Visitors to the Flower Fairy Names nameberry message boards have recently been treated to personalized anagrams of their names by Nephele, who’s turned ordinary appellations into charming, creative names worthy of flower fairies and elves. Here, she writes about the Flower Fairy legacy and names.

It’s certainly no news to names enthusiasts that flowers and herbs can be a great source for inspired baby-naming. Familiar flower names such as Jasmine, Lily, and Rose are perennial favorites. Less familiar flower names such as Celandine and Tansy also make lovely choices.

Such names inspired poet and artist, Cicely Mary Barker (1895-1973) for her classic series of little books titled The Flower Fairies.  Barker illustrated, with accompanying poems, the beloved flowers of her English countryside and gardens, personifying them as fanciful fairy-children.

It is Cicely Mary Barker who has inspired me to bring my anagramming craft to Nameberry, to see what sort of “Flower Fairy Names” we might discover among some of our forum members here.

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The other day on the nameberry message boards, I heard tell of a little boy named Vandal.  And then, the next day, one of the bandmembers of My Chemical Romance named his newborn daughter (yes, daughter) Bandit.

Are these parents masochistic?  Gang members?  Or do they just love the idea of launching a bad boy (or girl) into the world?

Vandal and Bandit aren’t the only hellions in the nursery these days.  There’s Breaker, one of the seven children of Robert and Cortney Novogratz, hipster parents who own Sixx Design in New York.  Then there are Racer, Rebel, Rocket, and Rogue, sons of film director Robert Rodriguez.  (Survival tip: If you’re invited to dinner at their house, wear a helmet.)

The trends toward word names, surnames, and occupational names have certainly fueled this trend.  If Cooper can be a name, after all, why not Cutter?  If Porter, why not Power?

While the popularity list is full of newborns named Heaven, Nevaeh, and Angel, it also features a growing number of babies with these less-than-angelic names:

RYKER — How many of the nearly 700 sets of parents who named their baby boys Ryker last year realize that, when spelled Rikers, it’s the name of the notorious island prison in New York?  I’d hazard to guess not many, but maybe the association will sink in if I say it’s like naming your baby Alcatraz.

MAVERICK — Okay, this one’s kind of soft-core, but it still suggests a range-riding, sharp-shootin’ kind of guy. Either that or Sarah Palin.

GUNNAR and GUNNER — I fully admit to being one of those wimpy East Coast liberals who’s in favor of gun control, so maybe it’s just me.  But this name seems to go beyond the rabble-rousing Rockets and Vandals to some darker and more lethal level of badness.

CANNON — When regular old Gunner just doesn’t pack enough firepower.

DRAVEN — The name of Brandon Lee’s infamous undead character in The Crow.

RAIDEN — Of course, this name’s popularity is heavily related to the whole Aiden-Jaden thing.  But its meaning, and its appeal, has an aggressive edge.

BLAZE — Blaise is a genuine ancient saint’s name, and Blaze Starr was a midcentury (female) stripper.  But this name is rising now for boys, more because of its fiery feel than because of its obscure connection with martyrs or fan dancers.

Other popular boys’ names are more subtly aggressive: Hunter, say, or Axel.   Harley, for both sexes, has the Hells’ Angels association.

And then there are names we’ve heard that haven’t yet hit the popularity list, but are certainly heading there, such as:

HELLER — Makes Hell more palateable by giving it a surname feel.

RAIDER — If Raiden feels too familiar, this choice gets right to the point.

WILDER — Another surname-y choice that does wild one better.

Why are parents more and more attracted to this wild kind of name?

Maybe they want to arm their kids with an aggressive, take-charge image to do battle with an ever-more-challenging world.  Perhaps they feel their sons (and daughters) will benefit from having a name that keeps people from messing with them.

Is this good parenting…..or bad?  Is naming your kid Vandal setting him up for a lifetime of trouble — or at least trouble-making?  What do you think, nameberryites?

The grooviest type of new names for boys are the surname names, either the real – Carson, Hunter, Porter – or those that simply have a surname look and feel, such as Drake or Deacon.

