by Clare Green

This week’s news includes high-impact word names, rarities for every letter of the alphabet, and an accidental triple honor name.

Cool word names: Krew, Ace, Blaze

It’s been a big week for boys with punchy word names.

In the world of celebrity baby names, baseball player Bryce Harper used a respelled word name that’s new to the Top 1000. His newborn son is Krew Aron (Aron is Bryce‘s middle name too). Team-spirited, slightly nautical Crew was already on the rise when Chip and Joanna Gaines gave it to their son last year, and it’s no surprise to see variations getting more popular too.

Other word name announcements of the week include Ace Gene to two British soap actors – a high-impact name to match his brothers Buster and Bowie – and Boone to Canadian outdoors writer Eva Shockey. Ok, if we’re being picky, boon is a word and Boone is a surname name like his big sister Lennon (Leni for short).

There are more punchy names in this story about surprise triplets. Their mom thought she had kidney stones, but it turned out she was in labor with boy-girl-girl triplets Blaze, Gypsy and Nikki.

And you know who else is a master of word names? Kel Mitchell (as in Kenan and Kel). I happened to read a headline about his daughter Allure starting at college, it reminded me that his naming style is pretty avant-garde. He called his son Lyric back in 1999 before most people had heard of it. And in 2017 he kept the theme going with his youngest daughter, Wisdom – another word name that feels ahead of its time.

Alternative alphabets

If you’re searching for name inspiration from A-Z, tropical storm lists are always full of ideas. Currently storm Dorian is working its way through the Caribbean, with a smooth literary name that’s made its way into the mainstream in recent years. Will it get a boost from being on the public radar this year?

After Dorian will come Erin, Fernand, and if we get far enough, perhaps such names as Imelda, Lorenzo, Nestor and Sebastien.

Can’t wait for the England and Wales 2018 name data to arrive? It’s only a few weeks away, but meanwhile there’s still lots to discover from 2017. A deep dive into the charts shows a whole alphabet of the rarest names, including Colm, Niles and Quintus for boys, Hennessey, Prue and Tulip for girls, and more to tide us over!

Love the name, hate the popularity

No matter how much you love a name on its own terms, for many parents it’s a bummer when you use something rare only to find it’s the Next Big Thing. Just ask the mother of an Aidan born in 1995, a few years before it reached peak popularity, and back when soundalike Aiden was almost unknown.

But use a name that’s rare because it’s on the downturn, and you might find it becomes a meme. You can’t win!

If you’re looking for a name that’s perfectly poised between fitting in and standing out, check out our freshest lists of names in the popularity sweet spot for boys and girls.

Make way for Miles

As we’ve just seen, name fashions change with each generation. Take some examples from sports: time was when baseball teams were full of men named Bob. Nowadays, people are starting to notice a lot of players named Miles on the football field. Not surprisingly: it’s always been well-used, but just over 20 years ago it really started its climb up the charts. Miles finally entered the Top 100 last year, so we’ll be seeing it on football pitches, not to mention in classrooms, for a while yet.

Accidental honor names

Don’t you love it when a name works out even better than you planned? These parents named their daughter Ruby Lou, just because those were their favorite names. Some time later, they realized it combined the beginnings of all their living grandmothers’ names: Ruth, Beatrice and Lucille. Have you come across any name coincidences like this?

Clare Green writes Nameberry’s weekly round-up of the latest baby name news, including celebrity announcements, unusual naming stories, and new statistics from around the world. Clare, who has been writing for Nameberry since 2015, lives in England, where she has worked in libraries and studies linguistics. You can follow her personally on Instagram and Twitter.