We’ve always loved O Names, from our first book Beyond Jennifer & Jason when we declared names that ended (and sometimes also began) with the cheery letter O to be “So Far Out They’re In.” A quarter century later, they still are, with choices like Leo and Marlo officially stylish and a raft of other O names gaining much-deserved attention.

We’re still so fond of the O names that we find it difficult to narrow our favorites down to a dozen, but these to us feel both fresh and usable, contemporary and also deserving of respect. The only down side of the O names as a class is that there are more great choices for boys than for girls.

With photos that connect the letter O’s eternal circle with things relating to childhood, here are the best O names right now.

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Baby Names 2012: What’s Hot Now

Posted July 12th, 2012

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Baby Names Popularity

Cool Baby Names

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Trends and Predictions

Unusual Baby Names

The hottest baby names 2012 – those attracting the biggest spikes in views on Nameberry for the first six months of this year – are an astonishing group: Highly unusual yet strangely familiar, heavily influenced by pop culture yet boldly individualistic.

The strongest baby name influences right now: Hunger Games, Game of Thrones, and ancient Rome. Many of the hot names relate to nature and to worlds beyond our own. And most share a transcendence of traditional gender identity, containing elements of names for the opposite gender if not crossing over to unisex territory.

Nameberry’s hottest names of the year, which we predict you’ll be hearing lots more of in the future, are:

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Baby Names That Are Too Much To Live Up To

Newest Babyberries: The quarterly report

Posted July 4th, 2012

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Baby Name News

Baby Names Popularity

Cool Baby Names

Sibling and Multiple Names

Time again for one of my absolute favorite activities—rounding up the names that Berries have chosen over the past three-month period. These are the winning picks after all the options were weighed– so often the result of enlightened discussions with and suggestions from fellowberries.

Today’s Quarterly Report includes an even more than usual range of fabulous choices, for both singletons and multiples–and we often get to see the sibsets these newbies fit into.

We also have some multiples of our own: three Spring babyberries each named Ivy and Miles, and two each called Charlotte, Cora, Eloise, Jasper, Leo, Oliver and Samuel. Plus the similar but differently spelled Alice and Alys, Eleanor and Elinore, Mathilde and Matilda, Vivien and Vivienne, and Edmond and Edmund.

Some of the more intriguingly unusual choices: girls named Bennett , Connelly and Greyson, boys named Hawthorne and Jones, and distinctive middle names Sherlock, Capri, Dover, Huckleberry, and Adventure.

Steampunk Names: Victorian Sci-Fi

Middle Names: How To Make A Distinguished Choice

Top Unisex Names 2011

They Wrecked My Baby Name!

X Marks the Middle Spot

America’s Favorite Baby Names

Posted January 20th, 2012

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Baby Names Popularity

Gallery

Trends and Predictions

What are America‘s Favorite Baby Names? Not the top names on the Social Security List, not even Nameberry’s own favorites, but the most well-liked names chosen by popular opinion.

Recently we collaborated with Huffington Post Parents to create a brackets challenge, asking readers to vote for America‘s Favorite Baby Name. We picked the 16 contenders for each sex from the ranks of Nameberry favorites, pitting Henry against James, Scarlett vs. Charlotte, Hudson against River (how could we resist?).

Through a series of elimination rounds, thousands of parents voted for their favorites. And today we have the winners! Read on to find out which the finalists were, and the identity of America‘s favorite baby names.

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Baby Names 2011: The Hottest Choices in Every Category

Posted March 4th, 2011

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Cool Baby Names

Trends and Predictions

Click here for the new list of most popular names.

What choices do we see leading the way for baby names 2011? Here, we look at some of the most popular categories for parents and pick out the specific names we predict we’ll be hearing much more of this year and in the decade ahead, based on nameberry statistics.

Biblical Names 2011

Biblical names have been popular for several decades now, which means parents are forging into new territory in search of biblical names that haven’t been overused.

Girls: Delilah, Jemima, Magdalene, Ruth, Susanna
Boys: Abel, Asher, Eli, Gideon, Levi

Celebrity Names 2011

The hottest celebrity names are either the names of newly-hot celebrities such as Isla Fisher; the fresh-sounding names of new celebrity babies, such as Flynn; new ways to use the names of megapopular celebrities, such as Anniston for Jennifer; or rediscovered names of celebrities such as Isadora Duncan.

Girls: Anniston, Evangeline, Isadora, Isla, Seraphina
Boys: Arlo, Dexter, Flynn, Penn, Rufus