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Appellation Mountain‘s Abby Sandel targets a wide range of names for this week’s Nameberry 9, from the outrageous (if fictitious) Conquistador to the sweet floral Violet.

 It was a week for outrageous baby names. 

Steve Martin joked that his new baby girl is named Conquistador.

Then Peaches Honeyblossom Geldof welcomed a baby boy named Phaedra, a little brother for Astala.  The only one in the family with a buttoned-down name is Peaches’ rocker husband, Thomas Cohen. 

For better and for worse, there will always be outlandish stand-out baby names, the headline-grabbing, eye-popping choices like Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii.

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Appellation Mountain‘s Abby Sandel has found some intriguingly unusual baby names in this week’s name news.

It’s easy to belittle a parent’s search for a unique name.  Headlines call it self-centered and short-sighted.  But if you went through school as Jessica or Jennifer, one among many, is it so wrong to want your child to be one of one, at least in her kindergarten?

This week was all about the quest for a distinctive name.

There was nothing truly surprising in the baby name news – no Buddy Bear Maurice or Rainbow Aurora.  Instead, there’s been a treasure trove of very wearable names that all feel just a little bit different.

What makes them stand out choices?  For some, it’s a high value Scrabble letter, like V, X, or Z.  Others are super short, even brisk.  And giving a masculine name to a daughter is always a sure-fire way to grab attention, for better and for worse.

Not every parent would – or should – consider every trend, but it is exciting just how many choices manage to be both unusual and perfectly normal at once.

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Out-of-the-box word  baby names are highlighted in the Nameberry 9 this week, unearthed as always, by Abby Sandel of Appellation Mountain.

It’s been another big week for noun names.  They were all over Hollywood gossip blogs, and appeared in plenty of workaday birth announcements, too.

There’s no doubt that this is a rich category.  Flower names make us consider trees – meet my daughter, Lily, and my son, Cedar.  Weather and birds feel like inexhaustible sources of inspiration.  There are the old school, Puritan-era virtue names, but also more recent innovations, rich with meaning.

Sometimes the influence is more subtle.  Surname Brooks is preppier than River, but both bring to mind the great outdoors.  Clementine and Olive have been used for so long we consider them names, but they’re both on the upswing today, lifted by the trend.

May, June, and August are mainstream, but I’m not so sure about January, and it is always surprising to hear September, October, or November.  April is definitely a noun name, but Avril is cooler.  And if Avril is an option, how about Janvier?

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For the Nameberry 9 this week, Abby Sandel of Appellation Mountain finds a group of sweet spot baby names--names that sound modern and new, but are still based in tradition.

After last week’s birth announcement for Rainbow Aurora, I thought it might be a quiet week.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Baby names trends are constantly evolving, but I’m struck by a theme in this week’s baby name news. It’s the continuing rise of Modern Choices with Roots. This week’s appellations weren’t as out there as Rainbow, but they’re not all conventionally established names, either.

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