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Berry Faves of 2015 IRL

Berry Faves of 2015 IRL

By Linda Rosenkrantz with Esmeralda Rocha

We recently posted the list of names that our Berries were most interested in over the past year– headed by Ezra and Asher, Charlotte and Amelia—but what names did they actually choose at that crucial moment when the name had to be inscribed onto the birth certificate, when all the hypotheticals were winnowed down to one single reality?

Of course we know that only a small percentage of arrivals were actually recorded in the Birth Announcement Forum, which is our only available source—(Strong hint to those expecting new arrivals in 2016!), but still more than three hundred Berries did enter there picks. The diversity and originality of the Nameberry community is reflected in the fact that most of the names were unique choices.

Having said that, which names were the most popular?

On the girls’ side, Pearl and Rose tied for top place for those used as both first and middle names, tying at 8 each, with Pearl the leading middle. Classic William was in top place for boys in the combined categories, tying with James as favorite middle.

The most frequently used first initial vowel was E for girls and A for boys. For consonant beginnings, M girls won by a landside; for boys it was the letter C—a gendered contrast in soft and harder sounds.

And it’s interesting to note that relative newcomers Fox and Lake were each chosen as middles three times.

FIRST NAMES

Here are the girls’ names that were given to three recorded berrybabes:

Alice

Audrey

Genevieve

Olive

Tallulah

Willow

The following were chosen twice:

Alba

Anna

Eliza

Evelyn

Florence

Iona

Iris

Ivy

Mabel

Maeve

Margaret

Penelope

Phoebe

Rose

Ruby

Sylvie

Thea

Vivienne

And for the boys, including some variant spellings, these were chosen by three parents:

Alastair

Ezra

Leo

Luca

Simon

And the following were picked twice:

Angus

Asa

Felix

Lachlan

Lennox

Oliver

Owen

Theodore

MIDDLE NAMES

Some surprises here, with quite a bit more commonality, especially for girls. Seven Pearls! Followed by:

Rose                6

Claire              5

Grace              5

Iris                  4

Josephine      4

Margaret        4

Jane                3

Lake                3

Mae/May       3

Amelia            2

Cecilia             2

Charlotte        2

Diana              2

Dorothy          2

Elizabeth        2

Emilia             2

Isobel              2

Jean                2

Juliet               2

Linnea             2

Lucille             2

Margo             2

Marie              2

Rhiannon       2

Theodora       2

Victoria          2

Violet              2

Wren              2

For the boys, classics were the clear favorites, with both William and James picked as middles four times, and Patrick and Thomas used by three parents. Other multiple choices:

Fox                  3

Miles               3

Alexander      2

Dean               2

Francis            2

Frederick        2

Grey/Gray      2

Joel                  2

Mark                2

Martin             2

Matthew         2

Michael           2

Oliver              2

Rafferty          2

Reid                2

Robert                        2

The year saw some adorably named twinberries, among them:

Lottie Eloise & Minnie Jocelyn

Camus Raphael & Kipling Angelo

Flavia Tamsin & Ruby Amaryllis

Holiday Kathryn & Hayes Nelson

And some of the more unusual names spotted throughout the year: Canary and Crow, Azalea and Forsythia, Zurich, Excalibur, and Olivet.

About the Author

Linda Rosenkrantz

Linda Rosenkrantz

Linda Rosenkrantz is the co-founder of Nameberry, and co-author with Pamela Redmond of the ten baby naming books acknowledged to have revolutionized American baby naming. You can follow her personally at InstagramTwitter and Facebook. She is also the author of the highly acclaimed New York Review Books Classics novel Talk and a number of other books.