the unique baby name guide by the world's leading experts

NAMES of the FUTURE

Aluminum-baby-pram-711315One of the most fun things about running nameberry, as opposed to being a visitor, is that you get to peer behind the scenes and see which names people are actually searching for.  Some of the most visited names on nameberry are ones you’d expect: Ava and Aidan, Lucy and Logan.  And then there are the stylish nameberry favorites as detailed in a recent blog: Beatrix, Penelope, Atticus.

But a bit further down on the list, we’re noticing less expected names that our visitors seem to be inordinately curious about.  These are the choices that are not on any popularity list – not even a sophisticated, fashion-forward one like nameberry’s – yet are attracting more than their share of attention.

Our conclusion?  These are names to watch.  It may be only the more adventurous baby namers who are actually using them at the moment, but we predict that in a decade, most will feel more familiar – perhaps way more familiar – than they do now.

These names of the future include:

Girls

ANAIS

ANASTASIA

ANNABEL

ANWEN

ARDEN

AURELIA

BRONWYN

BRYONY

CALLA

CALLIOPE

CARYS

CECELIA

CLEO

CORDELIA

DAPHNE

DELPHINE

DIXIE

EDITH

ELIANA

ELOISE

ESTELLE

EVER

FLEUR

GAIA

GREER

GRETA

HELENA

ISOLDE

JEMIMA

KETURAH

KIKI

LARK

LAVINIA

MAMIE

MILLA

MIRABELLA

NEVE

PERSEPHONE

PIPER

PIPPA

REMI

SASKIA

SELA

SLOANE

VERITY

VERONICA

WREN

Boys

ARCHER

BEAU

BECKETT

CALLUM

CALVIN

CASPIAN

CORMAC

DEXTER

ELLIOT

GAVIN

HUGO

KIERAN

LACHLAN

LENNON

OTTO

REMY

RUFUS

SILAS

STELLAN

XAVIER

****NEW NAMEBERRY FEATURE !  You can now add a poll to your posts and get other people’s opinions of your choices.  Just go to the Name Talk message boards, pick a section, hit Compose Post and voila!–you’ll see the polling option.

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30 Responses to “NAMES of the FUTURE”
susan Says:

September 15th, 2009 at 12:03 am

Love these names, so rich and refreshing! What about Ottilie?

sg Says:

September 15th, 2009 at 12:11 am

I think the boy’s name list is the product of just me looking at those names over and over again. :)

It’s pretty much my medium-sized list verbatim.

Jill Says:

September 15th, 2009 at 1:27 am

I love Cordelia, Eloise, and Annabelle, as well as Dexter, Elliot, and Xavier. (Actually, I love most of them, so I just chose my top three from each group.) :-)

I love the picture! :-)

Pam Says:

September 15th, 2009 at 7:05 am

Ottilie is great, Susan, but it’s not among the top searched-for names.

Abby Says:

September 15th, 2009 at 8:54 am

Fascinating – and I love most of these choices.

I just noticed that Jennifer Aniston’s character in her new flick is called Eloise.

But I’m surprised Esme doesn’t pop up – she’s been the #1 search name at Appellation Mountain for more than a year. And I’ve just met my second baby Esme!

Pamela Satran Says:

September 15th, 2009 at 9:06 am

No, Esme definitely does pop up, Abby — I think I just decided she was one of the nameberry most popular that Linda wrote about a few weeks ago (at least I hope she was included) and so I didn’t include her here, where I was looking for more surprising-yet-popular choices. In some cases it was difficult to decide which side of the line a name was properly on.

British American Says:

September 15th, 2009 at 9:12 am

A friend just had a son and named him Dexter. :) (She also has a 4 year old named Pearl, which I’ve been seeing on more & more lists lately.)
I also know a 2 year old Piper and an almost 2 year old Lennon.

Thanks for sharing this list.

linda Says:

September 15th, 2009 at 10:45 am

I notice that Esme just popped onto the British most popular list at #100.

Lauren Says:

September 15th, 2009 at 12:58 pm

I really like a lot of these, and probably contributed to the search count for them! I think these are a breath of fresh air, as I am not a big fan of some nameberry favorites such as Beatrix, Penelope, Clementine, etc.

Love Anais, Aurelia, Bronwen, Greer, Mirabella, Archer, Beau, and quite a few more!

Kathleen Says:

September 15th, 2009 at 2:11 pm

I’m laughing because this list looks almost exactly like the list I handed my husband when we were pg!!

(for the record, we went with Bronwen) :)

R.L. Says:

September 15th, 2009 at 3:38 pm

Aurelia, Isolde and Lavinia are among my favorites. Silas and Remy are also lovely. I know babies named Calla, Clint and Denny.

E @ Oh! Apostrophe Says:

September 15th, 2009 at 4:13 pm

Definitely added to the pile by searching for Cormac. Still trying to decide if we’re daring enough to choose it!

redriding Says:

September 15th, 2009 at 4:27 pm

Interesting to see some Welsh ones among the girls. Anwen, Bronwyn (although the Welsh female spelling would be with an e, Bronwen – wyn is male, wen is female “white”) and Carys – possibly brought to notice by Catherine Zeta Jones’s daughter?

On the CALLUM front, this has been very popular in the UK over the past twenty years – my eldest son’s middle name is Calum – but there was a new poll out in the UK this week about Names Most Likely To Strike Dread Into Teachers’ Hearts (i.e. kids mostly likely to be naughty and disruptive with problematical behaviour and famllies) and one of the top ones for naughty boys was Calum!!! I can post the rest of this if anyone is interested. I remember Conor was on the list, and names like Madison and Chardonnay (!) for girls.

