By Abby Sandel of Appellation Mountain

Heartbroken that Addison and Amelia are so popular?  Did your best friend just name her daughter Aria Alexandra, stealing two of your long-time favorites?  Never fear!  Here are some of my favorite A names for girls – and none of them currently rank in the US Top 1000.

Ariadne – In Greek myth, she helped Theseus defeat the Minotaur.  Top 100 choices Arianna and Ariana are derived from the same roots, but Ariadne is seldom heard in the English-speaking world.  But why not?  If Penelope can catch on, why not this clever heroine?

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Kelli Brady, creator of NameFreak!, combined spelling variations to come up with the real top 50 names on the new US popularity list. Her results show some names vastly more popular than it seems and a new Number 1 and Number 2 for boys.

Some names might actually be more popular than the SSA list shows because it ranks each spelling of a name separately, rather than counting all spelling variations — Sophia and Sofia, for example — together. To see how popular a name actually is, I have gathered the various spellings of each name in the 2012 Top 1000 and come up with a new Top 50 for each gender!

Why do I call this the Playground Analysis? Well, when you are on the playground with your kids and you hear a name, you don’t know how it is spelled, but you do know how often you hear it.

For girls, the top 5 do not drastically change, but Zoey jumps from #20 to #7. Adalyn, Elena, Kaitlyn and Madelyn make huge gains after adding all of their various spellings.

Note: The main name listed is the spelling given to the most babies in 2012 (SSA Rank is in parentheses). The others are in alphabetical order. Opinions vary on how different spellings are pronounced. I went with my best judgment.

girls

1. Sophia (1) – Sofia
2. Isabella (3) – Isabela, Izabella
3. Emma (2)
4. Olivia (4) – Alivia, Alyvia
5. Ava (5) – Avah
6. Emily (6) – Emely, Emilee, Emilie, Emmalee
7. Zoey (20) – Zoe, Zoie
8. Chloe (11) – Khloe
9. Madison (9) – Maddison, Madisyn, Madyson
10. Aubrey (15) – Aubree, Aubri, Aubrie
11. Abigail (7) – Abbigail
12. Mia (8) – Miah
13. Madelyn (67) – Madalyn, Madalynn, Madeleine, Madeline, Madelynn, Madilyn, Madilynn
14. Lily (16) – Lillie, Lilly
15. Layla (31) – Laila, Lailah, Laylah, Leila, Leyla
16. Hailey (32) – Hailee, Haley, Haylee, Hayleigh, Hayley, Haylie
17. Addison (14) – Addisyn, Addyson
18. Riley (47) – Rylee, Ryleigh, Rylie
19. Elizabeth (10) – Elisabeth
20. Natalie (17) – Natalee, Nataly, Nathalie, Nathaly
21. Aaliyah (36) – Aleah, Aleigha, Alia, Aliya, Aliyah
22. Avery (13) – Averi, Averie
23. Kaylee (34) – Caylee, Kailee, Kailey, Kayleigh, Kaylie
24. Arianna (49) – Ariana, Aryana, Aryanna
25. Ella (12)
26. Brooklyn (29) – Brooklynn
27. Amelia (23) – Emelia, Emilia
28. Allison (38) – Alison, Alisson, Allyson, Alyson
29. Hannah (22) – Hana, Hanna
30. Kaitlyn (118) – Caitlin, Caitlyn, Kaitlin, Kaitlynn, Katelyn, Katelynn
31. Mackenzie (71) – Makenzie, Mckenzie
32. Kylie (59) – Kiley, Kylee, Kyleigh
33. Peyton (53) – Paityn, Payton
34. Lillian (25) – Lilian
35. Evelyn (27) – Evalyn, Evelynn
36. Leah (33) – Lea, Leia, Lia
37. Charlotte (19)
38. Sarah (43) – Sara
39. Grace (21)
40. Harper (24)
41. Katherine (64) – Catherine, Kathryn
42. Gabriella (37) – Gabriela
43. Anna (35) – Ana
44. Samantha (26)
45. Alyssa (44) – Alisa, Alissa, Elisa, Elissa
46. Brianna (51) – Breanna, Briana, Bryanna
47. Victoria (28)
48. Makayla (69) – Mckayla, Michaela, Mikaela, Mikayla
49. Adalyn (198) – Adalynn, Addilyn, Adeline, Adelyn, Adelynn
50. Elena (139) – Alaina, Alayna, Elaina

For boys, Aiden and its various spellings (there are NINE) take the top spot away from Jacob, and Jackson jumps from #22 to #2! Jacob doesn’t show up until #4 after all the spellings of Jayden. And Kayden and Dominic look like the names with the biggest gain.