Okay, okay, I know there are people with the surnames Drake and Deacon, Gunner and Ryder, but I don’t think that’s why those names are popular.  It’s more that they aren’t conventional first names that’s important, I think, than that they fit any other kind of mold.

In terms of names that convey the new masculine image, the huge surnameish trend is interesting because it makes boys’ names in some ways more formal and traditional than they were before.  What sounds more imposing, after all:  Jefferson or Jeff?  Jacoby or plain old Jake?

It may be the move away from family names – when’s the last time someone you know named their baby a junior? – as well as from religious and ethnic strictures is what makes these new names for boys so appealing to parents.  Names like Fletcher and Hayden convey the aura of family lineage and power without any of the nasty obligations: no endless Thanksgiving dinners or visiting Uncle Theodore in the nursing home to make sure you sew up your inheritance.

Rather, you can wear these faux family names as lightly as a Ralph Lauren sweater.  And on a similarly shallow note, the surname trend is partly inspired by celebrities and their characters who are often called by their last names: Beckham (a big winner in the 2008 popularity poll), Chandler, and Donovan, for instance.

While these names are all prominent on the 2008 popularity list for boys, many are of course used for girls too.  In the past, once a name crossed to the girls’ side, many parents abandoned it for boys, but that’s not happening as much today — a positive development, we think.  For a closer look on surname names and gender identity, see our blog on unisex names.

REAL SURNAMES

Beckham
Blake
Brennan
Bryson
Carson
Chandler
Clay
Cohen
Cole
Dawson
Donovan
Fisher
Fletcher
Grady
Grayson, Greyson
Griffin
Hayden
Hudson
Hunter
Jackson
Jacoby
Jagger
Kane
Landon
Lennon
Lincoln
Logan
Maddox
Marley
Mason
Nolan
Parker
Pierce
Porter
Quinn
Reid or Reed
Riley
Ronan
Rowan
Tanner
Tucker
Weston

FAUX SURNAMES

Braxton
Brock
Caden, Kaden and bros
Colton and Colten
Corbin
Dallas
Dalton
Dane
Deacon
Devin
Drake
Easton
Gunner
Jaxon
Jett
Kade
Keegan
Kelvin
Kingston
Kobe
Kyler
Maverick
Paxton
Peyton
Reese or Reece (or the Welsh Rhys)
Ryder
Ryker
Rylan
Sage
Slade
Talon
Tate
Trace
Trey
Trip or Tripp
Wade
Zayden et al

Tomorrow, new boys’ names imported from around the world.

The Number One girls’ name of the decade so far is Emily, with about 190,000 babies receiving that name since 2000.  And the top boys’ name is Jacob, given to nearly 229,000 boys this decade.

But there are other names that are given to more than twice as many babies as those Number One names.  Not many parents realize that the names they’re choosing carry this huge degree of popularity.  No states or government agencies track these names or alert people to what vast numbers of children receive them.

Why not?  Because they’re not a single name but a meganame, or a cluster of names, if you like.  These are names that are closely related in form and spelling, with lots of overlaps that sound exactly alike.  There are many examples in modern U.S. baby names – including to some extent Jacob and Emily themselves – but let’s focus on three of the most notorious.

For boys, the premier meganame might be thought of as the Aden cluster.  It includes the following names, arranged so that the relationships are most obvious:

ADEN
AIDEN
AIDAN
AYDEN
BRAYDEN
BRADEN
BRADY
CADE
CADEN
CAIDEN
CAYDEN
KADEN
KAIDEN
KAYDEN
HAYDEN
JAYDEN
JADEN
JAIDEN
JAYLEN
JALEN

There are undoubtedly more variations and spellings that might be included here – we didn’t diverge to Adrian or Zayden, for example – but taken together these names were given to about 480,000 baby boys in the 2000s, more than twice as many as received the name Jacob.

