UK Baby Names

As always, that oy sound is problematic.

Latter-day Ashley that comes in a range of spelling variations. Ansley and Ainsley have both hit the Top 1000 in recent years.

Twiggy was the working name of English international supermodel and original 'mod squad' girl Lesley Lawson. While the name conjures images of cool 60s parties and glamour, be warned that this could be a hard name to wear as a teenager, particularly if you're not stick thin. Perhaps best to keep this one as a middle name or nickname.

Not only did rocker John Mellencamp name his son Speck, but he appended the middle name Wildhorse to it.

Now that Kimberly is no longer one of the top girl names, Kim or long form Kimball feel more gender neutral.

Try Abraham or Lincoln instead.

To honor Roy's son...or grandson.

Another stiff northerly choice.

Writer Anne Tyler gave this apt name to the hippie child in her novel Amateur Marriage, but she wasn't the first -- it was also used by the Puritans. Today it would be quite a loaded choice.

This trendy spelling of Emily may be benefiting from the rise of Emery.

One place-name that doesn't make the cut as a person name, associated with several commercial enterprises. We've seen it used by Chicago Cubs fans — Sheffield is the name of a major street bordering Wrigley Field.

One occupational name unlikely to find a single taker.

A new entry is the fashionable new occupational name category -- and a jolly job it must be -- with the added attraction of relating to the great early 20th century American artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler, of "Whistler's Mother" fame.

Makes Ida more feminine but no more fashionable.

Chosen by Woody Allen for his son with Mia Farrow (now renamed Seamus), honoring the great old-time baseball player Satchel Paige, and by Spike Lee for his daughter, but far too eccentric for ordinary use.

Brock plus.

A jolly, bawdy image that recalls the hero of the eighteenth-century novel Tristram Shandy; also a drink in British pubs.

Brings Jennifer into the twenty-first century.