Naming Trends

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-03-2003
Naming Trends
8
Tue, 11-16-2004 - 1:03am
I am a mom-to-be in my 30's, no kids yet, don't have a lot of friends with kids yet, and am not around many moms. I see so many postings where people chose a name such as Miles of Braden or Hannah, thinking they were choosing something original, then were very disappointed to find three little Miles in their Mothers Day Out class. I want to avoid that to the extent possible. We have a very common surname, so I definately want "fitting in/standing out names." Not in the top 50 anyway. I looked at the Social Security name list, but it only shows through 2003. Can any of you tell me what you percieve as "up and coming names", maybe those we should avoid because it will be the Emily or Jacob of tomorrow?
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-04-2003
In reply to: surfer919
Tue, 11-16-2004 - 7:44am
Well, if you look at the SSA's lists, anything in the top 20 will move in & out of the top 10, most likely. Another good trick is to go to a Chuckie Cheese's or the mall on a school day and listen hard for the names you hear. Those'll be the names of kids from newborn to 10. You'll notice the same type of names over and over again, especially for the girls.. Emily, Emma, Eva, Ava, Amelia are all pretty hot right now.

http://www.thenamemachine.com/babynames/ is a good site to go to overall, to see where a specific name has been over the last bunch of years. You can compare two names to see which one's the trendier or to make sure they're both about the same, popularity wise.

I've found (through naming my kids) that picking a name off the SSA lists when they're ranked between 240 and 400 is a good way to make sure the name is comfortable, not too popular and possibly one that may get hot in the future. I'd rather have my kids names get popular after I name them, then they're mistaken for younger than they are!

I aloso know that the current popualr trend is for old-fashioned type names.. look at the SSA lists for the popular names in about 1900 and you'll see a lot of the names you're hearing around. Read other name boards.. stay away from babycenter.com, where most of the posters seem about 12 years old and can't spell!

http://www.angelfire.com/retro/purple_vinyl/update.html is another site to go to, it's got quite a bit about names in a limited way but what naming stuff is there is a thought provoking read if you're serious about avoiding trends. "No more Madisons Ever!" has a list of what are considered "filler middle names"

And this: http://www.angelfire.com/retro/purple_vinyl/fakersII.html is just a good read overall.

Read, read, read and Have fun!

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-08-2004
In reply to: surfer919
Tue, 11-16-2004 - 10:24am

Well, from my own experience with (soon to be) three kids under age 6, and therefore doing a million little kid related activities a week, lol, here are a few general catagories to avoid if you want to stay away from current trends (of course, this is in my area, which is a medium-sized city in the Northwest):


Boy Biblical names are rising fast. My oldest is Nathaniel, and that's been pretty safe (he goes by Nate), but others that have surged in popularity here are Noah, Jonah, Josiah, Caleb, Levi, Elijah, Elias, Gabriel, etc.


Any girl name with a "Maddy/Maddie/Mattie" nickname, like Madelyn or Madison.


Any girl name that is an offshoot of Haley, Kaylee, Kiley, Rylee etc.


Girl old-fashioned names ending in "a" (although so many of these are just beautiful) like Gabriella, Ella, Dora, etc.


Boy surname names (esp. 2 syllables) are popular here, like Hunter, Carter, Parker, etc.


Some of the more quirky old fashioned names for boys and girls are coming back in, but I don't think they're likely to reach the top 50 any time soon, and might be good "fitting in/standing out" names for you

Amy, mom to Nate (9), Calvin (7), and Tobias (4). You can find me at my blogs:

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2003
In reply to: surfer919
Tue, 11-16-2004 - 3:42pm

I work in a school in the midwest. These would be my frequent ones:

Boys:

Dylan
Alexander

Girls:

