New Year Baby Name News
This week’s news includes the first baby names of 2019, new babies for Taylor Hanson and Ricky Martin, and the top names in states, towns and newspapers.
New Year babies of 2019
The first babies of the year always make the news, and they make good namespotting too. Here’s a selection of brand new 2019 babies from around North America, with New Year names to inspire you.
Holiday Clementine was the most festive. Her parents chose her name because they love the holidays, and the nickname Holly.
Madison Luna’s parents chose her first name after the place where they got married. Santiago was named after a character in the soccer film Goal, and baby girl Oakley after sharpshooter Annie Oakley.
Siblings had a hand in the naming process, with Liam Stone’s name chosen by his sister, and Olivia chosen by her brother – who also suggested they could call her “Liver” for short.
There was a run of handsome ends-in-N January baby names in North Carolina, where New Year arrivals included Evan, Dawson, Ronan and Kalvin.
Quetzaly got her name from the Nahuatl language: according to her parents, it means “beautiful woman”. Keani Diane has a Hawaiian first name, which her mother says means “breeze that carries the waves”.
Other names of note include Miles Everett in Milwaukee; Adeline Bridie in Boston; Kairo and Génesis in New York; Dalton, Axel, Eliza and Zuri in New Jersey; and Aspen, Hugo, Freya and Dominik in British Columbia.
Christmas and New Year starbabies
We’re delighted that celebrity namelover Natalie Hanson and her husband Taylor welcomed their sixth child on December 26. You may remember Natalie wrote here in November about the challenges of naming a baby with five older siblings. Now Jordan Ezra, Penelope Anne, River Samuel, Viggo Moriah and Wilhelmina Jane have a new brother: Claude Indiana Emmanuel, aka Indy.
Ricky Martin and his husband Jwan Yosef have a new daughter, Lucia – a name with a Latin flavor just like her big brothers Matteo and Valentino.
In non-baby news, Macaulay Culkin has a new middle name for 2019. He announced before Christmas that he wanted to change up his middle name – Carson – and asked fans to vote on it. The winner? Macaulay Culkin. As in, if he actually changes it, his full name will be Macaulay Macaulay Culkin Culkin. And this is why you shouldn’t put names to a public vote. I’m surprised it wasn’t McMacaulayface…
Popular baby names from places great and small
The new year always means a flurry of places releasing their baby name rankings, from countries and states to individual health centers and newspapers. For all you data-lovers, here are a few from the past week.
The official name data for each US state comes out with the national charts in May, but some states jump in there early with their preliminary figures for 2018. Arizona has released a full Top 100 list, headed – just like last year – by Emma and Liam. New entries to the Top 10 are Mateo, Elijah, Camila and Mila.
We might be able to predict Camila and Mila will rise more widely in the 2018 charts: they’re also new to the Top 10 in New Mexico, along with Sofia, Mason, Benjamin and Julian. The most popular names in the Land of Enchantment were Noah (again) and Isabella.
The Midwest states always seem especially good at releasing local baby name data – and I love how you can see little pockets of parents’ favorites. For example, in some hospitals in Iowa, names on the Top 10 list for 2018 included Stella, Cora, Grayson and Asher. In others, Bennett, Nolan, Abel and Kinsley were among the most used. In Michigan, you’ll find Hazel and Charles in one Top 10 list, and Jeremiah and Athena elsewhere.
And equally specialist is the top names announced in the UK’s Telegraph newspaper. Where else would Margot, Ottilie, Henry and Arthur be Top 5 names? For a full list, including the most popular middle names (spoiler: James and Rose are #1), check out the charts at British Baby Names.
Embracing the unique
If you have a highly unusual name, this may sound familiar. In this article, Sa’iyda Shabazz tells the story of how she grew from disliking her unique name as a child, to appreciating it as an adult. The turning point? When someone she admired commented that her name was “cool”.
It’s a reminder that our words have power. So my new year’s resolution is, if I think someone’s name is cool, to tell them.