Category: Baby Names Popularity
This week’s news includes the top names in the UK and France, names from past generations that need more love, and some of the reasons people don’t like their name.
What’s hot in England and Wales
The big excitement of the week, for anyone who loves British baby names, was the release of the top names for England and Wales in 2017. Here’s the the full Top 100 list and the main highlights you should know. To name but a few: Oliver and Olivia remain on top, Leo and Poppy entered the Top 10, and entrants to the Top 100 included Hunter, Ralph, Aurora and Hallie.
Beyond the usual headlines about parents naming their babies after characters from Game of Thrones, Star Wars and other pop-culture hits (including the unexpected Binky, a reality TV star’s nickname), there’s serious analysis to be done. For example, just like in the US, the pool of names is getting more diverse across all social classes. As the blog British Baby Names points out, 10% of girls got a name in the Top 10, while 7% of girls got a name that was only used once – so there are almost as many girls with unique names as there are with the most popular ones.
By Eleanor Nickerson, British Baby Names
Today, the top baby names for England and Wales in 2017 have been released by the Office of National Statistics (yes, we get ours pretty late on, sadly).
And once again Oliver was top for English name for boys, for the fifth year, and Olivia remained as the top English name for girls for the second year in a row.
The new additions to the top 100 are Hunter and Ralph for boys; Aurora, Orla, Edith, Bonnie, Lyla and Hallie for girls.
Other notable risers already within the top 100 include Albie, Rory, Bobby, Carter and Luna, Aria, Arabella and Harper.
Hallie and Hunter were the highest rising names overall in 2017’s top 100.
This week’s news includes family dynamics – from involving the in-laws to picking a surname – plus a baby named after a fancy dress costume, and what’s hot in Austria.
In-law involvement: yea or nay?
Announcing a baby’s name before it’s born can be a tricky decision – especially if family members react badly. Here’s a particularly painful account from a mother whose in-laws really didn’t approve of the name choice.
What makes it strange (even bearing in mind we don’t know the whole story) is that the name in question really isn’t very out-there. It’s sort-of predicable that a truly unusual grandma-shocker of a name might get a few raised eyebrows, but here we’re talking a Top 300 name that’s been described as “one of the friendliest names on the planet”.
If it’s any consolation, even Kim Kardashian gets naming advice from her in-laws. She’s said that when choosing a name for her daughter Chicago, she got a few suggestions of spiritual word names from Kanye West’s family. Other options on the table included names from the atlas like Rome, Milan and Italy (ok, that’s one page of the atlas) and from the bible, like Aaron and Abel. Either would have been rare, but not completely unheard of, on a girl.
And on that gender note: here’s a detailed look from The Atlantic about why, traditionally, more boy names are given to girls than girl names given to boys.
by Linda Rosenkrantz
They were once the belles of the ball. But then they gradually lost their luster and found themselves in baby name limbo.
Most of these girls’ names aren’t vintage enough to benefit from the 100-year rule. And many are recent enough to still bring up images of moms and aunts and grandmas. A few of them can be considered semi-classics, once as high as in the Top 15, yet none of them makes it even into today’s Top 1000.
But if you can manage to shake off the dust and look at them with fresh eyes, re-imagine their original appeal, I think you will find choices here that still have a lot of intrinsic life.
Let’s Put Together An Alternative Top 100!
Nameberry visitors love lesser-used baby names, as our constantly updated “Most Popular” lists show. Atticus (US rank #350) is currently our most-searched boys’ name, while Rumi (unranked), Maia (#487) and Amara (#208) are all in the Nameberry girls’ Top 20.
Unique baby namers — you have been warned! Our popularity lists have proven to be a great indicator of future naming trends.
But if, like many parents, you’d prefer to find an uncommon baby name which is likely to stay that way, it can be difficult to know where to start. Well… how about at the top?
We thought this “Alternative Top 100” thread from the Nameberry forums was such a great idea, that we wanted to create our own! So, today’s Question Of The Week is more of a Challenge Of The Week — let’s put together an alternative Nameberry Top 100!
Here’s how it works: here you can find the full US Top 100 lists for boys and girls in 2017. Each commenter takes one boy name and one girl name (in rank order) and comes up with the perfect under-the-radar alternative for each. We’ll start:
Now over to you, Berries! We can’t wait to hear what you come up with. And don’t forget you can also join in the challenge on our Facebook and Twitter pages!
