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We don’t particularly think of Woody Allen as a cutting-edge filmmaker, but there is one area in which he has been—if unwittingly—prescient, and that is in giving some of his characters names that would later become trendy choices for babies.  (Though there are no babies in his films—children hardly exist in Woody’s World.)

For those characters he created for himself, he chose, with a few exceptions, pretty ordinary, sometimes nicknamey names—Alvy, Sandy, Mickey, Lenny, Larry, Jerry, Sid, Gabe, Sheldon, Isaac.  But for others, he did come up with some inspired choices:

Alfie—You Will Meet a Tall, Dark Stranger, 2010 (Anthony Hopkins).  A fittingly British choice for a British character—but it’s doubtful if Woody knew that Alfie was the fourth most popular name for UK baby boys born in 2010.

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We are thrilled to announce the new, redesigned, and much improved Nameberry, introducing a host of new features now and over the days and weeks to come.

Designed by the fabulous Tedworth & Oscar, aka the British brother team Joe and Jake Baggaley, the new Nameberry is completely responsive, created to look as beautiful and work as seamlessly on your iPhone as it does on your big-screen desktop.

Besides its new mobile capabilities, other changes you’ll notice on Nameberry right away:

– An updated, more sophisticated palette, expanding on our standard pink-and-blue with a range of pastels keyed to different functions.

– A second blog on our home page where we’ll host wonderful guest baby name bloggers (like Eleanor Nickerson of British Baby Names, featured today) along with pregnancy and baby experts.

– Expanded list pages, giving you a snippet of information on all the lists in a category or a bit about every name in the list.  Plus the option to view lists old-school, as just a complete array of linked names.

– Simplified name ratings, letting you vote yay, nay, or meh for every name.

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Are you looking for a name for your May baby?  How about the idea of  choosing one that incorporates the pretty sound of the month into her –or his– name?  One way would be to take the vintage smoosh route, with something like Annamae or Ellamae or Maybeth, but we think an unembellished choice would be better.

May and Mae—Yes, they sound identical, and share a sweet faded yet fresh flowery feel, but there are some slight—almost indefinable—differences in tone and history.

May started as one of the innumerable pet forms of Mary and Margaret, as well as a springtime month name along with April and June.   She’s represented in literature by May Bartram in Henry James’s The Beast in the Jungle and May Welland in Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence.  Actresses Emily Morton and Madeline Stowe named their daughters May, and Eric Clapton and Jodie Sweetin used it in middle place for theirs.

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