One of my greatest joys is stepping back four times a year to gather up all the new names that have been added to the Birth Announcement forum, and seeing what names have moved from speculation and possibility into reality—onto the birth certificates of actual little people!  There’s also the added pleasure of seeing the cool combinations of firsts and middles Berries have put together, and how the names fit in with those of their sibs.

Once again, I’m dazzled by the sheer splendor and variety of this list (the London Times has nothing on us!), the intriguing mix of the classic and the creative—so much of it the result of  the savvy advice gleaned from the discussions on the forums.

Most of these names stand individually, but we do have some multiples: three Alices and three Hazels, and pairs of babyberries named Belle, Eliza, Emeline/Emmeline, Frances, Penelope, Ruby, Wren, James, Silas and Walter, and in the middle spots more than one June and Jane, Josephine, Scarlett and Penelope (again); Carter and Alexander.

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