Micayla
Annie
Sara
Megan
Allison
Grace

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-05-2004
In reply to: surfer919
Tue, 11-16-2004 - 4:00pm
It is so hard to say what is over used and what isn't as it depends so much on your area. There are the common ones like Emily that are used everywhere...but I found it interesting that you used Myles as your example. Our little guy is Myles and we don't know a single other one...one reason why we chose it. It is hard to guess what will become popular...as long as it does after I've named my kids...not much I can do about it!
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-24-2004
In reply to: surfer919
Tue, 11-16-2004 - 4:33pm

In our area (Seattle), these names seem to be on their way up the list:

Addison
Aiden
Ash names (Asher, Ashlin, Ashton, etc.)
Ava/Avery/Eva
Braden/Caden/and especially Jaden (spelled a variety of ways) - usually boys
Cameron (spelled a variety of odd ways) - usually girls
Carter/Carson
Single syllable names (i.e., Chase, Cole, etc.)
Conner/Connor
Names ending in -son: Coleson, Grayson, Jameson, Harrison, etc.
Delaney
Dylan
Ella and other El- names
Ethan
Grace
Haley
Hayden
Jack
Kiley/Riley, or something similar
Lily/Lillian
Logan
Madeline/Madelyn
Mason
Morgan - usually girls
Biblical boy names, especially Noah
Paige
Peyton - usually girls
Reese - usually girls
Sidney/Sydney
Sophia

I'm leaving out the obvious hugely popular names like Emma/Emily, Elizabeth, Isabel/Isabella, Hannah, Olivia, Andrew, Jacob, Alexander, etc.

kittyhox

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-06-2004
In reply to: surfer919
Wed, 11-17-2004 - 9:51am

Hi
Congratulations to you.
I guess it is hard to say what names will be up and coming. It all depends on your area. There are many names that I have read on the board as being extremely popular and yet I had never heard of them before like Caden. I have never heard of that name nor do I know any Cadens out there. Just pick a name that you really love and go with it.
Hope this helps you decide. Good luck to you.

Dana (never a popular name!)

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-03-2003
In reply to: surfer919
Wed, 11-17-2004 - 11:36am

I think a great way to get an idea of names being currently used is to look at hospital nursery websites! I named my son Caleb 6 years ago, and at the time had never met one, ever! Now this is definitely a popular name.

Here are some names of babies I know personally, born this year (2004). Not much of a pattern here! In fact, I would say the popular thing to do is pick the most uncommon name you can find! In some ways, I long to meet a Mary or Kate or Anne (or John or Paul or Peter!)

Micah
Colby
Ian
Eden (Girl)
Ashlynn
Hayden (boy)
Zane
Mitchell
Sadie
Dominic
Petra
William
Abigail
Zacheri (yes with that spelling!)
Isaac
Jonathan (2)
Kaitlyn
Sophie
Sophia
Eleanor
Caleb
Grace
Nora
Campbell (girl)
Brianna

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
In reply to: surfer919
Sat, 11-20-2004 - 7:49am

New England: here are names in our circle of friends/family:

Girls:
Ava ( my dd who is 3 and we knew NO Ava's when we named her... )
Ashley ( my other dd who is 8 months- know no baby girls named ashley right now- so go with the most popular from like 16 years ago and you should be fine! LOL!)
Emma/Emily
Samantha
Paige
Olivia
Camryn
Kiley
Abigail ( know 3 of them between 2 & 3)
Sadie
Leah
Isabella ( know 3)
Isabel
Megan
Amanda
Sierra
Taylor
Alyssa
Lindsay
Natalie
Katelyn
Kristina
Riley- girl
Jacqueline ( sister to Riley)
Rosie
madison ( know 2 -one is 4 & one is 12)
Hannah
Hailey (sister to hannah)

Boys:
Alexander
Adam ( know 3 but is on many name lists for moms to be that I know)
Andrew ( know 3)
Calvin
Hayden
Cole ( know 2)
Seth
Mason
Nicholas
David
Matthew
Avery
Euan ( Owen in gaelic)
Jacob/Jake ( know 4)
Ethan
Peter ( know 2 under 2 years)
Daniel
Zachary ( know 2)
Anthony( know 2)

unless I mentioned otherwise, we know 1 child by that name.