spelled like Dalilah exist in several languages, from the Swahili Dalili to the Arabic Dalil to the Hebrew Delilah. While all these forms have pretty sounds, you'll encounter less confusion if you go with one of the original forms rather than Dalilah.

Carson is finally beginning to fall slightly after a nearly 2-decade reign of popularity, and we suspect its many spelling variations will follow suit.

This creative spelling variation of Landon is widely used but still lags far behind the original.

This much less popular variation draws more from Karin.

This inventive spelling is part cowboy and part Kardashian.

Jaylee belongs to the family of names including Haylee and Caylee, all of which experienced their greatest popularity five to ten years ago.

Aubrianna, along with Aubriella, is an elaboration of a perfectly good if too trendy name, Aubrey. The final -anna or -ana or -ella does not improve on the original. But A names of all kinds continue to appeal to the masses.

In all its iterations, this name is on the rise. Ariana and Arianna are both highly popular choices in the US, and as with other popular appellations, creative spellings are inevitable. The trendy y in place of the i might be tempting, but anyone bearing this spelling will constantly be correcting people who assume one of the two dominant versions.