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.

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...

Name In Trend: Jayden

The name Jayden is of hebrew origin and means "thankful". It can be a variant of the original hebrew name Jadon, or a varient of the american name Jaden. These days, I would think the latter is probably more likely, since parents never really warmed up to Jadon, but have been keen on Jaden for quite a while.

Jayden's performance in the boys chart definitely puts it on the "trendy" side of names, having climbed steadily ever since it's debut in 1994. At the time, Jaden was more popular, probably since it was used as a celebrity baby name by R&B superstar Will Smith for his son. Jayden soon followed as a variant spelling of that name, climbing every year, and would enjoy a boost of popularity when it was used for Britney Spears' son. It would eventually become the most popular spelling.

Here is a graph to make things clearer for you:

Name In Trend: Easton

The name Easton is of Old English origin, and means "east settlement". Other possible meanings are: "island of stones", "magical power", "noble power".

The name has been getting a lot of buzz lately, mostly due to country singer Easton Corbin, who has given the name a certain appeal to parents that are fans of the genre. Also, actress Jenna Elfman also welcomed a son named Easton Quinn Monroe in 2010, boosting the name's popularity across name blogs. The name can also have a religious connotation, for those parents that associate the name with Easter, and Christ.


So let's see how Easton has performed in the popularity ranking: