Baby Name Popularity News

Which names have been most popular on Nameberry for the first half of 2014? Here, up-to-the-minute results on what’s on top and what’s hot.

Abby Sandel has lots of baby name news this week–including a new trend for boys’ names and some interesting twin combos.

Some fascinating surprises in Kelli Brady’s analysis of the most popular names since 1880–such as Patricia being #3 and James–not John–the top name for boys over time.

Guest blogger Brian Tomlin examines the roots of the baby names that were widely used in early 19th century America–presidential, literary and biblical.

Which names transcend the kind of date-stamping that tells you Shirley is getting on 80 or Susan is a Baby Boomer or Mason was born in the Age of Kardashian?

Place names are among the hottest baby names, and now the website Swimmingly shows us just how hot many country names are when it comes to being translated for babies.

Angela Mastrodonato looks at generation-bridging names: names that would fit both mom and baby, such as Natalie, Allison and Kyle.

Once in the Top 200, these names have fallen off the list completely. Which ones deserve to be revived? Otis? Viola? Freddie? Cast your votes!

The chicest names in Europe are not the elaborate and obscure but short, simple, familiar names like these easy choices for both boys and girls.

Here are Dantea’s picks for the best names given to the fewest recorded numbers of babies What are yours?

In the 70s, “Love Story” shot the name Jennifer into the stratosphere; Nick Turner wonders if “The Fault in Our Stars” could do the same for the already ascending Hazel.

And now here’s the girls’ edition of Abby Sandel’s bold predictions for the Top 20 names of 2033, from Charlotte to Hadley.

Abby Sandel goes out on a limb with a carefully reasoned forecast of the top names of 2033. Will Levi reach Number 1? Boys today, girls on Friday.

Yes, Noah was Number 1 across the land, but only in top place in three states. And Aria, Serenity, Jace and Gavin were Top 10 names…somewhere. Here, some of the more surprising State statistics.

Arika Okrent takes a look at the lower depths of the pop lists from 1880 to 1932, and makes some fascinatingly eccentric finds, pairing them into such couples as Orange and Leafy, and Okey and Erie.

Celebrities–they’re just like us–and plenty of them choose the same popular names that we do, as shown in Abby Sandel’s Nameberry 9 this week.

What happens if you combine the different spellings of a name? Kelli Brady analyzes how that changes the baby name popularity rankings.

There’s a new Number 1 name for boys….and a new Number 2, as the boys take the fashion spotlight away from the girls for the very first time.

We want to hear your predictions! In advance of the soon-to-be released Social Security 2013 listings, send us your guesses of the new Top 10 for each gender, and be eligible to win a great personalized prize!

The Australian top name stats are out, and Oz native Anna Otto is here to analyze the fastest rising names on the list. We’ll soon be able to compare them to the rising stars in the US.

Close to a thousand names have appeared on the Social Security list only once. We’ve made a selection of the ones we think have the best chance for a return appearance. Which of them you would pick?

Do celebrity faves automatically become citizen faves? Not necessarily. Some cases in point: Clementine, Poppy, Dashiell.

Let’s play another all-berry baby name game. Let’s say you only had one daughter and one son, and you had to choose their names from the same U.S. popularity rank. Which pair would you pick?

This week, Abby Sandel considers the question of extreme unusual names–and how our perceptions of them might change over time. Any names that you once considered too weird to consider but seem perfectly acceptable now?

During Jennifer’s 15-year reign at Number 1, nearly a million girls were given the name. Could one of them be you?