This question of the week was inspired by a Berry who wrote in telling us of a friend whose daughter Imogen was called the unexpected Idgie. Wasn’t that, she asked, the cutest nickname ever?

Definitely! we agreed.  At least it’s one of them!

What’s the cutest nickname you’ve ever heard?  Maybe it’s one you came up with on your own, maybe it was invented by an older sibling or by your child himself.  It might have been by design, or it might have come about by accident.

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If there’s one British baby names trend that Berries all over the world have embraced full-heartedly, it’s the old upper class practice of giving children two (or even more, ala Uma Thurman) middle names.

Rooted in royalty as a way to honor a raft of vaulted relatives, the multiple-middle-name practice was pegged by one visitor to our pages as being “very posh and a bit snobby.”

But it’s also a way for name lovers to indulge their enthusiasm by using more of their favorites on fewer children.  Americans who give their babies two middle names are often simply packing more name power into one extended appellation.  They may also (as my husband and I were, when we named our daughter Rory Elizabeth Margaret) be adding extra middle names to honor both sides of the family at the same time.

Judging from the birth announcements in the London Telegraph, the three-barreled British baby name is distinct in a couple of important ways:

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Some stylish baby names in Appellation Mountain‘s Abby Sandel’s Nameberry 9.

When I heard that Lily Allen was expecting a second child, my heart skipped a beat.

I don’t know Lily Allen.  When her first baby arrived, I had to Google search to find out that she was a singer, and I’d never heard her sing until I headed to YouTube.

The British pop starlet turned television presenter made waves with her first daughter’s name, Ethel Mary, and I’ve followed her ever since.  She didn’t disappoint with her second daughter’s name, Marnie Rose.

What would you call Allen’s style?

I’m thinking “So Retro it Hurts.”  She chooses great names that few of us have the guts to use – yet.

We classify names as traditional or modern, classic or trendy.  But the truth is that everything goes when it comes names, and there are all sorts of styles and strategies to describe our approaches to naming children.

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This year, for the first time, we have–with the invaluable help of our invaluable intern Hannah Tenison, tallied the final name choices reported by Berries on the Birth Announcement forum.  So here is what happened when all the hypotheticals were winnowed down to a single reality.

(Of course we know many more babyberries arrived this year, and hope you’ll all remember to enter your news in the future.)

FIRST NAMES given to more than one babe

Among girls’ first names, two three stood out with four uses each: Alice, Ruby, and Matilda.

The following were chosen three times:

Charlotte

Cordelia

Eleanor

Eloise

Felicity

Georgia

Hazel

Ivy

Louisa

Philippa

Violet

Vivien/Vivienne

Wren (also a Wrenley)

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