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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Finn has taken over as Nameberry’s top boy name for 2012, claiming the Number 1 spot held last year by Asher.  Former most popular boys’ name Henry drops to Number 3.

The names on our boys’  Top 10 remain the same as last year, except that Owen and Felix have switched places at Numbers 10 and 11.

Biblical Simon is the name that’s risen furthest on the Nameberry list, up 43 places.  The boys’ names moving the most places up the ladder are:

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Our tally of the 100 most popular girls’ names of 2012 on Nameberry is in, and we have a new Number 1: Katniss.

The predominance of Katniss is more a testament to the power of the Hunger Games franchise than to baby name trends.

Our Number 2 girls’ name Charlotte, which has been Nameberry’s most popular girls’ name every year until now, is more reflective of a name that will actually be chosen by parents.  Imogen, which has moved up from Number 6 to claim the Number 3 spot, is another choice we see on the rise in the real world, though it has yet to break into the U.S. Top 1000.

Katniss is also the girls’ name that has risen the furthest on our list, followed by Penelope, propelled upward by its choice as a Kardashian baby name.

The girls’ names that have risen the most places since our 2011 count are:

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As the authors of, literally, the book on Cool Names, you’d think we’d know everything there is to know about cool baby names.

But the definition of cool is so fluid and so subjective, it’s difficult to point to one name, or one group of names, and proclaim it as universally cool.

Yet sometimes, you know cool when you see it.  I was reading about the British actor Damian Lewis the other day — the redheaded hunk on Homeland — and noticed (of course) that the names of his children with fellow actor Helen McCrory are Manon and Gulliver.

Huh, I thought.  Now THOSE are cool names.  Undeniably quirky, but cool.

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We all might owe Nameberry’s existence to Sister Miriam Gervase.

While the roots of Linda‘s name nerdism are different from mine — you can read her story here– and I’m sure you all have your own stories to tell, which we’d love to hear! — I trace a large part of my fascination with names to my Catholic girlhood.

Most kids back at Immaculate Conception School were dying to know whether the nuns had hair under those veils or what they wore to bed at night, but to me those mysteries paled in comparison to the nuns’ names.

Nuns got to pick new names for themselves when they entered the convent. That itself was appealing enough, but what was really amazing was that their choices were not confined by ethnic background, historical period, or even gender.

The principal of Immaculate Conception, for instance, was named Sister Miriam Gervase, an appellation that had it all going on. Miriam may have been a Mary relative, but it was one used mostly by Jews. unfamiliar in our Irish and Italian Catholic enclave. And Gervase! That may have been a hot name in 6th century Gaul….for guys. But in mid-20th century New Jersey, it really stood out in the world of Gerrys and Jeans.

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