We named Florence as the UK’s fastest rising girls name of 2010 last month, and it seems as though David Cameron is following the trend. In the 2008 official rankings (the latest currently available), Florence was ranked 94th in the UK – we expect it to enter the top 20 in time.

The name Florence itself means “blossoming; flourishing”. It actually originates from a masculine Latin name, Florentius. What do you think – will David Cameron’s choice improve or reduce the popularity of this name? When Obama came into office, the popularity of one of his children’s names – Malia – increased massively. While Cameron doesn’t have quite the adoration that Obama enjoyed in his early days in office, it could still prove a shot in the arm for Florence’s popularity.

Rose is a common middle name for girls, especially in recent years, but ranks just outside the top 100 as a first name. I bet you know a baby girl with the middle name “Rose”!

Endellion is a village in North Cornwall, and is named after St. Endelienta who converted locals to Christianity and established the parish in the fifth century BC.

My guess would be Tegen, which means “pretty”; Channel 4 Political Editor Gary Gibbon thinks Lowenna is more likely, which means “joy”. Which of these names, or any of the above Cornish names, do you prefer?

A statement made by David today revealed that they are yet to choose a name for their new arrival. He did however hint that they may select a Cornish name due to the place of birth. Cameron described it as “absolutely thrilling”.

The new arrival will join two other children, Nancy, six, and Arthur, four, at Number 10.

Tony Blair brought baby son Leo into office in 2006, but before that you’d have to go back 150 years to find the previous newborn resident at the PM’s residence.

Note: the data we’ve received does not include very rare names – i.e. those only used once or twice.  This is to protect the anonymity of the individuals, and to limit the data a bit too!

As you might expect, double-barrel first names are more common in girls.  6,718 girls in 2008 were given hyphenated names, compared to only 1,094 boys.

Moving to boys, the top double-barreled name in 2008 was Tyler-James, chosen by only 32 families.  This trails the leading boys name by some margin – Jack was used 8,007 times in 2008.

We’re expecting the latest UK baby names data for 2009 to arrive shortly, so expect a follow-up post in the coming weeks.

Natalie and fiance Cameron had apparently decided on this name before the baby was born, and even before they knew whether it was a boy or a girl. Would you ever name your child before you knew it’s gender?

The middle name is unfortunate. For lots of parents, the middle name plays second fiddle to the first name (or given name). This is quite understandable – in the UK and most other Western countries, the middle name very rarely gets an outing unless you’re filling in some sort of form!

Even with the middle name being so reclusive in day-to-day life, plus not being a legal requirement, most parents do still pick one. So when the often drawn-out process of choosing a first name is completed – often towards the very end of your pregnancy – the realisation that at least a whole other name needs to be decided upon can cause mild panic.

But never fear! We’ve compiled a list of key considerations when choosing middle names:

Initials
Let’s start with a simple one. Andrew Ciaran Edmonds has pretty cool initials (ACE). However, Andrew Ryan Stewart Edmonds (ARSE) has initials that will have bullies thinking Christmas has come early. And rest assured, school kids will run with things like this.

Tradition
It’s somewhat traditional for middle names to be taken from a family member, such as a parent or grandparent. Potential pitfalls – it’s difficult to say “no I don’t like that name” when it’s your other half’s grandmother’s. Tread carefully, and if you do need to dispel someone’s family-based suggestion, find some proper reasoning for it (probably based on some of our other considerations). Conversely, also be aware of pushing your own family suggestion too firmly on your other half, and let them know it’s a joint decision.

Rhythm, rhyme and feel
Probably the most important consideration for middle names is how they affect the rhythm of the name as a whole. Names on their own sound great, but when you start pairing them up, they can sound awkward or become difficult to pronounce.

• Daisy Maise? Names that rhyme tend to sound a bit silly, to me at least.
• Alexandra Seraphina? 4 syllables each makes for a bit of a mouthful, and a long surname could make it crazy. Not disastrous, but worth thinking about.
• Kate Jane? Similarly, a lack of syllables can sometimes make for a flat sounding name. Again, depends on your surname, and is quite subjective.
• Luke William? Blending few syllables with more syllables can create a nice flow. I’m a little biased on this example, though!
• Amelia Rose? Same as above, but this time with a longer first name and shorter middle name. Rose and May/Mae are two very popular middle names at the moment.
• Alice Stephenie? When the first name ends with the same sound as the middle name begins with (still with me?), the two names can blend together when said out loud.  Unless you ensure you enunciate each name separately, you end up saying “Alistephanie”.
• James Zachary Smith? If your favourite first name and your surname are fairly common, consider using the middle name to spice things up

Pet/short names
Pet names are increasingly being used as given names, such as Ollie, Alfie, Evie, etc. These names don’t tend to work so well as middle names – probably stemming from the fact that, as above, middle names are often traditional.

Number of middle names
Most parents opt for a single middle name, however it’s not uncommon to see two or more. Obviously, getting all the components right becomes a bit more tricky when you add more names, but it can help accommodate the wishes of both you and your other half.

I hope you find these points useful and that they help you settle on a great middle name. Please let me know in the comments if you have any other tips on choosing a middle name that I’ve missed, any further thoughts, or even the middle name that you chose!

