Name In Spotlight: Reign

After several days of speculation on what Kourtney Kardashian would name her second son, from Jeffrey, to something related to that name, it turns out we were all way off. She picked Reign. A lot of people were not pleased with this outlandish choice, but I dont think its as bad as North (West), or at least that name combo. And here's why: this name may seem crazy to us born in the 20th century, but for a newborn baby these days? It fits right in with other popular choices such as King or Major.

2013 List: Mathematical Prediction: Boy Edition

Curious to see how the SSA boy rank might look next year? Well that's what this post is all about. Basically, it is a preview on how the chart could look if the names had the same increase/decrease this year, as they had last year. Obviously this isn't gonna happen exactly, because numbers and trends change every year, but some overall jumps and falls are turn out to be quite accurate.

So how will the boys top 20 for 2013 look if it had the exact same performance as last year? Check it out:

01 LIAM (+5)
02 ETHAN (+1)
03 MASON (-1)
04 NOAH (=)
05 JACOB (-4)

2012 Most Popular Baby Names

So the new list is out, and here is the top10:

Boys

1. Jacob
2. Mason
3. Ethan
4. Noah
5. William
6. Liam
7. Jayden
8. Michael
9. Alexander
10. Aiden

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)

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?

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?

Names Of The Year 2011

December is already here, and another year is almost over. The SSA will be soon starting to count all the baby names around the country, a list that is published every year in May.

Seeing that there's still 5 months to go, we might as well talk amongst ourselves about our own predictions, and keep things rolling. What were the biggest names of the year? Who will be #1?

For boys:

- I think Jacob will remain #1 yet again, but stiff competition should be starting to form just below it. I think 2011 will be the year this name will start to decline in popularity, but since it's so ahead of the others, it should be safe at the top. Let's hope it loses it's crown soon...