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For the Nameberry 9 newsiest names of this week, Abby Sandel of Appellation Mountain highlights some unisex baby names, interesting surname names and other novel choices.

By now, you’ve almost certainly heard about Blaer Bjarkardottir.

She’s just won the legal right to use her name. Fifteen years ago, Blaer’s mom unknowingly gave her daughter a name that does not appear on the official list of 1,853 names permitted for baby girls in Iceland. The mistake was discovered only after Blaer’s baptism.

A Nobel Prize-winning novelist had used the name for a female character. Plus, Blaer’s mom knew another woman with the name – it’s where she got the idea in the first place.

It turns out that even in a country with official lists, things can be a little bit fuzzy.

There are no official lists in the U.S., but plenty of us might like to impose them.

Trouble is, even if there were rules at a given moment, they’re always subject to change. What was true in 1960 – or 1860 – won’t hold in 2013.

This brings us to a great quote from Swistle: “Names, like colors and toys, are given to male/female babies according to fashion, not according to stone tablets.”

Surprising Names: And the forces behind them

Posted May 17th, 2012

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Baby Names Popularity

Celebrity Names

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Unless you follow every reality series on the Oxygen and Style networks, Spanish soccer, country music and the contemporary cartoons, you might be hard pressed to figure out the sources behind some of the names that are suddenly rising in popularity. Yes, you may know that Number 2 boys’ name Mason is Kardashian-related, and that the Beckhams gave girls’ name Harper a big boost, but what’s with Iker? Brantley and Briella, Archer and Angelique? Here’s a guide to the probable sources of the success of these surprising names on the rise.