Names Of The Year 2012

So another year comes to an end, and it's time for me to make my predictions for the SSA list coming out next May. This time around, I'm just gonna make some basic predictions because I haven't had as much time this year to make a more exhaustive research.

For boys:

- I think that for the first time in about 12 years, Jacob will no longer be at the top. The replacement? Mason of course.

Winter Names

So December is upon us, and during this month arrives the season of winter. Now I must admit I cannot stand winter because I hate the freezing temperatures, but I do like it during the brief period between Christmas and New Years. Although I'm not a fan of the season, it does have several interesting names that could be used on a child.

I've divided the names into boy/girl categories. Although any of these names could be used on either sex if you want to, I decided to split them into the sex I feel would wear the name best. A few of them do pop up in both lists:

Boys

Name In Coffin: Fanny

Fanny, as a name, is a nickname form of Frances, and means "from France". As with many nicknames used as full names, some are everlasting, such as Charlie or Lily, others fall from grace. Fanny falls into the latter category, which might be surprising for some since nicknames such as Danny are still in vogue. However, it's not so much it's sound that has become outdated, it's the meaning the name has in slang talk that has probably sealed it's fate as a coffin baby name.

"Fanny", as most of you know, means your backside aka your butt. Probably not the best meaning to name a girl these days. Even worse, go to the UK or Australia, and "fanny" over there means the female sexual organ aka vagina. Heck even fanny packs are seen as unfashionable and outdated these days.

Halloween Names

Who doesn't love Halloween? Well maybe a few people who get scared too easily, but I think most people enjoy this holiday and have a lot of fun decorating the house and getting the most outrageous costumes.

Of course, if you love this holiday and want a Halloween inspired name, there are plenty around to choose from. All of these are wearable, although a few might be for brave baby namers, but if you love Halloween, you have to be a bit brave. So take a look at the list below, and write down the ones you love the most.

Girls

Sabrina - after the "Teenage Witch"
Morgana - the evil witch from "Merlin"
Artemis - Greek goddess of the hunt
Persephone - ruler of the underworld
Lua/Luna - moon, in portuguese and spanish respectively
Aurelia - golden

Name In Spotlight: Tennessee

So the latest celeb baby name making waves across the internet today is Reese Witherspoon's newborn son, named Tennessee James. With such a bold first name, people are either gonna love it or hate it. I'm actually on board with it, sounds like a fun strong name. State names have been used as human names for a very long time, we don't bat an eyelid anymore whenever we hear about someone named Montana or Dakota. However, most state names haven't transformed into popular human names, and when we hear about them being used, we are usually surprised.

How US Naming Influences The World

I've been thinking about this issue for quite a while now, and I've decide to share with you my thoughts. We all know how the US adopts names from all over the world, and sometimes it doesn't respect the names' origins by not using a certain name on the appropriate gender. We all know how that works, right? The so called "unisex" names have been migrating from boys to girls for over a century now, at the very least. But how do these naming trends influence the rest of the world you say? Well the most obvious answer is because the US is definitely the most influential country of the world, at least the western world, from its celeb culture, from movie stars and singers, to TV shows, to products, to pretty much everything.

Name In Trend: Zoey

Zoey, an alternative spelling of Zoe, is a greek name in origin that means "life". Zoe and Zoey have recently exploded in popularity, and there seems to be no stopping these names.

Zoey, the alternative spelling, is quite trendy right now, and zooming super fast up the girls ranking. So why is this spelling so popular? One reason might be the show "Zoey 101" on Disney, that ran from 2005 to 2008, making this spelling more noticed. Another reason might be because there is a character named Zoey on "How I Met Your Mother", one of the most watched sitcoms in the US. However, I think one of the biggest reasons is because Zoe can be pronounced "zoh", rhyming with the name Joe. For example, this is how stylist and designer Rachel Zoe pronounces her last name. With the spelling Zoey, there is no issue with the pronounciation.

So let's see how Zoey has performed in the ranking shall we?

2012 List: Mathematical Prediction

Last year in September, I did a mathematical prediction for the list published this May, and now I'm doing one for the one released next year.
If you didn't read my post last year, basically what I did was look at the number of babies born with a certain boy name, see how much it increased and decreased from the previous year, and apply those changes to the new ranking. Like I said last year, we never know if a name will continue to rise or start to fall, since things change year to year, but it's all in good fun.