The singer seemed a little surprised at making the front page of The Sun, tweeting “not quite front page worthy but anyways……….. surreal”, accompanied by the below picture.

Commenting in May, Allen said that starting a family “is ultimately my main goal in life and more of a priority than flying around the world jumping up and down on stage singing songs.”

Any thoughts on what kind of name they might go for? Something tells me it could be a little off-the-wall… or maybe one of the names that we identified as looking like the most popular of 2010?

The most popular baby names in the U.S. for 2010 won’t be tallied by the Social Security Administration until next May, but over at nameberry we have our fingers on the pulse of American baby-naming right now.

We looked at the names our visitors are searching on our site for the first half of 2010. For girls, Charlotte is the number 1 name, with Seraphina (younger daughter of Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck) and Olivia following at 2 and 3. Henry leads the pack for boys, with Finn and Oliver in second and third place.

Girls’ names making the biggest leap up the list over the first quarter of 2010 are Harper, Jane, Quinn (influenced, no doubt, by the television hit show Glee), Clara, Clementine, and Ivy. For boys, the fastest riser is Sawyer.

The equals sign or up and down notations indicate which direction the names are moving compared with their position after the first quarter of the year. Asterisks indicate names new to the most popular list. Of course, the nameberry list is vastly different than the official list of Most Popular Names in the U.S. The Social Security list is based on all actual births and name choices in the country, while the nameberry list measures which names our relatively style-conscious visitors are most curious about. Plus nameberry searches come from all over the world — about a third of our visits originate outside the US — while the Social Security list tracks which names Americans actually give their children.

Here, the Top 100 girls’ and boys’ names for the first half of 2010.

GIRLS NAMES

1. CHARLOTTE =
2. SERAPHINA =
3. OLIVIA =
4. VIOLET up
5. ELIZABETH down
6. ISLA down
7. SOPHIA down
8. LAURA up
9. CAROLINE up
10. AVA =
11. ALICE down
12. IMOGEN up
13. LUCY down
14. AMELIA up
15. SCARLETT down
16. MAISIE down
17. GRACE down
18. CLAIRE down
19. LILY down
20. STELLA down
21. ADELAIDE up
22. HARPER up
23. ISABELLA up
24. ELLA down
25. EMMA up
26. ELIZA down
27. JANE up
28. CHLOE down
29. MAEVE down
30. QUINN up
31. AVERY down
32. EVANGELINE down
33. CLARA up
34. MATILDA down
35. RUBY down
36. CLEMENTINE up
37. AUDREY down
38. LILA down
39. ZOE down
40. SADIE down
41. LOLA down
42. IVY up*
43. PENELOPE up
44. ARABELLA down
45. ELOISE up
46. IRIS down
47. BEATRICE up
48. SARAH down
49. ANNA down
50. EVELYN down

BOYS NAMES

1. HENRY =
2. FINN =
3. OLIVER =
4. JAMES =
5. ASHER =
6. JACK =
7. MAX =
8. JASPER up
9. LIAM up
10. ATTICUS up
11. JUDE down
12. OWEN up
13. FELIX down
14. WILLIAM up
15. KAI up
16. MILO up
17. NOAH up
18. JOHN up
19. LEO up
20. SAWYER up
21. SEBASTIAN up
22. MICHAEL down
23. HUDSON up
24. SATCHEL up*
25. LEVI =
26. THEO up
27. ALEXANDER down
28. AUDEN up
29. BENJAMIN up
30. ROWAN up
31. AUGUST down
32. DASHIELL up
33. PHINEAS down
34. RYAN down
35. RHYS down
36. BECKETT up
37. MILES down
38. ELI down
39. ELLIOT down
40. RILEY down
41. LUCAS up
42. ETHAN up
43. SILAS down
44. ANDREW up
45. OSCAR up
46. JACOB up
47. LOGAN up
48. DAVID up
49. ISAAC up
50. MASON down

For an idea of which might be the UK’s most popular baby names 2010, check out our recent study.

What did we do?

Well, we’re constantly recording what people are searching for at BabyNames.co.uk (anonymously, of course!). This helps us generate unique insights into prospective parents’ baby name trends. For this report, we compared the popularity of names entered into our search engine – Jan-Jun 2010 versus the same period in 2009. We did this by calculating the percentage increase in demand for each name.

What were the results?

Some of these fast risers definitely correspond with pop trends – Florence must be inspired by Florence and the Machine, right? Also, Ollie and Jenson will have been boosted by X Factor and Formula 1 respectively. Finn is also the name of a popular character from hugely popular TV show ‘Glee’.

Incidentally, we’re still waiting for the official UK baby names data from 2009. I’m expecting to receive it, hot off the press from the UK government, in just a matter of weeks. Stay tuned!

The pair are said to be “thrilled” with the birth of their first child.

The news was confirmed by a posting on Twitter by Dannii’s spokesman: “Kris Smith and Dannii Minogue are thrilled to announce the arrival of Ethan Edward Smith on 5th July 2010″.

The name Ethan means “firm; long lived”, while Edward means “guardian of prosperity”.

What do you think of this name choice?  Are you considering either Ethan or Edward for your baby boy?