By Linda Rosenkrantz

Every year, a small number of new names manages to move onto the Top 1000 list for the first time ever.  Sometimes this marks the beginning of a climb up the ladder, other times it’s a name that will linger in the nether regions, and sometimes it might prove to be a one-shot wonder—perhaps an eccentric spelling picked up by just enough parents  to make the grade.

In 2011, for instance, we saw the debuts of such nouveau names as Elliot for girls, Aviana, Blakely, Juniper, Liv, and Temperance; Bowen, Brecken, Flynn, the musical Crosby and Hendrix, the presidential Nixon and the Ivy League Princeton.

But how about the recently released list?  Of the forty-five possibilities, here are the Nameberry Picks for the twelve most promising newbies of 2012.

girls

Azalea—Though there were fewer than three hundred baby girls given this name in 2012, it has now definitely crossed over from the wilder fringes into the main flower garden.  Azalea embodies a delightful combination of the fragrant floral with a shot of z-infused energy.

Read More

There are many baby names that are popular on both sides of the Atlantic: Olivia and Oliver, Charlotte and William both rank high in the US and the UK.

And then there are those baby names that are evidence of how wide the gulf is between the British and the American cultures.

We found 29 baby names — 20 for girls and nine for boys — that rank in the current British Top 200 (or so) that do not appear at all in the American Top 1000.  (Note: We did skip spelling variations such as Hollie and Isobel.)

And another five Top 200 baby names for girls and nine for boys that are down at the bottom of our Top 1000; in other words, vastly less popular in the US than in the UK.

One kind of name that much more popular in Britain than America: the nickname name, with choices like Evie and Maisie, Alfie and Archie in their Top 25 but not ranking as proper names in the US.

Read More

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)

Read More

Forget Katniss and Finn: Today we leave individual baby names behind and bring you the most popular features on Nameberry in 2012.

Sifting through nearly100 million page views on the site, these are our most-read blogs, our lists that attracted the highest number of viewers, our most commented-on forums, and the user lists that drew the most attention.

How many have you seen?

Top blogs

100 Best Cool Unusual Boys’ Names and Best Cool Unusual Girls’ Names

These 2010 blogs that detailed the best names given to 25 or fewer babies continue to rank highest on our site.  Our picks for boys include Amias, Barnabas, and Cashel; for girls, Fleur, Honora, and Verena.

Read More

Today, Appellation Mountain‘s Abby Sandel looks back over the 459 names she’s chosen in her weekly Nameberry 9′s this year and picks out her top favorites.

Nine names per week over 51 weeks equals 459 names.  They’re classic, they’re quirky, and sometimes they’re downright strange.  But when I sat down to review a year’s worth of Nameberry posts, I realized that most of them are actually pretty wearable.

Very few of them repeat – something that surprised me, as it so often seems that a name is suddenly everywhere all at once.  Some garnered lots of positive comments while others went completely unnoticed.

My favorite comment?  “No, don’t mention THAT name.  It’s the top of our list!”  As I scrolled through the posts, there were more than a few groans of disappointment.

The best names, though, aren’t necessarily the ones that will be racing up the popularity charts.  I’m most attracted to the ones that seem novel – unlikely to catch on, but probably part of a bigger change in how we think about names.

Read More