A study of historical baby name data has revealed that names that rapidly rise to popularity often then crash back out of the limelight.Read more about the baby name popularity study here.
Dec
22
We’ve been finding out the names that our readers are looking for throughout 2008, and the results are in:
| Boy’s Names | Girl’s Names |
| james | emma |
| jack | sarah |
| david | charlotte |
| john | amy |
| matthew | hannah |
| michael | chloe |
| daniel | grace |
| andrew | rebecca |
| paul | ava |
| thomas | emily |
Oct
26
As part of a new monthly feature on the blog, we’re going to be answering the question - Which baby names are our visitors looking for?
On the our main baby names site, we use Google Analytics web analytics software to monitor how people interact with our site. We recently enabled ‘Site Search’, which lets us track which names our visitors are typing in to our search box. This is pretty cool, as it lets us understand which names people are most interested in.
The top ten searches were:
- James (0.33%)
- Emma (0.32%)
- Sarah (0.30%)
- Jack (0.29%)
- David (0.27%)
- John (0.25%)
- Hannah (0.25%)
- Charlotte (0.25%)
- Matthew (0.25%)
- Chloe (0.24%)
Aside from these ten most popular searches, some people have been searching for crazy things:
- 007
- A Date With Brad Pitt
- awesome
It will be interesting to see how the top ten names change over time!
Jun
26
Well, when it comes to names, at least. Nancy uncovered an Economist article from 4 years ago, which looks into the frequency of novel baby names in the US.
Dr. Alexander Bentley, along with his team at University College, London, were investigating the mathematics of cultural transmission.
For every 10,000 baby girls born, 2.3 of them are given completely novel names
For every 10,000 baby boys born, 1.6 of them are given completely novel names
It’s understandable - I think males are traditionally seen as those who continue the family name, and hence may take a more traditional first name. For girls, it’s also more acceptable to create a “pretty-sounding” name that has little or no etymological foundation.
May
12
Following the release of the top baby name data by the SSA this weekend, a strange trend has emerged - the popularity of names that rhyme with the word ‘maiden’, especially for boys.
Here is a list of boys names from the top 1,000 that follow this trend:
- Jayden
- Aiden
- Aidan
- Jaden
- Caden
- Kaden
- Ayden
- Braden
- Cayden
- Jaiden
- Kaiden
- Aden
- Caiden
- Braeden
- Braydon
- Jaydon
- Jadon
- Braiden
- Zayden
- Jaeden
- Aydan
- Bradyn
- Kadin
- Jadyn
- Kaeden
- Jaydin
- Braedon
- Aidyn
- Haiden
- Jaidyn
- Kadyn
- Jaydan
- Raiden
- Adin
The girls didn’t jump on this bandwagon quite as much:
- Jayden
- Jadyn
- Jaden
- Jaiden
- Kayden
- Jaidyn
The SSA says there will be no move to standardise the spelling of these names. Can anybody shed some light on this bizarre trend?
May
12
The SSA, along with the most popular baby names of 2007 (in the US, that is), has released a list of the top twin name pairings. This list is useful for those expecting twins, and trying to find a pair of names that suit one another.
- Jacob, Joshua
- Matthew, Michael
- Daniel, David
- Isaac, Isaiah
- Ella, Emma
- Madison, Morgan
- Taylor, Tyler
- Landon, Logan
- Brandon, Bryan
- Christian, Christopher
As you will have noticed, alliteration is the main theme, with every pairing in the top ten utilising the same first letter.
Dec
3
It’s interesting to consider the effect that one’s name, or label as it were, has on day to day life. Names can certainly cause people to stand out, blend in, appear masculine, feminine, intelligent, sporty or even nerdy.
The question is, do names have a more profound effect on one of the most fundamental of human pursuits - that of education? Research published last month suggests they just might.
“Using 15 years (1990–2004) of grade point averages for business school grads, they found that students whose names began with C or D earned lower GPAs than those whose names began with A or B. The Carters and Dorns performed worse than average (based on students with grade-neutral initials such as M and N); the Ashes and Bakers didn’t do significantly better than the norm. The former had such “an unconscious fondness for these letters, [they] were slightly less successful at achieving their conscious academic goals than were students with other initials.”
So according to that logic, Astara would be a great choice for those looking to seed their child’s academic prowess.
Dec
2
I just stumbled across this great video from Chaser’s War. It presents what I think is a great idea - baby name wardens with a public presence issuing on-the-spot fines! Brilliant.
Nov
17
Ben Elton, acclaimed British novelist and playwright, has revealed some of the names in his latest book, Blind Faith.
Elton, who made his name in comedy, has taken a turn for the serious with his new publication. However, as he told The Age, it does still skirt around less serious topics including recent trends in ridiculous baby names.
Barbieheart, Gucci KitKat and Caitlin Happymeal are just some of the stars of the novel.
“I called someone Gucci (in the book) and then on telly the next day there was a girl called Gucci.
“In Europe there are laws against giving kids a stupid name and a lot of people say that that’s outrageous.
“I actually think there is some justification for it … people putting their own pretensions onto another human being, it’s disgusting … I reserve the right to violent rhetoric against (taking) some indulgent designer product, which is a symbol of reckless expenditure, and imposing it on a child.”
Nov
5
We’ve been working on a tool over the past week that gives a unique insight into current baby name trends - Baby Names Buzz.
What does it do?
Baby Names Buzz aggregates data from news and blog posts over the period of one week. Our baby name database is used to pick out the number of citations made to all of our names. The result is an ordered list of names based on how frequently they appear on the web over the past week. For each name, we have added icons that indicate a rise or fall over last week’s results. We hope Buzz will prove to be another great source of name inspiration!
Coming soon: biggest winners and losers - on a weekly basis we will also serve up the top 5 biggest gainers and top 5 worst fallers in terms of web saturation. Keep an eye out!
Buzz is updated early on Monday morning, so be sure to check in and see the latest trends to show up!