Our friends over at The Cradle, a fresh, stylish resource for expectant and new moms, are running a 26-day giveaway. Through May 15th, every new Cradle member is entered to win the grand prize package of a Micralite Toro Stroller and a lillebaby EveryWear Carrier. Plus, each day, The Cradle is giving away daily prizes that include:

• Skip Hop Vine Floral Crib Bedding Collection

• Gift certificate for Vincent Shoes

• Maelee diaper bag

• Half hour consultation with The Baby Planners

• Roundhouse baby carrier

• Babytime Bags hospital bag

To enter the daily sweepstakes and be eligible for the grand prize drawing, join The Cradle (it’s free) and enter the promotional code “DailyPrize” .

Members of The Cradle have access to the site’s many great features, including message boards, a weekly pregnancy calendar, a birthday calendar that helps you keep track of what you need to be doing throughout your pregnancy, plus baby gear deals and discounts.

Cradle members can also create free pregnancy web pages, send out e-birth announcements, and join or start online groups with other expectant and new moms.

Plus The Cradle’s excellent baby name database is built from our book The Baby Name Bible: check it out for a different way to search for and rate your favorite names.

For more information and to take a peek at the daily prizes, visit The Cradle’s membership giveaway page.

REMINDER: If you haven’t done so already (only one entry per person), don’t forget to enter Nameberry’s Mother’s Day Contest.  Send your choices for the Top 10 Girls and Top 10 Boys names of 2008 to contest@nameberry.com by May 7th.  First entrant to get both lists right will win autographed copies of four Rosenkrantz-Satran name books–including an advance copy of the not-yet-published Beyond Ava & Aiden.

Tuesday we brought you the Name Gamers’ take on new spins for the Top Ten girls’ names.  Today we feature their Nameberry Makeover of the most popular boys’ names.

Thank you to nameberry mavens olivegreen, susan, lyndsayjenness, jill, amym, lola, ricamaca, and dannim26.  For more of their makeover ideas, or to join in the game, go to the Name Game board.

Remember, the idea here is to come up with fresher spins on overpopular names, but what’s so clever about these name makeovers is that the new versions convey the original names’ essence, not merely the way they look and sound.

1.    JACOB – Jasper, Isaac, James

2.    MICHAEL – Milo, Miles, Mitchell, Micah, Raphael (wow!)

3.    ETHAN – Nathaniel, Edward, Everett, Ephraim

4.    JOSHUA – Jonas, Joaquin, Jasper

5.    DANIEL – Dashiell, Dominic, Declan

6.    CHRISTOPHER –Crispin, Caspian, Phineas (nice)

7.    ANTHONY –  Ansel, Antoine, August, Ambrose, Vincent (ooooh, very nice)

8.    WILLIAM – Walter, George, Philip, needs no replacement!

9.    MATTHEW – Moses, Maxfield, Maddox, Matthias or Matteo

10.    ANDREW – Asher, Archer, Anderson, Lochlan

Any other ideas?  Let us know!

Nameberry commemorates Earth Day with this guest blog contributed by Elisabeth Wilborn, creator of one of our favorite blogs, You Can’t Call It “It” .  Elisabeth, a writer, artist, and mom,  lives in Brooklyn, New York

Milkvetch. Wallflower. Toothwart.

Yes, the Earth is indeed a wellspring for baby names.

Actually I skipped those. Here are a few favorites culled– believe it or not– from endangered species lists. Morbid as that may seem, I promise they’re quite nice! Famous conservationists and a few other notables help bring it back down to Earth. I’d love to see Audubon or Fossey as firsts or to meet an all-American infant Sigurd.

Truly though, the names are of minor importance. Gasp! The most we can hope for is that our children do better than we did.

FAMOUS CONSERVATIONISTS

John James Audubon

Rachel Carson

Jeff Corwin

Jacques Cousteau

Dian Fossey

Buckminster Fuller

Jane Goodall

Julia Butterfly Hill

Steve Irwin

Aldo Leopold

Chico Mendes

John Muir

Frederick Law Olmstead

Sigurd F. Olson

Peter Simon Pallas

Henry David Thoreau

EMBLEMS OF THE EARTH

GIRLS

Anona- Roman goddess of the harvest

Avani- Sanskrit, “earth”

Ceres- Ancient Roman, “to grow”, Roman goddess of agriculture

Demeter- Greek, “earth mother”, Greek goddess of agriculture

Flora- Roman goddess of flowers

Francis- Italian saint reknowned for his connection to animals

Gaia- Greek, “earth”, and the goddess of the earth

Georgia, Georgina, Georgianna- Greek, “farmer”

Kun- Chinese, “earth”

Luna- Roman goddess of the moon

Perpetua- Latin, “continuous”

Terra- Latin, “earth”

Zoe- Greek, “life”

BOYS

Adam- Hebrew, debated meaning; man formed from the Earth

Asa- Hebrew, “healer”