So let's look at the future ranking of 2012, if names performed exactly the way they did in 2011:

01 MASON (+1)
02 JACOB (-1)
03 WILLIAM (=)
04 NOAH (+1)
05 JAYDEN (-1)

England & Wales Ranking (2011)

So the combined ranking for England and Wales is out, and there are new number ones for boys and girls. Harry takes over from Oliver, and Amelia is the new ranking leader for girls.

However, the popularity lists for England and Wales separately show how different naming tastes can be for each region.

Wales

1. Oliver / Lily
2. Jack / Amelia
3. Jacob / Ava
4. Riley / Ruby
5. Ethan / Olivia
6. Alfie / Seren
7. Harry / Emily
8. Dylan / Ella
9. Thomas / Mia
10. Charlie / Megan

England

We're on Facebook!

So I decided to start a page for XXNamesInTrendXY on Faceboook. Now you can follow me there, I'll be updating the page whenever the blog has a new post, and I'll also be posting some other comments and thoughts on baby names in general to keep it going regularly.

Here is the Facebook Link. This link is also at the right side of the blog under "Facebook", if you ever need to access our page. I hope you join me in this new era, I'm quite excited. Don't forget to like the page, it'll need fans! :)


Thanks for the support, and I hope to see you all there.
Skye Rhyly

Names of the Upcoming 2012/2013 TV Season

TV has always had a big influence in popular culture and the names people use on their kids. We can confidently state that TV was responsible for the rise of names such as Alexis and Charlie for girls, or Dylan and Bailey for boys. Because of this, I decided to check out what names are gonna be used in the upcoming new shows for the 2012-2013 season and do a ranking. I didn't use names from upcoming reality TV series, since those aren't readily available, and a lot of them feature different people each week.

I searched names from new shows on all the major channels: CBS, FOX, ABC, NBC, CW, A&E, Showtime, Disney Channel, AMC, MTV, amongst others. So what are the most common names of the upcoming TV season?


Boys

Name In Spotlight: Scotland

So a new Kardashian baby is born, and of course everyone is talking about it. The name, of course, is the focus of this conversation. While Penelope is a perfectly normal and well used name, and is sure to have a boost in popularity next year, I decided to focus on the middle name, Scotland. Now usually middle names don't get a boost of popularity because they're often neglected whenever we discuss a baby's name, whether on TV or magazines. Therefore, people in general don't get enough exposure to it, hence it doesn't affect the name's popularity. However, I wouldn't underestimate the Kardashian effect. Could the name Scotland get a boost of popularity?

Name In Trend: Liam

The name Liam is of Old German origin and means "helmet" or "protection". Whilst it is a name in it's own right, it can also be a nickname for William, which might explain why it's been trending so quickly.

Liam has been a name that has been popping up everywhere, from TV shows like 90210, which features a troubled surfer dude named Liam, to celebrities naming their kids Liam. Let's check out just how far this name has come in the popularity ranking:

Update On Previous Names In Trend (2)

Another year has passed, a new ranking has been released. Let's see how all the Names In Trend have done the past year.

First, the boys:

Ryder

It has climbed from #135 to #108, and seems to be a huge threat to next years top 100. It fits right in with the cool cowboy names trend that parents are loving on their boys.

Karter

Climbing over 50 places the past year, there seems to be no stopping this one. K- names are very trendy for boys, and this one is no exception.

Rhys

After being super trendy the past few years, it unfortunately crashed in 2011 when it fell 15 places. Not too significant, but I wonder if Reese going feminine is making parents reconsider any spelling of that name. It's too bad.

Movie "John Carter" - Floppy Name?

So the sci-fi movie "John Carter", played by actor Taylor Kitsch, was released earlier this year and was met with mixed reviews. However, what caused a lot of commotion was how it turned out to be a flop of epic proportions, causing Disney a loss of over 200 million dollars.
One of the most cited reasons as why this movie flopped was its unappealing title, "John Carter". When you do a sci-fi movie, people are looking for intriguing titles that catch your attention, and unfortunately "John Carter" just doesn't do it since it's a super common, safe, boring name. Not the kind of name you associate with aliens, mystery, adventure, space, etc. One quick look around the net and nearly every review mentions the badly named titled as one of the worst things about it.
Marketing a movie is super important to attract viewers, especially in a difficult time like nowadays, where less people are willing to pay to go the cinema. Disney failed by meeting one of the most important criteria of movie marketing: having an appealing name.
A name like John has been handed over to more than 5 million men in the US alone - Adding the last name Carter and it sounds like he's a policitian, perhaps a plumber, or an ordinary old man living next door to you. The same would apply to names along the lines of James, Robert, Richard, Daniel or Michael. It really was a huge error that could have easily been avoided.
Now not only has Disney's chairman quit his position, but "John Carter" has cemented itself (and the name) as one of the biggest movie flops of all time. I guess Shakespeare's "what's in a name?" also applies to movies.

2011 List Released: How Accurate Were My Predictions?

Finally the SSA released the list of most popular baby names of 2011, after a slight delay. The new top 1000 ranking was released yesterday during the "Today Show" on NBC. The new top 10s for each sex are the following:

Boys

01 Jacob

02 Mason

03 William

04 Jayden

05 Noah

06 Michael

07 Ethan

08 Alexander

09 Aiden

10 Daniel

Girls

01 Sophia

02 Isabella

03 Emma

04 Olivia

05 Ava

06 Emily

07 Abigail

08 Madison

09 Mia

10 Chloe

So I was right with Jacob sticking at #1 for another year, however its numbers are now decreasing rapidly, let's hope it continues. I predicted William to keep climbing, and it did, thanks mostly to the royal wedding I believe. I predicted Michael to drop out of the top3 along with Ethan, both spot on. I predicted Mason surging into the top5, so that was a great prediction - I didn't expect it at #2 though, but my mathematical predictional last summer was spot on with this position for Mason. Elijah didn't crack the top10, although it did climb a few spots. I was right in Anthony dropping out of the top10, but not Daniel. I was right with Liam joining the top20, but not Jackson - I think multiple spellings are stopping this one from climbing. My predictions for climbers in the top100 were all spot on (Jaxon, Levi, Henry, Wyatt, Oliver). I also correctly predicted Bentley joining the top100 but not Asher - althought that should happen soon. Grayson and Bryson joined the top100 so I was spot on with those, and Kayden, Ryder, Easton and Jace came close. I mentioned the fastest climber of 2011, Brantley, so I'm proud of that one haha. Emmett, Ezra, Milo, Luca, Enzo and Declan all climbed, but I had a few misses with Kingsley, Finn, Rhys (what happened there?) and Kellan stalling. I correctly predicted the debuts of Maxton, Flynn, Crosby and Zeke. Harvey returned and Oakley almost came back too, just missing out at #1004.

For the girls, I was spot on with pretty much all of my predictions, from Harper, Adele, Quinn, Aria, Alaina, Mila, Maci, Aubree, Kate, Ellie, Hadley, Stella, Adelyn, Willow, Isla, Kinley, Camila, etc... The old lady names I predicted also climbed, especially June. I also correctly predicted Sophia to be #1, replacing Isabella. The only main misses I had was predicting a debut for Pippa, there was a rise but not significant. I completely missed Briella being the fastest climber though...

Overall I was pretty happy with how accurate my predictions were. How did you guys do? Any surprises this year?

Name In Spotlight: Maxwell

Well it had to be posted really... For those of you unaware about celebrity baby names, you might be taken by surprise, but Maxwell is on the spotlight because of its usage as a girl name.

When Lindsay Sloane named her daughter Maxwell, I was ready to ignore it as one of those outrageous celebrity baby names. But now Jessica Simpson has also given her daughter the first name Maxwell (with Drew as a middle name believe it or not), so I thought I had to post something on this issue...

Maxwell is an old male name of English origin meaning "from the great well". Looking at the SSA lists, Maxwell has never ever charted in the top1000 for girls, so the "robbing" of this name to the pink side is definitely just a 2012 movement. We will have to wait and see if this will have an effect or not in the 2012 ranking, I personally think it won't become unisex - although there should be an increase in popularity, maybe even debuting for the first time for girls. As a boys name, Maxwell has charted since 1882, and it sits at #134 for 2010, pretty high up the ranking.

Uncommon Names...

I normally don't talk about stuff that doesn't fit this blog's purpose, but I decided I had to tackle this subject because I felt personally targeted by something I saw. So I read this article about giving kids uncommon names, especially boys, would result in them being depressed and becoming violent. This is the kind of "study" that I just refuse to believe, borderline offensive. What's funny is that the data most of these studies provide is highly debatable.

First, from my experience, I've met several guys with uncommon (not wacky) names that had no problems groing up. I'm also a testimony to that since I'm named Skye, and while there are several Skyler's that go by that as a nickname, few have Skye as a full name. This also applies to guys with the so called "unisex" names, I've never met one that was exclusively bullied because he had a "girls" name. Bullies don't bully someone because of their name, they will bully kids that they feel are "weaker" because of the way they act, they sence fragility and prey on it. Of course they will most likely make fun of their name, but they'll make fun of pretty much everything about them, it won't matter to them if you're a John or a Kerry, both will get teased. I've met several men with unisex names that were never bullied, because they never put themselves in that position, and others named Christopher, Matthew and Michael who were teased to no end - and that's just the way things work when it comes to bullies.

