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Finn has taken over as Nameberry’s top boy name for 2012, claiming the Number 1 spot held last year by Asher.  Former most popular boys’ name Henry drops to Number 3.

The names on our boys’  Top 10 remain the same as last year, except that Owen and Felix have switched places at Numbers 10 and 11.

Biblical Simon is the name that’s risen furthest on the Nameberry list, up 43 places.  The boys’ names moving the most places up the ladder are:

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To clear up any misunderstanding, let me say straight off that these are not literally sister and brother names — you would decidedly NOT want to name your children Oliver and Olivia or Seren and Soren.

What we’re talking about are names themselves that are closely related, male and female versions of names with similar sounds and feels, too close to bestow on actual siblings but offering parents boys’ and girls’ choices of what are virtually if not literally the same names.

We’ve written a lot recently about unisex names — the same name used for both genders, like Rory or Emerson — and we’ve also touched on the recent phenomenon of boys’ names that have risen to popularity on the coattails of their trendy sisters: Emmett from Emma, for instance, or Everett from the Eve contingent.

That can work the other way too, with a fashionable boys’ name inspiring the rise of a similar-sounding sister name.  In fact, does it really matter which gender’s popularity comes first?  We see a lot of trendy names these days with both female and male counterparts, so that if you’re attracted to a certain sound or style, you can use whichever version of the name fits your baby’s gender.

Some of these pairs, like Alexa and Alexander or Felicity and Felix, are connected in a conventional way: the female name is literally an offshoot of the male name.

But others don’t share an origin and developed separately, only to be connected at this point in baby name history by their similar feel and the desire on the part of parents for baby name parity, even if they’re not interested in using unisex names.

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Now it’s the boys’ turn at the Top 100 list.  These are the most popular names gauged by visitors to their pages so far in 2012.

As with the national list, the boys’ top names are more stable than the girls’ — though the Nameberry list is very different from the U.S. list.  Our Top 5 names are the same as in 2010, with the exception of new entrant Milo.

Trends on our boys’ Top 100:

– The Nameberry list is geared to non-traditional but deeply-rooted boys’ names.  We see this trend on the U.S. list as well, but it’s even more pronounced in our statistics — which indicates that overall trend will continue to move toward unconventional boys’ names and away from standards such as Robert and John.  The exceptions: Henry, James, and William.  But however unconventional, the Nameberry favorites, from mythological Irish Finn to Biblical Asher, have deep roots.

– Celebrities and pop culture are important, but not as important as for girls.  We see Finn, partially inspired by Glee, at Number 1 and Atticus in the Top 10 thanks to To Kill A Mockingbird.  While other names — Jude, Liam, Emmett, Hudson, Arlo — have risen on the heels of popular stars, celebrity babies, and movie and TV characters — we see this influence on boys’ names less pronounced than on girls’.

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