Chayim- Hebrew, “life”

Enki- Sumerian, “lord of the earth”, god of water and wisdom

George- Greek, “farmer, earthworker”

Pax- Latin, “peace”

Vitus- Ancient Roman, from the latin for “life”

Zephyr- Greek god of the west wind

ANIMAL

Akialoa

Bear

Bison

Caribou

Cheetah

Condor

Cougar

Crane

Delphine

Eagle

Eider

Gazelle

Lynx

Nightengale

Ocelot

Peregrine

Rhea

Warbler

Wolf

VEGETABLE

Anemone

Aster

Azalea

Birch

Buttercup

Cicely

Clover

Columbine

Crocus

Cypress

Elm

Fern

Huckleberry

Hyssop

Indigo

Juniper

Maple

Oak

Phlox

Plum

Primrose

Rosemary

Rosette

Sage

Sedge

Snowdrop

Sorrel

Spruce

Thistle

Verbena

Willow

Yarrow

MINERAL

Bay

Earth, Eartha

Jasper

Marina

Obsidian

Ocean, Oceane

Onyx

Peter, Petra

Ridge

Slate

Solstice

Stone

…and finally Montana… much to the chagrin of Pam and Linda I’m sure.

The brilliant visitors over on the Name Game board have done it again.  The latest greatest game they’re playing is called Nameberry Makeover, in which they take the Top Ten names and come up with fresher, cooler sounding substitutes.

Some new players may have joined in by now and if so I’m sorry to leave you out of the credits, but these delicious ideas for new versions of widely used names are thanks to nameberryites olivegreen, susan, lyndsayjenness, jill, lola, alexisgracelynn123, ricamaca, and dannim26.

I especially love the way so many of these don’t just echo the name but pick up on its essence.  Parents who love one of the top names but are in search of new spins will find some great ideas here.

1. EMILY — Evelyn, Cecily, Amelia, Emmeline

2. ISABELLA — Eudora, Imogen, Belle, Isadora, Isla, Maeve

3. EMMA — Gemma, Etta, Esme

4. AVA — Avalon, Eve, Evangeline, Ada

5. MADISON — Mabel, Madeleine, Millicent, Matilda, Harper

6. SOPHIA — Sylvia, Lucia, Ophelia (nice), Scarlett, Penelope

7. OLIVIA — Livia, Olena, Viviana, Odessa, Olive

8. ABIGAIL — Lydia, Esther, Jemima, Abriana, Bailey

9. HANNAH — Susannah, Anna, Dinah, Helena

10.ELIZABETH — Eleanor, Eliza, Leisel

We’d love to hear more makeover ideas, or head over to the Name Games board and join in.  Thursday, we’ll feature the boys’ makeovers.

Mother’s Day is fast approaching, and to baby name fanatics that means one thing beyond cards and flowers: that the release date of the latest figures from the Social Security Administration is only a few weeks away. We’ll soon know whether or not Emily and Jacob have finally been overtaken for first place and which names have made the biggest leaps and suffered the greatest drops. Will some of the Classic Boys be replaced by newer choices? Who will win the Ava-Isabella-Olivia-Sophia race?

Nameberry’s First Mother’s Day Contest wants to know what you think. Send your rankings for the Top Ten Girls and Top Ten Boys to contest@nameberry.com, and the first person to get it right will be rewarded with a quartet of personally signed book prizes, including an advance copy of our newest, not-yet-published BEYOND AVA & AIDEN.

Just to remind you of last year’s top names:

1. EMILY………..JACOB
2. ISABELLA…… MICHAEL
3. EMMA………. ETHAN
4. AVA…………. JOSHUA
5. MADISON…… DANIEL
6. SOPHIA……… CHRISTOPHER
7. OLIVIA……….ANTHONY
8. ABIGAIL………WILLIAM
9. HANNAH……..MATTHEW
10. ELIZABETH…. ANDREW

THE PRIZES

First and foremost, the winner will get the very first look–six weeks ahead of publication–of BEYOND AVA & AIDEN: THE ENLIGHTENED GUIDE TO NAMING YOUR BABY, with our latest assessments of what’s hot, what’s cool, and what’s new for the coming years, with all-new, up-to-date lists and trends, personally signed by both Pam and Linda.

In addition, you will receive autographed editions of three of our classics:

THE BABY NAME BIBLE
COOL NAMES FOR BABIES
COOL IRISH NAMES FOR BABIES

THE RULES

Only one entry per contestant.  Contest closes at midnight PST on May 7, 2009.   Winner must list the 2008 U.S. Top Ten Girls’ Names AND the Top Ten Boys’ Names in the correct order, according to the Social Security Administration list.  If no one guesses the correct order, Pam and Linda will choose a winner from the entires that come closest. Nameberry reserves the right to announce the name of the winner.

So enter today—and good luck!!