I always manage to go off on a tangent, don’t I!

Interesting blog Pam. As ever.

Sachiko Says:

September 15th, 2009 at 8:07 pm

We have a Bronwen, from 2002. :)

CarolynR Says:

September 15th, 2009 at 9:10 pm

My 20 month old is called Cormac – we get a lot of positive comments about his name. When I went to my first mothers’ group I was concerned that his name might be considered to be strange, but the introduction of little Toshan and Xabi put my boy’s name in the shade!!

Maybe the Australian approach to naming is different to that in the US, as we already know a lot of junior Hugos, Archers, Eloises and Xaviers.

peach Says:

September 15th, 2009 at 9:35 pm

I notice myself suggesting many of these names as alternatives to more popular choices. Particular personal favorites include Calliope, Daphne, Helena, Anais, Cordelia and Calvin, Lachlan, Elliot, Xavier, Lennon, Remy. Great post!

Meredith Says:

September 15th, 2009 at 10:26 pm

We recently had a daughter and named her Helena. Sloane was my #2 for a girl. Silas was my #1 pick for a boy. How many hits does it take to make the “Names of the Future” list? I’ll admit I searched for these names more than once on this site…I hope I didn’t skew the results. Although, they are great choices!

simplelife Says:

September 15th, 2009 at 10:56 pm

It would be interesting to know where these inquiries were coming from, whether these were largely British or American search favorites.

Stacy Says:

September 16th, 2009 at 6:27 am

Oh, I love many of these! My husband is less adventurous with names than me, though, and he has a pretty patented ‘What are you smoking?’ look when I mention some names. I think being a teacher has entrenched him firmly in conservative-land with names. Many of these have been favorites for a while for me, though

I love especially:
Bryony, Cecelia, Carys, Cordelia, Eliana, Edith, Estelle, Mirabella, Veronica, Archer, Beckett, Elliott, Gavin and Kieran.

I suspect the only ones my husband would go for would be Cecelia, Veronica and Gavin.

ani_kat Says:

September 16th, 2009 at 7:10 am

We named our (now 2 year old) son Lennon, and so far, we haven’t met another one! We heaps of comments on his name; the most common reaction is: That’s a lovely name! Is it after John Lennon?
Which it kinda is, as we are huge Beatles fans, but we also loved that it was Irish as my husband’s father is Irish, so it was doubly significant for us!
Also love Lark, Ever and Saskia for girls.

stephanie_elizabeth Says:

September 16th, 2009 at 11:13 am

Cordelia is my number one girls name, and Bryony is in the top five! I guess this means I have better taste than I thought. It also scares me a bit, though, because I was wanting a unique name, having grown up with a popular 80’s name. I hope it doesn’t become too popular before I can use it!

Sarah Says:

September 20th, 2009 at 6:48 pm

I named my oldest son Remy. He’s four now. I never thought I’d see it become popular. When we chose it we got so many discouraging comments because it was unusual, and then when Ratatouille was released I was sure that put the final nail in the coffin. I’m glad to see that I was wrong.

Fantastic list. Cordelia is one of my favorite names ever. I also love Dexter, Xavier & Sloane (Which was what we’d have gone w/ if he had been a girl),

jenbrittt Says:

October 7th, 2009 at 1:10 am

Most of the names on both boy’s and girl’s lists are on my favorite name lists, I loveee the name Lennon but I’m only 17 so I don’t want it to become popular at all untill my first child is over six years old at least.

Kristen Says:

October 27th, 2009 at 2:53 am

This list has almost all the names on our short list for girls: Anwen, Piper and Daphne. We also had Kellan. We ended up going with Daphne and I couldn’t be happier with our choice.

Kat Says:

December 11th, 2009 at 5:23 pm

I hope you’re wrong about 2 of those girs names, for purely selfish reasons! One is that I wanted to name my future (possible) daughter Calla, since no one seems to be called that, but I don’t want my child having a name that fifty other kids in her year will have! And my second peeve is Bronwyn – it was always the most popular name in my age group at school (I’m 30) and I’m STILL sick of it! Unless it didn’t catch on in any other countries?

linda Says:

December 11th, 2009 at 5:33 pm

Kat–Bronwyn isn’t heard very often in the US.

aurelia sage Says:

December 15th, 2009 at 3:37 am

If one had twin girls named Larken and Lauren, they could go by Lark and Wren. Just a thought. My daughter named one of her girls Larken.

littlebrownpony Says:

December 22nd, 2009 at 9:45 am

Well, I feel very cool right now….My first name is Greer….glad to see it’s finally becoming fashionable after I’ve had to live with it for 32 years! Also, I’m pregnant with my first son, due in March. The name we’ve decided on is Beau…..however, my first choice was Beckett (which the BD vehemently vetoed…something having to do with the Red Sox) and I also love love love Dexter, but it doesn’t go with our last name. I teach gymnastics, and last year I had not one but TWO little girls named Ever in my toddler classes! I also had a 6 year old Carys!

Krystina Says:

January 30th, 2010 at 11:02 pm

YEAH! i picked my son’s middle name out of thin air (ok, the middle of a book) and it’s at the top of the list, Archer! yay me! :)

Erin Says:

February 8th, 2010 at 8:02 pm

I was looking for names for my characters in this book I was planning to write which takes place a few years in the future. I was looking for futuristic girl names, and I decided on Lilly (just because my friend liked it), Ever, and I’m deciding between Thalia and Calypso. Which one do you like better?

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