Extreme makeover: Brooklyn has gone from jokey Borough Boy name in the 1990s to a very popular feminissima girl's name today. The status of New York's Brooklyn as hipster heaven is ironic as few bona fide Brooklyn hipsters would choose this name.

Brooklyn first came into widespread public view via the first Beckham boy born in 1999, though it had already entered the lower ranks of the girls' list in 1990, rising to the double digits in 2005, as more and more parents began to see it less as a NYC place name by separating it into its highly feminine syllables--brook and lyn.

Brooklynn is one of several popular variations.