terça-feira, 15 de maio de 2012

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?

terça-feira, 1 de maio de 2012

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.