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.