Celebrity Baby Names of 2013 - Review

Another new year rolls in, and as usual, I start off with my review of the celeb baby names from the previous year. 2013 did brought an interesting mix of names, some trendy choices, some unexpected ones too, as well as the obligatory boy names on girls. Overall, I did like them more than the 2012 choices.

BOYS

Ellis James - Like I always say, if you have two names you wanna use, one of them is part of the unexpected underrated category, and one is part of the overused classics category, and you're unsure in which order to put each name, I'll tell you: keep the most interesting name first, the more common one second. It's such a waste when great underused names are wasted in the middle. I do love Ellis.

Milan - Often thought of as a place name, which it can be, but it is also a hebrew name, with a different pronunciation than that italian city: MEE-lan. I didn't know what to expect from Shakira, but I do approve of this choice.

Greyson James - Greyson seems to be the new rising star over the past years, and one I like quite a bit (preferably spelled Grayson). James is the typical filler middle (and first) name, so don't really care for it.

Knox Addison - Ever since the Jolie's used Knox, the name has spread like wildfire, but yet is not at a point where your hear it everywhere everytime. It's that familiar face you don't see too often, one that you enjoy encountering. Addison is a male name that has made a switch to the female side, so I'm always surprised yet thankful when they make the reswitch, even if it's as a middle name. I love the flow of the name too.

"Witches Of East End" Names

So there is a new supernatural show airing on Lifetime called Witches Of East End. Its based on a book series of the same name, and it a good show for fans of cheesy tv fodder like Charmed.
Like any name nerd, the first thing I notice whenever I watch something new are the names each character has, and Witches Of East End certainly has a few good ones.

The main characters:

Joanna - Joanna is the mother of the two younger women of the show, and also a big sister. Personally I feel Joanna is a bit dated and not ready for a comeback, but give it a few more years and and it might be the right time. It's definitely not one of those names that I feel is gone forever, it has potential to return.

Wendy - Wendy is Joanna's spunky and funny younger sister. She has a great relationship with her nieces and is kind of the heart and glue of the show, for me at least. Wendy is a cute name, and while I feel it is a tad dated, I can also picture it on a little girl, therefore I do think its usable for those of you who want to choose this name for a daughter.

Freya - She is the emotional and romance-driven daughter of Joanna. She struggles to choose between the 2 main guys of the show, and her storyline revolves around that. Her name was appropriately given, since in norse mythology she was the goddess of love and fertility. I'm starting to hear this name more and more these days, its a popular choice in the UK, and its only a matter of time before it becomes common in the US too.

Name In Spotlight: Jaxley

So I got asked by my best friend to do a search on a family name of his: Jaxley. I thought, wow, that is quite a cool name. But as I was trying to find info on this name, I realized this wasn't just a rare name, but almost non-existant. There are no records of it on any baby name sites, and there are only a few people that have it as a surname (and even less as a first name). Determined not to let my best friend down, I had to find at least something I could tell him about the name, and I did. A very likely source is that this name is related to or a variant of the place name Yaxley, which is also a Harry Potter name. Yaxley means "cuckoo wood", and during the 19th century, the county of Yaxley in Suffolk, England, was written as Jacheslea. It is very likely that from Jacheslea, people eventually arrived at the more pronounceable Jaxley.

2013 List: Mathematical Prediction: Girl Edition

After some demand on making a girl edition, I spent the last few weeks compiling the future girl ranking - that is, if names during this year had the same increase / decrase as last year. I know that isn't really the case with most names, but it does give us some sort of preview of what could happen.

But enough of that, let's get to the juicy part, here is the possible top 20 for the 2013 list:

01 Sophia (=)
02 Emma (=)
03 Isabella (=)
04 Olivia (=)
05 Ava (=)

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)

Name In Trend: Hudson

Hudson is a name of Old English origin, and it means "son of Hugh". It is a rising star amongst the many -son names trending upwards in recent years. As well as that meaning, Hudson can also be used as a place name, thanks to the Hudson River in New York and the Hudson Bay in Canada - both were named after the explorer Henry Hudson. This gives Hudson an adventurous feel, and a strong association to water, which could give it the "nature name" tag.


Let's take a look at it's performance in the SSA ranking:

Summer Movies 2013: Interesting Character Names

Summer 2013 might be almost over, but it brought us some great flicks. As usual, I payed extra attention to the names of characters in hope of finding some interesting ones. Thankfully there were quite a few ones that caught my eye, and so I'm gonna present you the ones I thought were the most appealing and unique.


Male character names:

Harley (Iron Man 3) - A popular name for boys in the UK, but quite underused in the US, which is quite surprising for me because it's one of those names that has all the ingredients of a trendy sounding name, but isn't. I think its full potential has yet to be achieved in America, and I'd like to think it will eventually hit its stride.

Yancy (Pacific Rim) - Not one of the main characters of this movie since he dies early on, but his scenes at the start of the film were enough for me to remember his name. I don't think I've met or read about anyone with this name, although I'm not terribly surprised because I feel this one is for the brave namers only (right now). I believe this one might be quite a polarizing name if it ever pops up in a discussion, you'll either love it or hate it, a bit like Clancy.

Teen Mom 3 Names

 
Well all know how much influence Teen Mom has had on baby name trends for the past couple of years. Names such as Bentley, Jace, Aubree or Maci have had a significant boost since the show debuted. The third series of Teen Mom premiered this week and I decided to check the names on the show, and wonder which names might be the next superstars.

First let's take a quick look at the mom's names:

Katie
Briana
Mackenzie
Alexandria (Alex)

Name In Spolight: Raleigh

So I recently watched the movie Pacific Rim, which reminded me of how much I love the name Raleigh. That movie featured some pretty cool names, for example Raleigh's brother is named Yancy, which also caught my eye, so if you enjoy action flicks mixed with a dose of unique names, check the movie out.

Raleigh is of old english origin and it has two different meanings that I found: "roe deer's meadow" and "from the red field". There is definitely a nature connection in both, so if you like nature names this one is a great choice. It can also be a place name, because it's the capital of North Carolina, and it could definitely fit in with the place name trend going on lately with names like Princeton, Camden, Brooklyn, etc.

Name In Spotlight: Royal Baby Name

First of all congrats to Kate and William on the birth of their newborn son George.

I wondered if back when Prince William and Harry were born, if their names had any influence in the US baby names. I went to the SSA and tracked 3 consecutive years (the year before they were born, the year they were born, and the year after that).

William

1981 24,782
1982 25,591
1983 25,379

Henry

1983 1,948
1984 2,028
1985 2,059

Harry

1983 753
1984 727
1985 780

So I suppose William was the only one that had a significant boost the year Prince William was born, however nothing astonishing. I wonder if this time it'll be different. What do you think? Will the boost be bigger for George? I think it will have a bigger boost than William and Henry/Harry had because of how much more exposed we are to these kind of things these days. Probably back in the top100 soon, but I'm not expecting something too crazy because it's not really a name that everyone seems to like, even amongst the "classics" fandom...