boys

1. Aiden (10) – Aaden, Adan, Aden, Aidan, Aidyn, Aydan, Ayden, Aydin
2. Jackson (22) – Jaxen, Jaxson, Jaxon
3. Jayden (7) – Jaden, Jadon, Jaeden, Jaiden, Jaidyn, Jaydon
4. Jacob (1) – Jakob, Jaycob
5. Mason (2) – Maison, Masen, Mayson
6. Ethan (3)
7. Noah (4)
8. William (5)
9. Liam (6)
10. Michael (8) – Micheal
11. Kayden (99) – Caden, Caiden, Cayden, Kaden, Kaeden, Kaiden
12. Alexander (9) – Alexzander
13. Matthew (12) – Mathew)
14. Elijah (13) – Alijah
15. Daniel (11)
16. James (14)
17. Anthony (15)
18. Caleb (32) – Kaleb
19. Benjamin (16)
20. Christopher (23) – Cristopher, Kristopher
21. Joshua (17)
22. Andrew (18)
23. David (19)
24. Joseph (20)
25. Logan (21)
26. Lucas (27) – Lukas
27. Christian (33) – Cristian, Kristian
28. Landon (34) – Landen, Landyn
29. Gabriel (24)
30. Brayden (39) – Braden, Bradyn, Braeden, Braiden, Braydon
31. Samuel (25)
32. Jonathan (35) – Johnathan, Johnathon, Jonathon
33. John (28) – Jon
34. Ryan (26)
35. Dylan (31) – Dillon
36. Nicholas (49) – Nicolas, Nickolas, Nikolas
37. Isaac (30) – Issac
38. Nathan (29)
39. Carter (36) – Karter
40. Cameron (54) – Camren, Camron, Camryn, Kameron, Kamron, Kamryn
41. Connor (59) – Conner, Conor, Konner, Konnor
42. Isaiah (42) – Isiah, Izaiah, Izayah
43. Luke (37)
44. Owen (38)
45. Gavin (40) – Gavyn
46. Dominic (70) – Dominick, Dominik, Dominique
47. Jordan (48) – Jorden, Jordyn
48. Wyatt (41)
49. Colton (65) – Colten, Kolten, Kolton
50. Henry (43)

What do you think? Does this sound about right? Are there any surprises?

Kelli Brady is a stay at home mom of two who needed an outlet for her name obsession. She found it at NameFreak!, a blog dedicated to a wide variety of name-related whims and fancies. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

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Angela Mastrodonato, creator of the trend-watching blog Upswing Baby Names, will be a regular contributor to our Bonus Blog.  Today she looks at girls’ names with a new twist at the end.

There’s one vowel that’s found at the end of seemingly every girl name. That vowel, of course, is the A. Today the focus is on girl names ending in a different vowel– the incredible I.

The most popular ends-in-i name for the moment is Naomi, an Old Testament name long popular in the Jewish community, which is at an all-time popularity peak. Naomi broke the top 100 for the first time in 2010, and has gradually reached #93 for 2011 (the most recent year Social Security name data is available).

Another ends-in-i name that has seen recent success is Maci, which has dramatically ascended the charts. After spending a decade in the bottom top 1000, Maci achieved Top 200 status within a short two-year span, probably thanks to being the name of a teen mom featured on MTV reality shows.

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Are you looking for a name for your May baby?  How about the idea of  choosing one that incorporates the pretty sound of the month into her –or his– name?  One way would be to take the vintage smoosh route, with something like Annamae or Ellamae or Maybeth, but we think an unembellished choice would be better.

May and Mae—Yes, they sound identical, and share a sweet faded yet fresh flowery feel, but there are some slight—almost indefinable—differences in tone and history.

May started as one of the innumerable pet forms of Mary and Margaret, as well as a springtime month name along with April and June.   She’s represented in literature by May Bartram in Henry James’s The Beast in the Jungle and May Welland in Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence.  Actresses Emily Morton and Madeline Stowe named their daughters May, and Eric Clapton and Jodie Sweetin used it in middle place for theirs.

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X is an undeniably cool letter when it comes to baby names, but names that start with X are limited – Xavier, Xanthe, and, uh… — and names that end with x such as Max and Alex have become overused in recent years.

The solution, for the x-loving baby namer, may be to find a name that carries an x in the middle.  Here, a wide range of choices to consider:

Abraxas – This unusual and powerful name is derived from Persian mythology, and dates back to ancient Egyptian Gnostics who worshiped Abraxas as the Supreme Being.

Alexa and Alexis – Among the most popular names on this list, these creative and sophisticated-sounding names are variations of the Greek Alexander family and mean “defending men.”

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