Of course, Brady and Jaylen feel fairly different – but Aden, Braden, and Jaden don’t, and Caden, Kaden and bros sound exactly alike.  Unsuspecting parents, especially those who haven’t been around kids much since they moved up to middle school themselves, might hear a name like Hayden or Aiden and think, wow, that’s really unique.  I want a special, modern, stand-out name for my son, not something everybody uses, like Jacob or Michael or Matthew.

And then they end up with a name that’s twice as common as any of those popular individual names.

For girls, let’s look at the meganame we might call Aylee (or Ayla or Kyla).  It’s far-ranging, and while you might not agree that every name below should be included in the cluster, there are many we left out.  This name cluster embraces:

BAILEY
BAYLEE
HAYLEE
HALEY
HAILEY
CALLIE
KAILEY
KAYLEE
KAYLEIGH
KAELYN
KAYLA
JAYLA
SHAYLA
MAKAYLA
MIKAYLA
KYLA
SKYLA
SKYLAR
SKYLER
KYLIE
KYLEE
RYLEE
RYLEIGH

Nearly 540,000 girls received these names this decade, compared with fewer than 200,000 who were named Emily.  And again, there are many more variations that might be lumped in with this group.

Another megapopular name that crosses gender lines is the Alex cluster, which accounts for nearly half a million baby boys and girls born this decade.  The names we’ve tallied in this cluster are:

ALEXANDRA
ALEXANDER
ALEX (boys)
ALEXA
ALEXIA
ALEXIS (both genders)
ALEXUS (girls)
LEXI
LEXIE
ALESSANDRA
ALEJANDRA
ALEXANDRIA
ALEJANDRO
ALEXANDRO
ALEXZANDER

The lesson: Alex might be a solid, attractive name that works equally well for boys and girls.  What it’s not is distinctive.

If you end up deciding you love Hayden or Hayley or Alexa anyway, go right ahead and choose them.   Just be aware that any name that’s got lots of close relatives is bound to feel far trendier than you’d guess by gauging the popularity of that name alone.

Thanks to our wonderful intern Danielle Miksza for her help with the research and math for this post.

A return engagement by one of our all-time favorite bloggers, Abby Sandel of appellationmountain.net.

Call it the Great Naming Compromise of 2001.

Other couples sign pre-nups. My husband and I negotiated our children’s names before we cut our wedding cake. The agreement was simple. Our firstborn son would receive his father’s name; our firstborn daughter would be named after my mother. Given that he likes Emily while I prefer Calixto, this was no small compromise.

Our son Alexander arrived in 2004. Alexander’s grandfather was over the moon to have a namesake. And while our son wears at least four nicknames, sometimes in the same sentence, we’ve been happy with our choice.

Four years later, the ultrasound tech announced that baby #2 was a girl. We had a name, right?

Not exactly.

My mother’s name is Clarina. She’s named after her grandmother. Trouble is, Mom heartily dislikes her flowing, feminine name–and forbid me to pass it down. Back in 2001, we’d settled on Claire Caroline as a wearable, grandmother-approved interpretation.

As my due date approached, I worried that we’d inevitably need a way to distinguish the two Claires. My husband agreed that pre-emptive nicknaming is not a bad thing in a family with members known as Bird, Boat, Ritz, Ketch, Rohn, Stir and the Vees.

Only how do you wrest a nickname from Claire?

Our first thought was Callie. But would Callie be confused with Kaylie, Hallie and Kelly? Plus, our son often answers to Aly. Rhyming sib names? Not for us, thanks.

I pushed hard for Coco, but my husband got more of a “gorilla” than “high fashion” vibe.

After hours staring at Claire Caroline, the nickname emerged–Clio. My husband immediately agreed. Best of all, it matches with yet another family memory. My (late) father used to call me Cleopatra.

With just weeks to go, I decided that Clio needed one more syllable to make her name complete. A friend had mentioned avian names months earlier. As I looked over her list, I noticed Wren–the perfect way to honor my sister, known in the family as Bird.

Claire Caroline Wren arrived on October 2, and Clio suits her quite well. While I’m sometimes regretful that we limited our list, we learned that it is possible to marry creativity and tradition.