With 2009 name fads, from Marley to Miley, safely behind us, what do we see as the hottest trends in baby names for the year ahead  Here, nameberry’s top 15 predictions for 2010 baby names:

BIGGEST BIG PICTURE TREND: ECONOMICAL NAMES

In this era of tighter budgets and darker outlooks, 2010 baby names will be getting both shorter and more light-hearted.  We see a trend toward nickname names ahead.  For boys, these are economical one-syllable names: Bob, Joe, Gus, Hal, Hank, Max,.  Such short forms – in every sense of the phrase are stylish and getting more so in Europe, with Jack the number one name in England, Tom tops in France, Bas and Sem popular in the Netherlands.

For girls, the nickname trend adds an “ie” onto the end of every name: Gracie, Ellie, Evie, Maisie, Josie.  Trendlet: boys’ nicknames – Lou, Charlie, Sam, Frankie – for girls.

NEWEST RETRO TREND

We predict the revival of serious, no-frills names that haven’t been considered for babies in several generations: Adele, Alice, Dorothy, Edith, Evelyn, Florence, Lenore, Louise, and Marion for girls; Arthur, Frank, Harold, Harvey, Martin, Raymond, Victor, Vincent, Walter, Warren for boys.  Having trouble imagining such sober names on cute little kids?  We said the same thing about Moses and Matilda a handful of years ago.

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Here at nameberry, we’ve been known to scrutinize trends down to a single letter (are V names in?) or syllable (la-beginnings) or sound (oo), as in Talllulah.  The other day, thinking about  the names that are emerging as as among the hottest for girls right now, I suddenly realized that several of them have something in common–and that is that they are all three-syllable names ending in the suffix ine:

ADELINE

CLEMENTINE

EMMELINE

EVANGELINE

GERALDINE

JOSEPHINE

OTTOLINE

This is a pattern that hasn’t been seen in the US for a long time–if you don’t count classics like Caroline and Madeline.  The ones that are feminizations of boys’ names, such as Geraldine and Ernestine, fell out of favor at a time when a) women didn’t want to be thought of as appendages of men even in their names, and b) the particular male names they derived from were sounding particularly fusty. 

But this doesn’t seem like such a burning feminist issue these days, when many parents are  eager to honor their dads and forefathers as namesakes for their kids of either gender.  And besides–who knows?–names like Gerald and Ernest could make a return at any time. (more…)