Name In Trend: Aria

 The name Aria as a girl name is of hebrew origin and means "lioness". It can actually be a boy's name too and I have seen male Aria's around usually of middle eastern background, but in the US it has been used almost exclusively on girls. This name also contains a musical association: we call an "aria" to a solo performance by the leading character in an opera. Interesting, right?


Aria is a pretty recent name to the girl's popularity chart, having debuted in 2000. However, a name isn't "new" just because it's only been recently popular, unless it's a nouveau invention. The name has been recently adopted for a TV character in the show Pretty Little Liars, which may be why it has been zooming up the chart the past couple of years.

Let's take a look at the graph with Aria's evolution:

Names In Spotlight: Portuguese Names

I decided to do a little article about portuguese names, for those of you who don't know, I'm half portuguese and I'm currently living in Portugal with some of my family. Now I've been to Portugal many times, but it's interesting to be back and stay here for a while, and also with my newish found love of baby names. I started to pay attention to portuguese names, and how they differ to american names in general.

In Portugal, when you name your baby, it's taken seriously. This means, no wacky names, certainly no trendy stuff for you to find (trendy names here are usually just normal names that are picking up a lot of popularity). Also, surnames remain surnames, and there are no unisex names - the rare exceptions are nicknames. However, you can give your son a female name if its used in the middle spot, and vice-versa for girls. For example, I know a boy named Afonso Lara (Lara, after his mother), and a girl named Marta Diogo. Usually you'll find many boys with the middle name Maria, and some girls with the middle name João (the equivalent of John). There are a lot of names with male and female spellings, so you'll have Ivo for boys, Iva for girls, Joaquim for boys, Joaquina for girls, André for boys, Andreia for girls, therefore there isn't a big demand to "steal" names. As a general rule "-o" and "-im" endings are masculine, and "-a" endings are feminine. There are some masculine names ending in "-a", but not too many, and they're mostly of foreign origin. There are even less female names ending in "-o". "E" endings are used widely by both genders, and while there are more male names ending in consonants than female, no particular consonant is more masculine than feminine, besides the already mentioned "-im" ending.

Name In Spotlight: Blue

Well, I had to post something. It's the name everyone is talking about this week, for one simple reason: it's the name pop singer Beyonce and her fiancé, rapper Jay-Z, bestowed upon their newborn daughter: Blue Ivy Carter. Surprisingly safe amongst all the wacky celeb baby names that we've learned about.

Colors as given names are very rare, however Blue has been picking up some steam as a name for a while, especially amongst celebrities. Last year we had Alicia Silverstone's son Bear Blu, which caused a lot of controversy, and the first one that I can think about was Cher's son Elijah Blue (who is now in his 30s).

Celebrity Baby Names of 2011 - Review

2011 was an interesting year for celeb baby names, although not as much as previous years. Maybe Hollywood is turning the crazy down, which might be positive for the babies themselves, but for us who like to see how far they can go, it certainly isn't as much fun.

Like last year, I'll review some celeb baby names given throughout the year, for sons and daughters, with my opinions on each name. I'll then give my picks on the best and worst names of the year.

BOYS:

Flynn - Probably the trendiest name around, although still uncommon (not for long I think). Regardless of whether it becomes uber trendy, I happen to adore this name, so I definitely encourage more parents to use it. It's fresh and has a certain edge that Finn simply doesn't. Another great choice would be Wynn.

Robert Ford - Dont like. At all. Robert has always been one of those names I've never liked, borderline hating it, and I still don't see it's appeal on baby boys these days, I think it's quite dated. Ford is trying too hard to be cool, but it's just ugly.

Morocco Elijah - I gues any country can be a name, but I'd rather be a country than a nationality (will get to that later...) Elijah is a name that I do like, even though it's uber popular. I'd probably go with Elisha, similar but not as overused.

Koa Thomas - Love the name Koa. So unexpected, and could be a great alternative to the saturated Noah. It's definitely a cool name, fresh, sticks in your head. It has the almost obligatory classic but ultimately boring middle name, in this case Thomas. As long as those are in the middle spot I don't mind, it's when the spunky unique names are wasted in the middle with a first name like Jacob, Michael or John that sets me off. Overall thumbs up.