It was an intriguing question posed over on the forums: What would your children be named, if your partner had complete control?

In my case, my husband would have chosen names from his family tree….very very sleepy names.

Our daughter would be named Molly instead of Rory — Molly Rose. Or maybe Rose Elizabeth, after my husband’s grandmother and mother.

One of our sons would probably have been John and the other one Edward, called Ned. I’m guessing John Richard and Edward Victor. All serviceable choices but…..yawn.

Of course, turn the tables and my husband would say my unedited choices would be unacceptably outrageous. Flora, Otis, and Penn, maybe. Sounds fantastic to me.

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SEE THE WINNERS BELOW!!!

The official list of U.S. Most Popular Names 2012 will be revealed later this week — Thursday afternoon or Friday morning, according to the Social Security press office —  and so in advance of that announcement, we’re asking YOU to predict:

What do you think will be the Most Popular Names for 2012?

Will Sophia hold onto the Number 1 spot she claimed last year?  Will Jacob retain his long-held crown?

And if not, what WILL be Number 1 — and 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. and 10?

The first Berry to guess all Top 10 names for both sexes in correct order will win the gorgeous sterling silver and antiqued bronze double-charm necklace pictured here, soon to be offered exclusively in our Nameberry Store for $99, personalized with the names and/or dates of your choice.  If no one guesses the exact Top 10s, we’ll decide who comes closest.  Entries end at 11:59 PST TONIGHT, Wednesday, May 8.

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I love the concept of Guilty Pleasure Names — names you love but know you shouldn’t, either because they’re too crazy or too tacky, too high falutin’ or maybe too trashy.

Nameberry hosts several forums devoted to the concept of Guilty Pleasure Names.  Here’s one that focuses on GPNs for girls, while this one defines Guilty Pleasure Names as Names You Love But No One Seems To Like.

And then there are the User Lists devoted to Guilty Pleasure Names, from the Strange and Eccentric to the general interest.

My Guilty Pleasure Names range from the so-popular-I-know-I shouldn’t-love-them-but-I-do — Sophia, Elijah — to choices like Joe and Tom that I know are boring but adore anyway.

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There was a scene in an episode of this season’s Girls in which a guy asks Lena Dunham‘s character her name, and she commands him to guess.

“Uh….Daisy?” he says.

“Daisy?!? I WISH my name was Daisy!” replies the much-less-fancifully-named Hannah.

Which made us think, as many things do, of Nameberry and our Question of the Week.

What do you wish your name was?

It may not be your favorite name, the one you’d choose for a child.  But for whatever reason — and I hope you’ll tell us what that reason is — the name conveys how you’d like to be seen, who you wish others thought you were.

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It’s one of our longest-running forums, at 200+ pages and counting: Name a sibset you know.

On the forums it’s a game where one person names a sibset they know and the next person takes one of the names from that sibset and uses it in a different sibset they know.  Go ahead and play it, it’s fun.

So for this question of the week, we’re going to spin the challenge a bit differently and ask, What’s the best sibset — as in group of sibling names — you know?

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